Tea Party Congress isn't extreme enough for Club for Growth (Allen West, David McKinley, Lou Barletta)

The Club for Growth has released their "Freshman Vote Study" of how the new GOP congressmembers have been living up to Tea Parties ideals (clubforgrowth . org/freshmanvotestudy).

As it turns out, dragging the U.S. where most people really don't want to go is very difficult: 36 out of 87 Republicans who were elected in 2010's landslide sided with the Club 2/3 of the time or less.

The biggest transgressor was David McKinley of West Virginia: he only sided with the Club's position 37% of the time. He failed to "Cut energy subsidies", "Strike funding for NLRB", "Cut Amtrak grants", "Cut most continuing appropriations spending 5.5%", "Roll back most spending in the bill to 2006 levels", "Limit Davis Bacon", support free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, and several more.

Even borderline-crazy extremist Allen West of Florida wasn't extreme enough for the Club: he only sided with them 64% of the time.

Meanwhile, good-on-immigration Lou Barletta of Hazleton, Pennsylvania fame only sided with the Club 47% of the time. One of his sins was failing to "[c]ut Botanic Garden funding by $3 million".

The Club for Growth can generally be considered to be on the side of the high immigration Right; compared to the costs of illegal immigration, $3 million is pocket change.

Thu, 05/17/2012 - 15:06 · Importance: 4