A Tribute to 38 New Members of the House and Senate

On The Rush Limbaugh Show of July 29th, a tribute was given by Rush to the Tea Party freshmen in the House who put country over party.

There are 25 or 30 courageous Republican freshmen who held out for this. This is the media, befuddled over these Tea Party freshmen. Last night it’s on Anderson Cooper 19 on CNN he spoke to senior political analyst Gloria Borger about the House not voting on Boehner’s debt bill version 2.0. Anderson Cooper said, “What happened? It looked like things were moving in the right direction for Speaker Boehner earlier today. They had the test vote. It went big. What happened?”

BORGER: He ran up against freshmen who don’t owe him anything, Anderson. They were elected outside of the establishment, and honestly a lot of them don’t care if they get reelected.

COOPER: (coughing)

BORGER: They believe they were sent to Congress to make government smaller and, duhh, to cut the deficit, and this is what they intend to do — and they believe that the Boehner bill is not strong enough because they understand that, at some point, there’s going to have to be a compromise. So they want the House to have the strongest possible bargaining position that it can have.

RUSH: So Borger, after she says the House freshmen believe they were sent to Washington to make government smaller and that’s what they intend to do, Cooper and Borger have this exchange. John King is part of this, too.

COOPER: Gloria, it seems when you talk to some they don’t care necessarily about being reelected.

BORGER: (incredulous) No! They don’t! These are —

COOPER: Which is actually kind of refreshing, I gotta say.

BORGER: Well, it is, but — BUT!

COOPER: (chuckling) It is a big “but.”

BORGER: But compromise is the way things get done in Washington, and it shouldn’t be a dirty word, I don’t think. Maybe. But I understand that they’re standing on principle. But they’re also standing on the precipice of something, and that is the country going into default.

RUSH: No, Gloria, the country is not going to go into default. One more audio sound bite before we go to the break with F. Chuck Todd, MSNBC this morning. This is his opinion here of the House freshmen and their steadfast.

F. CHUCK TODD: (haltingly) Boehner … Cantor … and McCarthy were … linked … in this. This isn’t necessarily about John Boehner not being able to corral these folks. The question is could any Republican speaker have corralled these votes at this time. Here’s the issue they had: They can’t buy them off. They don’t want earmarks, they don’t care about their committee assignments — and many of these newcomers didn’t get there raising a lot of money anyway so being promised fundraising all that doesn’t work. It may be refreshing on one hand, but it makes it that much harder to try to arm-twist and get this vote count to happen.

RUSH: Lo and behold! Isn’t that exactly what we wanted to end up in Washington? Can’t buy them off! The media is ticked off. F. Chuck can’t believe the establishment can’t buy the votes of these Tea Party freshmen. That’s why we need to keep winning elections.

I whole-heartedly ditto Rush’s tribute to the Tea Party House freshmen, and I also pay tribute to the 8 Tea Party Senate Freshman and newly appointed Dean Heller of Nevada for caring more about working toward a solution for the country instead of a deal for the Washington establishment. These newest members of the House and Senate have the least amount of money and influence with their colleagues. This is supposed to make them the easiest targets to be whipped into line by the leadership. This is why I single them out for having the courage and strength to walk away from a deal that is not a solution. They are not going to be feeling a lot of love coming their way from the Washington establishment. For that reason I encourage you to contact their offices and express your thanks and gratitude to them for their commitment and service. If you are active in your local Republican party, and you are looking for candidates who represent your values in your congressional district or state, then these courageous members are excellent role models.

There are also going to be some new Republican members of the House and Senate who won’t receive a lot of love from local Tea Party organizations because they voted yes on the debt ceiling limit vote. I am not a member of any of these groups, but I suggest they do not go all scorched earth on these newly elected members over this vote. Hold their feet to the fire on the votes coming up in a few weeks on spending bills, but do not be so quick to brand these folks as traitors. I agree with Bruce Bartlett. . .

Before 1974, it was plausible to argue that there was some virtue in having a debt limit because it forced Congress to acknowledge the consequences of deficit spending from time to time. But that year, it enacted the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which requires Congress to enact a budget resolution annually that specifies an appropriate level for the deficit and the debt.

Consequently, a separate vote on the debt limit is at best superfluous.

The 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act makes using the baseline budgeting that amounts to automatically having 7.5% increases in federal spending the law. Until there are enough conservatives elected to repeal this there is not much hope in keeping the debt ceiling fixed. The debt ceiling limit is a superfluous useless tool. The problem with doing away with the tool is that no politician from either party can deny the validity of the debt limit without being accused of supporting unlimited debt.

Here is the list of these newest 38 members of the House and Senate who voted No to the deal. They represent 25 states.

Alabama
Martha Roby AL-2
Mo Brooks AL-5

Arizona
Ben Quayle AZ-3
David Schweikert AZ-5

Colorado
Scott Tipton CO-3

Florida
Senator Mark Rubio
Steve Southerland FL-2
Dennis Ross FL-12

Georgia
Austin Scott GA-8

Idaho
Raul Labrador ID-1

Illinois
Joe Walsh IL-8
Randy Hultgren IL-14

Indiana
Senator Dan Coats
Marlin Stutzman IN-3
Todd Rokita IN-4

Kansas
Senator Jerry Moran
Tim Huelskamp KS-1
Kevin Yoder KS-3

Kentucky
Senator Rand Paul

Louisiana
Jeff Landry LA-3