Conservative Matheson
Rep. Jim Matheson often calls himself a fiscally conservative Democrat. He belongs to the moderate and frugal-minded Blue Dog Caucus and annually fights against an automatic pay raise for members of Congress. And now Matheson can make another claim about his position: he is more fiscally conservative than most of his Utah colleagues: Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett and Rep. Rob Bishop.
That's according to a report by the watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, which tracked votes on efforts to cut pork in spending bills. Rep. Chris Cannon bested the whole delegation, scoring a 77 percent fiscal conservative record while Matheson came in second with 64 percent.
The group famous for its "Pig Book" of congressional earmarks gave Hatch a 59 percent, Bennett a 52 percent and Bishop the lowest of the delegation with 46 percent.
I wonder how long it will take Cannon and Matheson to get this into campaign materials.
-- Thomas Burr
That's according to a report by the watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, which tracked votes on efforts to cut pork in spending bills. Rep. Chris Cannon bested the whole delegation, scoring a 77 percent fiscal conservative record while Matheson came in second with 64 percent.
The group famous for its "Pig Book" of congressional earmarks gave Hatch a 59 percent, Bennett a 52 percent and Bishop the lowest of the delegation with 46 percent.
I wonder how long it will take Cannon and Matheson to get this into campaign materials.
-- Thomas Burr
3:11 PM
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4 Comments:
With Cannon's DAV rating of zero for the last two years he has got himself something really to be proud of.
Hatch & Bennett are the lapdogs of their even less conservative master,Bush.
Matheson is CLEARLY trying to put himself in the running for the Utah Governorship once Huntsman is through. Too bad for him that he's still a registered 'independent' here in Utah who has voted for Nancy Pelosi to be the Speaker of the House.
How "independent" is he, really?
First of all, the overall lobbyist laws in Utah ARE filled with loopholes - try reading the law sometime.
Secondly, why is a member of the executive branch in charge of regulating legislative lobbyists? Isn't it true that the Legislature is an independent branch of government that hires its own employees (outside of executive branch HR policies), maintains its own buildings (outside of executive branch maintenance policies) and isn't the United States, as well as the Utah, Constitution very clear that there are THREE independent branches of government?
So why, pray tell, is it that the Legislature of Utah determined that the person to enforce very vague and, at times, nonsensical, lobbyist laws be a member of the executive branch?
I can only imagine the heart-burn that members of the Lt. Gov.'s staff must feel when they have to implement laws that are as equally confusing to the lobbyists as they are to the news media and the public who have interest in such reports.
The answer to all of this is simple: The Legislature should monitor (and be responsible for) all legislative lobbyists. This would not only reflect what most states do, nationwide, but would also keep the accountability in the arms of the legislature, not an executive department with plenty enough to do.
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