People often ask me what can be done to move the elected officials within the Republican Party rightward. Well, for one thing, we need to elect more conservatives. But more importantly, we need those conservatives to obtain positions of power, such as chairmanships of the committees that set our domestic policy agenda. Not surprisingly, all the relevant committee chairmen are either conduits for leadership or are even more liberal than leadership. Here is a list of the chairmen along with their respective 2011 scores from Heritage Action: Committee Chairman HAFA Score Agriculture Frank Lucas 55 Appropriations Hal Rogers 56 Armed Services Buck McKeon 56 Budget Paul Ryan 78 Education John Kline 67 Energy & Commerce Fred Upton 52 Ethics Jo Bonner 56 Financial Services Spencer Bachus 64 Foreign Affairs Illena Ros Lehtinen 47 Homeland Security Peter King 47 House Administration Dan Lungren 58 Judiciary Lamar Smith 59 Natural Resources Doc Hastings 57 Oversight Darrell Issa 75 Rules David Dreier 58 Science, Space, & Tech Ralph Hall 67 Small Business Sam Graves 63 Transportation & Infrastructure John Mica 67 Veterans’ Affairs Jeff Miller 91 Ways and Means David Camp 59 Intelligence Mike Rogers-Michigan 60 As you can see, Paul Ryan and Darrell Issa are the only chairmen of important committees who are at least somewhat independent of leadership – at least on minor issues (they voted for the debt ceiling and omnibus). For comparison, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy scored a 61%. Most of the chairmen voted at or below that standard. In general, most of the conservative insurgents are relatively new and have not accrued enough seniority to win chairmanships. This is why it is so important for the Republican Conference to abide by the current term limit rule. Under current rules, no member can serve for more than 6 years as chairman of a committee. The kicker is that the years as ranking member count towards those 6 years. As Roll Call reported last week, there are 5 chairmen who are term-limited at the end of the year; Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, T&I Chairman John Mica, Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus, and Science, Space and Technology Chairman Ralph Hall. Also, David Dreier, the Chairman of the powerful Rules Committee is retiring this year. Of those members, only Mica plans to ask for a waiver, while there is talk of granting Ryan an extension as Budget Chair. Thus far, Republicans have been good about adhering to the term limit rule and denying waivers. They should continue to do so. No chairmen should be too big to fail. Moreover, by extending the terms of the current chairmen, it will preclude conservative insurgents from moving up on the ladder. I would welcome a Budget Chairman Scott Garrett in 2013. Now is not the time to go wobbly on term limit waivers. Cross-posted from The Madison Project
Go here to see the original:
Keep Term Limits on Committee Chairmen
The Federal Reserve is not my issue. Audit it if you want, I’m with you. But it’s not something that drives me crazy or makes me passionate. But there is one issue that really gets me and the Fed has been at the center of it lately — crony capitalism. Barack Obama has nominated Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for six years each. Senator David Vitter (R-LA — HAFA Score 85%) placed a hold on both men. They are creatures of Wall Street and, in the biggest red flag of the day, both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been pressuring Senator Vitter to drop his hold. The issue here is bailouts. Mark Calabria notes the Federal Reserve has bailout powers, but it needs the support of five Federal Reserve governors. Stein and Powell are both in favor of the Federal Reserve continuing to bailout banks and other entities with little oversight. Harry Reid can bring these men to the floor any time he wants. The word in the Senate is that he is about to. Conservatives in the Senate and outside the Congress are deeply worried that Mitch McConnell will cut a deal with Reid to undercut David Vitter’s hold. We potentially could delay the appointments until after the November election if Mitch McConnell will side with David Vitter and Senate conservatives by objecting to Harry Reid’s cloture motion. Please call Senator McConnell’s office today and encourage him to stand with David Vitter and object to cloture on Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell. His office number is (202) 224-2541. Then call your own Senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to oppose Stein and Powell.
Read the rest here:
Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve?
RedState Morning Briefing May 16, 2012 Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge. 1. Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve? 2. Narcissist in Chief Adds Himself to Every Presidential Biography (Except Ford) 3. The FY 13 NDAA Keeps Terrorists Off U.S. Soil without Compromising Civil Liberties 4. The DNC seems to be sitting out the Wisconsin recall. 5. House Republicans Still Hate Spending Cuts 6. Washington Post Promoting Misleading Filibuster Arguments ———————————————————————- 1. Will Mitch McConnell Stand With Conservatives Against Obama & the Federal Reserve? The Federal Reserve is not my issue. Audit it if you want, I’m with you. But it’s not something that drives me crazy or makes me passionate. But there is one issue that really gets me and the Fed has been at the center of it lately — crony capitalism. Barack Obama has nominated Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for six years each. Senator David Vitter (R-LA — HAFA Score 85%) placed a hold on both men. They are creatures of Wall Street and, in the biggest red flag of the day, both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been pressuring Senator Vitter to drop his hold. The issue here is bailouts. Mark Calabria notes the Federal Reserve has bailout powers, but it needs the support of five Federal Reserve governors. Stein and Powell are both in favor of the Federal Reserve continuing to bailout banks and other entities with little oversight. Harry Reid can bring these men to the floor any time he wants. The word in the Senate is that he is about to. Please click here for the rest of the post. 2. Narcissist in Chief Adds Himself to Every Presidential Biography (Except Ford) Many have called President Obama’s election historic, and rightly so. His presidency however, is another matter entirely. It’s historic in a lot of senses be it his record breaking debt accumulation & spending or his being the first president to have a rainbow halo placed on his head. But compared to the historic achievements of other presidents that did things like ending slavery or saving the planet, he falls woefully short. Unless you ask him. Please click here for the rest of the post. 3. The FY 13 NDAA Keeps Terrorists Off U.S. Soil without Compromising Civil Liberties This week, the House will fulfill our most important constitutional duty by debating the FY 13 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In accordance with the framer’s intent, this act is the primary check that Congress can apply to the Executive Branch on defense and national security policy. Last year, constitutional conservatives raised the alarm bell about some provisions in the FY 12 NDAA; provisions that many were concerned would grant President Obama far reaching powers to detain American citizens without trial. The bill ultimately passed, but has become the subject of countless town hall meetings, tweets, and Facebook posts in the months since. The debate has become so heated that many believe that the NDAA is a bill that deals strictly with detaining terrorists. It is much more than that. Aside from dictating how the military can handle any al Qaeda terrorists they capture, the FY13 NDAA deals with the full scope of national security issues. There is much in it, from a rejection of the Obama administration’s effort to raise health care fees on military retirees; to making sure the President doesn’t trade our missile defenses away to the Russians, that Conservatives can be proud of. Please click here for the rest of the post. 4. The DNC seems to be sitting out the Wisconsin recall. You know, when I saw this secondhand whine from Wisconsin Democrats upset that the DNC apparently wasn’t prepared to throw half a million dollars at the general recall election, I assumed that this would be resolved. I mean, really: the Left has already thrown away tens of millions of dollars; what’s a bit more? Admittedly, not throwing utterly horrible money after bad (we’ve passed the ‘throwing good money after bad’ stage already) would be the right answer, in a strictly utilitarian sense; but the state party is in a bad way right now. They sort of need an indication that the President cares for more than his own election, right? Please click here for the rest of the post. 5. House Republicans Still Hate Spending Cuts Last week, the House passed H.R. 5326, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, by a vote of 247-163, providing $51.131 billion in discretionary appropriations for fiscal year 2013. That’s $1.61 billion or 3% below the amount of funding provided for these programs in fiscal year 2012–and $731 million or 1.4% below the amount requested by the president for fiscal year 2013. Not terrible, but clearly there was room to cut more spending, right? Surely House Republicans realized that Americans want them to cut more spending than 3%–and be more than 1.4% below where President Obama is, right? Please click here for the rest of the post. 6. Washington Post Promoting Misleading Filibuster Arguments Ezra Klein at the Washington Post put out a piece promoting Common Cause’s lawsuit to have the Senate filibuster declared unconstitutional. Klein repeats myth after myth about the filibuster. This piece should commence an interesting national debate finally putting the argument to bed that the filibuster is somehow unconstitutional. Abolition of the filibuster will lead to a Senate with less time for debate and limited transparency for the American people. It is interesting to note that these short sighted leftists may be laying the table for an easy repeal of ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank and extending the Bush tax cuts. Clearly, Republicans control of the Senate is within reach (see RCP analysis of Senate polls). There is also a 50-50 chance that Republicans win the presidency. Liberals are trying to get rid of the one tool they would have to stop Republicans from dismantling the Obama legacy of higher taxes and more regulation. I have to imagine that some Republicans will want to take liberals up on the offer of ridding the Senate of the filibuster in January of 2013. Please click here for the rest of the post.
Read the original here:
Morning Briefing for May 16, 2012
Sarah Palin’s endorsement has fueled Deb Fischer’s Senate candidacy. But will Don Stenberg cut into the conservative vote enough to give RINO Jon Bruning the GOP nomination? The other primary today is in Oregon and Oregon doesn’t matter. Teresa Scanlan, 2011 Miss Nebraska, went on to become Miss America. While we wait for Nebraska votes
Read more here:
Can Sarah “Carry Fischer” Over the Finish Line?
Yesterday I got a chance to watch Marco Rubio, Florida’s Republican senator, praise small business at a reception held by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). Those looking for Rubio to tip his hand about his vice presidential prospects came away disappointed. At one point, Rubio said he hoped to help small business in the years he had left in the Senate. A member of the audience asked whether he was in fact measuring his time remaining in the Senate in years rather than months. Rubio replied, “Look, I love serving in the United States Senate. I know that sounds strange, but that’s the place I think I can make a difference.” He chided the Senate’s lack of urgency, calling it “frustrating.” NFIB joined the multi-state lawsuit against President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A Supreme Court ruling is expected next month. Photo by: Katherine Ruddy
Originally posted here:
Marco Rubio Happy in the Senate
