Folks, it’s not the amendments we should be focused on; it’s the underlying bill that we must block. Yes, it’s another week in D.C., and that means it’s another week of work on the highway bill. Throughout the past two weeks, there have been copious pages of ink spilled pontificating about the ramifications of the Blunt amendment and religious conscious issues. Moreover, the Capitol Hill | Read More »
Last year, buoyed by unprecedented conservative uprisings, we elected a new Republican majority in the House. The 87 freshmen were often referred to as the “Tea Party Congress.” Unfortunately, it has become clear that not all freshmen were created equal; not all freshmen drink a strong brew of tea. In fact, some members have nothing in common with the Tea Party. Due in large part | Read More »
When Republicans caved on raising the debt limit last year, we referred to the final Boehner proposal as a ground ball into a double play. Not only did Boehner fail to secure any transformational change in exchange for raising the debt ceiling (except for cutting the military), he actually obviated our leverage in future budget battles. As part of the debt limit agreement, Congress passed | Read More »
“The Tea Party was born out of the conviction that gov’t shouldn’t pick winners and losers, yet that is all these losers have done in Congress.” If you think that the 2010 elections cleared out all of the dead wood from the House, you need to think again. If you think that our only intra-party problems emanate from blue-district Republicans, you need a reality check. | Read More »
For the most part, last night’s debate was refreshing in the sense that the candidates were honest about their lack of conservatism. Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul affirmed their support for some aspect of earmarking (although some parsed words), Rick Santorum owned up to his support of No Child Left Behind, Ron Paul unabashedly enunciated his support for Iran’s nuclear program, and Newt Gingrich also confirmed | Read More »
After several years of offering oblique generalities about the need to lower the corporate tax, Obama is finally putting his money where his mouth is. Last week, Congressman Dave Camp called out Timothy Geithner for not offering a corporate tax cut in the President’s FY 2013 budget. So with much fanfare, Geithner has unveiled a proposal to cut the top corporate tax rate from 35% | Read More »
If I were pressed to offer one anecdote exemplifying our failure to elect consistent conservatives to Congress last November, the story of Senator Jerry Moran and Big Wind would be at the top of the list. In 2010, then-Congressman Jerry Moran beat former Congressman Todd Tiahrt for the Republican nomination for Senate in Kansas running as a red meat conservative. He easily won the seat | Read More »
Editor’s note: In our continuing effort to spotlight conservative fighters running for Congress, I’m posting some more endorsements from The Madison Project. Today’s candidate is Carl Wimmer in Utah’s 4th congressional district. Almost every Republican candidate this season will pledge to repeal Obamacare, but none of them have done more to fight the healthcare behemoth than Carl Wimmer. During his tenure in the Utah House | Read More »
Many of us are off of work today, but are unaware of the true origin of this holiday. Indeed, today is not Presidents’ Day; it is the legal holiday to celebrate George Washington’s birthday (his actual birthday is Wednesday). Washington’s Birthday has been usurped by liberals (and marketers), as it has been morphed into a generic celebration of all American presidents. In 1885, President Chester | Read More »
When Republicans agreed to raise the debt ceiling last year, not only did they credit Obama’s credit card by $2.1 trillion, they also gave him a lifeline until after the election. At the time, it was projected that $2.1 trillion in new debt allowance was sufficient to last until January 2013, sparing Obama the embarrassment of raising the debt ceiling right before the election. Well, | Read More »
Every once and a while I have to hit myself over the head and remember that whomever receives the Republican nomination – vices and all – must be supported over Obama. Even though a Republican-controlled Congress can stop much of Obama’s domestic policy agenda (although they tend to cave), the president has wide latitude to act unilaterally on foreign policy. His foreign policy is naive, | Read More »
Republicans who seek our support during an election cycle declare emphatically that they will deal with the deficit upon being elected. Once elected, however, they far too often evince nothing but apathy towards efforts to solve our budget crisis. Worse yet, they even work assiduously to create new deficits. Ever since Republicans won control of the House in 2010, instead of looking for spending cuts | Read More »
If the House highway bill is an excrement sandwich, the Senate version is…well, it’s a lot worse. The one saving grace of the bill was that it supposedly did not contain any earmarks. Well, indeed there is one earmark in the bill, and it’s directed to Nevada. The earmark is ensconced in the bill very cleverly. On page 463 of the bill (lines 8-14), it | Read More »
Our voices are finally being heard – sort of. When we started voicing opposition to the highway bill there were few conservatives speaking out against it, and even fewer members of the House who were willing to oppose it. Now, there is so much opposition to the bill that John Boehner was forced to delay the vote on the highway bill, which was previously scheduled | Read More »
Well, it appears that our efforts are paying off. Responding to our charge that the GOP was violating the pledge against bundled megabills, Boehner announced that he will split the proposal into three separate bills; the highway bill (HR 7), pension reform (HR 3813), and expanded oil and gas drilling (HR 3408). This from Roll Call: In a joint statement with Rules Chairman David Dreier | Read More »
Editor’s note: Earlier this year, I promised to harness our collective outrage against the GOP establishment by searching out candidates to support – men and women who will uphold our first principles. Unfortunately, we have been too busy dealing with capitulation after capitulation on the major legislative battles. That is about to change. Over the next few months, I will be seeking out conservative candidates | Read More »
We all agree that a temporary payroll tax cut without permanently restructuring Social Security, along with its funding source, is a ludicrous idea. Sadly, Democrats would rather play politics by introducing this inane stimulus measure, in an attempt to get Republicans to vote against a tax cut. For far too long, the extension of the payroll tax cut was coupled with more entitlement spending, in | Read More »
Last week, John Boehner’s spokesman, Brendan Buck, falsely asserted that the highway bill is “completely paid for –without raising the gas tax,” and will not engender further bailouts. The reality is that this bill will impel an immediate $40 billion bailout from the general fund, while relying on phantom offsets to pay for it over 10 years. Moreover, these offsets will never pass and will | Read More »
On Monday, Obama is slated to release his annual budget proposal for FY 2013, along with a 10-year budget (2012-2021) outlook. One would think that after talking incessantly about cutting spending, Obama would spend less money next year than this year. Yet, in Obama’s world, a spending cut means spending less than you were slated to spend, even though it is still higher in nominal | Read More »
Aside from defeating Obama, the most important goal of the 2012 elections is to win back the Senate. Or is it? On days like today we should begin to wonder if there really would be much of a difference when there are 51 senators with an R next to their name as opposed to just 47. In another terrible day on the Hill, Senate Republicans | Read More »
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