Posted on 07/05/2013 4:24:59 AM PDT by LD Jackson
Oklahoma Rep. Frank Lucas (R) has been in Congress far too long. After nineteen years representing the largest district in Oklahoma, it is time for him to go. His spending has become out of control and his voting record has become abysmally liberal. His score on the Heritage Action for America's legislative scorecard is even worse than last year and few Republicans managed to score lower than Lucas.
As House Agriculture Committee Chairman, Lucas supported the failed farm bill and urged it be passed, despite the fact that the Congressional Budget Office projected it to cost $973 billion, which is more than a 50 percent increase from the 2008 bill. And how much of this $973 billion would go towards actual farmers? Less than twenty percent. Nearly eighty percent of the failed farm bill's spending was to go toward the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is the nice way of saying welfare and food stamps.
So why did Lucas support this bill and urge it be passed? For the same reason he did last time: subsidies. As Chairman of the Ag Committee Lucas has become the king of farm subsidies. My post about him more than a year ago outlines this in detail. The small portion of the failed farm bill that was to go toward actual farmers was mostly farm subsidies and crop insurance subsidies, both of which are riddled with outrageous price forecasts and insurance programs that ship billions overseas to foreign insurance companies. The taxpayer-funded crop insurance programs allow farmers to take larger risks when growing crops since they don't bear the full cost of that risk. Your tax dollars go to insurance companies in Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Japan to pay for that risk.
Lucas is beginning to feel the heat for his spending. At a town hall meeting in Skiatook, OK on Monday this week he was chastised for the bill by some attendees and told, "If you want the conservative Republican vote, you need to come forward with a conservative Republican bill." He lashed out at this and said he is being targeted by Heritage Action. "They are coming after me... They don't necessarily want a Republican president or a Republican Congress... They made more money when Pelosi was speaker... It's a business."
Heritage Action has been running radio ads targeting Lucas and correctly labeling the farm bill to be a very expensive food stamp bill. In addition, the Club for Growth Action group has a website targeting Lucas and nine other Representatives for replacement. The voting record they show for Lucas would make any Democrat proud.
Frank Lucas has represented Oklahoma in Congress since 1994, when he was part of Newt Gingrich's Contract With America. It was an exciting time when the Republicans took control of the House, but Lucas has outstayed his usefulness. A voting record that could easily be thought to be that of a Democrat when viewed with no identifiers means Lucas is no longer good for Oklahoma, or for the nation.
One year ago in Oklahoma, incumbent Congressman John Sullivan lost in the Republican primary to tea party-backed Jim Bridenstine (100% score from Heritage Action). Next year the same fate should befall Frank Lucas. It is time for him to go.
Primary them all.
When Lucas was first elected at the time Billary pushed for nationalized “health care”, Lucas was considered a “real conservative”. I guess he fell off the wagon as time passed with so many demands from constituents for big spending. If this article is correct, he just couldn’t say “No”, like so many of his colleagues.
Amen to that. We need a new party, one that voluntarily term limits itself.
May I suggest that term limits only hurt those of principle, the kind of folks conservatives are attempting to elect. For the unprincipled, term limits mean nothing, the hole can be filled easily by the same kind of politician. Holding principled people to their principles is a far better road to travel, and finding an instantly electable third party just might be a bridge too far.
Heritage Action seems to score them a bit better than The New American index.
Rep. Cotton (R) - 94%
Sen. Boozman (R) - 73%
Rep. Griffin - (R) 67%
Rep. Womack - (R) 67%
Rep. Crawford - (R) 56%
Sen. Pryor (D) - 18%
The problem becomes cultural — the culture thinks a certain seat BELONGS to a certain family or party because that family/party has held the seat for decades.
And, because a certain individual gets reelected term after term for decades, the general culture suggests that that seat belongs to that person.
That makes incumbency even harder to run against. Get elected, got a position for life.
Check those who have held their position over a decade and their patterns probably become more liberal the longer they are on Capitol Hill.
Wouldn’t disagree with your analysis, just am not a lover of term limits, as a means of dethroning the present system. Adding term limits in the mix causes more disadvantages than advantages IMHO, and throws another factor in the overall election equation. The voters seem to be the problem more than the elected officials and reflect on that old question of doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
Good article. Thanks for posting. I wasn’t familiar with Lucas.
We’ve got to identify these Big Government Republicans well ahead of time to have any chance to take them out in the primaries. A guy like Lucas will no doubt have lots of campaign cash from Archer Daniels Midland and the usual Big Business/Big Government Industrial Complex. It would be great if a guy like Bridenstine would step forward and take him on.
Club for growth lists Frank Lucas as one of their ten to primary under “Primary my congressman”. Rick Crawford is one of the other ten.
“I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”
William F. Buckley, Jr.
I would extend that to all the elites, including all professional politicians. We need Cincinnatus and George Washington types who do their work and go back to the farm. I spent over 30 years in close proximity to the ruling class—and over time, MOST average, good people become corrupt. Once they realize their primary directive is to get RE-ELECTED, the temptation is too great and the reward, overwhelming. They all become Trent-Lott-isized. Addiction to first-class away from the smelly crowd sets in. It takes about 5 months to see the sincere warm smile turn into the POLITICIAN TOOTH-BARING, PHONY-ASSED, TWO-FACED HYENA GRIN.
There is only one party in Washington, THE RE-ELECTION PARTY, dedicated to the material enrichment of its members at taxpayer expense. I would rather see a dentist, a housewife, a car dealer, a plumber, a chef, or an HVAC repairman get elected for JUST ONE TERM and SAY, “NO!! HELL, NO!! AND DON’T ASK ME AGAIN!!! NO MEANS NO!!! “
Can’t argue with your analysis either, except to say term limits doesn’t guarantee, what you desire in your last sentence.
“There is only one party in Washington, THE RE-ELECTION PARTY, dedicated to the material enrichment of its members at taxpayer expense. I would rather see a dentist, a housewife, a car dealer, a plumber, a chef, or an HVAC repairman get elected for JUST ONE TERM and SAY, “NO!! HELL, NO!! AND DON’T ASK ME AGAIN!!! NO MEANS NO!!! “”
:) Correct: No guarantees, but I’d rather bet on a one-term mine manager, or a long haul truck driver than Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Lamar Alexander, Mitch McConnell, Bob Corker, or Lisa Murkowski. That’s just the Republicans.
Look what a disappointment Marco Rubio has turned out to be. The jury is still out on Cruz. Good, honest, concerned one-termers are a much better bet to “JUST SAY NO.” No Obamacare, no new taxes, no AMNESTY, no unreasonable regulations, no wasted investment in loser technologies like windmills and solar panels-—you know the list. We have our work cut out for us for sure.
Name: Frank Lucas
Congress: Oklahoma, District: 3, Republican
Cumulative Freedom Index Score: 60%
How incumbents stay in office is easy. First off people like they get elected in GOP districts. Second they spend a lot of time raising money. They use that money to support local candidates and buy their support. The more money they raise the easier it is to scare off any primary challengers.
If a local does not toe the line they withdraw support and maybe even finance a challenger. It s all about money!
The only thing missing about ‘ol Frank, or just about any other politician, to prove they aren’t just whores is that they usually aren’t lying down when they provide their paid for services. Crude? Yes. True statement? Yes. Prove me wrong.
They may start out on the right food but that is because they somehow got enough support to go national and get to the real money and power.
See where Frank gets his money? See how Frank votes? Frank votes to get more money from the same places he gets it now. Frank has learned to play ball.
Just for the record, there is no Sugar or Rice production in Oklahoma and yet these interests are where he gets a significant amount of his campaign money. Frank is being paid more by the donors than he is being paid by the taxpayer but he is getting money from both. Frank serves the ones who pay him the most and the ones he sees most often.
It took me all of about 10 seconds to google and find these three sets of damning information about who pays for Frank’s vote. Frank may not even know that this information is available to we peons. Frank probably doesn’t even care. His political consultants know that the peons don’t know about this information and don’t care if they did know so long as Frank keeps bringing home a little bacon for them. You see, most of the peons are whores just like Frank.
http://maplight.org/us-congress/legislator/347-frank-lucas
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00005559
http://influenceexplorer.com/politician/frank-d-lucas/ec605250c0cb40f3859a631d3e5645d1
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.