politics

Fascinating Politics

Dwight Eisenhower: An Ideological Profile of a President


President Eisenhower is often looked back with fondness by many as a figure of a more stable time in the United States (although there were social conflicts brimming and a lot of what was seen in the 1960s started developing in the 1950s), and indeed the representative of what President Joe Biden once called “your father’s Republican Party”. Given that Eisenhower is most certainly thought of as representative of “your father’s Republican Party”, what was he like ideologically? I already wrote in a previous post that he’s moderately conservative, but what are the details?

In his first term, Eisenhower took the side of states over the federal government in granting title for offshore natural resources (read: oil) and signed into law a bill making it so as he had promised in 1952. This issue was one of the reasons that Texas for the first time since 1928 had voted Republican. He was a convinced internationalist, and a major reason he ran for president was to stop the rise of Senator Robert Taft to the presidency, who would have been much more of a skeptic of foreign aid and the US role in the world). The relationship between Republicans and Eisenhower, although overall positive, had nuance and was complex. Although certainly far friendlier to business than his predecessor or his successor, Eisenhower was far from a turn back to his three Republican predecessors. Indeed, there was no great concerted effort to outright repeal portions of the New Deal (although there were efforts to scale back government in agriculture and to alter the Tennessee Valley Authority). He initially supported some public housing, but later turned against authorizing more. Although Eisenhower appointed some people who were not pleasing to the conservative wing of the GOP such as Charles Bohlen for Ambassador to the USSR and liberal Republican Paul Hoffman as a delegate to the UN General Assembly, he also picked some staunch conservatives in Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey, Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks, and especially Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson. Examining Eisenhower’s official positions on votes counted by Americans for Constitutional Action for the Senate from 1955 to 1960 and for the House from 1957 to 1960 reveals that had he been a legislator, he would have scored an overall 69% by the group. ACA would endorse a legislator for reelection if their score was 65% or above, so the fiction of Eisenhower the legislator would have been endorsed for reelection (had the also fictional scenario existed in which he could and would have run), albeit not with enthusiasm by the group. Although much is made out of the 1956 Republican platform by contemporary liberals, indeed the platform was written by members of the party’s moderate to liberal wing, but Eisenhower was certainly less liberal than the platform made out the GOP to be. The Democratic Party overall was undoubtedly more liberal than Eisenhower, but Eisenhower was definitely to the left of the average Republican in his views by ACA standards. However, his DW-Nominate score was a 0.281 and places him a little to the right of the middle among Senate Republicans.

Eisenhower’s positions on votes counted by ACA were:

Supporting the elimination of a $20 tax credit, which if enacted would have had an estimated impact of removing 5 million taxpayers from the rolls (1955).

Opposed Senator Long’s (D-La.) amendment to cut foreign aid by $318 million (1955).

Supported Senator Capehart’s (R-Ind.) amendment to cut public housing to 35,000 units annually over two years (1955).

Supported the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s amendment increasing foreign aid by $420 million (1955).

Supported Senator Anderson’s (D-N.M.) amendment to the farm bill for 90% of parity price supports (1956).

Supported Senator Aiken’s (R-Vt.) amendment to delete dual parity from the farm bill (1956).

Opposed the adoption of the farm bill for 90% of mandatory price supports for one year and for a soil bank program (1956).

Supported Senator Bridges’s (R-N.H.) amendment to reduce the increase in defense department spending from $960 to $500 million (1956).

Opposed Senator Bridges’s (R-N.H.) amendment to delete funding in future foreign aid bills for Yugoslavia (1956).

Opposed legislation authorizing the construction of the Hells Canyon Dam by the Federal Government as opposed to private development (1956, 1957).

Supported a foreign aid increase by an overall figure of $108.5 million over what was approved by the House (1956).

Supported legislation to authorize federal aid for economically depressed areas (1956).

Supported Senator Hruska’s (R-Neb.) motion to recommit the Rivers and Harbors bill with instructions reducing river and harbor projects by a minimum of $350 million and to consider deletion of new projects (1957).

Opposed Representative Fisher’s (D-Tex.) amendment to delete $50 million in grants for sewage plant construction (1957).

Opposed Minority Leader Knowland’s (R-Calif.) amendment to maintain the restriction on bartering commodities with communist nations (1957).

Opposed Representative Harrison’s (D-Va.) amendment, prohibiting the use of funds for a soil acreage reserve program on 1958 crops (1957).

Opposed Senator Morse’s (D-Ore.) amendment to increase public housing from 35,000 annually to 200,000 annually for fiscal years 1958 and 1959 (1957).

Supported Representative Boland’s (D-Mass.) motion to concur in the Senate amendment providing funds to enact the flood insurance program enacted in the previous year (1957).

Opposed Senator Ellender’s (D-La.) amendment to cut military assistance by $500 million (1957).

Supported Representative Arends’s (R-Ill.) amendment, deleting the requirement that the Secretary of Defense notify Congress of transfers of military public works projects to private industry and to subject these transfers to Congressional approval (1957).

Opposed the Anderson (D-N.M.)-Aiken (R-Vt.)-Case (R-S.D.) amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, deleting Title III, which granted the attorney general the authority to institute civil action for preventative relief in 14th Amendment cases, even if all legal remedies hadn’t been exhausted (1957).

Opposed Representative Smith’s (R-Wis.) motion to recommit the Mutual Security Act with instructions to delete the creation of the Development Loan Fund (1957).

Opposed Senator Goldwater’s (R-Ariz.) motion to kill the bill allowing the Tennessee Valley Authority to issue and sell bonds for up to $750 million (1957).

Opposed Representative Taber’s (R-N.Y.) motion to recommit the 1958 Fiscal Supplemental Appropriation bill, reducing Tennessee Valley Authority funds (1957).

Supported Representative Judd’s (R-Minn.) motion to recommit the 1958 Mutual Security Fiscal 1958 Appropriations, restoring funds cut by Congress (1957).

Opposed the bill barring reducing price supports of agricultural commodities except tobacco (covered by separate legislation) below their 1957 level (1958).

Supported Representative McGregor’s (R-Ohio) motion to recommit the River and Harbor and Flood Control Acts of 1958, deleting four projects and reducing costs on fourteen others (1958).

Opposed Senator Jenner’s (R-Ind.) amendment to bar the sales of farm surpluses to any nation that has not pledged that it will not back communist governments in case the Cold War with them goes hot (1958).

Opposed Senator Fulbright’s (D-Ark.) amendment to limit interest rates on loans to states and localities to 3% instead of 3.5% (1958).

Supported Representative Herlong’s (D-Fla.) amendment to substitute the Eisenhower Administration’s proposals on unemployment compensation instead of the more generous committee bill backed by Democratic leadership (1958).

Opposed Senator Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) amendment to expand coverage of unemployment compensation and provide for a federally mandated standard of 39 weeks of unemployment benefits (1958).

Supported Minority Leader Knowland’s (R-Calif.) amendment, deleting allowing foreign aid to communist nations aside from the USSR, China, and North Korea (1958).

Opposed an open rule for debate on the second effort to pass legislation preventing reductions in agricultural price supports (1958).

Supported allowing States to assume jurisdiction in cases in which the National Labor Relations Board will not act (“no man’s land” disputes) (1958, 1959).

Opposed Senator Douglas’s (D-Ill.) amendment to provide for a reduction of personal income taxes by $50 a person along with other reductions in personal and excise taxes, which are unfunded and estimated to loss $6-6.3 billion in annual revenue (1958).

Opposed Senator McNamara’s (D-Mich.) amendment providing for a two-year school construction program at a cost of $2 billion (1958).

Supported three separate efforts to kill anti-preemption legislation by Senator Hennings (D-Mo.) and Representatives Keating (R-N.Y.) and Lindsay (R-N.Y.) respectively to provide that an act of Congress does not undo a state law unless explicitly stated in the legislation, designed to restore anti-subversive powers of states (1958, 1959).

Opposed Representative Hays’s (D-Ohio) motion to strike the enacting clause of a bill for mineral subsidies, thereby killing it for the session (1958).

Opposed Senator Ellender’s (D-La.) amendment reducing by $50 million funds for defense support (1958).

Supported Senator Capehart’s (R-Ind.) amendment reducing funds under the housing bill by $1.3 billion (1959).

Supported Representative Teague’s (R-Calif.) motion to delete a $300 million direct loan program from the Veterans Housing bill (1959).

Supported Senator Schoeppel’s (R-Kan.) amendment reducing from $165 million to $63 million in annual grants for airport construction over four years (1959).

Supported Representative Davis’s (D-Ga.) motion to reduce airport construction funding for fiscal years 1961 and 1962 by $32.3 million and for fiscal year 1963 by $32.4 million (1959).


Opposed the bill authorizing $389.5 million for Federal loans and grants to economically depressed areas (1959).

Supported Senator McClellan’s (D-Ark.) amendment prohibiting unions from coercing or inducing employers or employees to not do business with other entities (1959).

Supported Representative Scherer’s (R-Ohio) motion to add provisions to the Tennessee Valley Authority financing bill to increase control of executive agencies and Congress over the issuing of bonds (1959).

Opposed Senator Humphrey’s (D-Minn.) amendment to the wheat bill, enacting 85% of parity price supports on wheat for farmers who reduce acreage by 20% (1959).

Supported the amendment of Senator Williams (R-Del.) to reduce from $450 million to $375 million in funds for soil bank payments (1959).

Supported his nomination of Lewis Strauss as Secretary of Commerce (1959).

Supported Representative Kilburn’s (R-N.Y.) motion to recommit the Housing Act of 1959 to adopt the Herlong (D-Fla.) substitute, which authorizes no public housing and reduces funds for other housing programs by $1.3 billion (1959).

Opposed Majority Leader Johnson’s (D-Tex.) motion to raise parity in the wheat bill from 75% to 90% and incorporates a 25% acreage reduction (1959).

Supported Senator Dirksen’s (R-Ill.) motion to reduce funds for the Departments of Labor and of Health, Education, and Welfare by $365,061,000, in accordance with his budget (1959).

Opposed Senator Long’s (D-La.) amendment to increase funds for public assistance by $150 million (1959).

Supported Senator Williams’s (R-Del.) motion to recommit the Public Works Appropriations bill, reducing funds by $80,159,300, in keeping with his budget (1959).

Opposed the adoption of the wheat price support bill (1959).

Vetoed the Housing Act of 1959 (1959).

Opposed the proposed Federal Youth Conservation Corps to employ 150,000 young people, which would have cost between $375 and $400 million (1959).

Opposed concurring in the Senate amendments to the TVA Revenue Bond bill, thereby ending all efforts to place the TVA’s budget under the President’s control (1959).

Opposed Senator Anderson’s (D-N.M.) amendment capping interest rate at 4.25% for savings bonds, encouraging short-term borrowing for government funding (1959).

Supported the adoption of the Landrum (D-Ga.)-Griffin (R-Mich.) substitute labor bill, which curbed secondary boycotts as well as organizational and recognition picketing, and granting states authority to address “no man’s land” disputes (1959).

Opposed Representative Kearns’s (R-Penn.) motion to recommit and thus kill the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959).

Opposed the bill expanding Federal grants for sewage plant construction and permitting localities to request Federal grants, vetoing the bill in 1960 (1959, 1960).

Supported Representative Hiestand’s (R-Calif.) motion to recommit the Housing Act of 1959, spreading the $550 million urban renewal program over two years rather than one and deleting $50 million for college classroom construction loans (1959).

Vetoed a bill adding 67 public works projects not contained in his budget, which was sustained (1959)

Vetoed a second bill adding public works projects to an estimated over $800 million cost, but his veto was overridden (1959).

Passage of the bill eliminating prohibitions on foreign aid to Communist-dominated nations aside from the USSR, China, and North Korea (1959).

Supported Representative Simpson’s (R-Penn.) motion to recommit the bill permitting an increase in the interest rate of government bonds to permit the issuance of securities at over 4.25% should the President determine it in the national interest (1959).

Opposed Senator Ellender’s (D-La.) amendment to the 1959 Mutual Security Appropriations bill, reducing military assistance by $100 million (1959).

Opposed the $1.5 billion bill providing aid for school construction (1960).

Supported Representative Yates’s (D-Ill.) amendment to appropriate $50 million for urban renewal and slum-clearance grants (1960).

Supported Majority Leader Johnson’s (D-Tex.) motion to delete Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, granting the Attorney General authority to seek injunctions in civil rights cases (1960).

Supported Senator Williams’s (R-Del.) amendment to reduce subsidized ship voyages from 2,400 to 2,225, saving an estimated $20 million (1960).

Opposed the Emergency Home Ownership bill, providing for an additional $1 billion to enable the Federal National Mortgage Association to buy Federally insured home mortgages on new homes worth $13,500 or less (1960).

Opposed the Area Redevelopment Act to provide Federal grants to economically depressed areas, vetoing the bill (1960).

Supported Senate approval of Executive N, an executive agreement for the compulsory settlement of disputes between nations (1960).

Supported the bill authorizing the United States to participate in the International Development Association and authorizing a subscription of $320,290,000 (1960).

Opposed Senator Clark’s (D-Penn.) amendment authorizing 37,000 more public housing units (1960).

Supported Representative Kitchin’s (D-N.C.) amendment substituting a bill that extends $1 an hour wage protection but no overtime protection to employees of interstate retail chains and raising the hourly minimum for previously covered workers to $1.15 instead of the stronger Democratic minimum wage bill (1960).

Opposed Senator Anderson’s (D-N.M.) Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act Amendments, providing for a system of medical benefits to all Social Security retirees 68 and older, financed by an increase in the Social Security tax (1960).

Supported Representative Ford’s (R-Mich.) amendment adding $65 million to the Mutual Security Program for defense support (1960).

Supported $190 million more for foreign aid (1960).

References

Eisenhower, Dwight David. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/99901/dwight-david-eisenhower








Fascinating Politics

Great Conservatives from American History #19: Howard Buffett


Most people know of the great investor Warren Buffett, but how many people know of his political father? This was Howard Homan Buffett (1903-1964) of Omaha, Nebraska. Buffett was in the investment business and was very politically conservative. His views led him to politics, and in 1942, he was elected to Congress, representing Omaha, despite the widespread belief that he would lose to moderate Democrat Charles McLaughlin (Klein).

While in Congress, he voted a strongly conservative line, opposing wartime subsidies and price controls as well as backing tax relief over President Roosevelt’s objections. He was skeptical of foreign aid as well as of the authority of the military. During his second term, he darkly warned that the United States would become a dictatorship if curbs were not enacted on the power of the military brass (The New York Times). Buffett was strongly opposed to civilian military training as well as to the draft, regarding such measures as coercive. He voted against both Greek-Turkish Aid in 1947 and the Marshall Plan in 1948. On the latter, Buffett stated, “If the Marshall Plan meant $100 million worth of profitable business for your firm, wouldn’t you invest a few thousands or so to successfully propagandize for the Marshall Plan? And if you were a foreign government, getting billions, perhaps you could persuade your prospective suppliers here to lend a hand in putting that deal through Congress” (Klein). He mostly backed the agenda of the 80th Congress, with the occasions in which he dissented from his fellow Republicans appearing to be of a horseshoe theory nature, being in opposition to certain measures as not conservative enough. Buffett represented a strongly liberty-oriented conservatism (American conservatism is to be seen as a striking of a balance between order and liberty, rather than preferring order over liberty as certain non-conservative intellectuals seem to think) that was skeptical of state power in multiple ways. Buffett repeatedly called for a full return to the gold standard and wrote, “With a restoration of the gold standard, Congress would have to again resist handouts…Congress would be forced to confront spending demands with firmness. The gold standard acted as a silent watchdog to prevent unlimited public spending” (Buffett). He proved time and again that the voters had elected a man of high ethical caliber. This was particularly evident by his refusal to go on junkets (taxpayer funded trips), his refusal to accept a pay raise, and he was recounted by his wife as considering legislation on the basis of, “Will this add to, or subtract from, human liberty?” (Klein) On civil rights, he thrice voted to ban the poll tax, voted for a Powell Amendment in 1946, and voted against establishing a VA hospital that would only serve black patients that attracted the opposition of the NAACP and the two black members of Congress at the time. His DW-Nominate score was 0.686, in the top tier for Republicans of his day and exceeding that of Barry Goldwater.

The 1948 election proved a surprising boon to President Truman and the Democrats, and Buffett was among the legislators swept away, in this case by liberal Eugene O’Sullivan. He did, however, make a comeback in the ideologically favorable 1950 election. Americans for Democratic Action judged four years of his service in Congress, and his scores come out thusly:

1947 – 8

1948 – 17

1951 – 8

1952 – 0

Something to note about these scores is that for 1948, the two votes he cast that were “liberal” could be seen as a horseshoe effect and the 1951 vote regarded that VA hospital previously mentioned. In 1952, Buffett opted not to run for another term, departing electoral politics for good. He remained active in conservative causes after his departure from Congress, being part of the Board of Trustees for Americans for Constitutional Action from its founding until his death and also was a member of the John Birch Society. In 1956, he delivered a lecture in which among other things, he stated, “Today’s situation is the result of an alarming and devious government intervention in the economic affairs of the nation for objectives not contemplated by the men who wrote the Constitution” (Klein). Buffett died of cancer on April 30, 1964, at 60.

Despite the apple having fallen a bit far from the tree on politics, with Warren adopting many of the opposite politics of his father, he credits him as a great teacher who inspired a lifelong love of reading and investing, and said of him that “The best advice I’ve ever been give is by my father, who told me it took 20 years to build a reputation and 20 minutes to lose it” (Elkins).

References

ADA Voting Records. Americans for Democratic Action.

Retrieved from

ADA Voting Records

Buffett, H. (1948, May 6). Human Freedom Rests on Gold Redeemable Money. The Commercial and Financial Chronicle.

Retrieved from

Click to access Howard-Buffett-explains-sound-money-4-May-1948.pdf

Buffett, Howard Homan. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/1218/howard-homan-buffett

Elkins, (2017, September 29). Warren Buffett credits his success to these 3 people. CNBC.

Retrieved from

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/29/warren-buffett-credits-his-success-to-these-3-people.html#:~:text=1.,was%20born%2C%E2%80%9D%20Buffett%20says.

Howard Buffett, 60, An Ex-Congressman. The New York Times.

Retrieved from

Klein, P. (2012, September 20). Buffett’s dad was the Ron Paul of his day. The Washington Examiner.

Retrieved from

https://web.archive.org/web/20120119122137/http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/buffett-vs-buffett

Fascinating Politics

The Ideological Gerald Ford


In the last post, I covered the ideology of Jimmy Carter as president, and indeed as far as presidents go, he was quite liberal by DW-Nominate and solidly liberal by Americans for Constitutional Action. I thought I might as well cover his defeated 1976 opponent in Gerald Ford. Ford’s record on national issues goes far further back than Carter, having first been elected to the House in 1948. His record in the House is too expansive for me to cover fully key vote by key vote, but he was moderately conservative overall. ACA gave Ford a high score of 100% in 1959 (many Republican representatives aced by their standards that year) and a low score of 53% in 1969 (many Republican representatives did unusually poorly by their standards that year). His overall modified ACA score was a 78%. His DW-Nominate score stands at a 0.281.

Ford was mostly fiscally conservative on domestic matters, although he did in 1958 vote to establish a trial-run food stamp program (he voted against a similar proposal in 1959) and in 1960 voted for $50 million in urban renewal and slum clearance grants. Ford loyally supported President Eisenhower’s vetoes of public works bills and a sewage plant funding bill in 1960 and sided with the administration on agriculture issues. During the 1960s, Ford opposed Kennedy’s accelerated public works program, tax reduction (he regarded it as inflationary combined with domestic spending), the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and federal aid for school construction. He was even the only Michigander to vote against Medicare in 1965, perhaps as part of his being the new Republican House leader. Ford did, however, vote to increase the minimum wage in 1966 but only after backing Rep. John Anderson’s (R-Ill.) substitute to limit the measure’s impact on retail establishments based on gross sales. He routinely backed conservative substitutes to minimum wage increases, even if he voted for the final bills. Ford’s differences with conservatism in the 1960s largely surrounded foreign policy and civil rights issues. Speaking of civil rights…

Ford on Civil Rights

Gerald Ford was mostly supportive of civil rights measures. He voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (although he preferred the substitute he backed with Rep. William McCulloch (R-Ohio) that attempted to balance state and federal interests), and although he voted for Rep. Arch Moore’s (R-W.V.) motion to strike fair housing from the Civil Rights Act of 1966, he did vote for the bill itself and voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Ford notably pushed a Nixon Administration backed substitute to the Voting Rights Act extension in 1969 that would have applied the temporary provisions of the act nationwide, but McCulloch didn’t back him on this one. He also backed Nixon on the adoption of the Philadelphia Plan, voting against Rep. George Mahon’s (D-Tex.) effort to kill it. As president, the issue of extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 fell to him, and he simply signed a law extending the act for seven years. Ford, like Nixon, opposed busing as a means of desegregation. On other matters surrounding states vs. federal, Ford took conservative positions: on federal vs. state title over the Tidelands he voted in 1951, 1952, and 1953 for state title and voted in 1958 and 1959 for anti-preemption legislation to grant states greater leeway in anti-subversive legislation, all in response to Supreme Court decisions. Speaking of the Supreme Court…

Ford on the Supreme Court

Ford was a critic of the Warren Court, and in multiple ways he voted to counter to decisions of the court. He repeatedly voted for legislation against the Mallory rule of evidence that invalidates confessions extracted by criminal defendants if kept for an unreasonably long period in detention from arrest to court appearance whether there had been evidence of coercion or torture or not. In 1964, Ford voted for the Tuck (D-Va.) bill to strip state legislative apportionment from Supreme Court jurisdiction. In 1971, Ford voted for a school prayer amendment to the Constitution in response to Supreme Court decisions ruling state school prayer statutes unconstitutional. In 1970, he attempted to impeach Justice William O. Douglas, in what was at least in part a retaliatory move against Democrats for twice in a row tanking Nixon’s nominees to the court. Yet, Ford’s sole nomination to the Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens (who succeeded Douglas), would become known later in life as one of the most liberal justices.

Ford on Foreign Policy

Gerald Ford was heavily influenced in his politics by Senator Arthur Vandenberg. He reflected in a 2001 speech, “He holds a very special place in my life. Before Pearl Harbor, I emulated the isolationist outlook of my fellow Midwesterners – – Senator Vandenberg included at the time. A tour of duty in the South Pacific, aboard a combat aircraft carrier with nine battle stars, convinced me very strongly otherwise. After four years in the Navy, I came home to Grand Rapids a convert to the bipartisan foreign policy espoused by my fellow townsman, Arthur Vandenberg.

Inspired by Vandenberg’s example, I came to believe that only American leadership could shape a future where peace was possible and freedom was secure” (United States Senate).
As a protégé of Senator Arthur Vandenberg, he not only supported post-war aid to Europe but also, like his fellow townsman and hero, backed Point IV aid to poor nations. He backed every foreign aid vote counted by Americans for Constitutional Action during the Eisenhower Administration, and sponsored an amendment increasing foreign aid in 1960. Ford would, however, support some foreign aid cuts during the 1960s and repeatedly backed stronger anti-communist positions in foreign affairs, such as his support for blocking grain shipments to the USSR and Hungary in 1963. Ford’s retention of Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State was strongly disliked by anti-détente conservatives. Interestingly, however, his presidency was more conservative than his time in the House, as if his positions on ACA-counted votes are counted as votes, he scores an 84%. By DW-Nominate, he’s much higher, registering at a 0.506.

As President, Ford opposed the following:

. Agriculture Act Amendments (1975).
. A strip mining bill that would set federal standards for surface mining regulation, which he vetoed (1975).
. A House resolution disapproving of his plan to decontrol prices for domestic oil over a 39-month period (1975).
. A tax reduction bill reducing 1976 individual and business taxes without establishing a $395 billion fiscal 1977 federal spending ceiling, which he vetoed (1975).
. A bill authorizing $6.5 billion in financial assistance to railroads, which would simultaneously reduce regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission (1975).
. A bill that would grant Congress the right to review any proposal to decontrol oil prices and require the president to place price ceilings on any oil not currently controlled (1975).
. Deleting funds for the B-1 Bomber (1975).
. Deferring funds for the Flight-Testing Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle until it can be established that the Soviets are flight testing their own system (1975).
. The Clark Amendment, limiting US involvement in Angola to gathering intelligence (1975).
. Only deregulating small oil producers while keeping big oil producers price-controlled (1976).
. Extending 65-week employment assistance until March 31, 1977 and special benefits for the uninsured to December 31, 1976 (1976).
. Permitting federal civilian and postal workers to participate as private citizens in political campaigns and protecting employees from improper political solicitation, a scaling back of the Hatch Act (1976).
. The Public Works Anti-Recession bill, making grants for public works programs for the explicit purpose of reducing employment, his veto being overridden (1976).
. The proposed Voter Registration Act, which would have created a voter registration commission in the Federal Elections Commission to register voters by mail (1976). Note on this one: Republicans opposing measures that are touted by their Democratic proponents as expanding voting access is nothing new.
. A bill increasing funding for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education and Welfare by $915,839,318 over his budget, with his veto being overridden (1976).
. A bill providing financial assistance for low-income people to insulate their homes and to push state and local adoption of energy conservation standards in new buildings (1976).
. A bill for no-fault auto insurance (1976).
. A bill establishing a government agency for grain inspection that would not be limited to federal export ports, thus moving into authority previously in the purview of states (1976). This is consistent with Ford’s consistent sense of federalism, his belief that liberal Democrats push measures on the federal level that improperly intrude in state prerogatives.
. A bill increasing Congressional control over U.S. arms sales (1976).
. A bill providing for federal child day care services under the Social Security Act, which he vetoed (1976).
. An amendment barring funds for the B-1 Bomber program before February 1, 1977 (1976).
. Another bill for public works for the purposes of increasing employment, in which Congress overrode his veto (1976).
He supported:
. The proposed South Vietnam Assistance Act, which if enacted would have spent $327 million for humanitarian and evacuation programs in South Vietnam and for the use of U.S. troops to assist evacuations. This measure got a lot of opposition out of fear that the US would be dragged into conflict in Vietnam again (1975).
. A bill providing for automatic cost-of-living increases in pay for members of Congress and top officials in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches (1975).
. Killing a proposal that disapproved of his proposed 5% pay increase for members of Congress, military personnel, and federal government officials, which would have instead resulted in a 8.66% pay increase proposed by the Advisory Committee on Federal Pay (1975).
. $2.25 billion in funds for the Inter-American Development Bank and funds of up to $25 million for the African Development Fund (1975).
. Partially lifting an arms embargo to Turkey (1975).
. Loaning up to $2.3 billion annually to New York City (1975). Ford however did not approve of any measure that would fully bail out the city, resulting in a famous headline from the New York Daily News: Ford to City: Drop Dead (New York Daily News). Although Ford never uttered such words, this was how his threat to veto any bailout was taken.
. The proposal by Rep. Charles Wiggins (R-Calif.) to investigate whether increasing fines is effective for anti-trust regulation instead of an anti-trust bill (1976).

Ford’s presidency was substantially limited on domestic policy due to the Democrats holding a supermajority, and sometimes he caved and reluctantly signed bills that he otherwise opposed (such as continuing federal price control on oil). Ford was essentially a fiscally conservative president, an internationalist, a supporter of increasing US military firepower, an opponent of federal encroachments into state functions, moderately socially conservative, and a compromiser.

References

Address by President Gerald R. Ford, May 23, 2001. U.S. Senate.

Retrieved from

https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Leaders_Lecture_Series_Ford.htm

Ford, Gerald Rudolph Jr. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/99905/gerald-rudolph-ford-jr

Ford, Gerald Rudolph Jr. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/3268/gerald-rudolph-ford-jr

Ford to City: Drop Dead in 1975. (2018, April 9). New York Daily News.

Retrieved from

https://www.nydailynews.com/2015/10/29/ford-to-city-drop-dead-in-1975/

Fascinating Politics

Jimmy Carter at 100: How He Was Ideologically Viewed During His Presidency


On October 1st, 1924, Jimmy Carter was born, and he still lives today. This makes him the first centenarian president in American history. An interesting minor coincidence is that on the day Carter turned 100 the debate between Walz and Vance was occurring. Like Carter’s running mate Mondale, Walz is from Minnesota. Maybe that’s a good portend for Democrats in this election? I don’t know. But what I do know is how Carter was seen ideologically during his presidency.

Unfortunately, I cannot at this time produce a proper Americans for Democratic Action rating for him, and this is because ADA’s 1979 page lacks descriptions of the first four Senate votes. I certainly can find out what those are, but not in time to post this before midnight PST. Liberals from what I’ve seen so far seem to regard him as a moderate liberal, and sometimes have counted as against the liberal position measures that most Republican conservatives went against. For instance, the 1978 administration-backed proposal to deregulate natural gas by 1985. This was unsatisfactory in its slowness for conservative Republicans, and deregulation itself of natural gas was unsatisfactory to liberals. Thus, Carter’s liberalism may be lessened in ways that conservatives wouldn’t agree with. I will also note later on in this post some votes on which ADA actually sided with Americans for Constitutional Action! DW-Nominate scores him a -0.504, which is pretty solidly liberal and places him to the left of many, many Democrats of his day (and today).

As for ACA…

If Jimmy Carter’s official positions on votes were to be counted as votes, he would score for his presidency a 13%. I can offer far more details here, because I have already compiled ACA votes for the Carter era. Areas in which Carter took a liberal position on issues were:

. $23.3 billion in federal programs for anti-recession purposes, which included public works financing (1977).

. Weakening the Hatch Act through the Federal Employees’ Political Rights Act, permitting greater allowances for participation in politics by Federal employees (1977).

. Opposing an effort by Congressman Beard (R-Tenn.) to prohibit VA funds to benefit individuals upgraded by his special discharge program that allowed certain individuals discharged as less than honorable to be upgraded (1977).

. Opposed a House and Senate effort to sunset price controls on natural gas, for new onshore in 1977 and new offshore in 1982 (1977).

. Supported House and Senate efforts to delete funds for five B-1 Bombers (1977).

. Opposed Congressman Erlenborn’s (R-Ill.) amendment for a more gradual increase in the federal minimum wage than the committee bill (1977).  

. Supported Majority Leader Byrd’s (D-W.V.) motion to table the Allen (D-Ala.) resolution expressing the opposition of the Senate to pardoning draft resisters and evaders (1977).

. Supported his nomination of Paul Warnke as chief negotiator of the Strategic Arms Limitation talks with the USSR. Warnke had previously called for reducing military spending by a third, and his nomination was a clear signal of continuing détente (1977).

. Opposed Senator Curtis’s (R-Neb.) amendment keeping the requirement that food stamp recipients pay for part of their cost (1977).

. Supported Majority Leader Byrd’s (D-W.V.) motion to end debate on the bill permitting public financing of Senate campaigns (1977).

. Supported an increase in the federal minimum wage (1977).

. Opposed Congressman Breaux’s (D-La.) substitute for outer continental shelf legislation that grants the states more money and limits government intervention in exploratory drilling (1978).

. Supported the proposed creation of the Office of Consumer Representation for consumer protection (1978).

. Supported deleting Senator Stennis’s (D-Miss.) motion to rescind funds for the production of two additional B-1 Bombers (1978).

. Supported the enactment of the Panama Canal Treaties, as well as supported tabling an effort to authorize the disposal of all US property before the treaties took effect (1978).

. Supported Appropriations Committee Chairman Mahon’s (D-Tex.) motion for the House to rescind funds for the production of three B-1 Bombers (1978).

. Opposed Congressman Young’s (R-Alaska) proposal to permit Alaska to choose lands to be conserved under the Alaska Lands bill and to remove five million acres from coverage (1978).

. Opposed Congressman Stratton’s (D-N.Y.) amendment to maintain troops at a minimum of 26,000 in South Korea (1978).

. Supported up to $1.65 billion in federal loan guarantees to New York City (a bailout, in other words) (1978).

. Supported Senate and House efforts to retain indirect U.S. Aid to Uganda, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (1977, 1978).

. Opposed Congressman Hansen’s (R-Idaho) amendment prohibiting funds for Panama in the Foreign Aid Appropriations bill (1978).

. Supported an alternative version of the Consumer Cooperative Bank bill (1978).

. Opposed Senator Lugar’s (R-Ind.) proposed reduction in funding of food stamps by $250 million (1978).

. Opposed Congressman Kramer’s (R-Colo.) amendment reaffirming the position the US took in the 1955 mutual defense treaty regarding aggression against Taiwan (1979).

. Opposed an anti-busing amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1979).

. Supported the bill implementing the Panama Canal Treaties (1979).

. Supported the creation of the Department of Education (1979).

. Supported the Emergency Energy Conservation Act (1979).

. Opposed Congressman Courter’s (R-N.J.) amendment to prohibit funds for controlling the price of gasoline (1979).

. Supported $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees to be matched by $2.1 billion from other sources to bail out the Chrysler Corporation (1979).

. Opposed Senator Percy’s (R-Ill.) amendment declaring that aggression against Taiwan by China would be considered a threat to U.S. security interests (1979).

. Opposed Senator Stennis’s (D-Miss.) effort to end sanctions against Zimbabwe-Rhodesia (1979).

. Opposed Senator Helms’s (R-N.C.) effort to retain a spending ceiling on food stamps for fiscal 1980-81 (1979).

. Supported Majority Leader Byrd’s (D-W.V.) tabling of Sen. Armstrong’s (R-Colo.) amendment for a higher military pay raise (1979).

. Supported the bill imposing a windfall profits tax (1979, 1980).

. Opposed Congressman Broyhill’s (R-N.C.) motion to provide for a legislative veto for Federal Trade Commission regulations (1980).

. Opposed Congressman Symms’s (R-Idaho) limited substitute for the Idaho Wilderness bill (1980).

. Supported Congressman Obey’s (D-Wis.) increasing in funds of domestic programs and oil tax credit reform to raise funds for the increase (1980).

. Opposed Congresswoman Holt’s (R-Md.) proposed transfer of funds from domestic programs for increases in defense spending (1980).

. Supported the International Development Bank bill (1980).

. Supported extending the debt ceiling at $879 billion through June 30, 1980 (1980).

. Supported Majority Leader Wright’s (D-Tex.) amendment providing $425 million in aid to Nicaragua (1980).

. Opposed Congressman Sensenbrenner’s (R-Wis.) motion to delete administrative (as opposed to judicial) enforcement of fair housing laws (1980).

. Supported Congressman Giaimo’s (D-Conn.) budget resolution (1980).

. Opposed Congressman Levitas’s (D-Ga.) amendment permitting a Congressional veto of trucking regulations (1980).

. Opposed Congressman Pritchard’s (R-Wash.) amendment reducing by $200 million funds for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (1980).

. Supported the Defense Production Act amendments, providing for funds for synthetic and alcohol fuels as well as the creation of a conservation bank (1980).

. Opposed Congressman Devine’s (R-Ohio) motion to kill the proposed Energy Mobilization Board (1980). Note: ADA supported this motion too!

. Opposed disapproving of his gasoline rationing plan (1980).

. Opposed Senator Schmitt’s (R-N.M.) amendment permitting a one-house veto of Federal Trade Commission regulations (1980).

Opposed Senator Dole’s (R-Kan.) motion to recommit the windfall profits tax bill for hearings (1980).

. Opposed Senator Hollings’s (D-S.C.) motion to table Senator Nelson’s (D-Wis.) proposed deletion of $2 billion from defense spending and $400 million in interest payments, transferring the funds to domestic priorities (1980).

. Opposed Senator Armstrong’s (R-Colo.) amendment to repeal the Credit Control Act of 1969 (1980).

. Supported Senator Hollings’s (D-S.C.) budget resolution (1980).

. Opposed Senator Stone’s (D-Fla.) motion to block funds for military aid to Nicaragua (1980).

Areas in which Carter took a conservative position included:

. Opposing the National Consumer Cooperative Bank bill, which would have provided $750 million for a bank and a self-help development fund to issue loans to consumer cooperatives and to assist inner-city residents to start consumer cooperatives respectively (1977).

. Opposed Congressman Weiss’ (D-N.Y.) amendment blocking funds for research and development of neutron bombs (1977).

. Opposed the emergency farm bill for wheat, corn, and cotton (1978).

. Opposed a resolution disapproving his sale of jet fighters to Middle Eastern nations (1978).

. Supported outlining U.S. policy on settling the dispute between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus as part of repealing the arms embargo on Turkey (1978).

. Supported implementation of the Selective Service (1980).

. Opposed Congressman Simon’s (D-Ill.) reduction by $500 million for the MX intercontinental missile system (1980).

. Opposed Senator Magnuson’s (D-Wash.) amendment to place the burden of proof on an applicant for a trucking certificate to demonstrate that their proposed service is consistent with present or future public needs (1980).

. Supported Senator Garn’s (R-Utah) amendment to delete middle-income housing subsidies, instead having the funds go to current housing programs (1980). Note: ADA supported Senator Garn’s amendment too!

. Opposed Senator Moynihan’s (D-N.Y.) amendment to allow students in private elementary and secondary schools to receive Basic Educational Opportunity Grants of up to $750 annually (1980). Note: ADA opposed Senator Moynihan’s amendment too!

Carter was overall a liberal man who most often dissented from liberalism on matters regarding military policy. His opposition to Senator Magnuson’s burden of proof amendment serves to highlight his support for deregulation that conservatives see as a positive of his presidency.

References

Carter, James Earl, Jr. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/99906/james-earl-carter-jr

For the votes I described, check out my posts on the ACA-Index for the 95th and 96th Congresses.