“To the extent that we have not reached the level of fiscal dissoluteness of Greece, it is precisely because of the uncompromising “extremists” like the Tea Party.” Most people outside of Congress never heard of 9-term liberal Congressman Steve LaTourette (“R”- OH). But his surprise announcement that he will retire at the end of the year is a big relief to all those who desire | Read More »
In recent years, GOP establishment figures have accused the Tea Party of thwarting a Republican majority in the Senate by nominating conservatives whom they believe are unelectable. One would expect them do elicit a commensurate degree of outrage from the following story reported by The Hill: Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) has endorsed Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) in her Senate bid, a surprising move since the | Read More »
Every Republican swears up and down that he/she supports limited government, a balanced budget, and free markets. Yet, once again, only a fraction of Republicans in Washington were able to stand for those ideals. The House and Senate passed the Obama highway bill/student loan stimulus on Friday with overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. [Read more about the bill here and here.] Among other things, | Read More »
Last year, the American people voted overwhelmingly for a Republican House of Representatives. Based upon their campaign pledges, the prevailing expectation of a “Republican House” was a body of revitalized Republicans who would not fund Obamacare and Dodd-Frank, downsize Freddie/Fannie, oppose appropriator-concocted omnibus bills, and fight for at least some of their priorities in the Ryan budget. A year later, the prevailing sentiment amongst the | Read More »
There is an old adage in Washington that describes the political system as consisting of three political parties; Democrats, Republicans, and Appropriators. The Appropriations Subcommittee chairmen, often referred to as the “College of Cardinals,” usually agree to concoct legislation that fuses the worst elements of the evil and stupid parties, resulting in something worse than a pure Democrat proposal. This is exactly what transpired with | Read More »
Update: Roll call of members who stood strong is below the fold. This afternoon, the House passed Harry Reid’s first minibus appropriations bill (Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Transportation-HUD), which contains record levels of spending for Food Stamps, WIC, and international food aid. It also contains $2.3 billion for disaster spending, which is excluded from the budget caps. Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers promised today on the House | Read More »
After dithering for almost three years without a budget, Democrats are in a hellfire rush to finish all of the 12 annual appropriations bills. Unfortunately, Republicans leaders are in such a hurry to bury the hatchet on spending fights, they are willing to void all of the House-passed bills, in return for bipartisan conference reports. These conference committee versions – chock full of Senate Democrat amendments | Read More »
Does government have the right to take over the healthcare sector, thereby infringing on liberty, killing jobs, reducing income, destroying investment, and driving up costs to consumers? Well, as long as it is promulgated by state government, Mitt Romney thinks there is nothing wrong. The conservative Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University has done a comprehensive study surveying the devastation of Romneycare – and it’s | Read More »
Mitt Romney might feel that entitlement reform is an electoral loser, but it is precisely his unprincipled Mittness Protection Program of a political platform that will lose him the nomination. Republicans are looking for a leader – and leaders show courage by articulating bold solutions to our most consequential public policy problems, such as retirement security; not by ducking behind them and palavering liberal demagoguery. | Read More »
In recent years, the job of United States Senator has evidently been added to the list of ‘jobs that Americans won’t do.’ Harry Reid’s Senate has categorically shirked its core constitutional responsibility by refusing to pass a budget for over two years. Concurrently, the Senate has been preoccupied with feckless, unconstitutional legislation that fails to deal with any of the paramount public policy problems facing | Read More »
Whenever we attempt to evince bold distinctions between ourselves and the Democrats, Lindsey Graham and John McCain can always be counted upon to muddle those distinctions. Foreign policy, in particular, is a subject in which voters struggle to perceive clear differences between the parties. Consequently, we must repel the rapturous support for the so-called Arab Spring emanating from Obama’s tag team of favorite Republicans. Back | Read More »
Yesterday, the House passed the largely non-controversial Military Construction/Veterans Affairs Appropriations (MilCon) bill for FY 2012. Unfortunately, it is these non-controversial bills which provide a safe haven for meretricious policy initiatives through the rapid fire amendment process. While everyone was focused on presidential politics, the House passed an amendment forcing government contractors to use labor unions on federal construction projects. Oh, and like most bad | Read More »
Around election time, conservatives are always confronted with the arduous task of sifting through candidates who propagate meretricious right wing talking points in an effort to conceal their faux conservative record. Thankfully, this election cycle, to a certain extent, has given rise to an anomalous level of veracity. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are unambiguously communicating to conservatives that they are not ‘one of the | Read More »
Many establishment conservatives are agog with joy over the grand sellout of a budget deal. They feel that John Boehner was the real winner in the debate. The problem is that they are all focusing on the dollar amount of the discretionary spending cuts. They are forgetting the 800-pound gorilla in the room; Obamacare. The cost of O-care to our economy, liberty, consumer choice, and | Read More »
Well, the dust has settled from the 2010 legislative session, and organizations like National Journal and American Conservative Union have published their annual voting reports. So who are the ‘top conservatives’? You’ll never guess. Here is a list of the ‘top conservatives’ from National Journal and the ACU, along with their composite conservative scores. Check out this link for the description of ACU’s scorecard and | Read More »
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”~ Ronald | Read More »
While the House Republicans have shown more austere leadership than the Senate, they are far from infallible. Ultimately, every Republican will likely support the final version of the CR (Continuing Resolution for FY2011 budget), however, a number of them are silently helping Democrats defeat some additional spending cuts through the amendment process throughout the week. Unfortunately, it is hard to focus the public’s attention on | Read More »
Jon Kyl’s sudden retirement announcement has set off a domino effect on the ambitions of several Senate Republicans. When Senator Kyl retires in 2012, he will be vacating the position of Senate (Majority, most likely) Whip, in addition to his Arizona Senate seat. Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (RINO, TN), the 3rd ranking member in the GOP leadership, has announced that he will seek the Whip | Read More »
While the House class of 2010 is regarded as the “Tea Party Congress”, it is quite obvious that not all 87 freshmen Republicans are conservative. All of the bills and resolutions so far have been over fundamental issues and were all supported unanimously by the Republican Conference. Over the next few months, we will see if cracks begin to form in the conservative armor of | Read More »
Despite the triumphant ascendancy of conservatism in our times, many Republicans are impetuously ‘punting on first down’ in the battle for social conservatism. Some prominent GOPers feel that not only is social conservatism not a priority, it is something that should be unconditionally and unilaterally surrendered to the left. There are elected Republicans supporting the repeal of DADT, radical homosexual organizations sponsoring CPAC, and party | Read More »
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