from Rooted in Reason Blog
How conservative are Hawaii’s Senators and Congresswomen?
Hey! Stop laughing! I mean it.
Ok, I’ll just give you a moment to get a hold of yourselves.
So obviously, the answer to that question is “not very.” But even if you think of your Congressional delegation as slightly to the Left of Che Guevara, it still helps to know the particulars. So no matter what side of the aisle you’re on, you may be interested in Heritage Action’s new legislative scorecard, which calculates how each Senator and Congressman/woman scores compared to their preferred stance on specific legislation. And while it’s no surprise that Senators Inouye and Akaka each scored a big fat 0%, it may interest you to know that Congresswomen Hanabusa and Hirono are exponentially more conservative than the Senators, with each coming in at an anemic (but comparatively huge) 10%. Moreover, Hirono’s and Hanabusa’s slight toe-dip into the waters of the right came primarily on fiscal issues:
- Both voted “No” on the Temporary “Kick the Can” Spending Measure (Legislation provided for the continuing appropriations for the federal government through April 8, 2011 – a short-term funding measure that “kicked the can down the road.”)
- Hirono voted against the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (which would overhaul the U.S. patent system, changing how patents are awarded, reviewed and challenged.)
- Hanabusa voted against reducing funding for missile defense (as part of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 that would reduce authorization for ground-based midcourse missile defense systems by $100 million.)
- Both voted against an effort to increase the debt limit with minimal cuts ( Budget Control Act of 2011 – would provide for a two-step debt limit increase of $900 billion and $1.6 trillion, in exchange for various “cuts” and statutory spending caps.) (Alas, however, they did vote the wrong way on the final debt limit legislation, so the promising start was for naught.)
So there we are. We’re 10% of the way towards a perfect conservative record on spending, family issues, and national defense. Or 5%, if you average in the Senators. We have almost nowhere to go but up.
---30---
Related: Charles Djou, second most moderate Republican in 111th Congress
Search Results For Hawaii
| State |
District |
Name |
|
Party |
Score% |
| HI |
2 |
Rep. Mazie Hirono |
|
D |
10% |
| HI |
1 |
Rep. Colleen Hanabusa |
|
D |
10% |
| HI |
HI |
Sen. Daniel Akaka |
|
D |
0% |
| HI |
HI |
Sen. Daniel Inouye |
|
D |
0% |
|