Posted on 09/22/2011 7:45:17 PM PDT by Tribune7
The first meeting of the season of the Delaware County Patriots, tonight, Sept. 22, brought about 80 persons to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Newtown Square to hear Leo Knepper of Heritage PA describe how the Pennsylvania's Republican congressmen are no where near as fiscally conservative as is commonly thought, and the inspiringly enthusiastic Jenn Stafano of American Prosperity Pa explain how it easy it is to win committee seats.
Mrs. Stafano, at the end of her talk, got pledges from a dozen-plus participants to run for the unheralded but important office.
Knepper singled out for special criticism Congressman Pat Meehan, whose 7th District includes Newtown Square. He said Meehan only scored a 48 percent on the Heritage Action Scorecard which charts the votes legislators make as whether they advance or detract from the cause of commonsense conservatism.
"On the big issues, he's been there, but on the small issues he's been dropping the ball" Knepper said.
Knepper gave an example as to how Meehan voted against a seemingly uncontroversial bill that would have cut farm subsidies to $250,000 and restrict them to actual farmers rather than seekers of tax breaks.
Knepper said the only members of Pennsylvania's delegation to score at least an 80 on the score card were Congressman Joe Pitts of the 16th District and Sen. Pat Toomey. No other Republicans scored above a 60 he said.
(snip)
After the speakers it was announced that a Delco Patriots were signing onto a push to get HB 42 to a vote in Harrisburg.
HB 42 is the proposed state law that would undermine much of ObamaCare in Pennsylvania. It has been bottled up in the House Appropriation Committee since Feb. 8.
The committee is chaired by Bill Adolph of Springfield who represents the 165th District.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.billlawrenceonline.com ...
ping
Unfortunately, Heitage results were skewed negatively. They gave equal weight to less significant legislation as they did to more important legislation, that had greater consequences.
Why?
OTOH, it's good that Heritage is pointing out the small votes which are a lot more important than people think.
I think some of the unpublicized votes might start going our way when groups like Heritage start watching and making an issue of them.
No one’s suggesting small votes shouldn’t be reported on, that’s obvious from my post. They shouldn’t be given EQUAL wWEIGHT to larger votes. It skews the poll more negatively to keep people engaged in the movement physically and financially.
So Trib, you agree it’s fair to skew votes negatively?
Any metric has value as long as it's consistent. If the same same standard is being applied to Pitts as to Meehan as to Bob Brady you are going to get a fair understanding as to how they compare.
I kind of think it might actually be more useful to give the unpublicized -- we really shouldn't call them small -- votes more weight at least in some comparisons. It's what you do when nobody is watching that shows your real character.
The example the Knepper gave was of restricting the farm subsidy. Why the heck would Meehan vote against that?
If Meehan knows conservatives are watching the votes that nobody is talking about I am certain he will vote correctly on them more often that he does.
Knepper is doing something good here.
The truth is skewed, falsely misrepresented and people believe things are worse than they really are which makes them angry and unhappy. Why misrepresent the truth, Trib?
Further it doesn't matter that everything's measured the same. People have strong ideas in their heads about grades as most spent 12 years plus in school. And they'll use those judgements accordingly. A grade a 48 to 50% is well below failing...and just above 80, to most is hardly an A.
Overall the Congressman have been working hard and doing a good job which should be celebrated...that score card doesn't reflect that reality at all. The Congressman will receive harsh words and complaints. Eventually, too much negativity and you'll chase the good ones away. And people in the districts deserve to be glad about the good work their legislators have done, rather than to be angry and upset.
You can bring attention to the small votes differently and without misrepresenting the truth and needlessly stirring up negative feelings.
I got an E-mail sent to a number of people, calling Lou Barletta a RINO, from a man in his district. The guy who sent it's a kookt who doesn't seem to think there's a good conservative anywhere in the R Party. And there's more where he came from. Extraordinarily irresponsible to stir people like that up....and all for the financial benefit of the organization, not the good of the cause.
People should be angry and unhappy. Things are very bad. Our debt obligations equal GDP. GDP is not going up. Our debt obligations are. A crisis looms.
Who is to say what vote is unimportant? Heritage has its own criteria. Are they fair? At this point I think it's appropriate to scrutinize every spending vote.
Is Meehan failing?
Don't look it at as that he's failing. Look at it as though you are a very caring but tough teacher and Meehan is a student with much potential but who appears to be cutting corners.
It is important not to cut him any slack if he is to achieve his full potential.
He really should not be voting to maintain the existing farm subsidy structure.
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