Although the following article was written to Tarrant County voters, I believe you will find it to be interesting and helpful.
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6/28/09
To: All Tarrant County Active Voters
From: Don Shipe – Legislative Alert Chairman
Some of you may have received a Dick Armey mailing from Kay Bailey Huchison back in February, as I did, taken from Kay’s website! It indicated that she was touted as a conservative with a 90% GOP voting record. I about swallowed my grits when I read it ! I have been a Reagan loving precinct charman for 46 years and used to give numerous speeches on ways to evaluate congressmen by studying their conservative index.
I cannot connect the dots from Dick Armey’s reference of a 90% GOP voting record to Sen Hutchison’s actual conservative ratings! In the first place he did not use any of the four most accurate conservative rating organizations:
National Taxpayers Union www.ntu.org (much more conservative than ACU)
Citizens Against Gov’t Waste www.cagw.org
Club For Growth – Regular www.clubforgrowth.org
Club For Growth – Anti Pork Ratings www.clubforgrowth.org link to “Repork Card Rank
The last rating of Club For Growth was started in 2006 by Jeff Flake (AZ) to force all congressmen to record an up or down vote on all major pork barrel bills after the explosion of this practice by many Republicans in 2002 & 2004 (many for the first time) I submit this latter cost us the House, Senate and Presidency in 2008. For that reason, I submit that a conservative can no longer be considered a “conservative” if he (or she) has a lousy
Anti –Pork Rating by Club For Growth!
Let us consider the relative conservative comparison for Hutchison vs Cornyn from these four rating organizations above:
Organization Hutchison Conservative Rating Cornyn Conservative Rating
National Taxpayers Union – NTU 63% 79%
Citizens Against Gov’t Waste 63% 83%
Club For Growth Reg (keeps RINOS out of Wash) 63% 88%
Club For Growth – 2007 “Re-Pork Card” 53% 80%
Folk it’s just like in school – If you don’t get at least 70 – you don’t get a passing grade!!!
My Conclusions from above:
1- I have discontinued calling anyone a conservative if they don’t have a passing “Re-Pork Card”
2- Sen Hutchison does not pass the True Conservative test that Texans are accustomed to
3- Kay’s 60.5% average vs John’s 82.5% is too much of a disparity for Texans to be happy
4- All votes have consequences. Our freedoms allow a congressman to vote as they see fit, but
with consequences! Our freedoms allow “us grassroots folks” to praise or expose those votes.
5- While serving as Vice Chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party during the Reagan era and initiating
the legislative alert program in the 80’s, I observed there are two types of congressmen – Politicians or
Statesmen. The difference being, a Politician goes bananas when you expose their voting record because it
is inconsistent with their rhetoric, while a Statesman is proud of his voting record because it is always
consistent with his rhetoric!
Folks Reagan would be appalled and certainly not proud of the Republicans who have recently voted themselves pork at the expense of their integrity!!! It has cost us dearly and we must put an end to it!
I don’t like the way Club for Growth does their ratings.
Earmarks are always referred to as pork-barrel projects which is a misrepresentation of what they really are. Earmarks DO NOT create any new government spending. The total level of spending is already determined by Congressional leadership. The purpose of earmarks is so that Congress can direct where some of the budget is going and try to get some money back to their constituents in their home district. Whatever funds are not directed through earmarks fall back to bureaucrats in the Executive Branch.
If your Congressperson isn’t securing funding for projects in your district, the money is still spent, just somewhere else. The problem is not earmarks, but the overall budget. I expect my Reps to vote against any appropriation bills that are unconstitutional, but since it will (most likely) pass anyway, he/she better make sure as much as possible is coming back to us. When the money is left to be spent by the Executive Branch, there is really no transparency (it just goes to a black hole of inefficiency and corruption). Look at TARP…the idiotic, traitorous Congress passed it and there is no REAL transparency on specifically where the money went.
The controlled media pundits and the organizations like the Club for Growth etc would rather keep us busy complaining and fretting over earmarks, which account for something like 1 or 2% of the total Fed budget, while ignoring the real and BIG problems. To use an oft quoted analogy, we are being encouraged and directed to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
So Kerri, do you agree or disagree with Don Shipe’s conclusion that “Sen Hutchison does not pass the True Conservative test that Texans are accustomed to”?
Oh there is no doubt, Kay Bailout DOES NOT pass the test. I was just pointing out that earmarks are a poor determinate.
Earmarks are selfish, ego trips for representatives. They are normally added to bills in the dark of night and NOT known by the majority of officials voting on the bill. Yes, we should track earmarks and the BUDGET too. IT’S OUR MONEY!!! There is nothing admirable about spending it frivolously!!