The far-right Conservative House Republican Study Committee, of which Mike Bishop and Tim Walberg are members, recently released a set of policy recommendations aimed at influencing Speaker Paul Ryan’s hollow efforts to build the House GOP’s policy agenda. In announcing their list of extreme policy positions, the RSC brags that the platform was “member-driven” – leading us to wonder, which of the RSC’s policy prescriptions did Mike Bishop and Tim Walberg help write?
Was it: repealing Davis-Bacon, which Bishop said he voted to do earlier this year in order to “launch a missile” and get people’s attention. The Davis-Bacon Act requires prevailing wage protections for government contract work, ensuring fair compensation and safer work environments.
Or was it: allowing single women to be fired for getting pregnant, which Tim Walberg proudly supported even after newspapers across the country said the bill had the “potential to do great harm” and a local editorial named it a “right-wing distraction.” After all, as Walberg is fond of saying, government can’t protect us against everything.”
“Instead of doing their job and working to pass a budget, Mike Bishop and Tim Walberg are getting behind another hollow, ideological ‘agenda’ that won’t do anything to help Michiganders,” said Sacha Haworth of the DCCC. “Bishop and Walberg’s membership in this group means they share its out-of-touch positions, including raising taxes on low- and middle-income families, paying Michigan workers less for their work, and enabling employers to discriminate against single mothers.”
RSC Taskforce Lowlights:
- First Amendment Defense Act: This bill would allow employers to discriminate against single moms. Newspapers across the country have slammed the bill as “ridiculous,” “unnecessary” and with the “potential to do great harm.”
- Eliminating TIGER grants: The TIGER grant program has provided funding for nearly 350 projects in all 50 states to create jobs and help improve local transportation infrastructure.
- Repealing Davis-Bacon: The Davis-Bacon Act requires prevailing wage protections for government contract work, ensuring fair compensation and safer work environments.
- Fair Or Flat Tax System: Both the Fair Tax and flat tax systems are regressive approaches that will force middle class families to pay more. A Fair Tax would impose a new 23% sales tax on everything from rent and doctor’s bills to gas and mortgage interest payments. A flat tax system would favor the very wealthy, shifting the tax burden on to low- and middle-income families.