Meet the Governor Pence You Won’t Meet Tonight Under the Cleveland Lights

Donald Trump says he’ll make America great by being tough on trade, building things and creating jobs. Sure, it sounds good, but Trump is forgetting one thing: actions really do speak louder than words.

Not only has Trump failed to share any semblance of a plan for how he’ll do the things he so arrogantly brags about, but the GOP platform — which he now owns — is nothing more than a how-to manual for the destruction of the American middle class and our country’s transportation system. You’d think it can’t get worse, but it does.

Enter: Governor Mike Pence.

When it comes to voting against the interests of working families and the transportation system Americans rely on, Pence, governor of Indiana and Trump’s Vice Presidential pick, didn’t just read the manual. He helped write it. This public official has a 12-year record in the House of Representatives and then as governor, of proudly supporting destructive policies that would squash working families, decimate our transportation system and widen income inequality in our country. As a House member he voted against working people 95 percent of the time.

Don’t believe me? Take a look.

Pence voted in the House repeatedly to undermine or eviscerate the rights of employees to bargain for fair wages and family-supporting health care and retirement benefits. He voted multiple times to limit the powers of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – the federal agency charged with enforcing our labor laws and regulations – and to deliberately frustrate the process for workers to choose a union voice at the job. Pence voted to repeal federal rules allowing airline and rail employees, who fall under the Railway Labor Act, to vote on whether to unionize under the same standards as any political election – including the elections that Pence won. Those standards? A majority of those who cast a vote decide the outcome. Under Pence’s rules, a majority of all eligible employees would have to vote in order for a union election to be valid. Under those rules, the presidential election of 1996, in which only 49 percent of Americans turned out to vote, would be null and void.

The Governor also championed Right-to-Work legislation in the state which would hollow out unions and make it nearly impossible to negotiate for fair wages and benefits. He also sponsored federal Right-to-Work legislation to spread that misery to every state in America.

Pence voted repeatedly against paying local prevailing wages to construction workers who work on public buildings and public works projects, otherwise known as Davis-Bacon laws. I guess he thinks it’s okay to use cheap wages as a pawn in bidding for federal contracts.

That’s not all. Pence voted against public safety officers — including fire fighters — from having collective bargaining rights. For God’s sake, who’s against giving basic workplace rights to the men and women who save us from burning buildings? Answer: Governor Pence.

The Governor has even called a minimum wage hike “anti-poor.” I wonder if the 45 million Americans currently living in poverty would agree?

Apparently, Pence needs to bone up on Trump’s supposed “America First” trade policy. I’ve had a tough time finding a job-killing trade deal Pence doesn’t support. He voted for CAFTA, TPP, Panama and freer trade with China. Hell, Pence even says he supports NAFTA and he wasn’t even in the House during that vote.

While in Congress, Pence voted against Buy America rules – rules that require local municipalities to spend public dollars on transportation components, like buses and trains, that are made here in the United States. To clarify, Pence claims he’s in favor of our manufacturing sector, but votes against common-sense rules that would boost U.S. manufacturing and create jobs for unemployed, underemployed and disadvantaged Americans. Good luck explaining that position to a machinist or steelworker. He even voted in favor of letting foreign interests own and control our airlines. Seems like a smart vote: give away ownership of our airlines so that foreign investors can control almost half of the world’s aviation market, which is found right here in America.

When faced with the chance to level the playing field and ensure our rules governing the offshoring of aircraft maintenance were balanced, Pence said no. He voted against legislation that would make sure foreign-based mechanics who maintain the planes used by U.S. airlines are subject to the same background checks as American mechanics. Don’t ask me — I can’t explain this vote.

When it comes to expanding and modernizing our transportation system and infrastructure, Pence’s record isn’t much better. He voted repeatedly for the Ryan budgets — yes those budgets — written by current Speaker, then Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan. The Ryan budgets slashed transportation funding by more than 30 percent, which would devastate our already crumbling infrastructure and destroy hundreds of thousands of job. On several occasions he voted to gut Amtrak – even supporting proposals to zero it out, end all service and send pink slips home to 20,000 employees. Pence’s more than decade in the House exposes his admiration for dangerous austerity plans that would badly undermine our already deteriorating transportation system.

“Make America First Again?” Make America “a beacon of progress and opportunity?” I don’t think so.