About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Focus Of Disappointment

Many of our messages leading up to the November 2 election expressed hope that the new senators elected with Tea Party support would caucus with Jim DeMint (SC) & Tom Coburn (OK) to form a solid body of fiscally responsible senators.  I was greatly encouraged when I learned that Rand Paul (KY) had formed a Tea Party Caucus on January 24.  The good news & enthusiasm ends here.
 
Tom Coburn himself has not joined this caucus.  In fact only Senator Mike Lee (UT) has joined Senators Paul & DeMint.  Notable senators who ran with Tea Party support who have not joined this caucus are Marco Rubio (FL) & Ron Johnson (WI).  Business as usual in the Senate with the establishment old-guard Republicans is in place except for DeMint-Paul-Lee.
 
But the more immediate focus of disappointment occurred Friday in the House when 92 Republicans joined every Democrat who voted to defeat an amendment that would cut an additional $22 billion from the 2011 FY spending plan.  This cut would have let Republicans keep their 2010 campaign promises.  Taking the promised total $100 billion out of a $3.8 trillion spending plan does not seem like a hard task if they really wanted to do it.  I don't remember any campaigner saying they would take $100 billion out on a prorated basis for the 7 months left in the current fiscal year with greater cuts to follow in future years.
 
Check the list below for how your representative voted.  To save my neighbors in NJ some time Rodney Frelinghuysen, Leonard Lance, Jon Runyan, & Frank LoBiondo all voted the wrong way. 
 
FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 103
(Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)

      H R 1      RECORDED VOTE      18-Feb-2011      2:46 PM
      AUTHOR(S):  Blackburn of Tennessee Amendment No. 104
      QUESTION:  On Agreeing to the Amendment

Ayes Noes PRES NV
Republican 147 92   1
Democratic   189   4
Independent        
TOTALS 147 281   5


---- NOES    281 ---

Ackerman
Adams
Aderholt
Alexander
Altmire
Andrews
Baca
Baldwin
Barletta
Barrow
Bass (CA)
Bass (NH)
Becerra
Berg
Berkley
Berman
Biggert
Bilbray
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bonner
Boren
Boswell
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Butterfield
Calvert
Camp
Cantor
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Carter
Cassidy
Castor (FL)
Chandler
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke (MI)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Cole
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cravaack
Crawford
Crenshaw
Critz
Crowley
Cuellar
Culberson
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeGette
DeLauro
Denham
Dent
Deutch
Diaz-Balart
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Dreier
Duffy
Edwards
Ellison
Emerson
Engel
Eshoo
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Fortenberry
Frank (MA)
Frelinghuysen
Fudge
Garamendi
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gonzalez
Granger
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Grimm
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hanna
Harman
Harper
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Heck
Heinrich
Herrera Beutler
Higgins
Himes
Hinchey
Hirono
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones
Kaptur
Keating
Kildee
Kind
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kissell
Kline
Kucinich
Lance
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lucas
Luján
Lungren, Daniel E.
Lynch
Maloney
Markey
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McNerney
Meehan
Meeks
Michaud
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Murphy (CT)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Noem
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Olver
Palazzo
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Paulsen
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Petri
Pingree (ME)
Polis
Posey
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Reichert
Reyes
Richardson
Richmond
Rivera
Roby
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross (AR)
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Runyan
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schilling
Schock
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Sewell
Sherman
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (NJ)
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stark
Stivers
Sullivan
Sutton
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Thompson (PA)
Tierney
Tipton
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Upton
Van Hollen
Velázquez
Visclosky
Walden
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch
West
Westmoreland
Wilson (FL)
Wolf
Womack
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth
Young (AK)
Young (FL)

---- NOT VOTING    5 ---

Giffords
Hinojosa
McCollum
Owens
Quayle


1 comment:

  1. I am really disappointed in Schilling and Schock of IL...we were expecting great things from them!

    ReplyDelete