The Underachievement of Louie Gohmert

Louie Gohmert represents the 1st Congressional District of Texas. He was elected in 2004 with help from the Club For Growth, a group that works to elect fiscally conservative politicians. Now, one of the best ways to show you truly care about America's budget deficit is to eliminate the wasteful spending found in congressional earmarks. For my previous explanation of earmarks and the performance of other Texas congressmen related to earmarks, see here, here, and here.

In 2004 Congressman Gohmert became the first Republican to be elected from the 1st Congressional District of Texas since Reconstruction. Like most Republicans, he ran on a platform of cutting government spending and cutting taxes. Yet when Congressman Jeff Flake offered 19 amendments eliminating wasteful earmarks, Congressman Gohmert only voted for 6, either not voting or voting no on the other 13. For instance, he voted for spending $229,000 on dairy education in Iowa and voted for spending $100,000 on "facilities" in Weirton, West Virginia.

It is these kinds of voting patterns that make conservatives crazy. Here we have conservatives investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect what they think is a true fiscal conservative, only to see him vote for higher spending on dubious projects more than half the time. If and when Republicans lose the House this November, they better do some serious sole searching if they want to continue to be the party of limited government.

Any comments or questions can be received at whyyouareaconservative@gmail.com

~ The Conservative Guy