Northern Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie will not vote to reelect Rep. John Boehner as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The Lewis County Republican issued a statement to that effect on Saturday.
For years I watched Washington from afar and suspected that something was broken,” Massie said. “Why is it that so many people approve of their congressman, yet they consistently disapprove of Congress? During my first two years as a congressman I discovered a significant source of the dysfunction.”
Massie places the blame for dysfunction on the House leadership. He said in his statement that he saw Republican leaders “schedule a fiscal crisis in a lame duck session on the last legislative day before Christmas to get maximum leverage over rank and file members”, “mislead members into thinking that a vote on an unpopular bill was postponed, only then to conduct a rushed voice vote on the $10 billion unfunded spending measure with fewer than a dozen members present”, “give members less than 72 hours to read bills over 1,000 pages long”, and, “remove members from committees simply because they voted for the principles upon which they campaigned”.
On December 27, Massie foreshadowed his plan to vote against Boehner. He tweeted out a photo that appeared to come from a McDonald’s drive-thru where a sign encouraged drivers to head to the “next speaker, please”.Â
“Am I the only one that sees these signs?,” Massie tweeted with the image. He used the hashtag, #iseesigns (I see signs).
This is not the first time Massie has bucked his party’s leadership. Two years ago he explained why he voted against Boehner, the West Chester Republican who campaigned in Covington for Massie in the 2012 election. “What I’ve witnessed here in the six weeks I’ve been in Congress, a lot of the folks know what the right thing to do is, but when they get there in that room, they can’t do it,” Massie said in January 2013. “They think, ‘what is politically expedient right now, so I’m going to vote for what gets me reelected in two years’, is what they’re thinking.”
He expressed similar sentiment over the weekend.
“With a process this broken, is it any wonder that Washington no longer works for the people?,” Massie said. “My constituents expect better and America deserves better. On January 6th, 2015, I will vote for a new Speaker who will consistently articulate a constitutional vision for America and facilitate an inclusive and orderly legislative process that allows Congress to truly reflect the will of the people.”
Boehner will be challenged by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Florida Rep. Ted Yoho.
-Staff report
