Below we use Common Space DW-NOMINATE scores to examine the ideological positions of the 33 House Republicans who opposed the Medicare ‘Doc Fix’ bill. These scores represent House members’ positions along the liberal-conservative spectrum, with higher scores indicating greater conservatism.

The 33 House Republicans who voted Nay are among the most conservative members of the House Republican Caucus. Their mean score is 0.640, compared to a mean score of 0.497 for House Republicans as a whole. The group of Republicans who have been an enduring headache for Speaker John Boehner do appear to be very conservative (both in contemporary and historical terms), suggesting that the split between “establishment” and “outsider” congressional Republicans is not just a difference in personal styles, but also rooted in ideological differences.

This image is from a new (nearly) stand-alone Common Space DW-NOMINATE program that can be run weekly as new roll calls are cast.

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