by Nick Tomboulides
Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY), a U.S. Term Limits Pledge signer, is not a friend of the establishment in Washington. When Massie and several colleagues voted against John Boehner for Speaker of the House in January, they subsequently faced retaliation from the powerful Republican.
Now, according to a story from watchdog Michael Esch, Massie is sounding off on tactics the Speaker uses to drain democracy in Washington and centralize power in the hands of a select few.
Boehner’s favorite method, Massie says, is the voice vote. With this approach, members’ votes are never recorded, so they cannot be held accountable for positions their constituents wouldn’t like. The Speaker not only has full discretion to call this type of vote, but he also gets to interpret its results.
“The way that Boehner decides if there is a quorum is by squinting his eyes and declaring he thinks he sees 218 people,” Esch writes. “Congressman Massie said sometimes there will only be ten congressmen present.”
Massie is known for making a dramatic 500-yard sprint from his office to the House floor when the Speaker starts holding voice votes with no one present. His goal? To demand a recorded vote so Americans know where their representatives stand.
If the voice votes only took place on silly bills, like honoring sports teams and certain types of music, it wouldn’t be too big a deal. But Boehner uses this scheme on issues of national importance.
Once, after Massie’s flight back to Kentucky had been cancelled, he returned to the Capitol to find a voice vote taking place on whether President Obama could arm Ukraine’s Military. This occurred after most congressmen had already gone home.
The net effect of these tricks is to concentrate power with House leadership, leave no paper trail and lock constituents entirely out of the process.
Congressman Massie, among others, is working hard to expose the deception. But he understands, as most Americans do, that only a shift from permanent politicians to citizen legislators can restore accountability in Washington.
That’s why he supports term limits on Congress. And, with maneuvers like Boehner’s, it cannot come soon enough.
Nick Tomboulides is the Executive Director of U.S. Term Limits.