By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 8th at 10:30 AM  | 

Gotta love it: I go to take a nap before Tech at Night but… oops, somebody forgot to press the Start button on that 2 hour timer. So, suddenly it’s Tech at Saturday Morning!

So yeah, we’ll start with a story that actually got me mad: the ongoing story of that now-famous RSC paper on copyright. There are conflicting reports out there, but most I’m seeing suggest there’s a real change going on at RSC, the same way there’s been a purge of a certain wing of the party elsewhere in the House.

I’m disappointed by all of this. If the RSC is going to oppose copyright reform the same way most of us oppose anarchic anti-copyright views, then the RSC is aligning itself with the most extreme perpetual-copyright views held by groups like MPAA. If there is to be no compromise, then I cannot work with them either, since my views have been declared to be in opposition to RSC.

Purges have consequences. It’s time we stopped pretending RSC is anything but an organ of the RSC establishment now. They’re clearly not speaking for the conservative reform wing of the GOP, as they once did long ago.

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 4th at 11:12 AM  | 

Yesterday, we noted that not only did House leadership select moderates to fill vacant spots on the top congressional committees, they made the unprecedented decision to banish conservatives already sitting on some important committees.  All of the decisions related to committee assignments are decided by a Steering Committee.  At present, the Steering Committee is comprised of 31 members, most of who are either members of | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 3rd at 01:59 PM  | 

Well, House leadership made sure to elevate like-minded members to leadership; they took care to co-opt the Republican Study Committee; they packed the Steering Committee, which chooses committee assignments, with a bunch of loyalists.  Now we’re seeing the effects of those decisions. Maybe it’s because he’s intent on repealing Dodd-Frank.  Maybe it’s because he wants to use his committee assignment to advocate winding down Fannie | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 27th at 01:00 AM  | 

It’s funny how the same House Judiciary Committee that took up SOPA is now taking up IRFA, opposed by a growing list of groups including Taxpayers Protection Alliance, ATR, CAGW, and ACU. SOPA of course would have grown government in the name of strengthening copyright. IRFA makes government meddle more in a way that weakens copyright. And not in a good way, either: IRFA would not encourage innovation or content creation. It just favors Internet broadcasters over everyone else.

Also yeah, the RSC paper on Copyright that I backed before it was wrongly pulled, it is not a statement against property rights nor is it against copyright at all. If the side favoring ever-lengthening copyright cannot argue honestly with us, and has to mischaracterize those of us who favor an approach to copyright that balances the interests involved, then that to me suggests a deficiency in their position.

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  November 8th at 07:20 AM  | 

Folks, we’ve got a problem.  There is no conservative leadership inside of Washington to serve as a firewall against Obama’s impending socialist onslaught.  We’ve spent the past two years refusing to fight Obamacare, the fiscal cliff, or the debt.  These issues were totally absent from the campaign.  Whether we like it or not, the House of Representatives must serve as our lifeline, an oasis of | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  July 18th at 08:07 PM  | 

Since the Supreme Court ignored the Constitution by upholding Obamacare, we have no choice but to use every legislative and executive tool at our disposal to kill this socialist monstrosity.  One opportunity we will have to disrupt and impede its implementation will be through the appropriations process. Last December, we incurred the ‘great spending betrayal’ under Republican leadership in the House. Sixty percent of House | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 30th at 12:01 PM  | 

As we noted yesterday, a number of Republicans who inherently oppose the RSC budget, yet wanted to go on record as voting for it, switched their votes from no to aye when they realized that Democrats wouldn’t vote present and let it pass.  This stratagem was orchestrated by the GOP Whip team.  Here is a list of the vote switchers (from the Congressional Record) who | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 29th at 03:30 PM  | 

The RSC budget was defeated earlier today, but the good news is that it garnered the support of 136 Republicans, 56% of the conference.  Or did it?  Take a look at this summation from The Hill of the roll call vote and ask yourselves what we are supposed to think about the leadership within the conference: Members rejected the RSC proposal in a 136-285 vote | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 28th at 11:32 PM  | 

Late last night, the House began voting on the substitute budget amendments to the Ryan budget.  Here is a quick rundown. Simpson-Bowles Every single Republican in Washington is committed to doing everything in his or her power to terminate Obamacare, right?  Wrong! Last night, 16 Republicans from the ‘pale-pastel caucus’ voted for the Simpson-Bowles budget alternative in the form of the Cooper-LaTourette amendment.  This budget | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 27th at 10:50 AM  | 

Last year, we were proud to be one of the first websites to publicly promote the Republican Study Committee’s Cut, Cap and Balance (CCB) plan.  What started out as an idea hatched by a few principled conservatives grew into a unifying rallying cry for the entire conservative movement.  Sadly, GOP leadership jettisoned the universally-heralded CCB plan in favor of the Budget [Out of] Control Act, | Read More »

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  January 19th at 12:00 PM  | 

The Republican Study Committee has a new ad out pointing out how long it’s been since we had a budget:

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  November 2nd at 01:30 PM  | 

One of the more positive ancillary benefits of this presidential primary season is the newfound focus on taxation, regulation, and energy production.  The prominence of the presidential election has helped jumpstart a vital discourse on long-term reforms for those three policies. The RSC, which is the most respected conservative group within Congress, has proposed a jobs growth plan today, which seeks to achieve those reforms, | Read More »

By: Congressman Jim Jordan (Diary)  |  June 17th at 02:14 PM  | 

It’s hard to believe a year has passed since the White House kicked off its “Recovery Summer” campaign. And it seems like only yesterday that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner bid us all a warm “Welcome to the Recovery.” But today is not a happy anniversary. As this now-infamous stimulus chart confirms, Recovery Summer never warmed up. The stimulus didn’t work, and the federal government’s alphabet | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 15th at 11:48 AM  | 

Today, the House is debating the annual Agriculture Appropriations bill, which appropriates funds for the Department of Agriculture and similar agencies.  The committee-passed bill provides a spending level of $17.25 billion, which is $2.7 billion less than FY 2011 appropriations. While $2.7 billion is a good start -enough to invoke the most vile class warfare from Democrats – there is still more to cut.  This | Read More »

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  June 3rd at 08:41 AM  | 

Last month, during his weekly radio address, Barack Obama announced his plans to drill in NPR-A.  No-he wasn’t planning to eviscerate his genuflecting media outlet; he was promising to issue more land leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Like most of his capricious gestures to conservative policy initiatives, this promise was vapid of substance and lacking accountability.  He knew all along that his unelected bureaucrats | Read More »