The record speaks louder than the rhetoric

Al Smith was an old New York pol who was the Democrats’ nominee for president in 1928 and a friend of Franklin Roosevelt who became one of the severest critics of Roosevelt’s New Deal.  His closer in any debate was “Let’s look at the record.” 

This might be a good piece of advice for those trying to cut through the rhetoric of the campaign for Speaker of the House now that John Boehner (R-Ohio) has announced his retirement.  A good place to start is the American Conservative Union’s annual rating of Congress as they are in their 44^th year of continuous publication. 

{mosads}As of this writing, the three candidates for Speaker are Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the current Majority Leader, Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Dan Webster (R-Fla.), who received 12 votes for Speaker when the vote was taken in January. 

Each year ACU publishes two numbers, the rating for that year and a lifetime rating that includes time served in both the House and Senate.  Perhaps more relevant to this discussion is how these House members have voted over the past four years, that is, what might be called the “Boehner years” rating.   

In 2010, Boehner was catapulted into the Speakership on a wave of reaction to the first two years of the Obama administration, greased by large majorities of Democrats in both houses of Congress.  Massive bills designed to give government control over healthcare, the financial system and the energy sector passed the House. The stimulus pushed the deficit to a record-breaking one trillion dollars and created a new budget “baseline” that made any less spending look like a “cut.” Now, instead of having the luxury of just voting “no,” the Republicans had the majority in the House to pass its own bills and set its own spending levels even though the Senate still had a majority of Democrats. 

When you compare the candidates’ rating for those four years, 2011-2014, here’s what you find: 

McCarthy and Webster had almost identical ratings:  78.75 out of 100 for Webster while McCarthy’s four year average is 78.5 out of 100.  Both, therefore, fail to meet the 80 percent threshold ACU uses to define a voting record as “conservative.”  Chaffetz’s four-year average is 88.25 out of 100, putting him squarely in the conservative camp.  However, a closer look at Chaffetz’s record shows changes on the same issues over the four years. 

So, you might well ask, what issues made the difference.  It’s worth noting that ACU does not focus on one type of issue; economic, social and national security issues are balanced to give a well-rounded view of each member’s voting record.     

You will not find any differences on key social issues and national security votes with one exception.  Each voted to defund Planned Parenthood, in favor of keeping the Defense of Marriage Act and to revive the District of Columbia school voucher program Obama tried to kill.  However, while Webster and McCarthy voted against the massive expansion of the Violence Against Women Act, which has turned into a massive pork program for activist organizations, Chaffetz voted “no.” Each opposed transferring terrorists out of Guantanamo to the United States or to countries like Yemen where it is easy to escape and go back to join the terrorists.  Each supported a robust missile defense system.   

The differences appear in how government should spend the taxpayer’s money and how aggressive we should be in striving for a balanced budget.  Some examples: 

The Budget: Webster and McCarthy consistently voted against the conservative budget put forth each year by the House Republican Study Committee. This budget sets an aggressive timetable of four to five years to reach a balanced budget and sharply cuts spending on both discretionary and mandatory programs such as Medicare and Social Security to keep them from going bankrupt.  Chaffetz voted for the conservative budget except in 2013, when the Democrats voted “present” to force the Republican leadership to come up with some extra votes to preserve their version of the budget.  (All three voted for the “Ryan-Murray” two-year budget deal that broke the budget caps and raised the airline ticket tax and all three voted for omnibus spending bills filled with increases to Obama’s pet domestic programs.) 

The Farm Bill:  Both Webster and McCarthy voted for the final version of the farm bill while Chaffetz said “no” to more billions in subsidies to wealthy farmers.  On the issue of food stamp reform, only Webster voted to keep giving food stamps to anyone who qualifies for any other government welfare program. 

Big Government Programs.  Since 1995, conservatives have advocated eliminating New Deal and Great Society programs that have long outlived their usefulness along with multi-billion dollar grant programs that primarily go to friends of local politicians.  A few examples:

Legal Services Corporation.  Webster and McCarthy changed their votes, in some years voting for funding, other years voting against. Chaffetz voted to eliminate the funding each time it came up.

Section 8 Housing.  Both McCarthy and Chaffetz voted to reduce this fraud-ridden program by 10 percent and apply the funds to deficit reduction.  Webster voted against the reduction. 

Appalachian Regional Commission:  While both Webster and Chaffetz voted to eliminate this New Deal era agency, McCarthy voted to keep it.

While everyone, including the media, like to stick a label on each politician, a glance at the record shows it’s not as easy as you might think.  Take a look.  It’s all at www.conservative.org.

Hart is a senior fellow with the American Conservative Union Foundation.