RLC campaign against Boehner

Fiscal conservatives have been watching the antics of the Republican establishment for over a week as it prepares the ground for abject surrender on the issue of ending the ‘Bush’ tax cuts.  There are growing reports of representatives repudiating the Norquist tax pledge, but to cap it off, House Speaker John Boehner has removed four fiscal conservatives from key financial committees.

The RLC has committed to booting him out of the Speakers role, and should that fail, are determined to replace him with a Liberty Republican in the 2014 primary.  It is already collecting a war chest in their PAC for this purpose. 

RLC Chairman, Dave Nalle states:

Liberty Republicans Have Had Enough of Boehner 

The Future of the Republican Party Starts with Leadership Change 

In response to the recent purge of fiscally conservative members of key finance committees by House Republican leaders, the Republican Liberty Caucus has launched a nationwide campaign to draw attention to the failures of party leadership and in particular to the malfeasance and abuse of power of Speaker John Boehner. 

Justin Amash (R-MI) and Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) were removed without notice from the Budget Committee on Tuesday and Walter Jones (R-NC) and David Schweikert (R-AZ) were removed from the Financial Services Committee. All four had records of opposing past budget compromises and were reportedly ranked below other Republican representatives on a secret loyalty index put together by the house leadership, because they were more likely to vote based on principle and constituent requests rather than in lockstep with the leadership. These removals were made over the objections of the chairmen of the committees. 

We believe that the practice of penalizing principled Republican leaders for not complying with the demands of party leadership is damaging to the party and an abuse of the power entrusted to the leadership of the party by grassroots constituents.  These represenatives are among the most popular and most respected junior leaders in the House, noted for their integrity and responsiveness to their constituents.  We want them to think for themselves and do not want them to slavishly follow the leadership.  They represent the future of the party and Boehner and his thugs represent the failed past. 

In response to this action, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) observed “For a party that’s trying to expand its base and make sure that it reaches out to young people and new groups, I think it’s pretty outrageous frankly. It’s pretty clear I come from a more libertarian wing of the party – this is the growing portion of the Republican Party. And, really, it’s a slap in the face of all young people who are out there thinking about being Republicans, want to be part of this party and are being told ‘well, if you disagree with leadership just a couple times, we’re going to send you home and we’re going to tell you you’re off the committee and you don’t get to participate.”  This is not the kind of party we believe in. 

Working through our state chapters and our national board the Republican Liberty Caucus has launched a three-phase campaign to put pressure on House members to demand that these four representatives be reinstated on their committees.  This campaign includes direct email, constituent call-in and social media promotions with an expected reach of over 200,000 grassroots Republicans.  We have already received reports that phones in the house have been ringing nonstop and that email boxes are overflowing since we began our campaign yesterday.  In addition, we are building up a campaign warchest through our Political Action Committee to help support efforts to remove Speaker Boehner from his position after the holidays. 

The party's failure in the recent national election cost us many races which we could have won and showed how desperate the need is for change in the party.  We need a party which holds firm on essential princples, but is tolerant and inclusive enough to attract new constituencies.  The principles of the Liberty Movement are the best basis for a new and stronger party and the reform we needs starts with getting rid of self-serving and ineffectual leaders like John Boehner. 

The Republican Liberty Caucus is a grassroots membership organization with chapters in almost every state which promotes the traditional Republican Party valies of limited government and individual liberty.

Justin Amash (R-MI) summed up the issue after being kicked out of his position on the Budget Committee, “Only in Washington, DC, is a person taken off of the Budget Committee for wanting to balance the budget .”