August 25, 2011
By Stephen D. Foster Jr.

Representative Chip Cravaak (R-MN). Image from http://www.congressratings.com/1338/chip-cravaack-r-mn-8th-rep/

Representative Chip Cravaak of Minnesota was swept into office during the 2010 midterm election on the Tea Party platform. He has since voted for the Paul Ryan plan to kill Medicare, which would force seniors to rely on a voucher system which wouldn’t be likely to cover their vast health needs and costs. But did you know that he’s a raging hypocrite?

Even as he bashed unions during his election campaign, Cravaak enjoyed the benefits of being a member of one. He worked as a pilot for Northwest Air, now Delta, as recently as 2007 and being a pilot means that you are automatically a union member, thus receiving the benefits of union negotiated salaries, vacations and ultimately, disability payments. According to financial records released by Cravaak himself, the Tea Party Representative received $92,273 from disability payments in 2010 alone. So while Cravaak was busy bashing “big government” and unions, he was cashing disability checks.

But this isn’t the only example of his hypocrisy. In addition to receiving Congressional health care, which is paid for by the government, Cravaak also receives government run health care as a military veteran, meaning he can walk into any government owned medical facility to receive medical care and the taxpayer picks up the tab. He enjoys what he and the Tea Party call “socialized medicine” even as he votes to strip senior citizens of their own government health care.

This kind of hypocrisy is outrageous. This guy got elected after campaigning against unions and government run health care and yet it’s perfectly fine that he gets to enjoy the benefits of both. Just another example of ‘do what I say, not as I do’ politics in America.