Showing posts with label House Freedom Caucus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House Freedom Caucus. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Amash gets standing ovations in his hometown

Justin Amash Gets Standing Ovations After Calling for Impeachment Proceedings – Mother Jones - Inae Oh:

May 29, 2019 - "Rep. Justin Amash returned home to Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday for his first public event since becoming the first — and so far only — Republican in Congress to back impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. That may be a lonely position on Capitol Hill, but it inspired multiple standing ovations and rounds of applause from voters attending the town hall.

"'I want to salute your courage,' one man told Amash, sparking cheers from the audience.

"As he has previously done on Twitter, Amash spent much of the event outlining his belief that Trump had committed impeachable offenses, as well as why he considered it Congress’ duty to hold the president accountable for such actions. Amash repeatedly referred to the allegations outlined in the Mueller report to explain how he had arrived at that conclusion.

"But not everyone at Tuesday’s packed event appeared pleased. After one woman wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat accused him of drinking the same 'Kool-aid' as Democrats, Amash — who is a founding member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus — was forced to defend both his position on impeachment and conservative voting record.

“'I’m not even a middle-of-the-road Republican when it comes to these scorecards,' he responded. 'So, I haven’t changed. I’m who I said I was: I’m a principled, constitutional conservative who has stayed consistent regardless of whether we have President Obama in office or President Trump....

"Amash also told voters that many of his Republican colleagues privately agreed with him but were unwilling to say so publicly....

“'If you have a society where all we care about is that the other side is bad, and therefore we don’t have to do the right thing, that society will break down and you will have no liberty,' he continued, again drawing applause."

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Friday, May 24, 2019

Big GOP donors abandoning Amash

Following call for impeachment, where will Justin Amash get his money from now? - Raymond Arke, Center for Responsive Politics:

May 23, 2019 - "Taking a lonely stand, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) became the first and so far only Congressional Republican to suggested that President Donald Trump conducted impeachable conduct. As a result, the libertarian-leaning Amash has been abandoned by many prominent Republican leaders and donors who have given him thousands of dollars in financial backing. And now he faces a Trump-supporting primary challenger.

"Amash, who was first elected to the House as part of the Tea Party Republican wave in 2010, is a founding member of the ultra-conservative [House] Freedom Caucus. The caucus voted on May 20 to condemn Amash’s stance on impeachment....

"Amash never brought in much money compared to the average for House members. Throughout his career, he has raised a total of $5.6 million....

"Amash’s top career contributor is the free-market, conservative Club for Growth. Its affiliates have given $275,630, almost all of which were earmarked contributions from Club members, over his five successful campaigns. They even helped him successfully fend off a primary challenge in 2014 by spending $440,557 against businessman Brian Ellis and $70,802 in support of Amash.... After his support of impeachment, the Club for Growth criticized Amash, though it’s still unclear whether they will back his Republican opponent.

"He’s already lost the support of another important group of donors — the powerful and wealthy DeVos family. The family of Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos ...  have been supporters of Amash since his first election. In his recent 2018 reelection campaign, DeVos family members contributed a total of $24,300.

"One of his top contributors in 2018 was the House Freedom Fund, affiliated with Freedom Caucus leaders, which contributed $27,748 in mostly earmarked gifts. Another of the founders of the caucus, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) contributed $4,000 from his campaign committee to Amash in 2018 — yet another financial flow likely to be cut off as Jordan is one of Trump’s staunchest supporters....

"Much of Amash’s PAC money came from GOP-linked PACs which are unlikely to fund a candidate attracting party anger....

"Amash has said that he 'can’t rule out' a third-party run for president in 2020, possibly as part of the Libertarian Party. However, when asked on May 21, he said 'I’m not thinking about that right now. I’m defending the Constitution.'"

Read more: https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/05/where-will-justin-amash-get-his-money-from-now/
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Sunday, March 17, 2019

The loneliest Republican in Congress

Justin Amash is the loneliest Republican in Congress - CNNPolitics - Haley Boyd:

March 10, 2019 - "For most Republicans, life in the House minority is a big change. But for Rep. Justin Amash ... 'It's just a different set of people doing the wrong thing,' the Michigan Republican said in an interview with CNN.

"Amash came to Congress with the Tea Party wave in 2010, and although Republicans controlled the House for the entirety of his congressional career until a few months ago, Amash has long been the odd man out. His firm libertarian stances on foreign policy, surveillance and federal spending put him in an awkward position with many in his own party. And 2 years into Donald Trump's presidency, Amash appears lonelier than ever. His closest allies – conservatives who routinely sparred with the GOP establishment in the past – have coalesced behind Trump....

"The divide was clearer than ever during a February oversight hearing with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. While most Republicans on the panel stuck to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan's strategy of attacking Cohen's character and playing defense for the President, Amash asked sharp questions designed to draw out information....

"Jordan and Amash were both founding members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline conservatives who preached a focus on cutting government spending and opening up congressional procedure, and clashed with party leaders over it. The three dozen members played a key role in former House Speaker John Boehner's resignation in 2015, and the caucus was instrumental in shaping the House-led GOP effort to repeal Obamacare, which became a centerpiece of Trump's first-year agenda....

"'From the time [President Trump] was elected, I was urging them to remain independent and to be willing to push back against the President where they thought he was wrong,' said Amash. 'They've decided to stick with the President time and again, even where they disagree with him privately'.... Amash was the sole member of the caucus to vote against Trump's use of emergency powers to seize funds for his long-desired wall along the southern border, even though the Freedom Caucus was known for lambasting President Barack Obama's executive maneuvering to get around Congress....

"It hasn't helped that Amash has lost key allies like Raul Labrador, the Idaho lawmaker who left Congress last year to run unsuccessfully for governor of his state, and Mark Sanford, who lost his South Carolina primary to a more Trump-friendly opponent in 2018. Yet Amash reiterated his Freedom Caucus colleagues remain some of his closest friends in Congress.... And members who differ with Amash's stance say he still brings a helpful perspective....

"Amash has the rhetorical style of someone who really enjoys arguing for the sake of arguing but also benefits from fiercely believing what he says. He also has a wry sense of humor.

"Soon after inauguration day in early 2017, Trump signed a travel ban targeting six majority Muslim countries. Amash — whose mother is a Syrian immigrant and whose father came to America as a Palestinian refugee in 1956 — opposed the executive order.... At the height of the outcry, Amash excused his lateness to a Freedom Caucus meeting one night with a joke.... 'Hey guys. Sorry I'm late,' he said. 'The travel ban got me held up at the airport — they're screening all the Syrians.'"

"Half of the room was amused by the quip. The other half — not so much. It was memorable enough that a lawmaker who also attended the meeting still recalled the episode more than two years later."

Read more:  https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/10/politics/amash-trump-house-republicans-lonely/index.html

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Thursday, January 3, 2019

Sanford warns of debt crisis in farewell address

Rep. Mark Sanford Cautions of ‘Hitler-like’ Figure in Parting Address - Emily Kopp, Roll Call:

December 27, 2018 - "Outgoing Republican Rep. Mark Sanford cautioned his constituents on the rise of a 'Hitler-like character' in a parting address on Wednesday. Though a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, the South Carolinian clarified he was not likening the leader of the Republican Party to Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler. But he warned the 'forces at play' in contemporary politics 'could lead to a future Hitler-like character if we don’t watch out.'

"'Washington cannot continue to do business as it now does and have our republic survive,' Sanford said in reference to the national debt. 'As open political systems become cumbersome and inefficient, inevitably a strong man comes along and offers easy promises. He says that he can take care of it for us. People desperate for a change accept his offer. They have to give up a few freedoms in the equation to get more security,” Sanford said.....

"The impending government shutdown prevented Sanford from delivering the address on the House floor last week, but the departing congressman and former governor posted the speech to Facebook.

"State Rep. Katie Arrington ousted Sanford in a primary battle earlier this year where support for Trump was a decisive fault line.... Trump endorsed Arrington on Election Day, slamming Sanford [and] mocked Sanford’s subsequent defeat at a private meeting with Congressional Republicans....

"In his parting speech, Sanford described the difference between Trump's politics and his own deeply conservative views as the 'soothing promises of populism' versus the 'real math' of budget austerity. Sanford said his career had been defined by the issue of national debt.

''More than anything, these last 25 years have been about trying in some small way to affect the trajectory of government spending,' he said.

"Sanford delivered a dramatic prediction about the future of the economy, arguing that government [deficit] spending could lead to inflation, which would erode 'our way of life.' 'I believe that we are marching our way toward the most predictable financial and economic crisis in the history of our republic,' he said. 'If we don’t change course soon, markets will do it for us.'

"Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., a fellow member of the Freedom Caucus, would 'carry the flag forward in this eternal battle,' he said.

"Sanford’s challenger Arrington lost to Democrat Joe Cunningham in the November general election."

Read more: https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/rep-mark-sanford-cautions-hitler-like-figure-parting-address
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Thursday, March 29, 2018

Rand Paul endorses Labrador for Idaho governor

Rand Paul backs Idaho 'small government' governor candidate | McClatchy Washington Bureau:

"March 27, 2018 - "Nearly 2,000 miles from Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul is hoping to spread his distinctive brand of politics.

"The Kentucky Republican has endorsed Rep. Raul Labrador, an Idaho Republican giving up his House seat to run for governor. Labrador will run the state in the Paul mold, unafraid to take on the establishment, the senator explained."

"'There is a difference between just being a Republican and being a constitutional conservative,'Paul said.... Labrador is one of a number of candidates Paul and his political action committee, RANDPAC, are supporting....

"Paul acknowledged the endorsement on the state level was 'unusual,' but called Labrador exceptional. 'Raul has a track record of being an independent thinker and someone who will stand up on principle and we need more of that in the states.... I'm always telling folks in my state, "Resist, resist, resist when the federal government tries to tell you what to do."'

"Labrador, Boise businessman Tommy Ahlquist and Otter’s lieutenant governor, Brad Little, are considered the front-runners in the May 15 Republican primary. That contest, open to Republican voters only and likely to draw the most conservative activists, could determine the ultimate victor in reliably-red Idaho, where the last Democrat elected governor was Cecil Andrus in 1990."

"Labrador, a member of the House’s conservative Freedom Caucus and a former Idaho House member, is positioning himself as a disruptor, promising to 'restore citizen control of our government, buck the establishment, and drain the swamp.'"

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article207005983.html
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Sunday, April 16, 2017

Republican libertarians' newly-won political clout

Jack Hunter: Libertarians are flexing their political muscle - My Statesman:

March 27, 2017 - "Before Ron Paul’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns spawned a 'liberty movement' of activists and political leaders, the influence of which is still being felt to this day (just ask Barack Obama or Donald Trump), you would have had a hard time finding libertarians in Congress period, with the exception of Ron Paul.

"But today, and for some time, libertarian Republicans have actually had measurable political clout. This has certainly been true on the foreign policy and civil liberties fronts, where, in 2013, it was Rep. [Justin] Amash who spearheaded the effort to reign in the NSA’s controversial mass surveillance practices with a bill that was unsuccessful by only 12 votes. Some could argue that Sen. [Rand] Paul has been instrumental in shaping President Trump’s state and defense cabinet with his denunciations of prominent neoconservatives whose names were floated.

"In the House, Rand Paul’s father Ron Paul would often be the sole 'no' vote based on his strict constitutionalist principles. Sen. Paul has been known to be the sole 'no' vote in the senate — among Republicans or among everyone — where his single vote can sometimes be more effective than a representative’s would be.... Paul held up the Balkan nation of Montenegro’s entrance into NATO all by his lonesome, causing the hawkish John McCain to accuse Paul of working for Vladimir Putin.

"In 2008, McCain dismissed Ron Paul during presidential debates as an 'isolationist,' and most Republicans probably agreed with McCain in that still very hawkish post-George W. Bush GOP environment. In 2017, the son of Ron Paul is mucking up McCain’s ability to put America on the hook militarily for yet another foreign country, and while Paul doesn’t have much Senate support, he does have it elsewhere in conservative and libertarian circles.

"Things have changed, and libertarians have benefitted....

“'This time, instead of merely standing against something, the Freedom Caucus is standing for what the Republican Party repeatedly promised constituents: a full repeal of Obamacare,' Boland notes. 'It also helps that Paul, a physician from Kentucky, has another replacement bill in the Senate that could actually lower the cost of insurance by eliminating government mandates, giving people the freedom to purchase insurance across state lines, allowing customers to join voluntary larger insurance pools and a host of other free-market reforms.'

"Libertarians favor less government, individual choice and free markets in most things, including healthcare. Most conservative Republicans pretend to favor these things too, or at least when Democrats are in control....

"But when Republicans are in control, these one-time small government advocates behave little differently than Democrats in their zeal to 'do something.' That’s precisely what Paul Ryan and others have been doing, in their rush to jam through a health care bill that retains the individual mandate Republicans used to say was the worst part of Obamacare.

"If not for libertarian Republicans, I wouldn’t want much to do with the GOP." They are the best Republicans precisely because they are the most principled. Thankfully, they also have political muscle now too, as this week reminds us."

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/opinion/jack-hunter-libertarians-are-flexing-their-political-muscle/vYncZBRoRCJAB4H1V0bOIO/
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Saturday, April 1, 2017

Trump declares war on House Freedom Caucus

Why is Trump attacking the Freedom Caucus? Simple: They won, he lost | TheHill - Mark Meckler:

April 1, 2017 -"The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast,' President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday. 'We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!'  The entire day, he tweeted about individual members of the caucus, calling them out by name, urging others to defeat them in November, and comparing them to Democrats.

"And with that series of tweets, Trump is now engaged in a full scale, public war with the conservative Freedom Caucus. Characteristically, little restraint is apparent in his approach.  While the president has never been hesitant to attack, he's always described himself as a counter-puncher; someone who hits back twice as hard when someone lashes out at him.  But this is different....

"Freedom Caucus member Rep. Raul Labrador recalled this week in a message to the President. 'Freedom Caucus stood with u when others ran,' he tweeted. 'Remember who your real friends are'.... He's right.  When others ran for the hills, Freedom Caucus members stood by then-candidate Trump.  When Trump promised repeatedly to repeal ObamaCare, the Freedom Caucus reiterated those promises....

"After President Trump took office, however, he didn’t follow through with his promise to repeal ObamaCare; he backed the Paul Ryan plan which many mocked as 'ObamaCare-lite.'  The Freedom Caucus didn’t openly criticize the president.  Why?  Perhaps they felt that he’d just been bamboozled by the wonkish Speaker, into believing that this heaping mess of government controlled healthcare really was a repeal....

"Which brings us to the real mystery:  Why did President Trump throw a very brutal first punch against seemingly his staunchest allies in Congress?...

"Here's the best conclusion we've reached.  He's pissed off.  Really pissed off.  He made a mistake and decided to bet on the wrong horse.  He cast his lot with Speaker Ryan, not because he cared what was in the bill, but because Ryan told the president he could get it done.  More than anything, Trump's wants to be known as a man who gets things done.

"When Trump was misled by Ryan (who never had the votes)  he simply couldn’t admit he was wrong.  Instead, he blames, and the easiest target is the Freedom Caucus.  He can easily say they stopped him from 'getting something done'....

"This is his fundamental mistake.  The people didn't send Trump to D.C. to 'get something done'. The people sent Trump to D.C. to blow up the status quo, 'drain the swamp,' 'repeal ObamaCare'.... We don’t want want him to [just] 'get something done,' we want him to get the right things done.

"Hopefully, the president will soon learn from his mistake and will once again turn to the Freedom Caucus as his only true supporters on Capitol Hill.  Without them, he's going to have a very lonely four years, and his biggest fear — being known the guy who can’t get things done — will become a self-fulfilling legacy."

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/the-administration/326826-why-would-trump-attack-the-freedom-caucus-simple-they
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Tuesday, February 10, 2015

9 Republicans form House Freedom Caucus

Will House Freedom Caucus Really Adhere to the Constitution? - Jack Kenny, New American:

January 28, 2015 -"A new congressional caucus, started by nine Republicans, promises to defend freedom in a hostile environment: the Congress of the United States.

"'We support open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans,' says the mission statement of the House Freedom Caucus, announced this week by its nine founding members as a group that will work to push the Republican majority in the House in a more conservative direction. The group intends to be an alternative to the 172-member Republican Study Committee, regarded for decades to be the conservative voice among House Republicans.

"The Freedom Caucus intends to be much smaller. Membership will be by invitation only and the goal is to attract around 30 members. Since the Republicans have 246 representatives in the House, 29 dissenting members will be enough to keep the Republican leadership from gaining the 218 votes needed to pass legislation without help from Democrats — which could drive away some Republican votes.

"Members of the new caucus are Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Jim Jordan of Ohio, John Fleming of Louisiana, Matt Salmon of Arizona, Justin Amash of Michigan, Raúl Labrador of Idaho, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, Ron DeSantis of Florida, and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

"'We seek to ensure that the members of the House honor promises made to their constituents, to make the congressional leadership put the interests of the American people above inside-the-Beltway interests, and to advance positive reforms that reflect limited government principles,' DeSantis said."

Read more: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/congress/item/20001-will-house-freedom-caucus-really-adhere-to-the-constitution
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