Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute in his article, “Hitting the Ceiling,” National Review Online, March 7, 2012 noted:
After all, despite all the sturm und drang about spending cuts as part of last year’s debt-ceiling deal, federal spending not only increased from 2011 to 2012, it rose faster than inflation and population growth combined.
We need some national statesmen (and ladies) who are willing to stop running up the nation’s credit card.
Ted DeHaven noted his his article, “Freshman Republicans switch from Tea to Kool-Aid,” Cato Institute Blog, May 17, 2012:
This week the Club for Growth released a study of votes cast in 2011 by the 87 Republicans elected to the House in November 2010. The Club found that “In many cases, the rhetoric of the so-called “Tea Party” freshmen simply didn’t match their records.” Particularly disconcerting is the fact that so many GOP newcomers cast votes against spending cuts.
The study comes on the heels of three telling votes taken last week in the House that should have been slam-dunks for members who possess the slightest regard for limited government and free markets. Alas, 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 (see my previous discussion of these votes here) and against reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank (see my colleague Sallie James’s excoriation of that vote here).
One of those Tea Party heroes was Congressman Austin Scott of Georgia. Last year I posted this below concerning his conservative views and his willingness to vote against the debt ceiling increase:
“First, thank you to the hundreds of constituents who have called, e-mailed and posted comments on my Facebook and Twitter pages. This was a difficult vote, but because of the comments and calls, I cast it with the confidence that it was the right vote for the eighth district of Georgia. My constituents know, as well as I do, that we should do all that we can to keep from defaulting on our obligations. However, a leader in the White House would have never allowed the discussion of a default to begin with and would have prioritized spending before this crisis came to a head.
“While this bill included some of the main principles of my preferred “Cut, Cap and Balance” bill it did not include enough of them. As families across Georgia have realized – you can only spend as much as you take in. “Cut, Cap and Balance” as well as the “Boehner Plan” required the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment before allowing the President to raise the debt limit a second time. Unfortunately, this requirement was left out of the compromise. Additionally, this bill includes cuts, insisted upon by the President, which would disproportionately fall in the area of defense, to the exclusion of other areas that are the true drivers of our national debt. The uncertainty surrounding these defense cuts could have a devastating impact on thousands of jobs in Middle Georgia – a risk I’m not willing to take at a time when our unemployment rate continues to hover near double digits.
“Middle Georgians sent me here to fight for the personal freedoms, individual liberties and economic opportunities for our generation and the next. I will never cease in that effort. Unfortunately, this bill falls short of those goals and that is why I voted against it.”
The Daily Hatch 