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Rising stars among the congressional right, Reps. Justin Amash and Thomas Massie spoke together to a friendly crowd at the International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C. Saturday about who’s in — and out — of the libertarian cohort in Congress. The second-term Republicans also discussed what pro-liberty legislation may gain traction on Capitol Hill, including the perennial “Audit the Fed” bill.
“There are … 50 shades of libertarianism” among members of Congress, Amash said. “I would say that there are about 40 people who I can count on to vote in a more libertarian direction” even if they do not call themselves libertarians.
But “it’s not just how many you have in Congress,” said Massie.
“There are 3,000 counties in the United States and each of them have elected officials. And what I’m seeing is liberty people get elected literally to dog-catcher. … It doesn’t matter who the president is. If you don’t have people installed in every level of government, then if people in Congress or the president try to make a change, it’s not going to be effective.”
Amash ripped into Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as one person the liberty movement cannot depend on.
When asked how he felt about the idea that Congress should “rubberstamp” reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, which Rubio has indicated support for extending permanently, Amash responded that Rubio’s support for the bill “reflects a lack of awareness of what the American people think and what the Constitution says.”
“And if (Rubio) thinks that that is the future of the Republican Party, he is very wrong.
“We have a great group of people who are pushing the country in the right direction,” Amash said. “And we’ve got some people like Sen. Rubio who want to take us backward, and move the party in the wrong direction, and make it into a very small party.”
Among pro-liberty legislation that stands a good chance of passing this legislative term according to the congressmen is a bill to audit the Federal Reserve.
“I think there is enough public pressure and public awareness of this issue that it will get a vote,” Massie said.
The bill has a veto-proof majority in the House, according to Massie, “which I think scares the Fed and the president to death because they are lobbying senators right now very hard” not to support the bill.
Last year, former Georgia representative Paul Broun sponsored an “Audit the Fed” bill that sailed through the House with bipartisan support. Sen. Rand Paul, who is good friends with Massie, has introduced the Senate version again, with the hope that fellow Kentuckian, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will bring the bill to the floor for a vote.
As of this week, Paul’s bill has 31 co-sponsors, all but one them Republicans. Massie’s similar House bill has 133 co-sponsors, 126 of them Republicans.
