Rep. Chip Cravaack won the midterm election for Minnesota in 2010, thanks in part to his extreme Teaparty platform. The newly elected congressman even voted for the Paul Ryan Teaparty backed budget, that will end medicare and replace it with a voucher program which seniors would be expected to use to satisfy their health needs.
But a little overlooked fact about Chip Cravaack is that he worked as a pilot for the Northwest Airlines as recently as 2007 and being a pilot means that you are a member of a Union, thus receiving the benefits of union negotiated salaries, vacations and ultimately, disability payments.
Recent financial records released by Cravaack showed that he received $92,273 in 2010 from disability payments he received from Northwest. At this very same time Cravaack was receiving his checks, he was campaigning in Minnesota promising to end “big government,” and often using the usual Republican talking points of bashing unions.
Oh, and by the way, Chip Cravaack is also a veteran, which means that in addition to his government provided health care in Congress, he also gets benefits from the VA, allowing him to go to any government-owned Veteran’s Administration facility in the nation and receive what he and Teaparty calls, “socialized medicine.”
Only in America. You just gotta love this!
J.w. Saret
Do we put hungry people into forced-eating centers? Do we imprison diabetics into sugar-free prisons?
why are sick people subsidized to remain in the environment which made them sick? should there not be treatment centers where substance abusers must remain in order to be subsidized?
Is he still "disabled" he displayed a lot of energy when he ran against oberstar if he is fit enough to hold public office, commute to his home in New Hampshire where big pharma bought him by promoting his wife and even come back to the district oh and plus the huge amount of hours he must put in to fund raise as a congress creep, he may be well enough to return to work. Someone should spend a few super pac dollars investigating.
@ Jeff Redman but when the rules & regulations are not enforced (like most now for only certain crooks in this country) and those that know it, keep a keepin' on in breaking them—
yep they ALL do
too much Fux Noise goin' on their few brain cells— sadly for the rest of us
of course your statement stands to reason Roxanne Lillis but ALL reasoning went down the toilet for the extreme rads on the right in lieu of personal greed and power over ALL
true colors – he has no objection to receiving free healthcare from taxpayers but doesn't want all of us to have it. Duluth better wake up and get rid of this jerk.
That's the GOP meme
hypocrisy is their middle name, or maybe their first. Can't wait till they all self destruct!
He's got his, but doesn't want to share. Sound familiar?
Apparently, He doesn't care about others…some Tea Party Christian Rep CHIP is. Well , Rep. Chip Cravaack….we are watching you.
So how do you really feel?
Do you really think ANY company would pay any kind of disability (Im wondering if this is SSDI) without the government mandating it? Workmans comp is a Government mandated program.
Hypocrital GOP SOB — this lowlife scumbag plays both sides if the fence.
Well, teabaggers hate "unions" and "big government", or so they say. Yet this clown is not just double dipping, but triple dipping from the "big govt/union" trough. When he starts collecting his social security, he'll be quadruple dipping! He's "disabled" so he gets a handsome union disability check, but not so disabled that he can't work full time as a public representative and collect a handsome government check and generous benefits, and he gets a veterans "retirement" pension, even though he's not "retired", and pretty soon he'll get a social security retirement check, a program that was initially designed to keep people out of poverty.
Without knowing all the details, it looks like this guy is dragging in something like a quarter million dollars a year, most of it from "big government" programs, not counting his government supplied medical benefits.
I'd have to agree that some social service programs are being abused. This guy is the white collar version of a welfare queen.
but that's different, Shane (somehow…)
@ Philip its the Union part I think the most ironic because the TEA Party hates Unions and union benefits that are giving to employees. That is what it has to do with it.
I go to some of rallies on both sides and I have talked to many in the TEA PARTY who are on disability or there spouse is or on unemployment that are yelling and screaming about how people are free loading on the government and how they pay too much taxes. Its BIZARRE!
And he's led the charge in Congress for a number of Delta's union busting pieces of legislation.
Yeah, uh, alcoholism is a disease. Are you going to cut off food to poor people because they're sick?
You don't imagine this could fall in the category of Tealiban HYPOCRISY do you?? These bastards never seem to stop amazing me.
You don't imagine this could fall in the category of Tealiban HYPOCRISY do you?? These bastards never seem to stop amazing me.
Just another republican piece of shit!
That is the sad part of things like this. I am a liberal but i have a few things i think that should be done so people who need help get it and people who take advantage don't.
One man i read used a postt office box and got a bunch of different food stamp cards, I think first time appliers for welfare should have drug testing. I do go get help I am on disability as well but i have neighbors who use every bit of there disability checks on alcohol , or i see people getting unemployment working another job. I guess I should tell on people when i see it but it is not easy to be a snitch.
Throw the tea party in the harbour
I have heard quite a few tea party nuts are not disability and they are so stupid they don't realize they are fighting to have that taken from them? Man I doubt there is tea in those bags more like Crack!
That's some pretty damn severe sleep apnea….is he claiming worker's comp for it?
If it looks like a skunk, acts like a skunk, and smells like a skunk…chances are…it'a a skunk.
Oh my gosh. Unbelievable. He is still receiving disability payments from Northwest! I checked this on Wikipedia and learned so much more. I smell a skunk.
How do you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E? Oh yeah, Cravaack!
He has sleep apnea.
What is his disability?
The ultimate Con Job!
Rep. Chio Cravaack a hypocrite's hypocrite!
I've got mine but I'm going to make sure you don't get yours.
wow did he cash in, I only get 7000 dollars a year in SSI payments because I simply don't have enough work credits to get Disability. I guess that makes all the Drs liars and me a freeloader. Funny I didn't sign up to be sick and unable to work and alot of employers don't really have a place for the disabled. I wonder how the VA's great job could possibly transferred to every American or is that it, if you cant serve well screw you? If healthcare is a right for soldiers shouldn't it be a right for the people they defend? By the By both of my parents Served I was born this way because of my fathers chemical exsposure in wartime or conflict or police action whatever lie they called the Vietnam WAR. So don't get high and mighty on me!
What a jerk-off.
Phil…I don't think anyone wants to take anything away from our Vets…as the daughter of a Vet I know 1st hand how important those few benefits were to my father. What I don't like is our Tea partiers or anyone else taking away benefits people have fought and worked for. If I am a vet and my agreement with my country is a certain benefit…then that is what I should get. If I work for a company and my contract is for certain benefits and rights, then that is what I should get. If I pay into retirement or the government programs then I should get the benefits. If a congressman thinks that I don't have a right to these benefits and takes them away…then he needs to be replaced.
Yep, he is a classmate. Many of them are like this: they scream about taxes and yet were educated at tax payer expense (at Annapolis). Taxes are bad when the go to other people's programs.
The blog does rather conflate the union with the government. Something that the T-Party does all the time and it is just as wrong headed here as when TPers do it. BUT there is absolutely no disputing that he is drawing a BIG government benefit through the VA. I do not dispute that as a veteran they are his due, nor do I dispute that veterans in general earn them, but you have to admit that accepting public benefits you say should not be given and campaigning as part of a party that says it is determined to eliminate all public benefits is more than a bit dishonest and hypocritical.
Oh! Bachmann does it. Ooh, Perry has done that as Governor. Hmmm? Cantor is likely to do it because of the Virginia earthquake. Gingrich has been doing it since he left Congress. I guess Palin is not anymore. Still it seems that nearly all TP leaders/candidates have or are sucking from the public teat with considerable enthusiasm.
If you got a system SOMEONE is going to try to take advantage of it. That's why every system public or private has rules and regulations.
Read the blog and have some problems with it.
What has a private corporation like an airline or a union got to do with "Big Government" ? They are both in the private, and not the government, sector.
Are we now to refuse government mandated retirement benefits to our military veterans who have in some cases fought and died for them? Or are we to discriminate just against this one individual?
I'm from MN…didn't vote for him, nor do I like him or anything he has said or done so far…Give me Jim Oberstar anyday.
Did you here the one about the moron Boston Firefighter who, while out for a "bad back" disability, competed in a heavy weight lifting competition that was filmed?
LOL. well apparently, Minn is on to him. Re-election is not looking good for this blowhard!
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/116962363.html his votes are all over the place. but on LABOR issues I give him credit.
Only in America. You just gotta love this! This is some screwed up crap. This blowhard collects&collects from Gov. then screams about Big Government.So Minn.what's ya have to say about this worm?