Rhetoric Notwithstanding... I Still Don't "Get" Your Vote, Dr. Hayworth

Hayworth Statement on Passage of Second Stop Gap Funding Measure
March 15, 2011

(WASHINGTON) - Rep. Nan Hayworth, M.D. (R-NY) issued the following statement after the House passed a second short-term Continuing Resolution designed to cut $6 billion in government spending over three weeks:

“When the federal government is borrowing 40 cents out of every dollar it spends, cutting spending is not a luxury – it’s a necessity. I’m proud to be a member of the House majority setting the pace for what we must do in the federal government. I hope the Senate and President Obama will recognize the will of the American people and act to put dollars back into the pockets of our citizens to buy, build, invest, and hire. Although the cuts we’ve achieved so far are real, we must do much more. With a projected $1.6 trillion deficit this year, we have just begun to do our job. Stopping wasteful government spending is a critical step in putting Americans back to work.”

My God, people... I can't believe what I'm reading.

Did Dr. Hayworth write this clap-trap herself? I pray not.

This is nothing but recycled campaign rhetoric. Dr. Hayworth totally sidesteps the question of why she choose to disregard sound policy advice from Heritage Action For America, including warnings that:

The short-term CR strategy puts at risk all of the important policy riders that conservatives have fought for in recent months.

Every short-term CR that passes funds ObamaCare, funds Planned Parenthood, and funds the EPA’s global warming regulations.

My blog is titled "Usually Right" because God knows... I'm far from "always right." Perhaps Heritage is off base on this one. It's possible...

But then there was this from Club for Growth's President Chris Chocola:

It appears that fiscal conservatives in the House are walking into a spending trap with this series of short term CRs.

When the debt ceiling debate happens in a few weeks, the big spenders will offer a so-called "compromise" in exchange for raising the debt ceiling and giving them a series of new credit cards. Such a "deal" would be a complete sell-out of America's taxpayers, who deserve major spending reductions and structural reforms that will solve our debt crisis.

Or what about Family Research Council President Tony Perkins throwing down the gauntlet:

The time to bring our fiscal house in order is now, and defunding organizations that work against the principles of a majority of Americans needs to be done to show that this Congress is serious.

Well, folks... I suppose conservatives such as Tony Perkins, Chris Chocola, and Heritage Action’s Michael Needham might all be wrong and Nan Hayworth and a majority of her GOP House colleagues might be right... but as far as I can tell, the former have laid out their specific reasoning while my congresswoman, Dr. Nan Hayworth... hasn't.

If Dr. Hayworth and other Republicans find fault with the analysis provided by Heritage Action and other conservative organization's and individuals... tell us... where exactly do Needham, Chocola, and Perkins have it wrong?

Listen... conservatives are not lock-step on this issue... I understand that. Heck, Grover Norquist - President of Americans for Tax Reform - said that he is “very supportive” of continuing to chip away at federal spending by passing short-term bills. (Of course, Norquist then went on to make his case... challenging specific bits of reasoning advanced by the anti-CR forces; all I ask of Nan Hayworth is that she defend her vote by being as specific as Norquist.)

Folks, don't get me wrong. I'm not "giving up" on Nan.

What I am trying to do is get across to her that a paragraph of "red meat" posted on her congressional website just ain't gonna cut it when people such as myself - people whose votes she's gonna need if she plans to serve more than one term - are looking for genuine leadership out of her and John Boehner.

It's fine for us to disagree at times, Nan - it's natural and healthy and it's gonna happen - but neither your official statement as posted on your congressional website nor the personal email you sent me yesterday answers the basic questions I've been raising here on the blog - or in private correspondence.