Misplaced Pages

Alan Grayson

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Trilemma (talk | contribs) at 00:43, 15 October 2009 (→Health care policy debate: adding additional followup information). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 00:43, 15 October 2009 by Trilemma (talk | contribs) (→Health care policy debate: adding additional followup information)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Alan Grayson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Florida's 8th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 3, 2009
Preceded byRic Keller
Personal details
Political partyDemocratic Party
SpouseLolita Grayson
ChildrenSkye, Star, Sage, Storm, Stone
ResidenceOrlando, Florida
Alma materHarvard University (A.B.)

John F. Kennedy School of Government (Master of Public Policy)

Harvard Law School (J.D.)
ProfessionAttorney

Alan Mark Grayson (born March 13, 1958) is an American attorney and businessman who is currently serving as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 8th congressional district. A progressive Democrat, Grayson defeated four-term incumbent Republican Ric Keller in the 2008 congressional election.

Grayson recently gained attention when he announced the Republicans' health care plan as “don't get sick, and if you do get sick…die quickly.”

Education and early career

Grayson was born in the Bronx, New York and grew up in the tenements. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science and worked his way through Harvard University, graduating in three years, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He then began graduate studies and simultaneously, in the next four years, earned a law degree with honors from Harvard Law School, a masters in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and completed the course work and passed the general exams for a Ph.D in government.

After writing his master's thesis on gerontology, he founded the Alliance for Aging Research, and served as an officer of the organization for more than 20 years.

Grayson was employed as a law clerk at the Colorado Supreme Court in 1983, and at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals from 1984 to 1985, where he worked with such judges as Abner Mikva, Robert Bork, and two judges who later joined the U.S. Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. He was an associate at the Washington D.C. firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson for five years, where he specialized in contract law. In 1991 he founded the law firm Grayson, Kubli which concentrated on government contract law. He was a lecturer at the George Washington University government contracts program and a frequent speaker on the topic.

Grayson also was the first President of IDT Corporation, a publicly traded billion-dollar telecommunications company.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.

In recent years, Grayson specialized in war profiteer and whistleblower cases aimed at Iraq war contractors that had overbilled the U.S. government by tens of millions of dollars. One such contractor, Custer Battles, billed the government $15 milion for inspecting non-existent civilian flights at Baghdad Airport, and $10 million on a time and materials contract that had cost just 3.5 million, and received payment in newly printed cash direct from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Grayson was enabled to prosecute fraud through the False Claims Act and its qui tam provisions.

While pursuing the whistleblower cases, Grayson worked from a home office in the Orlando house where he lived with his wife and five children. In 2006, Grayson was a “fierce critic of the war in Iraq″ and his car “emblazoned” with bumper stickers such as “Bush lied, people died”.

Electoral history

In 2006, Grayson made his first foray into electoral politics, and lost the 2006 Democratic primary for Florida's 8th Congressional District to Charlie Stuart, a prominent local businessman and center-right Democrat. Stuart went on to lose the general election to incumbent Republican Congressman Ric Keller.

In late 2007, Grayson announced that he would run again for the 8th District seat, and again faced Stuart in the primary. During the primary, his campaign retained the services of Bill Hillsman, an advertising executive whose previous political clients include the U.S. Senate campaigns of Democrats Paul Wellstone and Ned Lamont, the gubernatorial campaigns of Independents Jesse Ventura and Kinky Friedman, and the 2000 presidential campaign of Ralph Nader. Hillsman's first ad for Grayson, entitled “Case Closed”, focused on Grayson's fight against military contractor fraud, dramatizing the amounts of money involved with a suitcase containing $1 million in cash and an airplane hangar that could be filled with the $9 billion in taxpayer dollars allegedly stolen by contractor fraud in Iraq. The ad spread over the Internet via various liberal blogs, including the widely read FireDogLake and The Huffington Post, and was deemed very successful. A second ad, “Empty”, also referenced contractor fraud, this time listing faulty products, such as empty fire extinguishers and defective parachutes, that were sold to the government. This, too, was deemed a very successful ad. Other ads produced by Hillsman for the campaign included “Important Part”, in which Grayson blasted Keller for voting against an appropriation for prosthetic limbs for veterans; and “Taxpayer Robbery”, which likened the loosening of regulations on the financial industry and the resulting 2008 bank bailout to an armed robbery.

In the August 26, 2008 Democratic primary, Grayson prevailed by an unexpectedly large margin, receiving 48.5% of the vote. Stuart distantly trailed with 27.5%, with three other candidates splitting the remaining 24%. During the general election campaign, Grayson maintained a consistent lead over Keller, who had barely eked out renomination in the Republican primary over attorney Todd Long after breaking a voluntary term limits pledge. This, combined with the erasure of the Republican Party's narrow advantage in voter registration in the district, helped propel Grayson to victory. On Election Day, he received 172,854 votes, or 52%, to Keller's 159,490 votes, or 48%. Although Keller won three out of four counties in the district, Grayson won by a margin of 55% to 45% in Orange County, home to Orlando and by far the largest county in the district.

Grayson is only the second Democrat to represent his district since its formation after the 1970 census (it was the 5th District from 1973 to 1993 and has been the 8th District since 1993). The only other Democrat to represent this district, Bill Gunter, gave it up after only one term to make an unsuccessful run for the Democratic Senate nomination in 1974.

Although the Florida 8th district was historically a Republican district, Grayson was elected as a progressive Democrat, and is a Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Congressional career

On January 13, 2009, during his first hearing as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, Grayson questioned Federal Reserve System Vice Chairman Donald Kohn on the disposition of the $1.2 trillion in taxpayer funds that the Fed had lent as part of the 2008 bank bailout, asking how much money had been given to specific institutions, such as Credit Suisse and Citibank, and what collateral had been secured in return. Kohn disclaimed specific knowledge of which specific firms had received funds, but went on to state that he did not feel that this was information that should be available to the general public, as firms might refuse bailout funds if it became generally known that they were receiving them. Grayson replied, “Has that ever happened? Have people ever said we won't take your $150 billion because people might find out about it?″ He went on to question the authority of the Fed to make such a decision without consulting Congress. The exchange was posted on YouTube, receiving more than 50,000 views in the first week after posting. After the exchange received attention from various national media outlets, Grayson was the subject of an interview by Salon.com writer Glenn Greenwald, in which he went into greater depth in his criticism of both the bailout and the Federal Reserve's secrecy on the subject.

On March 23, 2009, in response to public outrage over the AIG bonus payments controversy, Grayson joined with fellow freshman Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut to introduce the Grayson-Himes Pay for Performance Act, legislation to require that all bonuses paid by companies that had received funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to be based on performance. The bill was co-sponsored by eight other members of the House. On March 26, the bill was approved by the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 38-22. On April 1, the bill was passed by the full House of Representatives by a vote of 247-171. The bill is viewed by some as giving Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

On May 5, 2009, in a Financial Services Committee question and answer session with Inspector General of the Federal Reserve Elizabeth A. Coleman, Grayson asked about the trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve and where it went, and the trillions of off balance sheet obligations. The Inspector General responded that she does not know and is not tracking where this money is. The exchange was posted on YouTube, receiving nearly 3,000,000 views in the first few months after posting.

Grayson is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, consisting of 80 progressive House members in addition to independent Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders and Democratic New Mexico Senator Tom Udall.

Grayson was ranked as the 12th-wealthiest member of Congress based on financial disclosure forms with a minimum net worth of $31.12 million, according to Roll Call.

Health care policy debate

On September 29, 2009, Grayson made a speech regarding health care proposals in the U.S. House. During it he said, “The Republican health care plan is this: ‘Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly.’” His remarks drew immediate calls for an apology from Republicans, and, according to Grayson, resulted in positive emails from constituents which outweighed negative ones four to one and over five thousand supporting campaign contributions. Grayson raised in excess of $100,000 for his reelection campaign fallowing the remarks. Republican Congressman Jimmy Duncan called Grayson's speech “the most mean-spirited partisan statement that I've ever heard made on this floor”. National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere said, “This is an unstable man who has come unhinged. The depths to which Alan Grayson will sink to defend his indefensible comments know no bounds.” Grayson described these comments as “Republican hissy fits″, and the next day gave a speech from the House Floor, saying “I would like to apologize: I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted sooner to end this holocaust in America.” He cited a September 2009 Harvard study that found 44,000 Americans die each year due to being uninsured. His use of the term 'Holocaust' drew criticism from the Orlando Jewish community, with 62% saying that he "went too far" in using it. Grayson subsequently apologized to the Anti-defamation league for using the term. Political commentator , in an interview with Fox news, said, "He's getting a lot of attention because he clearly went overboard with the holocaust analogy." Grayson subsequently compared his statements to a Bob Dylan protest song.

On September 30, 2009, Grayson called Congressional Republicans "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who think they can dictate policy to America by being stubborn" despite having lost the election. He argued that on the issue of health care "the Republicans have been insulting … disserving America," and that "some thoughtful opposition" has been missing in the debate. He responded to criticism of his comments about the Republicans by saying he was speaking "the honest truth", because he contends that Republican leaders have offered no feasible counter-proposal to that of the Democrats, and that when the minority is not compromising and thereby stopping progress, few alternatives exist from which to draw conclusions. During the interview, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos responded to Grayson with four initiatives that he believes Congressional Republicans are now proposing or have previously proposed: (1) enacting tort reform, (2) expanding health insurance portability, (3) permitting consumers to shop for health insurance across state lines, and (4) ensuring access to health care regardless of pre-existing health conditions. Grayson maintained his position that Congressional Republicans have failed to offer a feasible plan, and in his rebuttal to the second and fourth points said "What you just described is the Democratic plan. You think you can steal the emperor's clothes that way?" On October 1, 2009, Grayson referred to Congressional Republicans as "'no' mongers" and added, "They've got 'no' answers for anything."

Brave New Films' Sick for Profit campaign released a video to support Grayson and his comments. It included parts of his “don't get sick” speech, along with various footage which supports Grayson's claims, such as Mike Huckabee stating “we don't have a health care crisis in America, what we really have is a health crisis”.

On October 8 Grayson gave a speech which confirmed that he would not apologize. (“America doesn't care about feelings.”), while accusing the Democratic party of narrowly focusing on procedure over policy (“We as a party have spent the last six months, the greatest minds in our party, dwelling on the question, the unbelievably consuming question of how to get Olympia Snowe to vote on health care reform.”) and the Republican party for dogmatic opposition to the Democrats (“If Barack Obama has a BLT sandwich tommorow, they will try to ban bacon″).

Committee assignments

See also

References

  1. ^ Congressman Alan Grayson Biography, graysonhouse.gov, accessed 2009-10-04.
  2. ^ "Alan Grayson on the GOP Health Care Plan: "Don't Get Sick! And if You Do Get Sick, Die Quickly!"'". Alan Grayson. 2009-09-29.
  3. About Alan Grayson, accessed 2009-09-30
  4. ^ An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq - Witness Biographies, accessed 2009-09-30, U.S. Senate Democratic Policy Committee
  5. SEC Info - Idt Corp - 10-Q/A - For 4/30/03 - EX-10.69, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2000-10-10, accessed 2009-09-30
  6. An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq, Senate Oversight Hearing, Feb 14, 2005
  7. ^ Dreazen, Yochi Attorney Pursues Iraq Contractor Fraud, Wall Street Journal, 2006-04-19, accessed 2009-10-03.
  8. Florida Election Results, 2006-09-05
  9. Florida Election Results, 2006-11-07
  10. "Case Closed TV Ad", youtube.com, accessed 2009-10-04.
  11. "Empty" Campaign Ad "Empty"
  12. Campaign Ad "Important Part"
  13. Campaign Ad: "Taxpayer Robbery"
  14. Race Detail, ourcampaigns.com
  15. 2008 Election Results
  16. Race Detail
  17. Member List, Website of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, accessed 2009-10-03
  18. $1.2 Trillion Slush Fund: Congressman Alan Grayson Grills Fed Vice Chair Donald Kohn
  19. Salon Radio: Rep. Alan Grayson on bailout transparency
  20. A better Way For Wall Street, grayson.house.gov, 2009-03
  21. Grayson gets his bill through the House, Orlando Sentinel
  22. Outrageous federal power grab, American Thinker Blog, 2009-03
  23. Grayson Pay Performance Act, themiddleclass.org
  24. Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?: Rep. Alan Grayson asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General about the trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve
  25. Who is Alan Grayson Anyway, Wall Street Journal blogs, 2009-10-01
  26. Jonathan Allen Grayson: GOP wants 'you to die', Politico.com, 2009-09-29, accessed 2009-09-30
  27. ^ Alan Grayson (2009-10-02). "Rep Alan Grayson on Hardball: We can't run this country based on Republican hissy fits". MSNBC.
  28. "GOP looks to cash in on Grayson's comments". USA Today. 2009-10-01.
  29. Is Alan Grayson the Democrats' Joe Wilson?, Yahoo newsroom blog, 2009-10-01
  30. Jonathan Alter Grayson likens health crisis, holocaust, Politico.com, 2009-09-30, accessed 2009-10-01
  31. ^ Alan Grayson (2009-10-02). Rep. Alan Grayson: "I apologize to the dead and their families".
  32. http://www.examiner.com/x-16409-Orlando-Judaism-Examiner~y2009m10d13-Orlando-Jews-criticize-Rep-Grayson-DFL-for-holocaust-remark
  33. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/06/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5366672.shtml
  34. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/01/pelosi-denounces-harsh-rhetoric-health-care-debate/?test=latestnews?test=latestnews
  35. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/grayson-what-i-did-is-like-a-bob-dylan-protest-song-joe-wilson-like-a-belch.php
  36. Grayson calls Republicans knuckle dragging Neanderthals,CNN.com, 2009-09-30, accessed 2009-10-01
  37. House Republicans Offer Health Care Plan,CBS News, 2009-06-17, accessed 2009-10-02
  38. The OpEd: Should Rep. Grayson apologize?,The Ed Schultz Show, MSNBC, 2009-10-01, accessed 2009-10-02
  39. "Congressman Alan Grayson Says Don't Get Sick". Brave New FIlms. 2009-10-02.
  40. "Rep. Alan Grayson: I Will Not Apologize- America Doesn't Care About Your Feelings". 2009-10-09.
  41. Alan Grayson (2009-10-08). "Alan Grayson: "If the President has a BLT tomorrow, the Republicans will try to ban bacon."". "He sends a message to Democrats: No one elected Olympia Snowe President of the United States. And he sends a message to Republicans: No one cares about your feelings."

External links


U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded byRic Keller Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Florida's 8th congressional district
2009–present 		Incumbent
Florida's current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators
Representatives
(ordered by district)
Categories: