With less than two months until the midterm elections, all eyes are on what a Speaker Boehner would look like if Republicans take back the House. Just as important, though, are those GOPers who would head the House committees. Republicans have vowed that House committee chairmen like these will see their power increase if their party returns to power. With that in mind, it’s worth asking: Who are the House Republicans who would control national legislation in the 112th Congress?
A new report, Extreme Makeover: House Edition, from ThinkProgress takes a closer look. The potential committee and subcommittee chairmen aren’t your run-of-the-mill House Republicans. Rather, those who could be in charge of our nation’s laws are the GOP’s right-wing extremists. Of the 10 right-wing extremists we profiled, eight have voting scores of 95 percent or higher from the American Conservative Union, seven are stimulus hypocrites, four are members of the Tea Party Caucus, and one is even a birther.
Those would control the House committees and subcommittees also may include:
— A Judiciary chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who has hinted at impeaching President Obama
— Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who opposes the existence of the global warming committee he would chair
— The subcommittee that controls monetary policy would be headed by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who has called paper money “nothing short of counterfeiting”
— Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who apologized to BP during the oil spill for a $20 billion “shakedown,” would control national energy policy
Click here to download a pdf of our report.
Explore the profiles of these right-wing extremists and decide for yourself: do you want these men in charge come January 2011?
Update:
In addition, eight of the ten committee chairmen we profiled are funded by the right-wing billionaire Koch Brothers.