Ribble Raises More Than $152,000 in Second Quarter
Highest Amount Raised Since Beginning of Campaign

Eighth District Congressional Candidate Reid Ribble announced today that the campaign raised more than $152,000 in the second quarter of this year. Including the latest numbers, the campaign has raised just under $400,000 since Ribble entered the congressional race.

“My latest FEC report shows voters are fed up with Washington ‘politics as usual’ and my message of common-sense conservative principles is resonating, “ Ribble stated.

Ribble is a former Kaukauna area roofing company owner who has created jobs and balanced budgets. He is running against Steve Kagen.

“I have a common-sense plan for victory this fall, and residents from around the district have rallied around me. This was my best fundraising quarter yet. I was recently endorsed by Wisconsin Right to Life, former State Senator Joe Leean of Waupaca, and businessman and community leader Bob Keller of Kaukauna. It is clear that my business and community experience, as well as my message of fiscal responsibility and job creation resonates with Northeastern Wisconsin voters, “ Ribble concluded.

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PO Box 7200
Appleton, WI 54912

or drop it off at our campaign headquarters in Green Bay:

2865 W. Mason Street
Green Bay, WI 54303

Your help collecting signatures is greatly appreciated. Please note that if you have signed a nomination form for another person running for this office, you are not eligible to sign another form. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact my campaign office at (920) 499-4000. Below is a pdf version of the nomination paper.

Nomination papers

Anybody is welcome to attend the event. Come meet Reid and Team Ribble!

When I think of veterans I am reminded of Tom Day a wonderful veteran who founded Bugles across America. Tom wanted our veterans to have Taps played at their funerals by a real musician. So he started an organization to provide families with musicians to play the 24 note Taps. Together with an army of over 6,000 volunteer musicians, they have provided a special service to the families of veterans who have passed away. In the last 10 years Day’s organization has played Taps at over 200,000 veteran funerals. You can learn more of Bugles across America by going to their website http://www.buglesacrossamerica.org I encourage you to learn more and make a donation as well.

On Friday this week I honor a family member who is returning from duty in Iraq. Col. Mike Herchmer U.S. Army reserve Appleton has served two tours of duty each over one year in length. He comes back to Appleton on Friday. Thanks Mike for your service!

Finally, I remember my own father. A U.S. Marine who was…proud to be a Marine. As my father grew old he suffered from Parkinson’s disease which stole his mind from him and eight years ago this summer, his broken heart failed him, and he went home to be reunited with my mother who passed away 11 months prior. My father represented the best of what being a Marine exemplified. He lived a life of honor, integrity and he loved this country more than anything. He rarely spoke of his service but when he did it was usually to tell me about the great men he served with. SEMPER FIDELIS is the motto of the Marine Corp. It means Always Faithful. That was my dad. He was faithful to my mom, his children, his God and country. He was a giant among men and I remember him this Memorial Day.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Bill. Today, that program – although well-intentioned — is hopelessly in debt and running ongoing deficits with no clear plan to correct it. The unfunded liabilities in Social Security are in excess of $14 trillion.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Medicare bill. Today, Medicare’s unfunded liability is in excess of $74 trillion. This number is so large that it exceeds the total assets of ALL AMERICAN PROPERTY!  All small business assets, corporate assets, American families and homeowner assets combined equal just $72 trillion.

In 2003, President George Bush signed into law the Medicare Prescription Drug bill. Today the unfunded liability for this program – after only seven years – is in excess of $18 trillion. All three of these bills combined total more than $107 trillion of liabilities – with payment due at some point by each one of us…the American people.

All of these programs were designed to help segments of our society–many who truly needed a hand up. The troubling thing was that at the time of passage, Congress promised the American people that they would save money from these endeavors; the legislation would pay for itself.  Unfortunately as you can see in the preceding paragraphs, the cost was much higher than expected.

Now Washington politicians are asking the American people to believe them once again.  Unfortunately, Congress passed a bill that will add trillions of dollars of new debt, a mountain of new taxes and new heartache for our children and grand children.

On Sunday night, Nancy Pelosi declared: “Just think, tonight we join those who wrote Social Security and Medicare.”  Madam Speaker, given the national debt and the obscene mismanagement by Congress on these programs, that’s nothing to brag about.

What is so disturbing to me is that the bill that Congress passed will most certainly negatively affect job creation at a time when 8.5 million Americans are already out of work.  It will raise taxes on the middle class.  It will stress our current health care system and demoralize the millions of health care workers in the US that provide a level of service unmatched anywhere in the world. It is disconcerting that the expenses of this bill have been understated and that health care costs to consumers will undoubtedly go up. Even the Congressional Budget Office found that health care premiums will rise between 10-13% if the legislation is enacted.

An opportunity to actually improve our health care system has been missed. Many ideas to affect real change – change that would actually reduce costs – were not included.  Most of the cost saving ideas that the Republicans and blue-dog Democrats submitted were summarily dismissed. President Obama in his election campaign declared that partisan politics were over. And yet they pushed through a bill that did not have one Republican vote; in fact the only bi-partisan agreement to be found was in the group of Republicans and Democrats that voted ‘no’ on the bill.

Finally, I have heard Congressman Steve Kagen say the bill will save lives – certainly a genuine and worthwhile objective…and yet the bill doesn’t take effect until 2014.

Congressman, if lives are truly at risk, why wait? Why not have it go into place years earlier and save the lives you speak about? It’s because the Congress knows that they need four years of taxes accumulated prior to starting to pay out the benefits to make the numbers work for television and political purposes. And what is Congress going to do with the taxes they collect from today until 2014? Put it in a lock box or trust fund? Sure they are…right next to the IOU’s for Medicare and Social Security.

In my lifetime there has been no time more challenging to the American people and the economy. The passage of this health insurance reform act will most certainly increase the national debt and in turn put our children’s future and liberty at risk.

The simple answer and maybe the most honest answer is what I call careerism. The career politicians in our nation’s capital are trapped between wanting to get re-elected and doing what is in the people’s best interest. This was obvious just this week in the news. Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who is not running for reelection, spoke out against extending unemployment benefits and DOT funding. The shockwaves reverberated throughout Washington DC. Both Republicans and Democrats were denouncing his position. With outrage they cried “How can he be so insensitive? Doesn’t he know we are in an economic crisis?”

Senator Bunning was asking a question that rarely gets asked by career politicians. How are we going to pay for this? Just weeks after Congress voted for a “pay-go” requirement in the budget–where any increases in expenditures must be offset with cuts elsewhere or tax increases–they are already ignoring it. What Senator Bunning wanted was for the leadership to explain how the extension was to be funded. He could ask this very important question because he didn’t care about his reelection. The political fallout didn’t matter. What mattered was the principle.  We must pay for our services now; we cannot force our grandchildren pay for what we receive. Pretty simple and very honest.

This issue is not about whether or not extending benefits was the right thing to do. There are all kinds of important projects in government and each one has its own constituency. The point I am trying to make is that many members of both chambers, and both parties, feel that they can’t ask tough questions anymore because they become victims of politics – the classic GOTCHA moments. It’s time for these career politicians to step down. These are important issues and how we as taxpayers pay for services and benefits must be part of the national discussion.

The government has no money of its own. Therefore it must take from one and give to another. Since we as taxpayers are the ones the money is taken from we are the primary stakeholder. But career politicians apparently no longer care about that. It’s time to vote them out and not send just another carbon copy to replace them. That’s why I have already gone public by self term limiting my time in DC to four terms. Then I will step down and let another go serve. By doing this I can shield myself, and more importantly you, from the politics that has taken us to this critical juncture in history. By doing this I can remove the insider pressure that is certainly causing some of the problems.

There are other issues in Washington DC, but I believe any measure that forces politicians to do what’s right, not just what’s politically expedient, is in all our best interests.

Congressman Steve Kagen again followed Nancy Pelosi in leading our nation deeper in debt. Today, Kagen voted to raise the debt ceiling to an unprecedented $14.3 trillion.

“It is unconscionable that we are plaguing our children, our grandchildren – and now, our great-grandchildren — with this mountain of debt,” Eighth Congressional District Candidate Reid Ribble said.  “This Congress has done nothing but spend future generations of this country into a black hole.”

Democrats — including Kagen – just voted in December to raise the ceiling to $12.4 trillion. Quickly, though, these free-spending politicians realized that they had spent even more than they planned for only a few short months ago.  They raised the credit limit or the federal government would be out of money by the end of February 2010.

“How do we expect our economy to keep growing when each taxpayer is responsible for more than $113,150 of debt?” Ribble asked.  “My grandchildren have a tax burden and they haven’t even entered kindergarten, much less have a job to pay off their debt.   This behavior by Congress is simply insane.” 

Ribble is calling on Congress to stop the spending spree now, not in 2011 as President Barack Obama suggested in last Wednesday night’s State of the Union speech.

“The State of the Union is disastrous,” Ribble said.  “Congressman Kagen is on notice that the people of northeastern Wisconsin are watching and we are outraged.”

The depressing statistics on debt burden per taxpayer and per citizen can be found at http://www.usdebtclock.org/

For more than 30 years I’ve worked hard at my career. I joined my family’s roofing business in the Fox River Valley, and created jobs for the area.  During that time I was also involved in a number of charities, business associations, small business boards, high school athletics and church work. Whenever I felt strongly about an issue, I was not bashful about communicating my thoughts with elected officials.

We need people to be active and engaged in their government. Citizens care about the direction our country is heading; me too. It’s why I’m running for Congress. You’ve probably written elected officials over an issue that’s important to you, I’ve done the same. Private citizens getting involved and volunteering for something that they believe in is being a good citizen and not the source of the problems we’ve got going on in Washingington.

Reid Speaking to People in Marinette County

I plan on continuing with my volunteer work and I plan on continuing to communicate with representatives and I hope you will as well.  I’m proud that I’ve been involved with boys and girls clubs and working with youth, the YMCA,  the National Roofing Foundation and Association and coaching high school kids. It’s been rewarding and I hope I’ve offered some help along the way.

In the many months ahead, I will continue travelling throughout northeastern Wisconsin, and I hope you will take the opportunity to stop in at an event, or contact my campaign and share your vision for our country.

Reid Speaking to a Group at Rick Sense's Home

I am concerned. The crowd was boisterous and clearly angry. They regularly would shout down the Congressman. I appreciate the anger. I too am angry. Yet….I think we need to state our positions respectfully or we can be too easily labeled as “radical” or “right wing extremists”. I believe that conservatives can win the debate on the issues and we ought to stay focused on them. By letting the Congressman speak, we allow his ideas to speak for themselves and that is good for us and our position.

I also believe that we should have respect for the office of Congressman itself. Respect often fosters more respect. Clearly stated healthy debate is good for all stakeholders. So let me encourage all of us to speak our minds forcefully yet respectfully. I disagree with Congressman Kagen on many issues. I feel that it is fair to do so, but I refuse to name call, shout down, or belittle him as a person. I will show him the respect he’s earned by being elected for two terms to the office and I do it because I believe it is the right thing to do. I learned in Sunday school as a child “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – and that’s not a bad reminder.