No, Thad McCotter, I Don’t Think I’ll Cheer Your Noble Sacrifice Today.
Color me underwhelmed by Thaddeus McCotter’s heroic action to fold up his own superfluous committee. McCotter chairs the House Republican Policy Committee that is supposed to develop policies for the Republicans in the House to introduce as bills. McCotter made big noise when he took over as one of the “we need to get back to first principles” sort of Republicans. I admit, this quote does look awfully good.
“With all the talk of spending and cutting, this chance to lead by example, reform our own operations and return $360,000 to the Treasury for deficit reduction strikes me as exactly what the public wants us to start doing,” McCotter said. Taxpayer funds pay for Congressional leadership offices.
That’s some pretty inspiring, albeit small change kind of stuff. However, let’s not forget who Thad McCotter is (Hint: he’s not exactly a small-government conservative). In the past couple years, he has:
- Co-sponsored a bill to bail out union pensions to the tune of $165 billion,
- Opposed the $1 trillion-plus Stimulus Bill because it didn’t send quite enough pork home to his district.
- Co-sponsored the ridiculous $3 billion Cash for Clunkers bill.
- Pushed hard for the $25 billion auto industry bailout.
Hmmm. So I’m supposed to cheer him for saving $360,000 while he’s personally responsible for $193 billion of wasteful big-government spending? Right. I’ll get right on that.
My guess is that McCotter isn’t as interested in saving the taxpayers money as he is striking a pose that’ll help conservatives forget that, when it comes to bringing home the bacon, he’s more than willing to take whatever he wants from our wallets to keep his local poll numbers up. He’s not a defender of conservative limited government. He’s a defender of pork and corruption and the kind of old-school politics that have put us so badly in debt that our grandchildren will be lucky to see the end of it.
Related posts:
- Give 'em Hell Thad!
- The Big Government Cash Machine Marches On, with Conservative Help
- Why the Republicans Will Be A Minority For A While Longer
- But I Dont Want To Be Stimulated! I Just Want To Keep My Money.
Category: The Republican Minority
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Small political gestures will not work anymore. If politicians do not want to get serious about cutting and saving in Congress, then they can learn about it in the public sector.
I used to like him. I interviewed him once and he was witty, in his odd sort of way. But he's turned out to be like so many before him. Bring home the pork to keep getting the votes. Sad.
Thanks for the link and Happy Independence Day. Not that it means much anymore. Sigh…
He is certainly a smart and witty man. I've a friend who did new media outreach for his office back in the day and she was a great find for him (and his people are solidly professional and creative). But he's certainly not a limited-government conservative, and that's far more important.
Actually, I believe he is, at heart, a limited government guy. I think he articulates conservative principles very well when interviewed – much better than most, and I really appreciate that. Unfortunately, he is from a pretty blue state, and I can understand all of those votes very well, being from Michigan. I don't agree with these votes, but trying to get re-elected here (and believe me, we need him)after voting against them would be a neat trick.
I have no problem with your chiding of McCotter for these votes. They all need some pushback. I just hope there isn't a foolish sense out there that the guy isn't conservative, or that we can do better than him in Michigan. I think he's one of the good guys.
I'd like ot think of him as a good guy, but I have about $193 billion reasons not to. He's lost any ability to talk about fiscal conservatism.