Democrats' lock-step Liberalism

When President Clinton took office in 1993, the budget for Head Start was $2.7 billion. In his proposed fiscal 2001 budget, it is $6.6 billion. That increase, says Robert L. Borosage of the Campaign for America's Future, is "deeply disappointing."

Liberal economist Robert Kuttner wants more "social investment. Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich fears paying down the national debt will "put a straightjacket on any future public ambitions." For the liberal left, there is just never enough federal spending, and there are never enough government programs

Fortunately for the liberals, a strong bloc of Democratic representatives in Congress are willig to vote a consistent left-liberal line, in favor of collective decisions and opposed to individualism.

Even More Liberal Than Ted Kennedy

Last week [HUMAN EVENTS, page 11], 1 wrote of the liberal House Republicans, who they were and how they voted in the Congress on important issues. But what of the Democratic left in the House? What do they believe in and vote for?

The average ratings I examined, as I did for the Republicans, were taken for the five years since the GOP took control of the House (1995-1999), cross-checked against the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) in 1999 and the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1997 and 1998. This produced a list of the dozen most-liberal House members, with conservative ratings ranging from a low of I% for Chaka. Fattah (D.-Pa.) to a high of 2%--no, that is not a misprint-for Melvin Watt (D.-N.C.), and liberal ratings never less than 85% and frequently 100%. Here are the 12 most liberal House Democrats:

* Sam Farr (Calif.)

* Chaka Fattah (Pa.)

* Henry Waxman (Calif.)

* Martin Sabo (Minn.)

* John Olver (Mass.)

* Thomas Sawyer (Ohio)

* William Coyne (Pa.)

* Xaviera Beccara, (Calif.)

* Elija Cummings (Md.)

* Barney Frank (Mass.)

* Jerrold Nadler (N.Y)

* Melvin Watt (N.C.)

These House lawmakers are very liberal, more so than Senators Paul Wellstone (D.Wis.) or Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.), or Rep. Maxim Walters (D.-Calif.). Even the dean of Washington liberalism, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.Mass.) is no more liberal than these dozen.

Moreover, unlike their Republican counterparts at the liberal edge of their party, these Democrats are united, all voting the same left line on important issues. One bulletin-board commentator on my last column accused me of belittling "any show of open-mindedness" on the part of liberal Republicans. That will not be a problem this week, for among the Democratic left there is none.

All Opposed Every Tax Cut

All 12 of the most liberal House members opposed the welfare-reform legislation that President Clinton signed. AN 12 opposed every tax cut, every spending cut (maybe except defense), every school-choice initiafive and every abortion limitation.

All 12 were for maintaining racial preferences and campaign spending limits, and for limiting political speech during election campaigns. Liberal Republicans, you may recall, unanimously favored campaign spending limits, but split on the other issues, sometimes 8 to 2, sometimes 5 to 5.

The voting pattern is no different on other issues. On building a missile defense against terrorist missile attack@ all were opposed. Ditto on making English the official language.

None of these liberals voted to require private organizations that receive federal funding to report the dollars they spent on lobbying Congress or the election or defeat of political candidates. (This amendment passed the House 211 to 209, with the Republican liberals voting two for it and eight against). Nor did any support the religious-freedom amendment recognizing an individual's right to pray and recognize his or her religious beliefs on public property.

Of the 248 votes cast on all the above issues by the 12 Democrats, just one was for the conservative position. Recall that the 10 most liberal Republicans have conservative voting records ranging from 21 % to 52% and yet frequently showed some independence in voting for the liberal position. Not so the Democratic left, which never casts anything but liberal votes.

Well, hardly ever. There was an issue on which some of these members of Congress split their votes and actually abandoned their predictable positions. On Nov. 10, 1999, the House passed the "Father's Responsibility Act"--4o provide $161 million in grants for programs that promote "marriage and responsible fatherhood"on. a 328-to-93 vote. NOW called it "dangerous legislation," but eight of the 12 Democrats voted for it.

Which proves what we all know to be true: that there is the possibility of redemption in every soul.

Mr du Pont is the editor of IntellectualCapital.com. He is a former Republican governor and congressman from Delaware. His e-mail address is petedupont@intellectualcaptial.com.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Mar 3, 2000
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