Kline Claims to Be a Budget Hawk, but His Record Shows a Pattern of Reckless Spending. Kline’s website claims he’s “a strong fiscal conservative… [he] understands how the federal deficit, created by years of over-spending, is a threat to the long-term health of our economy.” In past campaigns, he’s also claimed that paying down our nation’s debt was a top priority for him. But he has voted again and again for unfunded Iraq War appropriations that take us deeper and deeper into debt.

Kline Believes Ordinary Americans Should Fend for Themselves in Tough Times, but He’s Always Looking out for His Corporate Friends. In 2004, Kline voted for new bankruptcy rules that restricted filers to a total exemption of $125,000 in home equity for residences purchased within 40 months of a bankruptcy filing. The median home price in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area is $220,000, meaning many people could lose their homes if they lose a job or become ill and are forced into bankruptcy. In October 2007, as our economy worsened, Kline voted not to assist workers who had lost jobs due to globalization, and he’s voted multiple times against extending unemployment benefits for those whose benefits are exhausted but who have been unable to find new jobs. (HR1261 5/8/2003 Vote# 174; HR2185 5/22/2003 Vote# 222, http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g1teWAtuuAhZQg5nn0SwJ_SDHgqgD9184LNO0).

But when it has come to reigning in corporate excesses, Kline is nowhere to be found. He voted not to allow stockholders to vote on executive compensation, and he has repeatedly voted to subsidize oil companies, even while they’re earning record profits and the American people are suffering the effects of skyrocketing gas prices. And while others in Minnesota’s congressional delegation voted to make sure people of modest means weren’t forced to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), John Kline voted against AMT relief paid for with the closing of offshore business loopholes and against it again when paid for by increased taxes on the private equity industry and major oil companies.

Kline Says Education is One of the Keys to Economic Prosperity… but Keeps Voting Against It. As a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Kline says he’s “working to see that our children receive the education and tools they need to enter the workforce and compete in our dynamic and ever-changing economy.” Yet, in just about every way possible, Kline has made it more difficult to go to college – voting to cut student aid three times and against cutting interest rates on student loans. He also has voted for drastic cuts to K-12 education.

Kline Said President Bush Had Done an “Incredible Job” with the Economy. “I think the president has done an incredible job, a remarkable job…in putting together an economic recovery package that I give a great deal of credit to for a rate of growth and recovery.” (St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1/21/04) The unemployment rate rose from 3.9 percent in November of 2000 to 5.4 percent in November of 2004.