Despite being a Republican in the House of Representatives, Minnesota Rep. Chip Cravaack is a supporter of unions. In fact, Cravaack gladly receives a nice pension from his days of being a part of one.
According to public records released to Minnesota public radio, the freshman congressman received a pension of $92,273 in 2010. The money came from disability payments made to him from his days as an airplane pilot of Northwest Airlines. Cravaack worked at Northwest until 2007, and went against his party when Republicans placed an amendment to get rid of the National Labor Relations Board in the 2011 House spending bill in February.
"I've been in a union for a number of years and I still consider myself a union member," he told MPR. "I've been on strike, I've walked picket lines and there is a definite place for labor unions in this country."
In that same month, Cravaack voted for the controversial Paul Ryan budget in the House, which would have replaced Medicare with a voucher program for seniors. Cravaack also co-sponsored an amendment to end funding of the US Institute of Peace (USIP), an independent government-funded institution to analyze and prevent international conflict. Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) were the other co-sponsors of the bill.
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