Dick Armey
Official portrait, 1997
Chair of theHouse Homeland Security Committee
In office June 19, 2002 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Christopher Cox
House Majority Leader
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2003
Speaker	Newt Gingrich Dennis Hastert
Preceded by	Dick Gephardt
Succeeded by	Tom DeLay
Chair of the House Republican Conference
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1995
Deputy	Bill McCollum
Leader	Bob Michel
Preceded by	Jerry Lewis
Succeeded by	John Boehner
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromTexas's26th district
In office January 3, 1985 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Tom Vandergriff
Succeeded by	Michael C. Burgess
Personal details
Born	Richard Keith Armey (1940-07-07)July 7, 1940 (age 85) Cando, North Dakota, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Susan Armey
Children	5
Education	Jamestown College (BA) University of North Dakota (MA) University of Oklahoma (PhD)
Dick Armey's voice Armey on the successes of the Republican-majority Congress. Recorded August 1, 1996

Richard Keith Armey (/ˈɑːrmi/; born July 7, 1940) is an American economist and politician. He was aU.S. Representative from Texas's26th congressional district (1985–2003) andHouse Majority Leader (1995–2003). He was one of the engineers of the "Republican Revolution" of the 1990s, in whichRepublicans were elected to majorities of both houses ofCongress for the first time in four decades. Armey was one of the chief authors of theContract with America. Armey is also an author and former economics professor. After his retirement from Congress, he has worked as a consultant, advisor, and lobbyist.

Armey was born on July 7, 1940, in the farming town ofCando, North Dakota, the son of Marion (née Gutschlag) and Glenn Armey.^[1] He grew up in a rural area. He graduated fromJamestown College with aBachelor of Arts and then received aMaster of Arts from theUniversity of North Dakota and a PhD in economics from theUniversity of Oklahoma. Armey is a member of thePi Kappa Alpha fraternity.^[2]

Armey served on the economics faculty at theUniversity of Montana from 1964 to 1965. He was an assistant professor of economics at West Texas State (nowWest Texas A&M University) from 1967 to 1968, atAustin College from 1968 to 1972, and at North Texas State (now theUniversity of North Texas) from 1972 to 1977. He served as chairman of the economics department at North Texas State University from 1977 to 1983.^[3]

Armey has been married twice. His first marriage resulted in three children; it ended in divorce. He married his second wife, Susan Armey, who already had two children, even though she called off the marriage three times.^[3]

Armey was elected to theUnited States House of Representatives in 1984 inTexas's 26th congressional district, narrowly defeating freshman congressmanTom Vandergriff. Armey was one of six freshmen Republican Party congressmen elected from Texas in 1984 who were known as theTexas Six Pack. He would never face another contest anywhere near that close, and was reelected eight more times, never dropping below 68 percent of the vote.^[4] His strongest performance was in 1998, when the Democrats didn't field a candidate and Armey defeated a Libertarian with 88 percent of the vote.^[5] This mirrored the growing Republican trend in his district.

In his early years in Congress, Armey was influenced byAustrian economistLudwig von Mises.^[6]

In 1994, Armey, then House Republican Conference Chairman, joinedMinority WhipNewt Gingrich in drafting theContract with America. Republican members credited this election platform with theRepublican takeover of Congress (theRepublican Revolution). Gingrich becameSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives, and Armey became Gingrich's second-in-command asHouse Majority Leader. Gingrich delegated to Armey an unprecedented level of authority over scheduling legislation on the House floor, a power traditionally reserved to the Speaker.^[7]

In 1995, Armey referred to openly gay CongressmanBarney Frank as "BarneyFag". Armey said it was a slip of the tongue. Frank did not accept Armey's explanation, saying, "I turned to my own expert, my mother, who reports that in 59 years of marriage, no one ever introduced her as Elsie Fag."^[8]

In the summer of 1997, several House Republicans attempted to replace Gingrich as Speaker. The attempted "coup" began on July 9 with a meeting between Republican conference chairmanJohn Boehner ofOhio and Republican leadership chairmanBill Paxon ofNew York. According to their plan, House Majority Leader Armey,House Majority WhipTom DeLay, Boehner, and Paxon were to present Gingrich with an ultimatum: resign, or be voted out. Under the new plan, Paxon was to replace Gingrich as Speaker. However, Armey balked at the proposal, and told his chief of staff to warn Gingrich about the coup.^[9] On July 11, Gingrich met with senior Republican leadership to assess the situation. He explained that under no circumstance would he step down. If he were voted out, there would be a new election for Speaker, which would allow for the possibility that Democrats and dissenting Republicans would vote inDick Gephardt as Speaker. Paxon resigned his post, feeling that he had not handled the situation correctly.^[10][11][12] Paxon later considered, then rejected, a challenge to Armey's post as majority leader, and did not run for re-election in 1998.^[13]

Republicans suffered heavy losses in the1998 elections, but remained the majority party in the House. Armey had to defeat a challenge for his majority leader post fromSteve Largent ofOklahoma, a member of the Republican class of 1994. Although Armey was not popular in the Republican caucus, Largent was thought to be too conservative for some moderate Republicans, and Armey won on the third ballot.^[14]

Gingrich had already resigned as Speaker in the aftermath of the 1998 election, withBob Livingston ofLouisiana chosen by the party to serve as his replacement.^[14] Before the new Congress convened in January, however, Livingston announced he would not serve as Speaker, following the revelation of an extramarital affair. Armey initially seemed to have the inside track to become Speaker; as majority leader, he was the number-two Republican in the chamber. However, he was still badly wounded from Largent's challenge, and opted not to run. The post eventually went to Chief Deputy Whip Dennis Hastert ofIllinois.

Armey served another four years before announcing his retirement in 2002.

In his later terms in office, Armey feuded withFocus on the Family leaderJames Dobson. Armey wrote, "As Majority Leader, I remember vividly a meeting with the House leadership where Dobson scolded us for having failed to 'deliver' forChristian conservatives, that we owed our majority to him, and that he had the power to take our jobs back. This offended me, and I told him so." Armey states that Focus on the Family targeted him politically after the incident, writing, "Focus on the Family deliberately perpetuates the lie that I am a consultant to theACLU." Armey has also said that "Dobson and his gang of thieves are real nasty bullies."^[15]

In Armey's final term, he was named chairman of theUnited States House Committee on Homeland Security and was the primary sponsor of thelegislation that created theDepartment of Homeland Security. After Armey's retirement, fellow Texan Tom DeLay was elevated to Armey's Majority Leader position. Armey's son, Scott, ran for his father's seat in the 2002 election, but lost in the Republican Partyrunoff toMichael C. Burgess, who would go on to hold the strongly Republican 26th District for the GOP in November.

One of Armey's formerCongressional staff members,Dade Phelan, was elected in 2014 to theTexas House of Representatives as a Republican, representing theBeaumont area in House District 21. In January 2021, Phelan was elected the 76th Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.^[16]

After leaving office, Armey joined the Washington office of the law firmDLA Piper as a senior policy advisor.^[17] Armey was also the firm's co-chairman of its Homeland Security Task Force.^[18] In 2009, Armey'sFreedomWorks group launched a campaign against health care reform proposals, accusing theObama administration of attempting to "socialize medicine".^[19] DLA Piper was concerned about theconflict of interest, particularly since their clients were spending millions in advertising and lobbying money to support the passage of health care reform, and FreedomWorks was linked to demonstrations at town hall forums where health care reform was being discussed.^[20] Amid whatPolitico called "the health care flap", DLA Piper asked Armey to resign in August 2009, and he left the firm.^[21]

In 2003, Armey became co-chairman ofCitizens for a Sound Economy, which in 2004 merged withEmpower America to become FreedomWorks. The group's name was derived from a common Armey saying: "Freedom works. Freedom is good policy and good politics."^[22] FreedomWorks is a conservative non-profit organization based inWashington D.C. In his role as chairman, Armey was a national political figure. He traveled widely, meeting with activists and legislators. In 2005, he testified before the President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform and debatedGovernor of ColoradoBill Owens on a tax increase ballot measure.^{[citation needed]} TheCenter for Public Integrity reported that Armey was paid $500,000 per year and flew first class, along with other FreedomWorks employees, for work travel.^[23]

On December 3, 2012Mother Jones reported that Armey, in an email on November 30 toMatt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks Inc., resigned his positions as chairman and trustee of FreedomWorks and severed all his ties to that organization, effective immediately.^[24]Mother Jones reported that Armey's reasons for resigning were "matters of principle. It's how you do business as opposed to what you do. But I don't want to be the guy to create problems." TheAssociated Press reported that in September 2012, Armey agreed to resign by November 2012 in exchange for $8 million in consulting fees paid in annual $400,000 installments.^[25]

On December 25, 2012,The Washington Post reported that Armey had escorted Matt Kibbe and FreedomWorks' Vice President Adam Brandon out of the FreedomWorks offices with the help of an armed guard on September 4, 2012. Armey reportedly wanted FreedomWorks to supportTodd Akin after his controversial "legitimate rape" comments.^[26]

As afree-market economist influenced by the ideas ofMilton Friedman, Armey favored relatively open immigration and advocated forfree trade. Armey was one of Congress's fervent supporters ofprivatization ofSocial Security and phasing-out offarm subsidies. He was a strong supporter of replacing theprogressive tax with aflat tax. Armey was very critical of a competing tax reform proposal that would replace the current system with a national sales tax, theFairTax.^{[citation needed]} During his time in Congress, Armey conceived theBase Realignment and Closure Commission that became responsible for closingmilitary bases as a cost-cutting measure. After his retirement from Congress, he toldThe New York Times: "A lot of people say if you cut defense, you're demonstrating less than a full commitment to our nation's security, and that's baloney."^[27]

In 1999, Armey sponsored the Fair Care for the Uninsured Act, something that would later be proposed byMark Kennedy after Armey left Congress. It proposed usingtax credits to offset the cost ofhealth insurance, allowing individuals to go outside the workplace to obtain private health coverage directly from an insurance company, and the creation of a "safety net" for the uninsured. The law never made it through Congress, but some of these concepts did make it into theMassachusetts health care reform of 2006 and from there into thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (informally known as Obamacare) in 2010. Armey is a vocal opponent of theindividual mandate to purchase health benefits. He also voiced public opposition to the individual mandate when it was proposed by First LadyHillary Clinton during the contentious national health care reform debate of 1993 and 1994.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006,Michael Isikoff's bookHubris included Armey as an on-the-record source, who said he was initially reluctant to support theBush administration's call forwar with Iraq, and that he had warned PresidentGeorge W. Bush that such a war might be a "quagmire". Armey said that the intelligence presented to him in support of the war appeared questionable, but he gave Bush the benefit of the doubt. According toBarton Gellman, former Vice PresidentDick Cheney told Armey thatSaddam Hussein's family had direct ties toAl-Qaeda and that Saddam wasdeveloping miniature nuclear weapons. Armey then voted for theIraq War, but after it became clear this was not true, stated that he "deserved better from Cheney than to be bullshitted by him."^[28]Robert Draper'sDead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush recounts a conversation in late summer 2002 between Armey and Cheney. Armey insisted that American forces would get "mired down" inIraq if they invaded, but Cheney offered this assurance: "They're going to welcome us. It'll be like the American army going through the streets of Paris. They're sitting there ready to form a new government. The people will be so happy with their freedoms that we'll probably back ourselves out of there within a month or two."^[29]

On May 1, 2002, onMSNBC'sHardball with Chris Matthews, Armey called forPalestinians to be expelled from thePalestinian Occupied Territories. Armey, a staunch supporter of Israel,^[30] repeatedly said that he would be "content" with Israel completely taking over all of the Palestinian Occupied Territories and transferring the Palestinian population out. He further stated that the Palestinians could then build their state in the "many Arab nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land".^[31] In September 2002 he stated that "my No. 1 priority in foreign policy is to protect Israel".^[32]

• Armey, Dick (1995).The Freedom Revolution. Washington, DC: Regnery.ISBN 978-0-89526-469-5.
• Armey, Dick (1996).The Flat Tax: A Citizen's Guide to the Facts on What It Will Do for You, Your Country, and Your Pocketbook. New York: Ballantine.ISBN 978-0-449-91095-5.
• Armey, Dick (2003).Armey's Axioms: 40 Hard-Earned Truths from Politics, Faith, and Life. New York: Wiley.ISBN 978-0-471-46913-1.
• Armey, Dick; Matt Kibbe (2010).Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto. New York: William Morrow.ISBN 978-0-06-201587-7.
• Armey, Richard K. (1977).Price Theory: a Policy-Welfare Approach. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.ISBN 0-13-699694-9.

• Biography at theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Dick ArmeyArchived July 24, 2012, at theWayback Machine political contributions fromInfluence Explorer at theSunlight Foundation
• Richard K. Armey Collection andPhotograph Series at theCarl Albert Center
• Profile at theWayback Machine (archived October 25, 2012) atFreedomWorks
• Armey in Exile, Luke Mullins,The Washingtonian, June 26, 2013

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