Posted on 12/05/2012 6:53:28 AM PST by crosshairs
Republican leaders in the U.S. House kicked U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp off the House Agriculture and House Budget committees this week a move that dismayed many in the states powerful agriculture sector.
In a statement on his congressional website, Huelskamp, R-Fowler, said he was given limited explanation for his removal, but that his consistent, principled, and conservative votes have riled the GOP Establishment. House Speaker John Boehner, in the midst of critical budget negotiations over the fiscal cliff, removed other conservatives from their committee posts as well Justin Amash of Michigan from the House budget committee, and Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina and David Schweikert of Arizona from the House Financial Services Committee.
Reaction in Kansas was dismayed surprise. On Friday, Huelskamp delivered a legislative update at the Kansas Livestock Association annual meeting in Wichita. On Tuesday, agriculture groups across Kansas were scrambling to find out more about the move and answer members calls and e-mails.
The verdict is that losing representation on the House Agriculture Committee is a blow to the state and its agricultural interests.
It certainly puts our members and Kansas as one of the top ag states at a signficant disadvantage in setting federal policy, said Aaron Popelka, vice president of legal and governmental affairs for the KLA.
Having somebody from the Big First on House Ag has been extremely important and deserving because of the amount of wheat and agriculture that come from there, said Justin Gilpin, CEO of the Kansas Wheat Commission. A congressman from the First District, known as the Big First because it includes more than half the state, has helped shape federal farm policy on the House Agriculture Committee since at least the start of the 20th century and possibly since Kansas became a state in 1861, said Chapman Rackaway, an associate professor at Fort Hays State University.
Among the First District congressmen who have played big roles on the agriculture committee were Bob Dole, Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran all of whom ran successfully from the First District seat to the Senate. Huelskamp is suffering the consequences of his particularly uncompromising form of conservatism in a body that really exists to make deals and balance competing interests, Rackaway said.
Not only did he vote against the agreement in the summer of 2011 to raise the governments debt ceiling, but he opposed the budget blueprint written by his budget committee chairman Republican Paul Ryan. In his statement on his website, Huelskamp said: The GOP leadership might think they have silenced conservatives, but removing me and others from key committees only confirms our conservative convictions. This is clearly a vindictive move, and a sure sign that the GOP Establishment cannot handle disagreement.
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Tuesday that the partys steering committee made the decision based on a range of factors.
Rackaway noted that Huelskamp not only has failed to support positions of the GOP leadership, but hes been abrasive in advancing his opinions, rubbing others the wrong way both personally and politically.
Its a pattern thats not new, Rackaway said. Huelskamp was removed from the Kansas Senates Ways and Means Committee when he served there. And reports of hard feelings between Boehner and Huelskamp started almost immediately after he reached Washington in early 2011. These negotiations over the fiscal cliff may have been the final straw, but this has been building up for two years, Rackaway said. Among folks in the know, there is not any great secret they dont like each other on a personal level.
The move is underscoring a divide in the Republican Party between tea party-supported conservatives and the House GOP leadership.
This is a clear attempt on the part of Republican leadership to punish those in Washington who vote the way they promised their constituents they would on principle instead of mindlessly rubber-stamping trillion dollar deficits and the bankrupting of America, said Matt Kibbe, president of the tea party group FreedomWorks.
All four of the lawmakers who lost their committee assignments voted against the summer 2011 deal negotiated between Republican leaders and President Barack Obama for extending the governments ability to borrow money in exchange for $1 trillion in spending cuts and the promise of another $1 trillion in reduced deficits. Three of the four, the exception being Schweikert, voted against the Ryan-written GOP budget blueprint that the House passed last March.
Their removal from key committees with jurisdiction over the two issues was viewed by some as a signal to other Republican lawmakers to look favorably on whatever final deal Boehner and Obama put together to avert a "fiscal cliff" combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts in January.
In the battle between makers and takers (I know the media pretended that was a gaffe, but it was also a meaningful distinction), it looks like makers are losing their effective representation. If the only Americans who pay taxes are going to lose any effective representation, we’re getting into a classic “taxation without representation” situation. The last one of those got very ugly, but turned out for the better. I hope this will eventually turn out well too.
The only tangible thing conservatism has to offer (since liberals do not value freedom) is the opportunity to move from “taker” into the “maker” class. If we can’t find a spokesman who can articulate why conservatism enables that path and thus is the best answer for those facing economic challenges, then conservatism is dead as a political movement, and we will have to turn somewhere other than the ballot box to resolve this difference over whether the far left will be permitted to take from those who produce.
‘Caveman’ Bohner might as well join the Democrats. He is a dictator!!!
Like Obama, Boehner has shed his sheep’s clothing. Boehner is a GOP-e wolf who is bearing his fangs.
Boehner must go!
Boehner works for Obama.
I bet the democrats in his Ohio district voted for him too.
Democrats want Boehner as speaker. That should tell everybody something.
Their removal from key committees with jurisdiction over the two issues was viewed by some as a signal to other Republican lawmakers to look favorably on whatever final deal Boehner and Obama put together to avert a “fiscal cliff” combination of automatic tax increases and spending cuts in January.
Personally I would hope that this causes Republican Lawmakers to vote against Boehner being retained as Speaker of the House. It won’t but I would hope that it would.
Look People! And I’m talking to you so-called Republican Lawmakers. It’s LONG past time to end go-along to get-along. This is War and you people are on the front lines now. Do your jobs and represent your constituents and states or leave, at this point there is no other choices.
Oh? You say Obama won? Prove it and probe all of the Vote Fraud, it was so in-your-face this time.
Then ... there are enemies, and johnboy has joined that rank.
fixed
This is not just Boehner. We need to dutifully detail who all is on Boehner’s team, including staff and lobbyists.
Well, looks like the GOP has chosen to cave.
A good short term political move. Selling tax cuts to the “1%” during a Recession/Depression is pretty hard.
Bad long term move. You just alienated your own base, and many of your own fellow congressman.
I would bet there is a major split in the GOP soon.
” He is a dictator!!!”
And a stupid one, at that. Now, when he needs the support of all Republicans, he is punishing conservative members. That is just stupid politics. I suppose he’s not familiar with the old adage: “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
Surely, even in that cesspool of Ohio politics there should be someone more fit for office than this charlatan. He definitely should be primaried in ‘14.
A major split within the GOP is exactly what Obama is trying to provoke.
I am ready for a true split. I say let all the rinos and democrat leaners keep the Republiban party and let us start a new party without them.
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Tuesday that the partys steering committee made the decision based on a range of factors.
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Michael Steele???? Michael Steele????
The same stupid bastid who screwed up the Republican party which he once led? The Dork with more Gaffes than Biden?/
That is Boehners mouthpiece?
Republican party being led by fools, backstabbers, and damned idiots.
Scandal Bonehead out of his leadership position.
It almost seems as if someone, somewhere in obama’s circle of jerks has a very damaging file of information about John Boehner
filed in the dirty ops research files between John Allen and John Roberts
We needer Boehner....GONE!
Is Bonehead automatically speaker for the next Congress (1/2013), or can someone run against him?
Someone can run against him, but no one will.
So the GOP will re-elect him as speaker.
The only way I see to get him out is to scandal him out.
Surely this moron has bones in his closet.
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