Yesterday, Heritage Action for America (my employer), Club for Growth, and Family Research Council released a joint statement announcing their opposition to the three-week continuing resolution on floor of the House of Representatives next week, and their decision to “key vote” the extension on their respective scorecards. In doing so, they joined Mark Levin, Erick Erickson, and others, who are calling for conservatives to step up and lead by blocking this legislation.
Freshman Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas just answered that call. In a bold statement late last night, Huelskamp announced his opposition to the short-term resolution:
We were elected to make bold changes to federal spending and to reverse our unsustainable deficits…By allowing President Obama and Senator Reid to stall a budget they should have completed 6 months ago, we are being distracted from even bigger tasks: tackling the $1.1 trillion deficit in the President’s reckless 2012 budget and negotiating real budget reform, such as a balanced budget amendment, within a debt ceiling debate.
Additionally, this CR omits many of the priorities the American people demanded we pass in H.R. 1: stopping job-killing EPA regulations, defunding Obamacare, and denying taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and abortion. By allowing continued funding of these liberal priorities, we are ignoring the mandate of the American people.
Quite frankly, this is a stunning display of leadership by any member, let alone a freshman. Declaring your opposition publicly this quickly both plants a flag and ensures that you have less of a chance of being picked off in the days ahead. It reminds me of when Pat Toomey got out early to rally his colleagues against the Medicare prescription drug bill, and when Mike Pence sent out an early release to do the same against TARP.
This is how you lead in the House of Representatives, and Huelskamp deserves a ton of credit for showing how it’s done in his first few months. Let’s see who joins him.
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