NEWS RELEASE
Admiral Joe Sestak Discusses Support for Working Families, Single Parents
Sestak Continues to Walk in the Shoes of Other Pennsylvanians
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information contact:
Danielle Lynch
[email protected]
March 19, 2015
EVERETT, PA – Admiral Joe Sestak discussed his support for families, including single
parents, while walking 29 miles through Bedford County Thursday.
Joe speaking with attendees at an event on families and single parents in Everett, PA.
Earlier this month, Joe began his walk on the New Jersey border in Philadelphia
and will end it 422 miles later when he arrives at the border with Ohio. When Joe kicked
off his campaign, he said America is about “We the People,” and that — as Scout recalls
in To Kill a Mockingbird — “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes
and walk around in them.” Therefore, over the next few weeks, Joe will walk in the shoes
of Pennsylvanians he meets along his walk.
When Joe was a U.S. Congressman, Joe consistently voted in ways that helped
families and single parents. He was particularly concerned about our national treasure:
our youth. He voted to boost the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
known as food stamps, during the recession to ensure children didn’t go to bed hungry.
He voted for State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bills that provided
health insurance to low-income families. He also voted for Head Start funding.
1 Joe looked out for struggling adults and parents. He voted for an increase in the
federal minimum wage and voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
(ARRA), which allowed American families to bring home more in their paychecks. Joe
also supported the extension of emergency unemployment benefits for families who had
the misfortune of being laid off during the Great Recession. He voted for the Affordable
Care Act (ACA), which improved health care coverage for millions of American
families. It ensured children with pre-existing conditions had coverage; lifted annual and
lifetime caps on coverage; provided more free preventive services for women, minorities
and senior citizens; and cut prescription drug costs for seniors, among other benefits.
He also looked out for our senior citizens. He authored and passed the Elder
Abuse Victims Act, the first elder-abuse prevention bill to pass the House in 17 years. He
voted for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for Alzheimer’s disease research
and caregiver support. Additionally, he voted to fund the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, which monitors companies for fraud, scams, and predatory lending, and protects
seniors from scammers and fraudsters.
Sen. Toomey, R-Pa., on the other hand, does not care Pennsylvanian families. He
has repeatedly voted against our nation’s youth. For example, he voted to defund SCHIP
and food stamps. He voted against the Head Start program and grants that help children
and their teachers succeed.
Toomey voted against increasing the federal minimum wage and opposed ARRA,
which allowed Pennsylvanian families to bring home more in their paychecks. Toomey
voted three times against an extension of emergency unemployment benefits as a Senator.
He’s also supported nearly 30 bills that would dismantle the ACA, which has helped
hundreds of thousands Pennsylvanian families.
Additionally, Toomey voted against senior citizens. For example, he co-sponsored
an amendment that would defund Operation Chokepoint, a Department of Justice
initiative that prevents fraudsters from getting access into senior citizens’ bank accounts.
He voted against over $500 million in annual funding for Alzheimer’s research,
education, outreach and caregiver support three times as a Senator.
Joe’s campaign is about accountable leadership that serves “We the People.” He
believes the biggest deficit in America today is the “trust deficit” and is running to restore
Americans’ lost trust in their political leaders by being accountable to serve those whose
shoes public servants should be walking in.
That is why Joe looks forward to walking alongside Pennsylvanians as he works
to restore the American Dream. There are too many in the U.S. Senate who believe you
are on your own, and our present Senator—who votes against veterans, women, senior
citizens, and our children, as well as small business owners on a consistent basis—is not
the answer for restoring the American Dream.
“We must restore trust in our leaders,” Joe said. “Now more than ever, the
governmental leaders’ role must be accountability for restoring the alliance of rugged
individualism and common enterprise so that ‘We the People’ can take back the Dream.”
2 3 4 5 Born and raised in Delaware County, former 3-star Admiral Joe Sestak served in the
Navy for 31 years. He served as a Congressman for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional
District from 2007-2011. As a Congressman, Joe served on both the Armed Services and
Education & Labor Committees, and was Vice Chairman of the Small Business
Committee. According to the office of the House Historian, Joe is the highest-ranking
former military officer ever to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. As an
Admiral, he led a series of operational commands at sea, including Commander of an
aircraft carrier battle group of 30 U.S. and allied ships with over 15,000 sailors and 100
aircraft that conducted operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. After 9/11, Joe was the first
Director of “Deep Blue,” the Navy’s anti-terrorism unit that established strategic and
operations policies for the “Global War on Terrorism.” He served as President
Clinton’s Director for Defense Policy at the National Security Council in the White
House, and also as the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations responsible for development of
the Navy’s five-year $350 billion warfare requirements. He holds a Ph.D. in Political
Economy and Government from Harvard University. Joe most recently taught courses
on Ethical Leadership and on Restoring the American Dream at Carnegie Mellon
University and Cheyney University, and was the General Omar N. Bradley Chair in
Strategic Leadership, a joint faculty appointment at the United States Army War College,
Dickinson College, and the Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and School of
International Affairs. He also remains active in foreign affairs, education, disaster
response, small businesses, energy and the environment, and health care, among other
issues, through a variety of non-profits and other organizations, including the U.S
Department of State.
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