At the end of last year Congresswoman Betsy Markey (CO 4) joined the Blue Dog Coalition, a self described group of 54 conservative and moderate Democrats that focus on fiscal issues including a balanced budget and the national debt.   A review of Markey’s voting record leaves one to wonder if her support for fiscal reform is all bark and no bite.

Markey is a freshman democrat lawmaker from a conservative district (voter registration favors republicans by nearly10 percent) that voted for John McCain in 2008.  She is the first democrat to represent the 4th CD since Wayne Aspinall in 1973.  The Cook Political Report calls the 4th CD a “toss up” for 2010, which is why Markey has tried so hard recently to appear as a fiscal conservative.

Early in 2009 she voted for or supported unpopular legislation such as the stimulus package, card check, and cap and trade.  My friend and fellow blogger Randy Ketner did an excellent job of highlighting Markey’s short legislative tenure.  His lengthy “Colorado Political Analysis 2010” appeared on Red State.

It seems that Markey is reading the tea leaves, which are telling her to move to the right or at least look like she is moving to the right.  Recently Markey has voted “against” her party on both health care and raising the debt limit, but in reality she voted with party leadership on all procedural and amendment votes only voting against leadership on the final vote.  That way she can position herself as independent of the democrat leadership without upsetting them.

Take health care for instance. Markey says she voted against H.R. 3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act because she claimed it did not do enough to “cut health care costs that crushing our businesses and families.”  She claims to support health care reform just not this specific piece of legislation. 

If that is true, then why did she vote no on a motion to recommit the bill?  According to GovTrack, Markey voted no on House Vote #866 which was “a final opportunity to revise” it before passage.  A motion to recommit sends legislation back to committee with instructions on how to fix the bill.  It can be used constructively or can be used to kill a “bill before it moves to a final up-or-down vote in the House.”  If Markey is serious about health care reform but not this bill, why vote to move it along instead of fixing it in such a way that she can support it?

Another example of Markey voting with democrat party leadership on rules and procedures for unpopular legislation then voting against them on the final tally is H.J. Res. 45 to increase the statutory limit on public debt.  This one is interesting because 38 Democrats voted not to raise the debt limit, 22 are freshman lawmakers facing competitive races in the fall, 17 are Blue Dogs.  Of the 17 Blue Dogs, only four enabled party leadership with procedural votes that allowed the debt limit resolution to go to the floor of the House.  Markey was one of those four. 

Markey voted yes on Roll Call Vote #45, which ordered the question: “Providing for consideration of the Senate amendment to the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 45) increasing the statutory limit on the public debt.”  She then voted no on Roll Call Vote #46 on “agreeing” to an increase. 

Markey played the same game with H.R. 1106: Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which allows bankruptcy courts to modify mortgage contracts.  She enabled democrat leadership when she voted no to recommit and yes to proceed.  On the final vote she said no. 

These aren’t the only examples.  I’ll highlight more as we get closer to the November vote.

The 4th CD is the heart of Ag country in Colorado.  Weld County is the 8th largest Ag producing county in the United States.  While Congresswoman Markey can claim to be a fiscal conservative, our sensitive olfactory receptors can detect a load of manure when we smell it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 1:32 pm and is filed under 4th CD, People's Press Collective, Weld County, agriculture, health care, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.