Club for Growth

Mike Pence makes sense

Below are some excerpts from an article that the National Journal ran today about Mike Pence, a congressman from Indiana who Club members helped elect back in 2000.

Flatout, Pence is a superstar on our issues. The National Taxpayers Union gave him an "A" grade last year for his fiscal restraint. Citizens Against Government Waste has given him a lifetime rating of "Taxpayer Hero". And, as the article notes, Pence is now the chairman-elect of the Republican Study Committee.

Upon arriving on Capitol Hill, Pence got a quick start. He was the only House freshman to gain a subcommittee chairmanship in 2001, when he was appointed to head the Regulatory Reform Oversight Subcommittee of the Small Business Committee. Asked to describe himself, Pence always has the same answer -- "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order."

The Republican Study Committee -- founded in its current form in the 1970s, and once known as the Conservative Action Team, or CATs -- has gained enormous power in the House during the past several years. House Republican leaders used to look upon the group's members as pesky gnats who needed to be swatted, but now the leaders consult the RSC on major issues.

The group seeks to limit government growth and pushes traditional moral values, and it has been especially diligent in monitoring appropriations bills. If the whiff of wasteful spending is too strong, its members have been known to threaten to offer hundreds of amendments on the House floor unless changes are made. And given its sheer size, the Republican Study Committee has the clout to bring down major legislation. "Over the past four or five years, the group has built a reputation of picking their battles and really making their case," a House Republican leadership aide said.

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As the RSC's chairman come January, Pence will be well positioned to choose his battles, the House Republican leadership aide said. "He understands policy and the intersection of process," the aide said. And Pence, for his part, said he is looking to "continue to be a thorn in the flesh of the Appropriations Committee."

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During the congressional debate over campaign finance reform in 2002, he bluntly attacked Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. According to The Indianapolis Star, Pence at the time told a meeting of House Republicans: "Any of you that are thinking of joining with John McCain on this issue should know that McCain is so deep in bed with the Democrats that his feet are coming out of the bottom of the sheets."

Posted by Andrew Roth on October 15, 2004 3:22 PM | Trackback (0) | Print | #