Over the past few months, we have witnessed a dynamic in Washington in which House leadership is passing liberal legislation with support from the Democrat caucus. Instead of using their unfettered control over the House to advance conservative legislation and jam the Senate with popular bills, they are playing defense on Senate-passed legislation. On other occasions, they have wasted valuable legislative days on suspension bills | Read More »
Yesterday, it was announced that John Boehner and Harry Reid had reached an early agreement on the FY 2013 budget in order to avoid a government shutdown on October 1. Pursuant to the agreement, both chambers will vote on a 6-month continuing resolution after returning from the August recess in September. The CR will provide spending for discretionary programs set at the $1.047 trillion level | Read More »
Dear Speaker Boehner, During every election cycle, virtually every Republican candidate affirms his or her support for limited government, free markets, and balanced budgets. They all tout their conservative credentials on the flashy flag-waving issues of the day in an effort to ingratiate themselves with Republican primary voters. However, it is the “inside baseball” issues such as the farm bill that expose many of them | Read More »
Many of us have taken it for granted that all Republicans would work for full repeal of Obamacare. After all, not a single Republican voted for it. However, it is always important to understand the reasons why politicians support or oppose a piece of legislation. When you listen to many prominent Republicans voicing their disdain for Obamacare, you generally hear the following complaints: it raises | Read More »
“ Once the Democrats know that the debt ceiling will invariably be raised, they have no incentive to play ball. The end result will be another raw deal that is worse than doing nothing.” There is much hullabaloo in the media about John Boehner’s shot across the bow in the upcoming battle over the debt ceiling this fall. Specifically, Boehner warned that he “will again | Read More »
Every elected Republican came to Washington promising to slash spending and balance the budget. Yet, when it comes time for the most direct way to enact those spending cuts; namely, the annual appropriations bills, most of them are missing in action. In an ideal world, Republicans should hold the upper hand in negotiations over spending bills. They enjoy complete control over the House, while Harry | Read More »
As we’ve noted throughout the past year’s imbroglio over transportation spending, it is clear that complete federal control over transportation spending in a post-interstate highway era (post 1992) is inefficient, costly, anti-federalist, and precludes state and private innovations. Yet, Congress continues to buckle down on a policy that has failed in recent years, exposing taxpayers to future bailouts and tax increases. Worst of all, it | Read More »
As Republicans, we have ridiculed Obama’s stimulus, bailouts, picking winners and losers, crony capitalism, Keynesian economics, European-style socialism, and Solyndra-style loans. Yet, there might only be 50 Republicans in the House who are willing to block a GOP effort to reauthorize a New-Deal policy that represents all of the aforementioned vices. Roll Call is reporting that Eric Cantor is negotiating with Steny Hoyer in an | Read More »
Who needs Democrats when so many Republicans are willing to orchestrate their agenda for them? The Senate is on the precipice of passing Barbara Boxer’s highway bill with overwhelming support. Mitch McConnell is negotiating a deal with Harry Reid in which Republicans would be granted a vote on some of their choice non-germane amendments. After Democrats summarily defeat those amendments, Republicans will return the favor | Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Today, the Treasury Department announced that Obama will ask for another $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, carrying our national debt to $16.394 trillion by next year. This will bring Obama’s total share of the debt to $5.77 trillion by the end of his tenure, far more than any other president. Unfortunately, there is not a darn thing we can do about it. Yet, | Read More »
If the traditional description of the political parties wasn’t evident enough before the payroll tax/UI kerfuffle, it certainly is now: Democrats are evil and Republicans are stupid. Democrats are evil for insidiously driving up the deficit, perpetuating unemployment, lying about Social Security and passing short-term unworkable Social Security tax holidays for political gain. Republicans are stupid for a) having Mitch McConnell as Senate Leader and | Read More »
The Senate-passed payroll tax cut extenders package was already on the ropes with House Republicans over the weekend. The bill (HR 3630) offers a pathetic two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. In addition, it extends long-term unemployment benefits for the ninth time, along with the annual Medicare doc fix. The bill gutted all House-passed reforms to medicare and unemployment insurance, while offsetting the cost | Read More »
“The Senate action was akin to grounding into a triple play for Team GOP, yet the underlying bill passed with unanimous consent.” Over the weekend, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans obviated the superior leverage of House Republicans by passing a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, along with a clean extension (no reforms and offsets) of doc fix and unemployment benefits. In a premature | Read More »
“will they finally hold the line on their own promises this time, or will they pass all the extensions without the reforms, riders, and spending offsets? This package must be the final offer.” Earlier today, House Republican leaders unveiled their package deal to extend the payroll tax and unemployment benefits for another year and to continue Medicare ‘doc fix’ for another two years. While bipartisan | Read More »
In order to ‘fundamentally restore’ America, we will need to win back the House and Senate in 2012, in addition to the White House. Yes – you read that correctly. We don’t control the House yet. There is a popular misconception that all of the 87 freshmen members are intrepid conservatives – members of the “Tea Party Congress.” Sadly, many of the newbies are ‘business | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}