The Bipartisan Love Fest at the House Agriculture Committee

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 12th at 01:52 PM  | 

While we are struggling to repeal the government takeover of healthcare, a bipartisan bicameral group of politicians are further entrenching government control of Agriculture.  They are also agreeing to enshrine Obama’s food stamp spending into the welfare system indefinitely. We have witnessed a robust counteroffensive against the farm/food stamp bill among great writers and policy makers in the conservative movement.  Unfortunately, there aren’t too many | Read More »

The Next Epic Battle: Scott Keadle Vs Richard Hudson in NC-8

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 9th at 01:30 PM  | 

With the Wisconsin recall behind us and the Texas Senate race scheduled for the end of the month, we must remember that there is an important battle taking place in North Carolina next Tuesday. Conservative Scott Keadle – who has been endorsed by Red State, the Club for Growth, Citizens United, and the Madison Project – will be facing off against establishment-hack Richard Hudson in | Read More »

The Two Republican Parties: A Study in Contrasts

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 9th at 09:30 AM  | 

If you want to understand the fundamental difference between the pale-pastel and the bold-colored wings of the GOP, take a look at this Politico profile of Jim DeMint. With Kay Bailey Hutchison retiring at the end of the year, Jim DeMint is slated to become the new Chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in the 113th Congress.  It is so unique for a | Read More »

Republicans Help Grow HUD and Big Government

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 2nd at 02:00 PM  | 

The House just completed work on another FY 2013 spending bill; the Transportation-HUD Appropriations bill.  This is a unique appropriations bill because most of the underlying content is an anathema to conservatives.  A good part of transportation (highway spending) should be within the purview of state governments; mass transit spending should be eliminated; HUD should be abolished altogether.  As you can imagine, the open floor | Read More »

More Proof We Need More Conservatives in Congress

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 1st at 05:14 PM  | 

Every Republican swears up and down that he/she supports limited government, a balanced budget, and free markets.  Yet, once again, only a fraction of Republicans in Washington were able to stand for those ideals.  The House and Senate passed the Obama highway bill/student loan stimulus on Friday with overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. [Read more about the bill here and here.] Among other things, | Read More »

The Simple Lesson of John Sullivan’s Defeat in OK-1

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 27th at 12:30 PM  | 

In what was supposed to be a snoozer election night, a little known conservative candidate, Jim Bridenstine, came out of nowhere to unseat 10-year veteran John Sullivan in conservative Oklahoma District 1.  He did so by a 7-point margin, even though he was outspent 4-1 and nobody gave him any hope of succeeding. Even among many politicos who woke up to read about this astonishing sleeper | Read More »

Farm/Food Stamp Bill Vote Tally

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 21st at 03:33 PM  | 

Yesterday, Erick mentioned a revolutionary one-stop website designed to hold Republican House members accountable for their voting records.  The Madison Project unveiled ConservativeVotingRecords. Com, which houses a simple yet novel index that compares the voting records to the ideological bent of the member’s district.  The results are not pretty.  52 members who hail from solid Republican districts scored 20 points below where they should be | Read More »

Energy-Water Appropriations Bill Vote Roundup

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 8th at 08:01 AM  | 

This week, the House debated and passed the FY13 Energy-Water appropriations bill, which primarily funds the Energy Department and agencies within the Department of Interior.  While House leadership claims to support a balanced budget, they are not willing to eliminate the requisite number of programs needed to achieve that goal.  As conservatives, we believe that the entire Department of Energy – except for the nuclear | Read More »

An Earmark by Any Other Name

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 6th at 12:59 PM  | 

There’s an enduring rule in all aspects of life that is very applicable to conservatives in politics.  Whenever you achieve a rare, hard-fought victory, you do everything possible to ensure that the victory stays intact.  The House-adopted earmark ban is one of our biggest achievements over the past decade.  As such, we must not reinstate the practice of passing Miscellaneous Tariff Bills (MTBs), which are | Read More »

Legislative Alert: Abolish the Economic Development Administration

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  May 8th at 03:30 PM  | 

Today, the House began debate on the first of the 12 annual appropriations bills; the Commerce, Justice, and Science bill (H.R. 5326).  So far, Republican leaders have agreed to abide by their pledge to bring these bills to the floor under an open rule.  This allows conservative members to offer amendments to cut more spending and eliminate wasteful and unconstitutional programs.  It’s the votes on | Read More »

Eric Cantor Tries to Stop Stalwart Scott Keadle in NC-8

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 27th at 10:40 AM  | 

This has been a tough week for conservatives in Washington.  Republicans in both houses are caving on the postal bailout, highway bill, appropriations, Ex-Im Bank, Violence Against Women Act, and the student loan bailout.  It’s not going to get easier when they come back from recess in May.  This is why we need game-changers like Scott Keadle in Congress.  Keadle is running in NC-8, the | Read More »

Sign Letter for Open Appropriations Process in the House

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 26th at 10:45 AM  | 

Every elected Republican came to Washington promising to slash spending and balance the budget.  Yet, when it comes time for the most direct way to enact those spending cuts; namely, the annual appropriations bills, most of them are missing in action. In an ideal world, Republicans should hold the upper hand in negotiations over spending bills. They enjoy complete control over the House, while Harry | Read More »

Romney Must Coalesce Around Conservatives, Not Vice Versa

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 25th at 08:37 AM  | 

There is an interesting factoid that was overlooked from last night’s largely pro-forma presidential primaries.  According to University of Minnesota’s Eric Ostermeier, Romney was the first GOP frontrunner who failed to reach 60% in contests “conducted after his last major challenger dropped out of the race.”  Romney won just 56% of the vote in Delaware and 58% in Pennsylvania. Over the past few months, we’ve | Read More »

Earmarxists Make Best Case Against Earmarks

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 3rd at 10:45 AM  | 

The Republican-controlled House is currently operating under a moratorium on earmarking.  But if several GOP earmarxists have their say, this will change in the near future. Throughout the past decade, most of the arguments against earmarks have been focused on wasteful spending, corruption, cronyism, and self-ingratiating monuments.  Robert Byrd’s monuments and the Bridge to Nowhere became symbols for such bad behavior.  To that end, even | Read More »

Tom Cotton for Congress in Arkansas District 4

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  April 2nd at 10:47 AM  | 

Editor’s Note: Tom Cotton has already received the official Red State endorsement.  Here is mine on behalf of The Madison Project PAC. Our problem with elected Republicans in Washington is not just the lack of conservative idealism amongst their ranks.  There are many Republicans who intuitively understand what we must do to shrink the size of government.  The fundamental problem is that there is a | Read More »

David McIntosh for Congress in IN-5

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 30th at 10:45 AM  | 

Editor’s note: Here is the latest endorsement from The Madison Project It’s not too often that we have the opportunity to elect a conservative fighter who retired early from Congress and is seeking a second run.  But with Dan Burton’s retirement in Indiana’s 5th district, we have the prospect to elect a battle-tested fighter in former Congressman David McIntosh. David McIntosh was elected to Congress | Read More »

An Illustration of What is Wrong With House GOP Conference

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 29th at 03:30 PM  | 

The RSC budget was defeated earlier today, but the good news is that it garnered the support of 136 Republicans, 56% of the conference.  Or did it?  Take a look at this summation from The Hill of the roll call vote and ask yourselves what we are supposed to think about the leadership within the conference: Members rejected the RSC proposal in a 136-285 vote | Read More »

Ryan Budget: A Good Start, but will it Matter?

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 20th at 04:38 PM  | 

The much-anticipated Ryan budget for FY 2013, which also contains a blueprint for the next ten years, has been released.  The headline figures of the proposal include the following factoids: it will spend $5.3 trillion less than Obama’s plan and cut $2 trillion more in taxes over the next ten years; it will spend $4.15 less than CBO baseline; spending will be reduced from 24% | Read More »

Scott Keadle for Congress in NC-8

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 19th at 04:39 PM  | 

Editor’s note: Here is the latest bold endorsement on behalf of The Madison Project. There are few states that will provide conservatives with as many electoral opportunities as North Carolina will this year.  Due to successful Republican redistricting, vulnerable blue dog Democrats, and several retirements, we have an opportunity to elect up to 5 new Republicans. In past years, to the extent that we were | Read More »

Kimberley Strassel vs.a Republican Majority

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 16th at 12:30 AM  | 

In what’s become a biennial spectacle, supporters of unprincipled Republicans – who often vote with Democrats – are maligning conservatives as “purists” and accusing them of gambling away Republican control of the Senate.  Today, Kimberley Strassel published a column in the WSJ, “Conservatives vs. a Senate Majority,” insinuating that Freedom Works and The Club for Growth are helping elect Democrats to the Senate.  Specifically, she | Read More »