The House Freedom Caucus are the latest incarnation of conservative "die-hards" in the Congress. They are quite secretive about their Agenda, and even their membership. They are credited with being the painful reason behind the Boehner resignation as Speaker.
9 Republicans launch House Freedom Caucus
by Lauren French, politico.com -- 01/26/15
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Founded by some of most hard-line GOP lawmakers, the House Freedom Caucus will lobby for bills that would limit the size of the government.
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The founding members include Republican Reps. Scott Garrett of New Jersey, Jim Jordan of Ohio, John Fleming of Louisiana, Matt Salmon of Arizona, Justin Amash of Michigan, Raúl Labrador of Idaho, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.
The group will serve as a policy alternative to the Republican Study Committee, the decades-old conservative group that lobbies GOP leadership to push legislation rightward. [...]
The Freedom Caucus will be an invite-only group, and members involved with the planning said they will invite around 30 lawmakers to join. If the caucus can boast a 29-person membership, it would be in a position to block Republican legislation that members don’t support.
What does the HFC want ... well that's another mystery that they probably don't even know themselves. They just want to dictate to America
when the government gets shutdown -- just because the Freedom Caucus didn't get their way --
AGAIN!
Freedom Caucus -- From Wikipedia
The House Freedom Caucus is a congressional caucus consisting of conservative Republican members of the United States House of Representatives.[6] It was formed by a group of Congressmen as a "smaller, more cohesive, more agile and more active" group of conservatives. Many members are also part of the conservative House group the Republican Study Committee.[7][8] According to its mission statement, “The House Freedom Caucus gives a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them. We support open, accountable and limited government, the Constitution and the rule of law, and policies that promote the liberty, safety and prosperity of all Americans.”[9] The caucus is sympathetic to the Tea Party movement.[10]
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So the House Freedom Caucus spun off of the conservative Republican Study Committee --because they weren't
"active and agile" enough. OK then, what are/were the goals of Republican Study Committee?
Republican Study Committee -- From Wikipedia
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is a caucus of 172 conservative members of the Republican Party in the United States House of Representatives. Though the primary functions of the Republican Study Committee vary from year to year, it has always pushed for significant cuts in non-defense spending, advocated socially conservative legislation, and supported the right to keep and bear arms. [...]
The RSC's key legislative initiatives are detailed in the American Taxpayer Bill of Rights,[5] unveiled in March 2007.
1. Taxpayers have a right to have a federal government that does not grow beyond their ability to pay for it.
2. Taxpayers have a right to receive back each dollar that they entrust to the government for their retirement.
3. Taxpayers have a right to expect the government to balance the budget without having their taxes raised.
4. Taxpayers have a right to a simple, fair tax code that they can understand.
History
The RSC was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich and other conservative activists to keep a watch on the House Republican leadership, which they saw at the time as too moderate. [...]
Paul Weyrich, you may recall, is known for such conservative rhetorical gems as these:
Paul Weyrich -- From Wikipedia
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Quotes
"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."[39][40]
"We are different from previous generations of conservatives... We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country."
– Soloma, John. Ominous Politics: The New Conservative Labyrinth (1984), Hill and Wang Publ., New York
"The real enemy is the secular humanist mindset which seeks to destroy everything that is good in this society."
– "The Rights and Wrongs of the Religious Right", Freedom Writer, Institute for First Amendment Studies, October 1995.
And the RSC -- founded by this shit-stirrer --
is too wimpy for the HFC !?
If the Freedom Caucus is really about "freeing the American people from their 'oppressive' Government" -- they why are they so damn secretive about everything they do?
The House Freedom Caucus, explained
Updated by Timothy B. Lee, vox.com -- Oct 9, 2015
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The House Freedom Caucus is so secretive we don't know who's in it
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So in January of this year, a group of nine hardcore conservatives launched a new group called the Republican Freedom Caucus. Over the course of the year, the group grew to about approximately 40 members.
I say "approximately" because the group treats its membership rolls as a closely guarded secret. We know approximately how many members the HFC has, and most of the group's members have acknowledged being part of it. But some suspected members of the group have been weirdly cagey about whether they're part of it. "It’s nobody’s business but our own," Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) told a CQ Roll Call reporter about the group's membership list in July.
The HFC and the GOP leadership have been at war all year
Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), is a member of the House Freedom Caucus (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty)
Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), is a member of the House Freedom Caucus who was booted from House leadership. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty)
That means that if the HFC's members vote as a block, they can deny the Republican leadership the votes they need to pass legislation without Democratic help. And that potentially gives the group a lot of leverage to push the Republican Party's legislative agenda to the right. In February, RFC members pushed the Republican majority close to a partial government shutdown over President Obama's controversial executive order on immigration.
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The Rolling Stone took a stab at it, but even they have failed to come up with a complete membership list, or a clear "list of their demands" ...
Meet the Right-Wing Rebels Who Overthrew John Boehner
The House Freedom Caucus is an ideological and uncompromising band of anti-government radicals. And they're just getting started
by Tim Dickinson, rollingstone.com -- Oct 6, 2015
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Composed of nearly 40 of the most committed ideologues in the House, the Freedom Caucus has a simple mission: to get GOP leadership to deliver on the extreme, anti-government and social-conservative rhetoric that nearly all Republicans spout to get elected.
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Freedom Caucus members define themselves less in opposition to Democrats than to "establishment" Republicans — politicians they see as quick to betray their voters, and subservient to K Street and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents big business in Washington. It's a view articulated by their Senate co-conspirator, Ted Cruz of Texas, who inveighs against a "Washington Cartel" of "lobbyists and career politicians" that "favors giant corporations over taxpayers."
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Stocked with ex-jocks, the Freedom Caucus exudes a locker-room camaraderie. [...] The defining characteristic of these districts is race — they are 83 percent white, or nearly 10 percentage points higher than the national average. That demography is reflected in the makeup of the Freedom Caucus itself. With the prominent exceptions of a woman named Cynthia and a man named Raúl, these are all white men.
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Unaccountable to House leadership, these politicians respond to conservative pressure groups like Heritage Action — an offshoot of the Heritage Foundation. (Long a bastion of the establishment, Heritage is now run by reactionary ex-South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, and is a beating heart of insurgency in Washington.) Running afoul of Heritage's metrics of right-wing purity is the quickest way to invite an electoral challenge. "They have score cards," says Dick Durbin, the Senate's number-two Democrat. "It scares the bejesus out of Republicans: 'Vote yes, vote no — or get ready, we're coming at you in the primary.' "
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The commander of the Freedom Caucus is Rep. Jim Jordan, whose rural Ohio district is gerrymandered into the shape of a pelican: [...]
So, who is the
House Freedom Caucus -- and what do they want?
Well among other things, they appear to be the foot-soldiers of the Heritage Foundation.
And what do they want?
Nothing, Everything, Whatever their murky goals demand at the moment -- say a shiny new Speaker, of their own choosing --
Give them THAT, and they "might stop" holding the American Government Hostage ...
For this week! ... Stay Tuned, for their next "active and agile" Winger Demand. It's sure to be a Doozey!