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Rep. Tim Huelskamp Stands Tall in Budget Showdown

By: Russ Vought (Diary)  |  March 12th, 2011 at 12:51 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

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.

Crossposted at Heritage Action for America

COMMENTS

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  • fedsocdan

    by choosing not to fund ObamaCare but you’ve also encouraged someone who lives a thousand miles away from your district to send you a donation, as well as tell a few friends about your bold leadership. Thank you, sir.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    And I also urge everyone to read jstjoan’s latest Diary on this subject and watch the video she created that shows what some House Republicans said during the campaign and are now doing, and how the two don’t really seem to match up.

    Do we have the numbers and the will to primary these people? Apparently they don’t think so.

    So the question always comes down to: What are “we the people” going to DO about them?

    Thank you.

    ColdWarrior

    • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

      Must . . . drink . . . more . . . coffee . . . .

      CW

      • Raven

        Carrot first. Then stick.

  • jmimac351

    I think we all knew Boehner and Cantor were more talk than action. It’s going to take new blood in Congress to bring about the big changes.

    Now the other Freshman will have something to answer to.

    Yes or No? Who sent you to Washington? Where do you stand?

  • johnt

    as nobody left has principle, and as that’s the verbal coin of the realm, which leftists mutter as they fall asleep on their bed of nails at night, what else could it be? Plus it avoids thinking.
    Cynicism aside, Good work Congressman, don’t fold.

  • dsmurf

    abolition of debt that is, what an extreme right Congresscritter, anything less is a compromise and handholding with their DC buddies who don’t mind the CPUSA and their view that deficits don’t matter, I kid you not.

    May he and a majority lead the way now! Or is he going to a lonely Wilberforce before the Brits got serious about abolishing their own slaves?

  • junkbondtrader41

    This is so foolhardy. Why are so many of the firebreathers out there so eager to turn this into 1995 again? To make ourselves a caricature, saying how eager we are to shut down the government, instead of just taking Dick Morris’ advice and making them suffer death by a thousand cuts with CRs?

    Heritage, FRC, Club for Growth, tell me: What’s more important to you, accomplishing the damn policy goal, or fundraising and making yourselves feel purer than thou with antics like this?

    • liandro

      We’re getting guaranteed cuts at a faster rate then our own budget offering…and we’re winning the also-important PR battle. With every CR we’re forcing them to acknowledge that heavy cuts are needed.

    • Russ Vought

      Most of us have no desire to shut down the government. But if we conservatives are not prepared to do it, to communicate through it, and stand our ground, then we communicate weakness to the other side. That weakness will be seized upon by Democrats, and at some point soon, they will say no more, and Republicans will cave without the full $61 billion and the POLICY riders that you implicitely ignore in your love for short-term CRs. And doing so will impact not only the CR, but the major issues thereafter, such as the next budget cycle already upon us and the debt limit.

    • floatingrock

      Cutting 2 billion a week for the next 13 years still won’t pay off the deficit for this year alone.

  • http://Blackberrybear.etsy.com knitwit

    “Good Ole Boys’ Club” that Boehner et al assembled, that I could just spit! Not a single stellar freshman on the leadership team, and ongoing indications that the leadership intended to just wear them down until they just try to go along with Boehner and Cantor, etc. I recall a post by VB that held if the freshman just said no, and no more, to the leadership, and that was all they could accomplish during this two year term, at least they would hold the line for the next incoming class of freshman, and be able to join with them to crest a higher wave on the next round in 2012. However, we are seeing too much of the capitulation, and not enough of the obstruction, so I anticipate a rousing primary season again in 2012!
    That’s why I am working to become a PC, and recruit as many more conservatives as possible before 2012.

    • cari

      n/t

  • Raven

    Huelskamp! Huelskamp! Rah! Rah! Rah!

    • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
      • Raven

        Who knew that.

  • Kyle-MI

    what is the end game strategy? Are we going for a government shutdown? In which case, do we have the PR resources in place to counter Obama, the Dems, and the MSM? Or are we just wishfully thinking that this time it will be different? It might well be different this time. The economic situation is certainly different. How certain are we though that the public will respond different? Is there hard evidence or is it wishful thinking on our part? Which Dem Senators can we pull and how after they have already unanimously voted against H.R. 1 in the Senate? How do we get around Obama’s certain veto?

    • dsmurf

      levels. Lets see if I can sum it up: its saying no more funding for Planned Parenthood, period. Its no more funding for Democratic shills at NPR period. Its no more funding for Obamacare or collecting the caucasian tax-er tanning salon tax for said healthcare bill.
      Its cutting a trillion dollar deficit that isn’t sustainable, unless the stock market takes another dump and everyone buys treasuries again. The endgame isn’t worrying about the rerun of 1995 again. It is saying no to a deficit spending strategy that the Communist Party USA approves of. It should also be no more bailouts of Fannie and Freddie and the kickbacks to the Democrat lawmakers who keep that racket in business with their GSE status.

      The endgame should be a President and Senate who will beg the Congress for more spending and being told no, the deficits will end now, period, because the country can not handle another Carter era tax rate into the forseeable future. The endgame is the constitutionally ordained checks and balances, and it is time for a check on spending, period.
      Or what good was the Tea Party and their newly elected reps for anyway?
      Who needs the MSM or the Democrats anyway? They are not our friends, they are blood sucking leeches for the darkest sides of Union power, and reconquista illegals that the country could ever have. Wisconsin can tell you that from their unions just posted here, and Harry Reid is the finest example of being reelected thanks to who knows what kind of shenanigans in Nevada, because it sure wasn’t the taxpayers of Nevada that helped him keep his seat.

      • Kyle-MI

        Let me remind you that the Dems are in control of the Presidency and the Senate. Even if we win the 2012 election, that will not change until Jan. 2013. Even then, we would need a filibuster proof majority. That is nearly two years away. So, are we going to shut down the government until then? Do you seriously think Obama and the Senate Dems are going to fold after a short shutdown?

        • dsmurf

          the answer is “Hell no to the trillion dollar deficit spending,” whatever that means. . . they may be filibuster proof but they better not turn the Tea Party elected congresscritters, no legislation needed. no to planned parenthood, no to obamacare, no to NPR pretty simple isn’t it?

          That would be a check on spending, period.

    • Joe Cor

      in my opinion. Reagan had a hostile media as well, though perhaps not as hostile as the vicious political hacks that populate it today. Still, he did not rely on them to get his message out. Also, he was quite a bit more fesity with the media than the pussycats Republicans morph into when the media interviews them today.

      How about having some talking points ready for all interviews with the media? Be ready to place the blame squarely on the Democrats for never passing a budget last year in the first place. Mention the planned parenthood videos, the scandal involved with still funding such an institution. Mention the need to kill Obamacare now before it becomes a budetary monster that runs out of control. Mention how modest these cuts are. And keep on making these points, over and over, in every interview. Even bring these talking points up if Matt Lower is asking them why they like drowning puppies so much. And if Matt gets mad at them for going back to their talking points rather than addressing their love of puppy drowning, do it anyway. And for good measure challenge Matt on his own partisanship and ask him how he can possibly characterize himself as an objective reporter.

      One of the reasons the Republicans lost the 1995 budget shutdowwn was because they didn’t defend their position. They froze up in interviews because reporters were being mean to them. If they just felt in their hearts they were right, and acted like they were right, and were confident enough to lay the facts out like they thought they were right, they would be in a far stronger position. Tony Snow once wrote about Republicans that “in their hearts, they think they’re wrong.” I think that is why they lose these PR battles so badly.

    • Russ Vought

      Conservatives need to be prepared for a shutdown, but not root for it. Byron York has written persuasively on why the GOP shouldn’t fear a shutdown, and the differences between then and now: http://bit.ly/hqPNHB