Dismally.

The Conservative Review tracks votes of politicians and gives them a grade relative to their votes on issues important to conservatives.  These are a few of the votes listed for South Dakota’s Jr. Senator:

2015 Votes

To Advance a $1.1 Trillion Budget Busting Spending Bill      

Vote Result Date: 12/18/2015

Conservative Position: No         Rounds Vote: Yes

This 2,009 page omnibus bill contained a whopping $1.1 trillion for funding the entire government for the remainder of fiscal year 2016, or $547 million per page. Taken in totality, this bill gave away the final opportunity for Republicans to wield the power of the purse over a number of lawless or harmful executive policies for the rest of the Obama administration. The tactics and processes used by Speaker Ryan to advance this bill were identical to ones used by Speaker Boehner, and ultimately resulted in the GOP Congress losing all leverage over an out of control executive branch. As the omnibus fully funded Obama’s amnesty programs and even added close to $300 million in funding for economic and cultural development in some of the very Latin American countries violating our sovereignty. While the bill contained no positive immigration riders to prevent Obama from bringing in Syrian refugees and other security risks, it contained a harmful provision quadrupling the H2-b visa program for next year, further burdening American workers and taxpayers with more low skilled workers from impoverished countries. In addition, this bill stripped out every rider halting Obama’s environmental agenda. Finally it increased spending by $53 billion relative to the previous year.

Expand Federal Involvement in Education    

Vote Result Date: 12/9/2015

Conservative Position: No       Rounds Vote: Yes

This vote was to reauthorize No Child Left Behind through 2020. No Child Left Behind represented an unprecedented expansion by the federal government into education. Overall this reauthorization legislation is a missed opportunity for a Republican controlled congress to empower parents and put children first. Education is an issue that is near and dear to families and represents and opportunity for Republicans to lay down a bold contrast of family first policies. Conservatives believe education decisions should be made by state and local officials, yet this bill retains the fundamental mandate requiring states to concoct uniform standards in reading and math that would be applied statewide throughout all jurisdictions. The bill keeps the plethora of federal testing requirements that have been the driving force behind the adoption of Common Core. Likewise, it does nothing to address the duplicate and wasteful programs funded by the Department of Education, but in reality actually expands education control into preschool programs. Instead of renewing the 2001 law with minor changes, conservatives should be implementing sweeping reforms that allow states to drive innovation in their own school districts.

1,300 Page $305 billion Highway Bailout Bill   

Vote Result Date: 12/4/2015

Conservative Position: No    Rounds Vote: Yes

This 1,300 page bill was introduced, “debated”, and voted on within 72 hours, making it virtually impossible that any member of Congress actually read it. It is accurate to assume that Congress is blindly spending $305 billion with little knowledge of its implications. Additionally this bill bails out the Highway Trust Fund to the tune of $70 billion. While the Republican controlled Congress makes the argument the bill is paid for, that is fraudulent claim as the payfors are budget gimmicks designed to hide the true cost of the bill. Besides continuing Congress’ reckless spending spree the bill, also renews the once shuttered crony capitalist Export Import Bank.

Raise Debt Limit by $1.5 Trillion and Increase Spending   

  Vote Result Date: 10/30/2015

Conservative Position: No   Rounds Vote: Yes

The Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2015 (H.R. 1314) represents the convergence of everything that is wrong in Washington and is a prime example of the engendered permanent growth of the federal government. This bill married a blank check of approximately $1.5 trillion in debt suspension with a two-year budget plan that placed the final nail in the coffin of the 2011 Budget Control Act, which cut government spending for the first time in years. At a time when spending is already slated to increase by another $250 billion in 2016, this deal busts the budget caps by $112 billion. In classic Enron-style accounting, the hodgepodge of “offsets” are either notional, intangible, or scheduled to take effect almost ten years from now and in typical Washington fashion, unlikely to ever come to fruition. In addition, this bill bails out the broken Disability Insurance program with $150 billion from Social Security retirement benefits – without enacting any durable and verifiable reforms that address the systemic flaws in the program which have made this program a dependency-inducing Ponzi scheme rife with fraud. Finally, this budget bill fails to exact a single policy concession from Obama on the major issues of our time – immigration enforcement, Planned Parenthood, EPA regulations, the Iran deal, etc. – and takes the power of the purse off the table as leverage against any potential executive overreach for the remainder of the Obama presidency.

 Obamatrade — Fast Track Authority for TPP   

Vote Result Date: 6/23/2015

Conservative Position: No    Rounds Vote: Yes

This vote was to advance the procedural provision known as Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). TPA grants a special fast-track status to trade deals negotiated by the president and as such has been dubbed Obamatrade. While conservatives generally support trade agreements as important tools for lowering tariffs and trade barriers, and TPA is often needed in order to effectively negotiate with other countries, this particular TPA was problematic for a number of reasons. Typically, a TPA is passed at the beginning of negotiation cycles so that Congress directs the president to negotiate along specific parameters. In this case, the three primary treaties that would receive fast-track status under this TPA have already been negotiated in secret for years. There is no reason to pass fast track authority without releasing more details about these trade agreements to the public. Moreover, given this president’s penchant for implementing major policies without Congress, there was a widespread fear that Obama would use these trade agreements to pursue liberal policies, such as changes to our immigration system, labor laws, and global warming regulations. For example, according to WikiLeaks, one of the impending trade deals – the Trade in Service Agreement (TISA) – contains an entire immigration section, including a provision prohibiting US authorities from conducting in-person interviews for certain visa categories. Additionally, the main trade deal – the Trans Pacific Partnership – contains a “living agreement” provision, which could enable Obama to expand the scope of the agreement during the final months of his presidency or add countries like China to the agreement. Finally, GOP Leadership negotiated a deal to advance Trade Promotion Authority and in exchange for Democrat votes, promised to renew the crony capitalist Export-Import Bank and a failed government handout program known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, a subsidy bailout for labor unions.

Support Loretta Lynch Nomination    

Vote Result Date: 4/23/2015

Conservative Position: No    Rounds Vote: Yes

This vote supported the nomination of Loretta Lynch as Attorney General by advancing her nomination to final passage. While presidents are generally afforded the courtesy of nominating those who share their political views, their political appointees must uphold the rule of law. Lynch was chosen at a time when Obama announced an unconstitutional executive amnesty for illegal immigrants. During the confirmation hearings, Lynch, who will become the chief law enforcement officer, agreed with Obama’s decision to thwart the constitutional separation of powers and to not enforce immigration law. Lynch also expressed the extreme view that everyone has the “right and obligation” to a job in the United States regardless of being an illegal immigrant. $500 Billion Healthcare Bill Vote Result Date: 4/15/2015 Conservative Position: No Rounds Vote: Yes This vote was on H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act which is expected to increase the nation’s debt by $500 billion over the next 20 years. This bill was cobbled together in a backroom deal by Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi. Overall H.R. 2 is a massive health care spending bill that replaces the existing Medicare payment system for health care providers, known as the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), with a new bureaucratic pay scheme that would automatically increase reimbursements every year. Although everyone agrees that the SGR was a flawed system, this bill merely replaced one top-down bureaucratic price-control system with a new one, albeit with a more generous reimbursement rate and no way to pay for the increased spending. With this bill Congress failed to address the underlying problems in healthcare entitlements and in true back room deal fashion, included several extraneous provisions designed to buy votes.

Fully Fund Obama’s Executive Amnesty   

Vote Result Date: 2/27/2015

Conservative Position: No    Rounds Vote: Yes

While considering HR 240, the FY 2015 Department of Homeland Security funding bill, in the Senate, newly elected Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) worked with Democrats and liberal Republicans to re-instate funding for Obama’s executive amnesty. Despite promises from Senate Republicans during the 2014 midterm campaign to stand up to President Obama, HR 240 would fully fund Obama’s fall 2014 unconstitutional executive amnesty. This vote is on final passage of HR 240 and is the last opportunity for Republican’s to stop funding for full implementation of President Obama’s illegal executive amnesty for the remainder of the year.

To be fair, Rounds voted with conservatives on a few issues.  Enough to give him a current rating of a whopping 31%.

South Dakota common sense?  Hardly!  Still, South Dakota Republicans elected this Senator.

Votes matter, his AND ours.

Follow the voting records of Senator John Thune (48%) and Congresswoman Kristi Noem (42%)

“It’s not about right or left, it’s about Right or Wrong.”

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