Interesting..
In 2004, Chaffetz was the campaign manager for Utah gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman. Huntsman won the race and after he took office in January 2005, Chaffetz became his chief of staff.[9] In November 2005 Chaffetz left to manage his own company, "Maxtera Utah", a corporate communications and marketing company.
Imagine a Huntsman/Chaffertz ticket in 2016?Huntsmann is the moderate repub who doesn't bend for special interests - he refused to sign the pledges with everyone else, remember? great hair, worth half a billion, and this chaffertz VP pick would keep the far-right very happy
He has two more years of experience than Rand paul, and is actually a more staunch republican! Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is the second most conservative Member of the House or Representatives according to our Legislative ...Cut, Cap and Balance
In June 2011, Chaffetz sponsored HR 2560, the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2011. HR 2560 capped FY 2012 discretionary appropriations at $1.019 trillion, which was $31 billion below FY 2011 discretionary spending, and provided $126.5 billion for war spending. HR 2560 imposed a cap of $681 billion on "other" mandatory spending. Excluded from the $681 billion cap were Social Security, Medicare, veterans programs, and interest payments. HR 2560 gradually reduced federal government spending as a percent of gross domestic product from 24.1% in 2011[33] to 21.7% in 2013 and 19.9% in 2021. HR 2560 also allowed for an increase in the debt ceiling of $2.4 trillion, as requested by President Obama, conditioned upon approval by both Houses of Congress of a qualifying Balanced Budget Amendment which would then be sent to the states for approval. HR 2560 passed the House of Representatives but was rejected by the Senate.[34]
Social Security Reform
In November 2011, Chaffetz announced a seven-point Social Security proposal.[35] The seven provisions include using a chained CPI-W for calculating annual COLAs, increasing normal retirement age, adding progressive price indexing to primary insurance amount calculations, means-testing benefits for high income beneficiaries, increasing the number of years for calculating average indexed monthly earnings, indexing special minimum benefits to wages instead of CPI, and increasing benefits by 5% for retirees when they reach age 85.[36]
President Obama
In January 2010, Chaffetz was called upon to question President Obama at a meeting of the GOP Conference.[37] Chaffetz applauded Obama for some of the promises made during the campaign, but asked why promises to broadcast healthcare debates on CSPAN, keep lobbyists out of senior positions, go line-by-line through the health care bill and end earmarks had not been kept. Video of the Q&A went viral and received extensive media coverage.[38][39][40][41] Upon hearing that U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, 2009, Chaffetz said he had "lost all respect for the award", claiming "it used to be one of distinction, but [now] it is hard to give it any credibility".[42]
Nuclear waste
In November 2009 Chaffetz co-sponsored a bill in the House with Rep. Jim Matheson to block the importation of foreign nuclear waste into the United States, putting him directly at odds with Rep. Rob Bishop and Utah's Senators Bennett and Hatch who had historically supported importing foreign nuclear waste into Utah with restrictions.[43]
Homeland Security
In December 2009, Chaffetz championed legislation to limit the use of full-body imaging scanners at airports unless a metal detector first indicated a need for more screening. The images have come under intense scrutiny from privacy groups for allegedly letting security administrators view images of undressed passengers.[44]
Chaffetz and TSA have had a rocky relationship since he joined Congress. In his freshman year, in what critics have described as political grandstanding, he accused TSA agents at his hometown airport in Salt Lake City of unfairly targeting him to pass through a full-body scanning machine — a device Chaffetz believes is invasive. The Republican lawmaker said he believed he was targeted partially for his opposition to granting TSA screeners collective bargaining rights. The union representing some of the officers said at the time that agents followed proper procedure and that an officer who had recently returned from military service in Iraq didn’t recognize Chaffetz.[45]
Afghanistan
Chaffetz criticized the surge of 30,000 troops President Obama authorized for the war in Afghanistan, saying that the United States does not have a clear policy or exit strategy.[46][47][48]
Benghazi Attack
Chaffetz has been outspoken against the White House and State Department’s handling of the attacks on the Libyan Embassy. The Administration first stated the attacks were sparked by a spontaneous protest, then later stated the violence was a planned terrorist attack. "There was a very conscious decision made, I believe — my personal opinion is that they wanted the appearance of 'normalization' there in Libya and building up of an infrastructure, putting up barbed wire on our facility would lead to the wrong impression. Something that this administration didn’t want to have moving forward."[49]
He has criticized UN Ambassador’s Susan Rice’s initial comments calling them “somewhere between an outrageous lie and total falsehood.”[49]
Chaffetz himself has been criticized for politicizing the Benghazi incident, acknowledging in an interview with CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien that he had "voted to cut the funding for embassy security" and that House Republicans had consciously voted to reduce the funds allocated to the State Department for embassy security since winning the majority in 2010. "Absolutely," Chaffetz said. "Look we have to make priorities and choices in this country."[50]
Resolutions
Chaffetz has pledged to vote against what he calls "trivial resolutions," including those dealing with sports, such as congratulating the winning team of the Super Bowl. Chaffetz feels that the House could be taking up more important legislation.[51]
