Even The Most Effective Member Of Congress Can't Win EVERY Vote

This year Congress isn't accomplishing much-- unless you count driving down its own favorability ratings as an accomplishment. But even in that dysfunctional situation, Orlando area Congressman Alan Grayson is being widely hailed as the most effective Member of Congress, working on both sides of the aisle and forging ad hoc bipartisan coalitions that have left Party leaders with their jaws agape. Apparently, they forgot the Audit the Fed coalition Grayson and Ron Paul put together to get around Party leaders several years ago.

Last week, Party leaders had had it with Grayson. When he proposed an amendment to the transportation appropriations bill cutting corporate welfare for airlines, Boehner and Hoyer both put their corporately-funded feet down. They insisted that no one vote for Grayson's proposal which cut the maximum subsidy from $500 per passenger to $250 per passenger, part of a $100 million annual payout to fly empty planes back and forth to remote airports. Tom Latham, on behalf of the GOP leadership, went bonkers and decided they needed to teach the uppity Grayson a lesson.

It looked like it was going to be a 434-1 rout against Congress' most effective Member. Then an independent-minded libertarian-leaning Republican, Tom McClintock (CA), saw the text of the amendment and told Grayson he thought it made sense and would co-sponsor it. Grayson sent out this "dear colleague" letter to every Member of the House and the backbenchers started stirring:  

If We Have to Cut Something, Cut This:

Support the Bipartisan Grayson Amendment, and Reduce “Welfare for Airplanes”

Dear Colleague:

A vote has been scheduled tonight on the Grayson Amendment, which would reduce the maximum subsidy per passenger under the so-called “Essential Air Service Program” (EASP) from $500 to $250.

The Transportation-HUD Appropriations bill appropriates approximately $100 million (discretionary dollars) to the EASP. The EASP was begun 35 years ago, during transportation deregulation, as a temporary program. Its purpose was to help small, isolated communities to transition to commercial air service. The subsidy is paid by the Government not to passengers or to airports, but rather to commercial carriers such as United Airlines.   The appropriations bill currently caps the subsidy at $500 per passenger. (For perspective, a person working at the minimum wage has to work almost two weeks to earn $500.)

The Grayson Amendment reduces the maximum subsidy per passenger to $250. There are 15 airports (and only 15 airports) that receive a subsidy greater than $250. These are the only communities that would be affected by the amendment. They are Macon, GA; Athens, GA; Kingman, AZ; Franklin, PA; Bradford, PA; Greenville, MS; Muscle Shoals, AL; Jamestown, NY; Hot Springs, NY; Jackson, TN; Salina, KS; Altoona, PA; Merced, CA; Dubois, PA and Visalia, CA. In all of these airports, the program serves only 4 to 30 passengers per day. Under the Grayson Amendment, none of these airports will become ineligible for the program; the subsidy at each airport simply will be capped at $250 per passenger.

Typical of these recipients is the service for Macon, Georgia. There were only 1286 passengers served in Macon, GA during all of last year. Each passenger enjoyed a subsidy of $1554. The Macon airport is only 82 miles from the nation’s busiest airport, Atlanta-Hartsfield.

Given the strict budget cuts that this appropriations bill imposes, it is indefensible to spend over $1 million in taxpayer dollars to continue unwanted commercial air service in Macon, GA and these other 14 airports. In fact, it would be far cheaper to hire a limousine to drive these 4 passengers each day to Atlanta.

Let’s show our constituents that we respect their tax dollars. Support the Grayson Amendment.

In the end the amendment didn't pass. But it wasn't a 434-1 rout, or even a 433-2 rout. I'm positive if Grayson and McClintock had more time to work the floor-- they had barely an hour-- they would have carried the day. As is, they rounded up a startling 191 votes... one of the craziest right-left anti-Leadership coalitions you've ever seen. Grayson brought along progressives like Raul Grijalva, Keith Ellison, Maxine Waters, Zoe Lofgren, Donna Edwards, Judy Chu, Hakeem Jeffries, Barbara Lee, Jose Serano, Beto O'Rourke, Henry Waxman. Blue Dogs and New Dems also piled on. And McClintock signed up Libertarians like Walter Jones, Justin Amash and Tom Massie, as well as Republican crackpots-- think Bachmann, Sanford, Broun, Stutzman, Stockman, Gohmert-- with one grievance or another against someone or something, including Establishment heavyweights like Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, Fred Upton, Tom Price, Dave Camp, Ed Royce, and Jim Sensenbrenner. In the end, the whole Transportation bill was scuttled when Boehner realized he didn't have any kind of GOP consensus to pass it.