Guest Post from Leo Knepper, Pennsylvania State Director of Heritage Action for America. He can also be found on on facebook and twitter.
During the debate on the Continuing Resolution, an unprecedented number of amendments were offered to cut government spending. Heritage Action for America went through all of the amendments and selected the “unambiguous” non-security spending cuts. Amendments to defund President Obama’s initiatives, i.e. Obamacare, EPA’s backdoor cap-and-trade regime, etc. were excluded from our selection process. Instead we focused on the cuts that represented pure spending. We ended up with 21 amendments in our After Action Report. Our Congressional Representatives were willing to cut spending the following percentage of the time:
Pitts (R ) – 90%
Marino (R ) – 71%
Murphy, T. (R ) – 71%
Shuster (R ) – 65%
Kelly (R ) – 57%
Fitzpatrick (R ) – 52%
Platts (R ) – 52%
Barletta (R ) – 48%
Thompson, G. (R) – 48%
Holden (D ) – 43%
Altmire (D ) – 38%
Dent (R ) – 38%
Meehan (R ) – 38%
Gerlach (R ) – 29%
Schwartz (D ) – 10%
Brady, R. (D ) – 0%
Critz (D ) – 0%
Doyle (D ) – 0%
Fattah (D ) – 0%
Not a single member of our Delegation was willing to cut spending 100% of the time. This unwillingness to cut spending leads me to believe that, by and large, they lack the proper perspective on the magnitude of the problem our nation faces. The $61 billion in cuts included in the continuing resolution represents only 3.8% of this year’s deficit spending. The two questions our Representatives should be asking themselves, and quite frankly should have always asked themselves, on spending are:
- Is this program the proper function of the federal government?
- Is this program worth bankrupting our children?
Unfortunately the question most of our delegation seem to ask themselves when considering spending cuts is: will this hurt my chances of being re-elected? And for the “moderate” Republicans: will I get attacked by the left if I cut this?
The answer to the second question will always be yes.
It doesn’t matter how many “good” programs you vote to fund. The fact that you would cut spending at all – but more importantly for them have an (R) behind your name – will result in your constituents receiving robo-calls and hearing radio ads about how heartless you are because you voted to cut spending for program X.
Do not think that just because you voted for the final Continuing Resolution, that will negate any justifiable anger the voters will feel, should you give away the farm when negotiating with the Senate. According to the Daily Caller, not only will social security checks continue to be mailed, but only one in four federal workers would be forced to stay home. Furthermore, federal employees get paid on March 4th; the “shutdown” would have to last two full weeks to have negative consequences for federal workers.
America cannot afford, literally or figuratively, for you to shirk your responsibility. You must stand up for the taxpayers who sent you to Washington. Don’t Blink.
Leo Knepper is the Pennsylvania State Director of Heritage Action for America. He can also be found on on facebook and twitter.
