Pinal County Greens Urge Reauthorization of Export-Import Bank, Attack Anti-Business Republicans Like Jeff Flake for Blocking It

APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz., Mar. 29 -

The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution urging Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and attacking anti-business Republican politicians for blocking this needed action.

"Right-wing Republicans seem intent on destroying the Export-Import Bank, an important institution which has financed exports since the Depression," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair. "Unless it is reauthorized, the bank faces the possibility of shutting its doors completely by the end of May. Inaction by these commerce-hating conservatives could harm and even destroy many small businesses in the United States."

Grayson specifically charged anti-business Congressman Jeff Flake with plotting to destroy the Export-Import Bank: "Jeff Flake is spitting in the face of every small businessperson in Arizona who depends on financing their exports and imports."

As The New York Times reported,

Exports have been one of the bright spots of the fragile recovery, but without Export-Import Bank financing, companies could struggle to complete contracts with overseas buyers. Those buyers will most likely turn to foreign competitors whose governments have more robust versions of the bank, businesspeople say.

“There’s not a bank in the United States that’s going to loan money to that customer of mine in Argentina to buy my airplane,” said David Ickert, vice president of finance at Air Tractor, which makes crop-dusting and firefighting airplanes in Olney, Tex. “There is not a free-market system that operates like that. It does not exist. We need the Ex-Im Bank, period.”

Like so much else in Congress these days, it is not that simple.

With its charter set to expire in May, the bank is the target of conservative groups. They are making the case to Republicans that the bank, created in 1934 to finance sales to the Soviet Union, has no place in a free-market system. Club for Growth is holding it up as the next Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, crowding out private lending and offering dangerous loans that ultimately could be left in the laps of the taxpayer.

“Those groups are just wrong, period,” said Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers and a generous personal contributor to Republican candidates.

The bank is financed with a small percentage of each loan it makes to foreign buyers of American exports, producing $3.4 billion in profits for the federal government over the last five years.

Drew Greenblatt, president and owner of Marlin Steel Wire Products, in Baltimore, said he recently got a rush order for wire baskets from a firm in Singapore, assuming he could finance the sale. He went to the Export-Import Bank and paid a one-half-percent fee on the loan. The bank guaranteed 95 percent of the loan. He kept the plant working through the weekend and completed the sale.

“Think about all the winners in this transaction,” he said. “Ex-Im got half a point. Baltimore City steelworkers got extra hours. I got extra profits to meet payroll, and hopefully I got a client who will reorder from me.”

"The Pinal County Greens will ask our representatives in Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank without delay," said Grayson. "Anti-capitalist Republicans like Jeff Flake shouldn't keep holding American businesses hostage."

Pinal County Greens Co-Chair Richard Grayson to be Arizona's Favorite Stepson Candidate in February 28 Green Party Presidential Preference Primary

Apache Junction, Ariz., Dec. 21 -

Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair, today became the second candidate to file to be on the ballot in the Arizona presidential preference primary to be held on February 28, 2012. Grayson will be a candidate for the Green Party nomination for President.

On the first day of the filing period, one Republican, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, filed to become the first candidate in Arizona's Republican primary.

Grayson, 60, first ran for President in 1984, when he unsuccessfully sought the nomination of the Democratic party to run against President Ronald Reagan. In 2004, Grayson ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a write-in candidate from a district where the Republican incumbent had no Democratic opponent and published his campaign diary at the McSweeney's website as "Diary of a Congressional Candidate in Florida's Fourth Congressional District," and in 2010, Grayson was the Green Party candidate for Congress in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District, running against Representative Jeff Flake.

Grayson said he looked forward to actively campaigning in the primary. "I am happy to be Arizona's favorite stepson candidate in the Green Party presidential primary," he said.

Other candidates are expected to file in the race during the weeks ahead.

Pinal County Greens Name Rep. Jeff Flake the Arizona Asshole of the Month for Flake's Plan to Turn the Grand Canyon into Toxic Waste Dump

Apache Junction, Ariz., July 11, 2011 -

The Pinal County Greens today named U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake the Arizona Asshole of the Month for trying to turn the Grand Canyon into a toxic waste dump.

"There are a lot of assholes in Arizona politics," said Pinal County Greens Co-Chair Richard Grayson. "But this month Jeff Flake deserves being named Arizona Asshole of the Month because he's deliberately trying to destroy our state's greatest natural wonder and spoil it for generations to come."

Grayson cited this New York Times editorial:

The Obama administration has extended for six months a 2009 moratorium on new uranium mining claims on one million acres around the Grand Canyon. This is good news; even better is the promise from Ken Salazar, the interior secretary, that he will soon recommend a 20-year ban on new claims in the region. That is the maximum allowed under the 1872 mining law.

With uranium prices rising, the number of mining claims have jumped sharply over the last few years. There have been about 3,500 claims in the Grand Canyon-area alone. If developed, they would generate toxic wastes that would threaten the Colorado River — the source of drinking water for roughly 27 million people — the aquifer and the Grand Canyon ecosystem in general.

Mr. Salazar said he could not cancel valid existing claims, but there is likely to be little actual mining. The decision to “withdraw” the land from future claims creates new regulatory hurdles for existing claimants, who must demonstrate, among other things, that they had discovered actual mineral deposits before the 2009 moratorium. Only a handful have been able to do so.

There have been the usual complaints from mining lobbyists and their Congressional allies. Representative Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, has threatened to use the interior appropriations bill to block Mr. Salazar’s plan.

The moratorium will have little effect on the country’s uranium supply, most of which comes from Wyoming and New Mexico. It will protect a treasured national park and the drinking water for millions of people.

The Pinal County Greens, a group of members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County, said Flake had carried through his threat and has written a rider, Section 445, that if enacted, will block the Grand Canyon protection plan.

Pinal County Greens Co-Chair Grayson said that he thought the Republican U.S. Senate candidate would welcome the honor: "In wanting to destroy a treasured national park and the drinking water of millions, Jeff Flake is truly the Arizona asshole par excellence."

Grayson noted that for his Grand Canyon desecration plan, Flake had also recently been named "Worst Person in the World" by Keith Olbermann's Countdown.

Pinal County Greens Name Anti-Gay GOP Candidate Matt Salmon Arizona's Worst Father of the Year in Father's Day Resolution

Apache Junction, Ariz., June 19 -

Meeting for their annual Father's Day celebration, the Pinal County Greens passed a resolution commemorating Father's Day 2011 and naming anti-gay Republican politician Matt Salmon Arizona's Worst Father of the Year.

Pinal County Greens Co-Chair Richard Grayson, 60, said the designation of the homophobic Republican former Congressman and current Congressional candidate -- Salmon is running for the East Valley U.S. House seat being relinquished by Jeff Flake -- "should not detract from the group's general wishes that everyone have a Happy Father's Day, especially my own wonderful father living right here in the East Valley. It's too bad that Matt Salmon's son didn't luck out the way I did in getting such a great and loving dad."

The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party living in Pinal County, the second-fastest-growing county in the United States, according to the 2010 Census.

Pinal County Greens Pass Resolution Condemning Budget-Busting Deficit-Maker Jeff Flake

Apache Junction, Ariz., May 2 -

Today, the Pinal County Greens, members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County, passed a resolution condemning U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, for being "a budget-busting deficit maker."

"When Jeff Flake entered the U.S House of Representatives for the first of what he promised would be three terms, the United States had a budget surplus," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair and the 2010 Green Party candidate against Rep. Flake.

"In his many years in Congress, long after he broke his promise to serve only three terms, with his party in control of the House for most of those years, Jeff Flake has managed to bankrupt the country year by year with his policies," Grayson added. "Flake has wasted our money on egregious shit like tax cuts for his billionaire bankrollers while at the same time denying basic services like education for our students."

Grayson cited a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office which clearly showed that our current mountainous budget deficit was caused by policies championed by Rep. Flake -- mainly the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- combined with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis caused in part by the deregulation also championed by Rep. Flake.

"The Pinal County Greens would urge voters to consider Jeff Flake's record as a fiscally irresponsible budget buster in 2012," Grayson said.

Pinal County Greens Endorse Richard Grayson, Green Party Candidate for Congress in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District

For Immediate Release

PINAL COUNTY GREENS ENDORSE RICHARD GRAYSON FOR CONGRESS

Apache Junction, Ariz., September 4, 2010 - The Pinal County Greens today endorsed Richard Grayson, Arizona Green Party candidate for Congress in the Sixth Congressional District, for election in November.

A spokesperson for the Pinal County Greens said, "Richard Grayson has been a registered member of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County for two years and has shown consistent allegiance to the Party's Ten Key Values. The Pinal County Greens is proud to endorse Richard Grayson for the Congressional seat now held by right-wing lunatic Republican Jeff Flake."

Arizona's Sixth Congressional District includes parts of Pinal County, including Apache Junction, as well as parts of Maricopa County, including areas in Queen Creek, Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa.