Alaska House Rep. Christopher Kurka made it fairly clear today he will be a “no” vote on the $5,500 dividend, and he called out the Senate majority for not having anti-abortion language in the operating budget that passed the Senate and is headed to the House for concurrence.
Kurka, attacking his fellow Republicans, said the removal of an amendment that zeroed out abortion funding from the State of Alaska’s budget, was done by the “Benedict Arnold’s of the pro-life movement.”
He continued, “Senate Republican Leadership’s alliance with the Left on State funding for abortion is outrageous. In both my years in this process I have introduced amendments to zero out funding for abortion in the budget, and both years it passed the Democrat-controlled House. Yet, Senate Republicans, who comprise about 65% of the Senate have not held the line and Senate Leadership is directly responsible.”
“Even with national attention on the right to life issue through the leaked Roe vs. Wade opinion reversal, Senator Josh Revak joined the Democrats and Judas Republicans to become the deciding vote to kill the amendment and keep it out of the final budget that was sent back to the House for concurrence,” he said, singling out Sen. Revak for his vote.
Kurka concluded, “This pattern of betrayal by Senate Leadership, and the latest defection by Senator Josh Revak should be an affront to every pro-life Alaskan. Republican voters should not reward the Benedict Arnold’s of the pro-life movement with reelection. Furthermore, if Senator Micciche fails to appoint pro-life Senators to the Conference Committee, he too should be shown the door. Throwing the weakest and most vulnerable among us under the bus for crass political purposes is not acceptable and should not be tolerated.”
Kurka represents a district in Wasilla that is strongly pro-full Permanent Fund dividend. In November, he filed to run for governor against Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, with the endorsement of Joe Miller, who has run for U.S. Senate in the past as a Republican and later as a Libertarian.
Oath takers yesterday it’s 5500 for all Alaskans then today it’s got to go threw another stage BOOOO Suzanne ma’am I’m starting to think it’s must not read Alaska here. Oath takers some of us are on disability and with Biden’s and the evil oath breakers in charge the money is not here for us citizens. Oath takers please help the citizens pass the 5500 immediately help Alaskans in need please
Kurka is standing on principle. Something that every single pro-life-in-name-only Republican Senator should have done. PFD all the way, but it’s not worth the value of one single innocent life in the womb. How cheaply a Senator’s political will can be purchased!
Was going to say the same thing myself. He’s done with the state funding abortions. No state should do that. I want that full PFD but not if it’s going to kill babies. Nope!
Bs the governor could line item veto the abortion funds so Kurka is a fool
Ah Yes, the ying and yang of the AKPF Dividend. It is steadily destroying our State both morally and financially.
It is called the “Perverse Incentive of Socialism”. Conservatives need to wake up and get a spine.
Here are a few more words for it:
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride.
REPENT YE SINNERS!!!
Are you exercising your helicopter hair?
Well. He’s sure right about the Benedict Arnolds.
“The earliest humans were hunter-gatherers, practicing a lifestyle not that much different from their more ape-like ancestors, but with somewhat more sophisticated tools and ways of cooperating.”
‘https://www.quora.com/profile/Matt-Riggsby
Have we now stopped progressing? Or are we going the other direction?
What does “progressing” mean, oh wise man?
I can see voting NO for something that is in the legislation, but to vote NO for something that is not in the legislation which can, probably and should be addressed separately is playing some form of a game. The pending SCOTUS decision will make state law front and center for abortion related legislation. Voting NO for a statue funded PFD because of the abortion legislation appears to be using it for cover.
Nailed it Grizz! Rep Kurka appears to be saying that the pro-life legislation should have been tied to the PFD part of the operating budget to be sure it passes – I don’t think hiding it would work. With Roe possibly dead the State of Alaska needs to take a boldly public stand protecting life from conception to natural death – in separate stand-alone legislation. You can still stand on ALL of your principles Chris.
Wow what a grift. He will not be remembered well for this. He could have had a good political future but he just flushed it all down the drain.
Oh look a Politician with morals. How rare? Almost unheard of! Kurka for President!
Single issue voters clearly do not make good legislators, they don’t even make subpar legislators. Had he complained about the size of the budget and the absurd amount of spending he could then address his conservative principles. Calling others Judas and Benedict Arnold shows a horrible lack of self awareness, of course he’s running to be governor and won’t even make the general election so self awareness isn’t a strong suit.
He might consider moving. I don’t think the people of his district are going to be very friendly with this performance. A lot of private sector workers out that way, that don’t take kindly to being robbed by a guy with a tie.
How many babies would you murder for a $5000 PFD?
Why not put an ANTI abortion bill separate of the $5,000 PFD? It would have the same chance of passing regardless.
Joe Miller better check the little fat boy’s background a bit better. Doesn’t sound like the Joe Miller I know.
There is typically more than one way to skin a cat. Politics,like sales, is a series of gate one has to go through to get one’s end result. I would hope he could figure out how to defeat abortion without throwing the PFD under the bus. If not, the PFD will always be used as a tool to thwart the PFD. Given the battle for the peoples PFD This is a time to take ground where one can and work smarter and smarter moving forward. You will never get everything one wants all at once.
I have to agree with Kurka and Eastman on this one. I am against abortion and find it to be an immoral and senseless method of birth control. On the other hand, I also find it to be a deeply personal decision in which the government should have no control. An amendment (ie. stipulation) to the budget which removes State funding of abortions removes the fiscal responsibility of the State in this matter and returns it to the free will and moral justification of the individual.
This budget vote is a ‘prequel’ to a fantasy Kurka gubernatorial administration. Alaskans are bearing the brunt of the Biden runaway inflation cataclysm. One can imagine what financial and stressful state they will be in when these funds are actually paid out this fall. The abortion part of this budget, although minor, is an ugly reality. What candidate Kurka and his partner, David Eastman, need to decide is what a ‘no’ vote will achieve. It will give them the, ‘we showed them’ in opposing any abortion related funding for the budget. They can bolster their creds for staying the course and being ‘mavericks’ in the face of ‘adversity’. Profiles of courage, don’t you know! Meanwhile, just about everybody, other than this dynamic duo, understands that a ‘no’ vote will do nothing to change the abhorrent abortion portion of the budget. And the rest of us do know that the ‘no’ vote will be devastating to Alaskans who are under great financial stress right now. The PFD would shrink drastically. He is also making things far worse by trying to get the governor to pledge that he will do what he can to mitigate any spending on abortion Or something like that. Let’s blame the governor! He made me do it! So, Mr. Kurka is faltering badly and revealing his lack of gravitas and smarts during crunch time. It will save us a lot of time in the polling booth
Why not just vote no on everything always now? Be consistent. Make your stand. You are absolutely right, Revak is despicable and there’s more than just him that say one thing in public and another around their senate colleagues behind closed doors…but this is showmanship, and it will cost him. If he wants his service and candidacy to be about this one issue, all the time, every time, then so be it, but be consistent. Vote No on everything, all the time, from here on in, and don’t cry when the voters send you home.
This is another example of why Alaska can’t have nice things.
Kurka is grandstanding on the abortion issue to try and get votes. Linking it to the first legitimate PFD in years will do the exact opposite and make him look like a bigger fool still.
If he can show concrete linkage to how denying Alaskans their legal money will stop abortions, do it.
Otherwise go play in traffic
Hear hear
And just to think, still how many babies would and have been murdered with no full PFD every year?
The republican majority do need to draw the line somewhere on abortion. Think of it this way, how many of them be willing to kill their born grandchildren. Because that is what the senators
And representatives are doing to other grandparents’ grandchildren they are an assessory killing another grandparent’s grandchild or if you get tribal a tribal member. Eliminate the abortion funding and keep the 5500 dividend. Easy.
I’m afraid Kurka is going to lose our votes now.
GO KURKA!
Of course I’m for a full statutory PFD but… This is another good argument against socialism. When the left leaning academics who drafted our Alaska state Constitution “communized our subsurface mineral rights we lost the ability to control what happens to that wealth and before you know it you have ghouls ripping babies apart with your money.
Most of you people eat baby back ribs. Where do you think they come from?
Baby back ribs are from the top portion of the ribs of full grown pigs. Spare ribs are the middle portion.
An example of eating young animals would be eating lamb instead of mutton. Or eating veal instead of beef. Or maybe you were thinking of a suckling pig. Those are young pigs that are often eaten in Chinese cuisine
“you people?”
Who are you, Archie Bunker?
Even IF the antiabortion funding language had been maintained and IF this bill was passed by both houses the big If remaining would be IF the state Supreme Court would NOt declare it unconstitutional as it has in the past!! It requires far more elected officials than Kurka to stop abortion in this state and the pro abortion folks know that. Part of the requirement to make politics work is the ability to COMPROMISE with the opposition in order to achieve the greatest good over the longest time frame. IF Kurka and Eastman ( and I am basically in agreement with their conservative principles) are re-elected and IF they learn to work within the broad spectrum of Alaskan politics perhaps their goals will be achieved but I am NOT holding my breath!!
They are both standing on principal, while harming all Alaskans! Not very good at reading the tea leaves and will most likely end their political careers. They need to concur the Senate’s budget and live to fight another day. Maybe our feckless Governor will act with his veto pen, and deal with the abortion funding issue. Bottom line is they have a bird in their hand, capture it!
There’s a reason we love people like Jim Jordan, MTG, Lauren Boebert, and Rand Paul. They’re actually conservative ? of the time. Republicans used to gang up on Rand Paul for not compromising. Now he’s looking pretty smart. Lots of younger folks have been inspired by people like them, and now we have a lot of freshmen that are ? conservative in the ranks. We don’t want Mitch McConnell or Lindsay Graham anymore. We don’t want people like that in the US or in the State House. We want folks like Eastman and Kurka. That’s the direction we want to go. Sin, which some call “compromise”, has taken us in the wrong direction. America isn’t looking good right now, Alaska isn’t looking good right now, and it’s not because we went too far to the right, it’s because we’ve always gone too far to the left. Pick up your Bible and read Deuteronomy about how curses come on us and our land when we commit violence like murder, especially against the innocent, voiceless, and fatherless, like unborn babies. We are blessed for obedience, and cursed for disobedience, and our legislature doesn’t get that like Kurka and Eastman do, and that’s really why Alaska can’t have nice things. I’d love if our elected government would stop stealing our PFD and would follow the law, as my family is struggling with this man-made inflation, too, but if we don’t stop the killing of the unborn, according to the Bible, we’re going to see our enemies coming at us with the sword, plagues, pestilence, drought, environmental disasters, economic disaster, and famine like you’ve not seen. What we’ve seen so far the last couple of years are only a wake up call. Too many people aren’t waking up! The PFD would be the least of our problems if we continue down this road of compromise. It’s gross that these RINOs are offering us a false dichotomy of either sacrificing babies or they’ll steal our PFD. It’s even grosser that people are choosing their PFD. What this has done is revealed not only how wicked so many “Republican” politicians are, but also how wicked so many Alaskans are. I’m shocked and ashamed to hear all of this. We deserve whatever punishments our Heavenly Father gives us, and I’m starting to lose hope that these elections will be able to turn this state or this nation around. Some are repenting of serious sins, but I don’t know if it will be enough. Greed, lust, covetousness, pride, murder,…so sad
We didn’t vote for Peter Micciche and Ben Carpenter because we thought they would compromise. We voted for them because we thought they might share our conservative values and might stand against pressure from the left instead of caving or doing dirty deals. If we just wanted a handout and didn’t care about strong, conservative, Judeo-Christian, social values we’d just vote democrat.
By the way, we’d have more $ for both the PFD if we didn’t fund abortions with tax payer dollars, a payment which is both unconstitutional and immoral.
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