Politics & Power Quote by Jeff Miller

There is a neat bit of intra-party policing baked into Miller's line: it performs fiscal purity while signaling that the real problem isn't Washington in the abstract, it's Republicans who have gone soft once the money is in reach. By saying he "continue[s]" to vote no, he casts himself as steady and incorruptible, a rhetorical contrast to colleagues who, in his framing, have succumbed to the capital's gravitational pull. The kicker is the phrase "forgot that we were sent here" - not just wrong, but amnesiac, negligent, even illegitimate. It implies voters issued a clear mandate and some members are violating it.

The intent is twofold. Publicly, it's a pledge to constituents who equate restraint with virtue, especially in the post-Tea Party era when "shrinking the federal government" became less a policy program than an identity marker. Internally, it's a warning shot: stop voting for spending hikes, or expect to be branded as indistinguishable from Democrats on the issue that supposedly defines the party.

The subtext is the uncomfortable truth that governing creates incentives to spend: defense contracts, disaster relief, farm subsidies, district projects that keep incumbents popular. Miller doesn't name those pressures; he abstracts them into "such spending increases", allowing the audience to fill in whatever program they already dislike. It's a classic politician's maneuver: sharpen the moral line, blur the specific bill. That vagueness is the point - it keeps the posture of principle intact while leaving room for selective exceptions later.