Republicans in Washington must think pretty highly of 6th District Rep. Peter Roskam. After holding back a Democratic challenger to win his second term in Congress, the House GOP leadership decided to reward him with a choice committee assignment. The Daily Herald’s Joseph Ryan has the details:

U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, just now entering his second two-year term, landed a plum spot on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee today.

The seat, coveted by many in Congress angling for clout, gives Roskam a chance at crafting the GOP’s input on the nation’s tax, Social Security and Medicare policy.

On Ways and Means, Roskam will be the most junior member on the minority side, so his clout will be limited for the timebeing. But he will have a vote and a seat during hearings and negotiations, so his opinions matter on key issues over which the committee has discretion. Given his record on taxes, spending, and health care, that’s a bit troubling.

An anti-tax crusader, Roskam prides himself on beating back tax hikes, regardless of their functionality. (On his congressional “Issues” page, he cites his designation from Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform as a “Hero of the Taxpayer.”) Of course, his dogmatic resistance to any increase means that he’s voted down some common-sense legislation because it was reliant on government revenue. While in Springfield, he spent $40,000 on radio commercials rallying opposition to kill a proposal to raise the state income tax rate to fund Illinois schools fully and equitably. This past summer, he voted down the revamped G.I. Bill on the grounds that it was “loaded up with $51 billion dollars in new taxes.” What he didn’t mention was that the Democrats’ original proposal only included a half-percent tax surcharge on individuals earning over $500,000 and couples earning over $1 million a year -- not a broader hike on the middle-class.

Because of his knee-jerk resistance to spending on anything unrelated to the interests of business, Roskam consistently finds interesting but flawed reasons to vote down spending on government programs that benefit the middle and working class. Two examples from this past year are instructive here. Not only did he justify his opposition to the auto industry bailout by citing highly misleading figures on union wages, he dismissed $4 billion in worthwhile grants for local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed properties because of fear Gov. Rod Blagojevich would control all the funds. (That wasn’t true.)

And with regards to health care access, which he notes will be one of the committee’s major priorities, his record is pretty weak. Over the past 18 months, he repeatedly voted down an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. His reason? The bill was “an incremental creep toward socialized medicine.”

Here’s to hoping he never holds the gavel.