Redstate: Beat Todd Platts

Redstate's Erick Erickson writes why it is necessary to make the "obscure" Todd Platts even more obscure by sending a true conservative to replace him.

He is pathetic on education issues and school choice reforms in particular. He voted in favor of No Child Left Behind, and earlier this year, was one of only 4 Republicans to oppose reinstating opportunity scholarships for poor children in D.C.

He is a restrictor of free speech. He supported McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform,” along with 527 reform a few years later. He even opposed a bipartisan bill to ensure that campaign finance laws would not apply to bloggers.

He is a defender of seemingly every liberal spending program, including: the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Amtrak, Headstart, Americorps, the National School Lunch Program, the Legal Services Corporation, etc. He is serial reauthorizer of farm subsidies, highway subsidies, and energy subsidies.

He is profoundly unserious about cutting spending. He voted to earmark funds for Kentucky’s tourism industry, the DC metro system, a National Mule and Packers Museum, researching the genetic makeup of grapes, the Bronx Council of Arts, etc. He consistently votes against the conservative budgets offered by the Republican Study Committee (with one exception, which must have been a mistake). He opposed comprehensive reforms to the budget and spending process designed to limit government rather than expand it, probably because they were opposed vigorously by the appropriators.

He voted for the Medicare prescription drug benefit and the expansion of SCHIP, and voted to block the Bush Administration from controlling Medicaid spending. And in this age where every Republican tries to outdo each other on repeal of Obamacare, he voted to expand one of its grant programs earlier this year.

It goes on (because with Todd Platt's lousy voting record, it can), but you get the picture.

More Exposing of Todd Platts

Great new blog from libertarian challenger to Todd Platts exposing more of his liberal voting record.