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Valley Reps. Johnson, Ryan Score National Attention
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The two men who represent parts of the Mahoning Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives drew national attention Wednesday, each for reasons as distinct as their political philosophies.
U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, the Republican representing Ohio’s sprawling 6th congressional district, was labeled by a liberal group for “show[ing] the most loyalty to the Tea Party, voting with them 85% of the time.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democrat representing the 13th congressional district, appeared on MSNBC’s Ed Show to advance the Democratic Party’s argument in advocating an increase the minimum wage. “The president has to act and he has to act boldly,” Ryan said in supporting calls for President Obama to sign an executive order that would raise the minimum wage for 200,000 federal employees.
Liberal firebrand Ed Schultz frequently interviews Ryan on his MSNBC and radio shows, and Johnson periodically appears on Fox News and other conservative media outlets.
Johnson’s voting record was scrutinized by the liberal advocacy group Americans United for Change, which released what it described as a “groundbreaking Tea Party scorecard [that] finds Ohio swing-district Republicans vote with the Tea Party 80% of the time.”
Two other Ohio Republicans were scored, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, who represents the Dayton area and voted with the Tea Party 79% of the time, according to the TeaPartyScorecard.com, and David Joyce who represents Ashtabula, Geauga and northern portions of Trumbull County. Joyce was found to have a “77% Tea Party loyalty score.”
The liberal advocacy group says its findings are based on scorecards posted by Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks, two groups aligned with Tea Party ideology. The scores include 29 votes on the House floor “related to efforts to defund, repeal or otherwise dismantle” the Affordable Care Act.” Also scored are budget and debt-ceiling votes. Full detail is posted at TeaPartyScorecard.com.
By comparison, Ryan, a frequent critic of Tea Party intransigence, gets a score of 50 on the Liberal Action Score posted by an independent group called That’s My Congress. The score means Ryan “participated in 50% of our slate of liberal actions in the 113th Congress.” Ryan’s Conservative Action Score was 11, according to That’s My Congress.
Johnson gets a liberal score of 6 from the independent group and a conservative score of 78. To see Johnson’s entire voting record, go to this page on his website.
Ryan was interviewed by Schultz last night from his office in Warren (CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO). During the MSNBC segment, he said presidential action to raise the federal minimum wage would “reframe the argument and bring it to the forefront of the national debate.” There is “no way” House Speaker John Boehner would allow a vote on the minimum wage. With it “stuck in the House,” action by Obama, although limited in scope, would “bring the argument to the forefront of the national debate,” Ryan said.
“We have to use this as an issue throughout this year and see how it plays in the fall. We’ve got to energize the [Democratic] base.”
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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