It’s not enough to merely elect conservatives to the House as rank-and-file members. As we’ve seen the past few weeks, it’s all about getting the right people into leadership and important committee assignments. Unfortunately, the roster of major committee chairmen is quite dismal, to say the least. Worse yet, it appears that the top 3 ‘Super A’ domestic policy committees will once again be filled with squishes.
In 2011, the 3 most important committees – Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Energy & Commerce – had the lowest ratings from conservative organizations.
Committee |
Heritage Action |
Club for Growth |
Freedom Works |
Madison Project |
Appropriations |
62.31 |
58 |
62 |
-23.95 |
Energy & Commerce |
65.4 |
67.93 |
70.43 |
-16.58 |
Ways & Means |
66.23 |
65.55 |
68.45 |
-15.45 |
T & I |
66.58 |
67.55 |
68.70 |
-13.59 |
Ed & Workforce |
67.57 |
68.17 |
68.83 |
-13.59 |
Armed Services |
69.31 |
69.49 |
71.29 |
-12.92 |
Agriculture |
70.54 |
71.31 |
72.12 |
-12.23 |
Financial Services |
69.45 |
70.06 |
72.88 |
-10.33 |
Natural Resources |
73.19 |
76.46 |
77.27 |
-9.65 |
Homeland Security |
70.17 |
70.28 |
71.28 |
-9.58 |
Science & Tech |
73.23 |
76.05 |
75.68 |
-9.23 |
Foreign Affairs |
71.38 |
73.75 |
73.63 |
-7.88 |
Veterans Affairs |
75.85 |
78.31 |
78.31 |
-5.5 |
Judiciary |
77.32 |
81.81 |
80.14 |
-4.7 |
Budget |
78.91 |
83.18 |
82.86 |
-3.3 |
Small Business |
72.53 |
73.93 |
73.67 |
-2.97 |
Oversight & Gov Reform |
78.39 |
81.96 |
79.96 |
-2 |
So are we going to improve headed into the 113th Congress? Not likely.
Here are the new members of Ways and Means:
Heritage Action |
Club for Growth |
Madison |
|
Tim Griffin (AR) |
67 |
67 |
-11 |
Mike Kelly (PA) |
55 |
54 |
-20.5 |
Tim Scott (SC) |
86 |
92 |
3.5 |
Todd Young (IN) |
75 |
77 |
-3.5 |
Here are the new members of Appropriations:
Heritage Action |
Club for Growth |
Madison |
|
Tom Rooney |
69 |
59 |
-14 |
Chuck Fleischmann |
79 |
86 |
-7.5 |
Jeff Fortenberry |
59 |
49 |
-33 |
Jamie Herrera Beutler |
63 |
53 |
-12.5 |
David Valadao (CA) |
Freshman |
Freshman |
Freshman |
David Joyce |
Freshman |
Freshman |
Freshman |
Here are the new members of E&C:
Heritage Action |
Club for Growth |
Madison |
|
Ralph Hall |
67 |
72 |
-20.5 |
Billy Long |
78 |
78 |
-12 |
Bill Johnson |
62 |
70 |
-7.5 |
Renee Ellmers |
66 |
59 |
-11 |
Gus Bilirakis |
67 |
58 |
-15 |
As you can see, it’s more of the same, especially given the fact that none of the solid freshmen were put on these committees. Appropriations is especially depressing given that Jeff Flake will no longer be on the committee.
Let’s face it: we will never cut spending without conservatives on Appropriations. We will never implement a pro-growth flat tax without conservatives on Ways and Means. We will never restore the free market and implement a proper replacement of Obamacare without conservatives on E&C.
This is a long-term strategy, but conservatives better begin playing this game. Otherwise, the establishment will continue to put our guys on C committees.
Cross-posted from The Madison Project
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