Healey to Kim: Give Up Your Membership Card in Congress’ Most Radical Group
October 26, 2022
For Immediate Release
Contact: Theresa Velardi
(732) 682-8923
MOORESTOWN, NJ – Burlington County business owner and Republican candidate for Congress Bob Healey today issued the following statement:
“Today I challenge my opponent to do something he should have done long ago and give up his membership in the most radical group in Congress—the House Progressive Caucus.
In 2020, the House Progressive Caucus – composed of the most liberal members in Congress – called for ‘defunding the police’ and one of its members –Andy Kim just sat there silently.
Last year the House Progressive Caucus threatened to oppose a national infrastructure bill unless there was more social spending … and where was Andy Kim?
Last month, the progressive caucus tied up funding for law enforcement. Andy was too busy tweeting about the George Washington Bridge.
And just this week, this same group suggested to President Biden that he directly negotiate with Russia on Ukraine’s behalf. The Caucus’ half-baked advice to the President was so roundly rejected by other Democrats that the Caucus chair withdrew the letter a day later.
Is it any wonder that most of Andy Kim’s fellow NJ congressional colleagues want nothing to do with the Progressive Caucus, which begs the question: When will Andy Kim give up his membership card in a policy group that advocated giving federal funds to illegal aliens?
In the past, Congressman Kim has tried to explain away his participation in this caucus by weakly claiming he belongs to a lot of caucuses, but he fails to differentiate between a policy group pushing bad ideas and a group like the Cranberry Caucus organized to simply promote a region or product.
If Andy Kim was truly moderate in his views he would resign immediately from this radical group. Congressman Kim – I urge you to turn in your Progressive Caucus membership card and to do so today.”
See attached factsheet – Five Examples of Radical Progressive Caucus Ideals & Initiatives
Five Examples of Progressive Caucus Ideals & Initiatives
1. “Put Money in People’s Pockets, without regard to immigration or any other status:”
“Provide $2,000 monthly stimulus checks, continue expanded unemployment benefits, provide rent and mortgage assistance to stop evictions and keep people in their home, raise the minimum wage to at least $15, cancel up to $50,000 in student debt and freeze payments and cancel medical debt, fully fund and provide universal access to social security net programs.”
“Establish a commission on truth, racial healing, and transformation, and a commission to study and develop reparations, ensure non-discrimination protections for BIPOC and LGBTQ people across the board, pass a comprehensive policing reform bill to ensure that policing reflects community values and upholds civil rights, demilitarize the police, and invest more resources in communities, reduce criminalization and incarceration through sentencing reform, legalizing cannabis, expunging records, and providing restorative justice, create a just immigration system by passing a roadmap to freedom that ensures fairness, citizenship, family unity, ends the criminalization of immigrants for profit, creates humane alternatives to detention and deportation, and upholds protections for people seeking safety, fully meet and fund all trust obligations to Tribal Nations and communities, prevent gun violence, including by implementing universal background checks and banning semi-automatic weapons.”
“Repeal old authorizations for use of military force, require Congressional approval for all wars and acts of war, and end the U.S. wars in Yemen and Afghanistan including air and drone wars, Reduce Pentagon spending to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse while maintaining support for personnel and families, Invest in diplomacy, development, peace building, and education through grassroots-fueled aid, End executive powers to enact unilateral sanctions and end military aid to repressive regimes.”
4. “We Must Make Public Investments Commensurate with the Urgency and Magnitude of the Climate Crisis.”
“A natural mobilization aimed at achieving global net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require bold policymaking, investments, and collective action on the scale of the military-industrial buildup during the Second World War or the New Deal’s national economic response to the Great Depression in the 1930’s.”
“If we are serious about leading a worldwide effort to combat climate change, then we must lead by example by embracing a new vision of national security that acknowledges the counterproductive impact of our global military force posture.”
“While this plan for congressional climate action must find new revenues to fund our investments, it would be foolish not to redirect a portion of our $700 billion annual investment in carbon-intensive military into more productive multilateral cooperation.”
5. “Congressional Progressive Caucus Applauds Passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”
“The filibuster was used for generations as a tool for white supremacists to deny civil rights and basic protections for Black Americans. Allowing the filibuster to remain on the books – and thereby dooming the most transformative civil rights legislation passed in the 21st century – would be an outrage. We urge our Senate colleagues to bring this bill for a vote and end the filibuster once and for all.”
