So how committed have the freshmen members of the U.S. House been to the Tea Party goal of rolling back government? The Club for Growth, one of my favorite political organizations, is a group for people “who believe that prosperity and opportunity come through economic freedom.”
The club, like many groups, “scores” a select number of congressional votes as a way to identify which politicians support their goals, and to what extent. When it looked at the scoring for the 87 Republican freshman in the U.S. House of Representatives, it concluded“In many cases, the rhetoric of the so-called ‘Tea Party’ freshmen simply didn’t match their records.”
Leading the pack for the four freshman from Michigan was Justin Amash of Grand Rapids, who got a 100 percent rating. He was followed by Bill Huizenga of Zeeland (92 percent), Timothy Walberg of Jackson (86 percent), and finally, Dan Benishek, the Yoopers’ representative in the House. He scored 72 percent.
By way of comparison, the average (specifically: mean) score for all 87 first-year representatives was 82 percent. The median, though, was only 70 percent.
Over at the Cato Institute, Tad DeHaven comments on the scorecard. He says that some “tea party” politicians have drunk the political kool-aid. “Particularly disconcerting,” he said, “is the fact that so many GOP newcomers cast votes against spending cuts.”
DeHaven singles out three examples of bad policy that might alternately go by the name of crony capitalism, bailouts, or corporate welfare.
“Alas,” he says, “only 26 of the 87 members of the ‘Tea Party class’ voted to defund both the Economic Development Administration and the president’s new Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia program … and against reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank ….”
Amash, Huizenga, and Walberg were part of the 26; Benishek voted in favor of the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia.
Bonus observation: While I’m glad that someone who represents an area I used to live in scored so well, I’m disappointed that Huizenga will face no Democratic Party opposition in the fall election. No politician should run unopposed.