An official member of the Republican Congressional "Tea Party Caucus" co-sponsored and failed to vote against a "food tyranny" bill that proponents of limited government nationwide railed against. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, member of the group which purports to advocate "fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government," has some 'splainin' to do. H.R.2751 -- FDA Food Safety Modernization Act , (full text here) was passed by Congress on December 21 with a 215-144 vote, and sent to the President for his signature. The bill was sponsored by Betty Sue Sutton, a Democrat from Ohio who first entered Congress in January 2007. Barton is a 47 year old Methodist lawyer who attended Kent State. Previously a city council member and Ohio State representative, Sutton's recent claim to fame was establishing the failed 'cash for clunkers' program.
The new bill, known as S.B. 510 in the Senate and referred to as the "Food Tyranny bill" by many, had 59 cosponsors. Nine of the 59 cosponsors were Republicans. ...
Joe Barton, one of three Republican cosponsors who failed to vote on the bill, is an official member of the 'Tea Party Caucus', established by Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachman in July 2010. Sixty-one year old Joseph Linus "Joe" Barton has been in office since January 1985 and serves Texas District 6. Like Sutton, Barton is also a Methodist. He grew up in Waco and worked as an engineer and oil company consultant before being elected to Congress. Wikipedia credits Barton with "initiating the reauthorization of the National Institutes of Health" and notes that he was "the lead representative in forcing the switch from analog to digital TV and auctioning off the public airwaves to private companies". Barton has a demonstratively odd record for someone who claims to support limited government.
Clearly enamoured by the Bush family, Barton cosponsored a bill to "redesignate the U.S. Courthouse located in Midland, Texas as the "George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush United States Courthouse". He cosponsored the 'Carbon Capture and Storage Early Deployment Act', which would create a 'Carbon Storage Research Corporation' and provide 'grants, contracts, and financial assistance'. He voted for the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act, which would "establish national multimedia campaigns" encouraging young women to be aware of their personal risk factors", etc etc. A bona fide neocon warmonger, Barton pledged to to make a '2 percent across-the-board rescissions in spending', as long as it wasn't a cut in the defense or homeland-security budget. Barton also cosponsored bills to sanction Iran, to establish a coproration using our tax dollars to promote travel and tourism, and to "support for the State of Israel's inalienable right to defend itself in the face of an imminent nuclear or military threat from Iran, terrorist organizations, and the countries that harbor them."....
It's shame that the notion of a limit government 'tea party' movement can be co-opted by a gaggle of big government statists and neocon phony conservative control freaks such as Texas Rep. Joe Barton. Bachman and all those associated with the 'Tea Party Caucus' should be leery of associating their group with him. [full article here