Saturday, February 20, 2010

Candice Miller Responds

A few days ago, I reported on an article from the Mackinac Center based on a report by the Club for Growth. You can read my article here:

I received an email recently from Eric Ventimiglia of Candice Miller's office. He copied me on a communication from Congresswoman Miller and asked me to share it with my readers: I am happy to oblige.

“It is interesting that over half of Michigan's Republican Congressional delegation was graded as failing on some cherry-picked arbitrary grading system in regards to being fiscally conservative.   Members of Congress take thousands of votes, so obviously if you want to, you can always find some you don't agree with.  I would respectfully point out that on what I consider to be the marquis votes on demonstrating true fiscal conservationism,   I believe I have reflected the will of the majority of my constituents. Some examples include:
  • I voted against the TARP Wall Street bailout twice
  • I voted against the $787 billion stimulus bill
  • I voted against raising the debt limit by 1.9 billion
  • I voted against the Cap and Trade Energy tax bill
  • I voted against the government takeover of the health care system
  • I voted against Obama's budget
  • I voted many, many times for amendments that would have cut almost $100 billion from the overall budget… 
One other item of note:  I have made a conscious effort not to abuse the process-- my requests have been for hospitals, domestic violence abuse shelters, local first responders, military construction projects at Selfridge, etc.  However, this year I will not be requesting any earmarks, as I hope we can fix a now broken system. 
Additionally I would point out that I am a co-sponsor of legislation that requires the Federal Reserve to be audited, as well as a balanced budget constitutional amendment.  Anyway, my point is, there will always be some votes that reasonable folks will disagree on-- I appreciate that--but I sincerely feel that I represent the values of the majority of the hard-working men and women that have given me the honor of representing them in the U.S. House of Representatives, not only on issues of fiscal conservatism but other core value issues like the sanctity of life and constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms.”

1 comment:

live dangerously said...

Nice Jack.

This shows the effect you, the Mackinac Center, other Center Right groups not to mention the popular upswell from the Tea Parties have had upon the legislators of this state.

The only pressure able to change legislative status quo in their spending habits; is a demand for change and nothing else from the electorate. The fight has been long since the Tea Party phenomenom but before that there were people like your self fighting the fight.

Keep it up and more and more of the legislature will come to realize what Candice Miller has, and become willing to change their way.

Regards Bob Carr
Live Dangerously Be A Conservative