June 30, 2004

Texpayers Get Wamped

The Family Budget Protection Act was one of the few bills to come along in Congress that would actually do something concrete to curb runaway federal spending. It failed to pass last Friday in the House of Representatives by a vote of 146-268.

You won't be surprised to know that virtually every single Democrat in the House who was present for the vote against it. If you're a Tennessee voter in the district of U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, a Republican, you might be surprised to learn that Wamp - who campaigns as a fiscal conservative - voted against it. Wamp, who represents the 3rd District, which includes the Chattanooga area, Oak Ridge, and a chunk of the west half of eastern Tennessee, was the only Tennessee Republican congressman to vote against it (joining 71 "Republican" congresspeople from other states who also forsook their fiscal conservative base on this issue.)

All of Tennessee's Democrat congressmen voted against it (except Bart Gordon, who was absent).

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, a faux conservative Democrat - he talks like a conservative far more often that he votes like one - voted against the Family Budget Protection Act. Keep that in mind, voters in Tennessee's Fourth District, when you go to the polls. Davis likes to pretend he's a fiscal conservative, but when he had the chance to show it on a significant piece of legislation, he voted to protect Congress's out-of-control spending habits at your expense.

So, what would the Family Budget Protection Act do?

Zach Wamp and Lincoln Davis both thought that was a bad idea.

UPDATE: While I'm slamming Wamp, lefty Knoxville blogger South Knox Bubba is praising him on another matter (and rightly so). VRWC-member blogger slams Republican, Loony-Left wingnut blogger praises Republican. Just another day in the blogosphere...