Congressional candidates on the issues, part 5

Tonight I grade GOP candidates on where they stand on an issue I call “role of government.” A full explanation of my thoughts is here, but for simplicity’s sake I described it this way when I did the Presidential chapter:

  • The government should be as small as possible with limited tasks, those that cannot be done as well by the private sector or the market.
  • The closer the government is to the people, the better and more responsive it is. The reason I prefer government that’s as close to the people as possible is that smaller government can more easily be proactive rather than reactive.

It appears that three Republicans and one Democrat address this issue to some extent, so I may as well get started on recapping and dissecting what they say, beginning with the incumbent.

The statement by Wayne Gilchrest is simple:

With Washington spending out of control, Wayne has voted for deficit reduction measures including the Line Item Veto and tougher limits on federal appropriations, and Wayne voted this year for across the board spending cuts in federal budget bills. 

On the other hand, Andy Harris addresses my concerns in three different parts of his website.

For his part, John Leo Walter notes:

Congress has a duty and obligation to (1) continue to reduce the tax burden on the American family and (2) cut spending. Over the past decade, Congressional spending has been out of control – government programs should not live forever; As Congressman, I will endeavor to shrink the size and scope of our ever growing (and controlling) Federal Government.

Surprisingly for a Democrat, Christopher Robinson goes on record saying:

The budget deficit and national debt are a national disgrace and prevent us from pursuing sound, responsible national objectives. We owe it to our children to leave them a legacy of hope, not a mountain of debt. As a fiscal conservative, Christopher Robinson believes that balancing our budget and bringing federal spending under strict control is one of our nation’s most important priorities.

Now it’s time for my to rub my hands in glee, or is it the chilly weather? Anyway, there’s 23 points at stake here so this is an opportunity for those responding to pick up a lot of points with a good answer.

I’ll begin with Wayne Gilchrest. He has a mixed record on reducing government at best. I certainly agree with the line-item veto vote but when he votes to spend money on programs like the SCHIP expansion and generally favors this year’s appropriations bills I can’t see him as one who wants to limit government. I can only give him five of a possible 23 points so he remains in the hole overall.

In my opinion, Andy Harris would not have voted for all of these appropriation bills Gilchrest voted for. Why do I think this? Because he’s voted against 6 of 9 Maryland state budgets since becoming a State Senator and methinks the record becomes 7 of 10 early next year. Included in that string was the final Ehrlich budget which Andy must have felt was too full of election-year pork. He grades down to some extent because of a lack of specifics, but Andy deserves 15 of 23 points.

John Leo Walter says much of the same thing as Andy Harris, but without the track record. He is exactly right though with his philosophy that government programs should not live forever. With them being essentially two peas in a pod on the subject, John gets the same 15 points Andy does.

I can’t pull that much of a trigger on Christopher Robinson, though. It’s because while he talks about being a deficit hawk in one breath, in the next he speaks of increasing federal education funding and making health care more accessible. In a lot of ways Robinson’s stance reminds me of Wayne Gilchrest’s except at least Gilchrest wants a line-item veto. I’ll award Robinson 3.5 points for at least paying lip service to controlling spending, but I don’t expect him following through if elected.

Revisiting the totals, we have a more spread-out field:

  1. Andy Harris, 44.5 points
  2. John Leo Walter, 40 points
  3. Joe Arminio, 1 point
  4. Wayne Gilchrest, -13 points

For the Democrats, Frank Kratovil stays in front with -19 points to Christopher Robinson’s -34 points.

Over the weekend, I have some catching up to do as GOP hopeful Robert Joseph Banks upgraded his website and now has an issue page for me to study. So I’ll investigate where he stands and rate him accordingly as to whether he’s the centerpoint between Gilchrest and Harris or not.

On Monday, I’ll resume this series with my second-most important issue, immigration and border security. I’ll wrap up efforts next week with that and how the candidates stand on the Long War.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.