In the wake of the Supreme Court decision on the so-called “Affordable Care Act,” the House will once again take up the imperative of repealing it. But the Supreme Court decision has much more dire implications for our nation and its cherished freedoms than merely affirming the government takeover of our health care. In reaching its conclusion, the Court obliterated a fundamental distinction | Read More »
“But that’s still not a reason for taxpayers to foot the bill. It’s a reason for the actual research and development to be paid for by the companies that will profit from this long-promised breakthrough, and if they’re not willing to finance it with their own money, we have no business forcing our constituents to finance them with theirs” — Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA), House | Read More »
IRS Harassment of Tea Party Groups Remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock House Chamber, Washington D.C. April 17, 2012 Mr. Speaker: A defining aspect of the American tradition is that groups of citizens band together for a wide variety of civic purposes. They recruit volunteers, raise funds and spend those funds to promote whatever project or cause brings them together. For more than a century, our | Read More »
Cracking Freedom’s Foundation House Chamber, Washington, D.C. December 14, 2011 Remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) Mr. Speaker: I rise in opposition to Section 1021 of the underlying Conference Report (H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act). This section specifically affirms that the President has the authority to deny due process to any American it charges with “substantially supporting al Qaeda, the Taliban or any | Read More »
House Chamber, Washington, D.C. October 26, 2011 M. Speaker: The government’s continuing failure to address our nation’s gut-wrenching unemployment stems from a fundamental disagreement over how jobs are created in the first place. We are now in the third year of policies predicated on the assumption that government spending creates jobs. We have squandered three years and trillions of dollars of the nation’s wealth on | Read More »
House Floor Remarks Congressman Tom McClintock September 22, 2011 Mr. Speaker: This generation is facing spiraling electricity prices and increasingly scarce supplies. Californians have had to cut back to the point that their per capita electricity consumption is now lower than that of Guam, Luxembourg and Aruba. What is the administration’s solution? Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday that the administration is moving | Read More »
House Floor remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA) in support of the Amash/ Kucinich Amendment to HR 2219 to deny authorization for the use of funds for the war in Libya Mr. Chairman: For more than three months, our nation has been amidst a quiet constitutional crisis that carries immense implications. The Gentleman from Florida is sadly mistaken to dismiss this as a meaningless philosophical | Read More »
House Floor Remarks June 3, 2011 M. Speaker: Lets be clear: without prior Congressional authorization, under the War Powers Act, the President may only commit armed forces to hostilities for sixty days if there is a direct attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions or its armed forces. There was none, so there is no sixty day clock and the President’s unprovoked attack | Read More »
House Floor Remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock: March 31, 2011 M. Speaker: When the President ordered the attack on Libya without Congressional authorization, he crossed a very bright Constitutional line that he himself recognized in 2007 when he told the Boston Globe “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping | Read More »
March 23, 2011 The Honorable Barack Obama President of the United States The White House Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: I have read your letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate dated March 21, 2011 concerning your order that United States Armed Forces attack the nation of Libya. You cite the authority of United | Read More »
House Chamber, Washington, D.C. February 15, 2011 M. Speaker: Last year I voted to extend the PATRIOT Act for one year. I regret that vote and was glad to have been able to correct it, although I am pained that the House voted otherwise yesterday. During this past year, I have become convinced that the provisions of the so-called PATRIOT Act are an affront to | Read More »
House Resolution 72 Remarks by Congressman Tom McClintock House Chamber, Washington, D.C As Chairman of the Water and Power Subcommittee of Natural Resources, my colleagues and I are excited and eager to undertake the mission outlined in House Resolution 72: to identify the federal regulations in this field that are impeding job creation and slowing the economy. The only problem is deciding where to begin. | Read More »
By Tom McClintock Remarks delivered in the House Chamber, Washington, D.C. January 6, 2011. M. Speaker: I rise to express the hope that historians will look back on the 112th Congress as the session that restored American prosperity – and to express my strong agreement with the new leaders of this House who have declared that every action of this body must be measured against | Read More »
I commend the Senate for passing the tax relief measure yesterday (HR 4853 – Tax Relief Compromise), and I hope that the House passes it today. According to the CBO, this bill comprises $136 billion in additional spending and $721 billion in tax relief. That means fifteen percent of this bill is spending – the other 85 percent is tax relief: • No across the | Read More »
WASHINGTON D.C. – House Water and Power Subcommittee Ranking Member Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-04) today delivered the attached remarks on the House floor during a debate on HR 4753 – Claims Resolution Act of 2010. HR 4753 – Claims Resolution Act of 2010 Congressman Tom McClintock November 30, 2010 Mr. Speaker: Titles 3 through 6 of the bill purport to settle four water rights claims | Read More »
In a moment of breathtaking condescension during the debate over ObamaCare, Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it…” Well, they passed it. And ever since, the American people have been finding out what’s in it. There’s a reason that not a single Democrat in a competitive race is touting his or her support for | Read More »
H.R. 1586: Defying the Law of Holes August 10, 2010 Mr. Speaker: Many people are asking why Congress is here today. I think the answer’s pretty simple: we’re not bankrupting the country fast enough and so we need to come back and spend more. In the merciful week that Congress was not in session, my constituents had one message: STOP THE SPENDING. Obviously, Congress isn’t | Read More »
California’s Proposition 8: Judge Walker’s opinion that traditional marriage is an affront to the Bill of Rights would no doubt have come as a surprise to the American Founders – and to more than two centuries of American jurisprudence affirming that institution. Fortunately, the architects of our Constitution recognized the damage that feeble reasoning can do from the bench and provided a multitude of checks | Read More »
Debate on HR 4213 Remarks by Representative Tom McClintock House Chamber, Washington, D.C. July 22, 2010 M. Speaker: Anyone who has experienced firsthand the quiet panic that stalks every waking hour of an unemployed family knows how frightening and debilitating is chronic unemployment. You watch your savings evaporate, you see your children going without the material things their friends enjoy, and you count | Read More »
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Tom McClintock (R – CA) delivered the following remarks today on the House floor about stimulus spending and unemployment: Repeating the Lesson House Chamber, Washington, D.C. July 20, 2010 Mr. Speaker: When the stimulus bill became law, unemployment stood at 8.2 percent. Today, eighteen months and hundreds of billions of dollars later, unemployment is 9.5 percent. This spending binge hasn’t made | Read More »
House Chamber, Washington, D.C. M. Speaker: The proponents tell us that this bill will increase lending to small businesses. To do so they are creating a $30 billion slush fund to make loans to smaller banks, therefore encouraging smaller banks to make loans to small businesses. Or so they say. It is a splendid example of what I like to call McClintock’s Second Law of | Read More »
. House Chamber, Washington, D.C. May 20, 2010. M. Speaker: I rise to take strong exception to the speech of the President of Mexico while in this chamber today. The Mexican government has made it very clear for many years that it holds American sovereignty in contempt and President Calderon’s behavior as a guest of the Congress confirms and underscores this attitude. It is highly | Read More »
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Tom McClintock (CA -04) made the following remarks today at a forum held at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. to discuss the Greek bailout. Remarks on the Greek Bailout May 19, 2010 I spoke with Marvin Goodfriend of Carniegie Mellon just before we came out and I don’t want to steal his thunder but he appears to have come up with | Read More »
House Chamber, Washington D.C. April 29, 2010 Mr. Speaker: Proponents have a problem. They want statehood for Puerto Rico. But in 1998, the majority voted no. What to do? Replace a straight-forward up or down vote with a two-step process. If 40 percent support the Commonwealth, and 20 percent favor each of three alternatives, the overwhelming plurality is defeated on the first ballot and left | Read More »
House Chamber, Washington, D.C., March 20, 2010. M. Speaker: In the introduction to his epic “Ten Commandments,” Cecil B. Demille asked the question: “Are men the property of the state, or are they free souls under God?” Congress will fundamentally address that question tomorrow. Will the federal government order Americans to buy products that government thinks they should buy, and to fine or imprison them | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}