Justin Amash
Facebook
12/4/2012
Rumor has it that I’ve been removed from the House Committee on the Budget. Remarkably, I still have not received a single call, e-mail, or text from Republican leadership confirming this story. In fact, I wouldn’t even have learned about it if not for the news reports. I look forward to hearing from my party’s leadership about why my principled, conservative voting record offends them. That’s sure to be a lively and entertaining conversation.
In the meantime, I can only speculate as to what specifically would make Republican leadership punish several of its party’s most principled members. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who was kicked off of both Budget and the Committee on Agriculture, voted with me against the 2013 House budget resolution because it does not sufficiently address the federal government’s debt crisis. That was one of only three times during this Congress that I voted against the Chairman’s recommendations in committee. In fact, I voted with the Republican Chairman more than 95% of the time, and I have voted with my party’s leadership more than three-quarters of the time on the House floor.
What message does leadership’s heavy-handedness send? It says that independent thinking won’t be tolerated, not even 5% of the time. It says that voting your conscience won’t be respected. It says that fulfilling your commitment to your constituents to work with both Republicans and Democrats to reduce our debt takes a back seat to the desires of corporate special interests. And, most troubling for our party, it says to the growing number of young believers in liberty that their views are not welcome here.
I’ll miss working with my colleagues on Budget. I don’t relish this situation, but if one thing is clear based on the response from the grassroots, it’s that leadership’s actions will backfire. If they think kicking me off of a committee will lead me to abandon my principles or stifle my bipartisan work toward a balanced budget, I have a message for them: You’re dead wrong.
Related: Club for Growth to Boehner: Release Criteria List Used in Purge
CAJ note: We follow the Congressman on Facebook, though he is not our representative unfortunately, because he explains legislation on his page and the reasoning behind how he casts his votes in the House. Our other articles about Congressman Amash are here.
Update: Boehner says ideology not why members booted from committees, it was disloyalty
Mmmm…Boehner rules with an iron fist? Why not try a little of that angry might on the Preezy there, big fella, instead of folding like a cheap tent. Cuz our Congressmen don’t owe you their loyalty…they owe it to the people who sent them to the House of Representatives. Just sayin’.
Update 2: Palin to GOP: ‘This Won’t Be Forgotten Come 2014’
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Tuesday that she thinks House Speaker John Boehner’s purge of conservatives from powerful committees is a sign the GOP establishment is out of touch with America.
“We send good conservatives to D.C. to fulfill the promises they made to the electorate, and yet when they stay true to their word the permanent political class in their own party punishes them,” Palin said in a Facebook comment. “This won’t be forgotten come 2014. Right now the GOP establishment is more concerned about the opinion of the media and the Georgetown cocktail circuit than they are ‘we the people’ who hired them. For all this new talk of how the GOP needs a ‘populist movement,’ it would do them good to remember they already have one; it’s called the Tea Party movement, and it won for them the majority they now enjoy in the House.”…
Update 3: Boehner Has To Go: Ignore the Constitution, Party Uber Alles!
Also, Only 16 Members Can Unseat Boehner, Group Says
…The Republican caucus already locked the votes for leadership slots up in conference shortly after the election, but it has to be made official at the beginning of the next Congress in January. That means conservatives upset with Boehner’s leadership technically could band together to ouster him.
After this week’s Boehner purge of conservatives from influential committee roles, enough Republicans might be perturbed enough to do something about it – especially with Boehner threatening retaliation against more than just the four conservatives he’s already yanked from their committee spots if anyone else doesn’t toe the leadership line.
Read the whole thing.
