PA Bill Number: HR541

Title: Recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.

Description: A Resolution recognizing the month of October 2024 as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month" in Pennsylvania.

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Last Action Date: Sep 27, 2024

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Sorry, Tim Kaine Is No Centrist :: 08/06/2016

Election 2016: After the Democratic Convention, it quickly became common wisdom that, in selecting Tim Kaine as her vice presidential running mate, Hillary Clinton picked a solid political centrist who will poach votes from the Republicans. The only problem with that scenario is: Kaine is no centrist.

Sen. Tim Kaine addresses the Democratic Convention. Despite packaging him as a centrist, his voting record suggests he's in fact just as far left as the rest of his party. (Mark Reinstein/Zuma Press/Newscom)

Yes, he's reportedly a nice guy who, in interviews, describes himself as "boring." But to call him a centrist is a stretch.

He supports curbs on the Second Amendment. He likes ObamaCare. He wants more federal government involvement in education and is OK with income redistribution through the tax code. He backs the government's unscientific war against "climate change." And, with Obama, opposed the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline.

These are not centrist stances. He styles himself a "traditional Catholic." Really? He supports abortion. Regardless how you feel about abortion rights, you cannot support abortion and call yourself a "devout" Catholic.

But those are mere political stances, and we know that all politicians' stances are malleable.

How does he vote?

Well, "centrist" Sen. Kaine of Virginia was recently scored by Conservative Review for his votes in office. He got a big fat "zero" -- no conservative votes at all, 100% liberal.

Is that some kind of outlier, a mistake? Hardly. Claims of centrism notwithstanding, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave him a 90% rating on key liberal votes. And, despite his public agonizing over the abortion issue, he gets a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood, which calls Kaine "a solid vote and really an ally."

The nonpartisan, but libertarian, Cato Institute has also given Kaine a grade in the past, though it did so when he was governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010. Cato gave Kaine a "D" grade because he "helped pass a large revenue package that included tax and fee increases, higher penalties for driving infractions and the creation of regional taxing authorities within Virginia." That latter move was swatted down by the Virginia Supreme Court, by the way, as unconstitutional.

A blog post on the arch-liberal Huffington Post web site even makes the case that Kaine is "more progressive than Bernie Sanders," citing their records as recorded by the American Conservative Union, which ranks politicians based on two dozen key votes. The HuffPost notes that Kaine had a perfect ACU score of zero in 2013, his first year in the Senate, and was tied for the most liberal voting score in either the House or the Senate in both 2014 and 2015. Sanders actually had more pro-conservative votes than Kaine, according to the ACU.

You'll hear a lot about the amiable "centrist" Democrat looking for your vote as vice president this election. But rhetoric deceives: He's truly a member of his party's far left.

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/sorry-tim-kaine-is-no-centrist/