The Coleman Files

Despite rhetoric to the contrary, Norm Coleman has failed to provide leadership in the Senate when it comes to education. Whether it’s voting consistently to underfund No Child Left Behind and Head Start, voting to protect Bush’s tax breaks over fully funding special education programs, or voting for the largest cut to student aid in history, Coleman has stood in the way of improving the education of our nation’s children. Learn more about the Coleman Record on Education...

Instead of providing leadership in the Senate on developing green jobs and renewable energy alternatives, Norm Coleman stood next to his special interest friends. Coleman voted to protect his friends in the oil and gas industry with $5.1 billion in corporate tax breaks for oil companies. Coleman also voted against reducing America’s dependency on foreign oil by 40%, against billions in funding for renewable energy programs, and against instituting corporate windfall taxes on oil companies. Meanwhile, he opposed common-sense cap-and-trade programs that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions while creating new jobs developing green technology. Learn more about the Coleman Record on Energy…

While taking almost a million dollars from health care interests, including HMOs and pharmaceutical companies, Norm Coleman voted against tax breaks for small businesses trying to provide health care for employees and opposed efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs and to allow the reimportation of lower-priced drugs from Canada. Learn more about the Coleman Record on Health care…

In the Senate, Norm Coleman has supported making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent —tax breaks that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest Minnesotans. Meanwhile, he cast the crucial vote for Bush’s 2003 tax cuts that cut corporate taxes and put the country further into debt. In addition, Coleman protected corporate tax breaks over small business initiatives, voted against tax breaks to protect American jobs, and voted in favor of budgets that increased the deficit and against pay-as-you-go spending rules in the Senate. Learn more about the Coleman Record on Jobs & the Economy…

While the projected cost of the war in Iraq has skyrocketed to more than $2 trillion, Norm Coleman has been a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq. He consistently voted against changing course or setting a timetable for bringing our troops home, and Coleman, who was the chair and now ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, voted against investigating waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq. Learn more about the Coleman Record on the War in Iraq…