Republicans using downgrade in robo-calls against Walz
WASHINGTON - It's recess for members of Congress, which means they're back in their districts. If you're DFL Rep. Tim Walz, it means your constituents are getting Republican robo-calls blaming you for the downgrade of the nation's credit rating.
The latest salvo of calls, which happen frequently when Walz returns to the 1st District, are targeting his no vote last month for the Republican "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan. Just five Democrats voted for the proposal, which would have amended the Constitution to require a balanced budget and would have capped the size of government at 18 percent of the previous year's Gross Domestic Product.
The Republican calls blame Walz and fellow Democrats for failing to support the plan, which the call says led to Standard and Poors' downgrade of the federal government's credit rating. The script goes on to to warn listeners that their retirement savings are in danger and interest rates on mortgages, car loans and student loans could all go up as a result of the downgrade (for the record, yields on U.S. Treasury bonds, which are the basis for most interest rates, have fallen over the past few days despite the downgrade as investors seek safer assets than stocks).
Democrats, including conservative Minnesota Blue Dog Collin Peterson, opposed the "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan because they said it would arbitrarily fix the size of government and would require huge cuts to safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
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Walz, who was elected in 2006, is the Republicans favorite target in Minnesota because he sits in a potentially conservative-leaning district.
UPDATE: Walz's campaign responds with this brief quote:
Washington Republicans are distorting the truth about Congressman Walz's record. Southern Minnesotans know Congressman Walz remains focused on creating jobs, reducing our deficit and getting our economy back on track.
It's also been pointed out to us that robocalls are technically illegal in Minnesota, so we've put the question to the National Republican Campaign Committee, which is paying for the calls, about whether their calls are in compliance with state law.
UPDATE 2 An NRCC spokeswoman writes:
The calls comply with MN law and are live calls. A live operator will state the purpose of the message, the name of the organization represented (NRCC) and obtain the recipient's consent to hear the recorded message.