Hey Big Spender!
In selecting the next poster for one of “the worst of a bad lot” we first sort by time in office and then check voting records for it is “by their votes ye shall know them.” Rarely do we make an exception re tenure, here’s one –see Rep. Hank Johnson’s poster from 2010 –and he’s still there! Sen. Jack Reed fits the extreme tenure rule –he may even exceed his predecessor’s record.
Rhode Island Senator John (Jack) F. Reed, age 71, began his political career in the Rhode Island State Senate from 1985 to 1990 followed by three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. When Sen. Claiborne Pell, the longest-serving senator in Rhode Island’s history and the 13th longest-serving senator in U.S. history, retired in 1995, Reed ran for the seat and won easily in the Democratic Party dominated state.
He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and Harvard University and served in the U.S. Army as an active officer from 1971 to 1979. He married Julia Hart in 2005 and has a daughter, Julia.
Now for the voting part as scored by non-partisan groups. We urge you to check the actual bills being voted on by clicking on the link provided with each group.
The National Taxpayers Union rates Congress: “All members of Congress are treated the same regardless of political affiliation. Our only constituency is the overburdened American taxpayer.” Senator Reed’s concern for the overburdened taxpayer is definitely not high on his priority list as he is graded F for being a “Big Spender” in every year of his tenure.
The Club for Growth Foundation is a 501(c)(3) social organization dedicated to educating the public about free markets, pro-growth policies, and fostering economic prosperity. The Club scores on a scale of 0-100 and finds Sen. Reed in opposition to those standards. He is rated 0 for 2019 and 5 lifetime.
Citizens Against Government Waste works to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government through research and public education. They found that Sen. Reed is not in favor of their efforts, either. With a few 0s in recent years his lifetime rating is 9. Again, at the bottom of the Senate. They name him “Hostile to Taxpayers.”
Those are three indicative non-partisan groups. Following is an avowed liberal/progressive group and a staunch conservative/libertarian group.
Americans for Democratic
Heritage Action is the political action arm of the nation’s premier think tank, The Heritage Foundation, whose “mission is to promote free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values
Without limitation on congressional terms we the people have little control over who serves and for how long. For many decades, about 95% of incumbents are reelected largely because of lobbyists for the special interests that provide much of their campaign income.
Career politicians spend most of their time raising money for reelection. Those who are term-limited, as many state legislatures are, can spend more time on official business because reelection is not Job #1. Lobbyists oppose term limits as they want to keep their honest politicians whom they describe as “once bought, stays bought.”
The federal government is so huge now that there are almost unlimited opportunities for special interests to get a piece of it. All they need is a politician to get it for them. The career pol is willing to do that to secure his own profitable tenure. Peter Schweizer’s book Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends documents many cases, including the Bidens. The United States desperately needs to get back to a citizen legislature or the continued extreme government spending and laws often far exceeding Constitutional limits will destroy opportunity and freedoms of our posterity.
Sen. Reed is so entrenched that a potential challenger would have to spend an enormous amount of money to gain the name recognition his opponent already has after nearly 40 years in office. That is the case with almost all races where there is an incumbent. We owe it to those that follow us to change that. Check out the Article V campaign at www.termlimits.com
