HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Democrats’ Spending Binge Even Worse Than First Reported

Late last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office released a little-noticed report, “Preliminary Analysis of the President’s Budget Request for 2011,” which found that the President’s FY 2011 Budget “would create bigger deficits than advertised every year of the next decade, with the shortfalls totaling $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected,” according to Bloomberg News.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Associated Press reported yesterday that “the February deficit totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record set in February of last year.”  In fact, the AP noted, “[t]he deficit through the first five months of this budget year totals $651.6 billion, 10.5 percent higher than a year ago.”

The President’s Budget has put our nation on an alarming path towards fiscal calamity.  Consider the following, from the Congressional Budget Office Director’s blog: 

• “Under the President’s budget, the cumulative deficit over the 2011-2020 period would equal $9.8 trillion (5.2 percent of GDP), $3.8 trillion more than the cumulative deficit projected in the baseline. Of that difference, roughly $3.0 trillion stems directly from proposed changes in policy and another $0.8 trillion results from additional interest on the public debt.”
• “Under the President’s budget, debt held by the public would grow from $7.5 trillion (53 percent of GDP) at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion (90 percent of GDP) at the end of 2020. As a result, net interest would more than quadruple between 2010 and 2020 in nominal dollars (without an adjustment for inflation); it would expand from 1.4 percent of GDP in 2010 to 4.1 percent in 2020.”

The interest on the debt this Administration and Congress is racking up will cost the American taxpayer nearly $1 trillion a year by the end of the decade, as the following chart from the House Budget Committee Republican staff makes clear:

And that’s not all.  A report from the House Budget Committee Republican staff noted that:

Two recent reports provide further evidence of the Federal Government’s worsening long-term fiscal condition. One report, by the Department of the Treasury, shows U.S. obligations approaching a staggering $62 trillion. The second, by the Government Accountability Office [GAO], reports the government’s excess long-term spending obligations increased by 21.5 percent in just 9 months, to a stunning $76.4 trillion.

This spending spree is coming from the same Administration which declared in its FY 2011 Budget Message that: “[W]e cannot continue to borrow against our children’s future…In the long term, we cannot have sustainable and durable economic growth without getting our fiscal house in order.”

What a joke.  At a time when the American people are asking, “where are the jobs?” out-of-touch Democrats are engaging in a spending spree of historic proportions - doubling the national debt in five years and tripling it in ten, and raising federal spending as a percentage of GDP by five percent above historical averages.  

We need fiscal sanity in Washington, and we need it now.  Last month, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent President Obama a letter in which they urged President to work with Republicans to cut spending now to encourage job growth and reduce the national debt instead of simply punting tough spending decisions to a commission that won’t even issue a final report until the final months of 2010.  

Unfortunately, the President hasn’t responded.

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Bishop of Oakland Speaks Out on Public Funding of Abortion in Democrats’ Health Care Bill

This morning, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, California was interviewed on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom on the topic of the pro-abortion provisions in the Senate health care legislation.  Bishop Cordileone laid out with great clarity why the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is supporting Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) and his fellow pro-life Democrats.

What Bishop Cordielone said is something that all pro-life people can agree on, no matter what their faith.

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Dem Leaders Plotting Government Takeover of Health Care That Requires Taxpayer-Funded Abortions

Democratic leaders are still plotting and scheming in backrooms trying to find an “abortion fix” to pass their government takeover of health care - but one thing is without question: the Democrats’ health care bill does require taxpayer-funded abortions.  Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) went on ABC’s Good Morning America on March 4 to explain how the Senate bill funds abortion:

[T]he bill that they [White House] are using as a vehicle is the Senate bill…You would find in there the federal government would directly subsidize abortions, plus every enrollee in the Office of Personnel management plan, every enrollee has to pay a minimum of $1 per month toward reproductive rights which includes abortion.

ABC News also noted that: “The congressman from Michigan does not think there are enough votes in the House to pass the health care bill as it currently stands, and called the Senate bill ‘totally unacceptable.’” Rep. Stupak went on to add, “Give us our language. Let’s keep current law: No public funding for abortion.”

And the Conference of Catholic Bishops made it loud and clear that they believe the Senate bill would result in publicly funded abortions, as they noted in a January 26 letter to Members of Congress:

Disappointingly, the Senate-passed bill in particular does not meet our moral criteria on life and conscience.  Specifically, it violates the longstanding federal policy against the use of federal funds for elective abortions and health plans that include such abortions….The bill’s provision against abortion funding should have the same substantive policy as the Hyde amendment and parallel provisions in current law, should cover every program in the legislation, and should be as permanent as the funding provided by the bill.

Politico noted the obvious this morning, reporting that “[House Majority Leader] Hoyer said Tuesday that the abortion fight ‘has to be resolved’” if Democrats hope to pass their government takeover of health care.  The Politico story also noted that:

The problem at this point is that supporters of abortion rights, including many of the speaker’s closest allies, have voted to oppose any bill that includes Stupak’s restrictions.  On the flip side, Stupak has said at least 10 colleagues will oppose a bill that doesn’t include them.  If both claims are true, that would make it almost impossible for party leaders in the House to get the 216 votes they need to pass the measure.  And neither side likes the Senate language, so leaders will need to figure out a way to make the necessary changes.

But if pro-life Democrats think they can “fix” the public funding of abortion that’s in the Senate bill, they should think again - because according to Robert Dove, a former Senate parliamentarian, that’s not possible to do through the Senate’s “reconciliation” process:

In 1995 there was a provision that absolutely disallowed any federal funds for abortion.  The Congressional Budget Office determined that it was going to save money.  But it was my view that the provision was not there in order to save money.  It was there to implement social policy.  Therefore I ruled that it was not in order and it was stricken.

Another option Democrats floated this morning, according to Roll Call, is punting the abortion funding issue entirely:

Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has floated putting off the issue….Under Waxman’s idea, the Senate language would stand for now but be subject to future votes in the years before the insurance exchanges take effect.

Yet the Weekly Standard reported last night that Rep. Stupak and roughly a dozen Democrats couldn’t support that approach.  Rep. Stupak noted that, “‘If they say ‘we’ll give you a letter saying we’ll take care of this later,’ that’s not acceptable because later never comes.”

Democrats keep plotting and scheming in backrooms, trying to force their government takeover of health care down the throats of the American people no matter how much they don’t want it.   Yet Speaker Pelosi refuses to listen and remains intent on moving full speed ahead, declaring yesterday that “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

You literally couldn’t make this stuff up.

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Democrats Prepare “Slaughter Solution” to Ram Unpopular Health Care Takeover Through Congress Without a Vote

Follow @GOPLeader on Twitter for updates.

The twisted scheme by which Democratic leaders plan to bend the rules to ram President Obama’s massive health care legislation through Congress now has a name: the Slaughter Solution.

The Slaughter Solution is a plan by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the Democratic chair of the powerful House Rules Committee and a key ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), to get the health care legislation through the House without an actual vote on the Senate-passed health care bill.  You see, Democratic leaders currently lack the votes needed to pass the Senate health care bill through the House.  Under Slaughter’s scheme, Democratic leaders will overcome this problem by simply “deeming” the Senate bill passed in the House - without an actual vote by members of the House.

An article in this morning’s edition of National Journal’s CongressDaily breaks the story, starting with the headline: “SLAUGHTER PREPS RULE TO AVOID DIRECT VOTE ON SENATE BILL.”  Excerpts:

House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.

Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version.

The CongressDaily report was authored by Anna Edney, with Billy House and Dan Friedman contributing.

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Democrats’ Job-Killing Agenda Continues to Paralyze Small Businesses

Americans are asking “where are the jobs?” but out-of-touch Washington Democrats continue to focus on implementing policies that would only destroy jobs.  From a government takeover of health care, to a “cap and trade” national energy tax, to “card check,” to a $3.8 trillion budget that raises taxes, the Democrats’ job-killing agenda is paralyzing small businesses and creating an environment of uncertainty that’s making businesses unwilling to hire.  As Reuters reported this morning:

U.S. employers are slightly less willing to hire workers in the coming quarter than they were three months ago, even as hiring intentions improved in most other countries and territories…Its U.S. survey renewed questions about the pace and sustainability of a forecasted U.S. jobs recovery, and whether eventual jobs creation will make much of a dent in the ranks of unemployed, which now number some 17 million Americans.

Small businesses - usually responsible for the bulk of new jobs created - remain paralyzed by the uncertainty of the Obama-Pelosi agenda, as the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog noted:

Uncertainty breeds inertia. Consumers won’t spend if they aren’t sure they’ll have a paycheck down the road. And businesses won’t hire or expand operations if they don’t expect sales growth. Both consumer demand and business investment are needed for the U.S. recovery to gain traction.  So far, Washington and its stimulus policies haven’t done much to break the doldrums. Recent surveys show both consumers and small business owners are disappointed in government policies or don’t expect them to help much.

And as David Brooks wrote today, “For the past year, small business owners have been screaming that they can’t hire people because they don’t know what the rules will be on health care, finance or energy.”  The following chart, from the New York Times’ Economix blog, demonstrates the depth of job losses during the current recession:

While the American economy is resilient and will recover, a “jobless recovery” is not what the American people were promised.  And instead of focusing “like a laser” on jobs, out-of-touch Washington Democrats decided to adopt White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s axiom that, “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” 

Rather than trying to jam a job-killing government takeover of health care down the throats of the American people, Washington Democrats should scrap their health care proposal - which 57 percent of Americans believe will “hurt the U.S. economy” - and start over, going step-by-step to reform the best health care system in the world.  Republicans have proposed doing just that; read more at HealthCare.GOP.gov.

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Iraq on Track to Become Another Democratic Ally in the Middle East

Yesterday, Iraqis went to the polls in droves to cast their ballots in a nation-wide parliamentary election, defying terrorists and naysayers alike.  The result was a historic election in the heart of the Middle East, as the New York Times reported this morning:

Iraqis defied a barrage of mortars, rockets and other bombs to show up to the polls in strength on Sunday, in elections that have been seen as a critical test of Iraq’s stability and a last milestone before American troops leave the country…. The insurgents still fighting in today’s Iraq face a far stronger government, capable now of saturating the country with police officers and soldiers. Even more important, they face an Iraqi people far less willing to support, or even sympathize with, violent resistance against the country’s democratic government.  Iraqis, seemingly inured to violence, even mocked the attacks.

That’s a remarkable turnaround for a country that many Democrats believed was incapable of democratic government and wanted to abandon altogether.  Instead, today “Israel may have to retire its title as the only democracy in the Middle East. With Sunday’s free and fair national election, Iraq joins the honor roll as one of the very few Islamic democracies,” David Frum remarked in a column today for CNN.

In fact, Bloomberg News noted that “More than 6,200 candidates competed for seats in the 325-member legislature.”  And interestingly, according to the same Bloomberg story, “voter registration was the biggest problem for Iraqis, not security.”

As Pete Wehner noted last week on National Review:

The progress in Iraq has been truly remarkable, especially when one considers where things were at the end of 2006. Iraq was caught in a death spiral. The odds were stacked against us. And most people in Iraq and America - including almost all of the political class and virtually the entire foreign policy establishment - had given up on the possibility of success. The main question for them was the terms of our retreat and de facto  surrender…What has unfolded in Iraq is not an accident or based on luck. It was the result of one of the most astonishing military turnarounds in American history….

What America has done for Iraq, which had been brutalized for so long, may not be the noblest act in our history. But it ranks quite high. The Iraq war was, in fact, a war of liberation. And the liberation appears to be working. Nothing is guaranteed; ‘Everything in Iraq is hard,’ Ambassador Crocker once said. But regardless of where one stood on the war and the surge, what we see unfolding in Iraq today is something to be grateful for, and to take pride in.

Some of those in the “political class” that Wehner talked about are now in the highest corridors of power - and today are trying to claim ownership of the success in Iraq.  Vice President Biden even tried to claim credit for the success in Iraq, recently remarking that: “this could be one of the great achievements of this administration.”  But, as Jonah Goldberg noted, “The same administration that blames all of its mistakes on problems it inherited now wants to take credit for accomplishments it inherited.”

Iraq is a free and an increasingly stable country today thanks to the men and women of America’s armed forces, who have put their lives on the line to defeat the terrorists who nearly tore Iraq apart just a few years ago.  Thanks to the surge, engineered by General David Petraeus, Iraq has turned a corner and is poised to be a beacon of democracy in a region mired by oppression, poverty, and terrorism.  Iraqis exercising their democratic right to vote yesterday was another encouraging sign that that once troubled nation has turned a corner - and as American troops draw down after success - rather than defeat - the United States will have another democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East.

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White House Blog Treats The American People Like They’re Stupid

A new White House blog post marks the beginning of the Obama Administration’s last-ditch, 11th-hour, now-or-never, line-in-the-sand, this-time-we-really-mean-it push for a government takeover of health care by railing against - wait for it - higher insurance premiums.

The American people’s health care costs are going up, you say?  No way.  Can’t be.  Cue the outrage!

‘Well, duh,’ the American people are saying.  They know their health care costs are going up.  They’ve recognized that’s the problem from the beginning.  They’re the ones living through the day-to-day struggle of having to make ends meet in this tough, uncertain economic climate. 

But here’s the thing: the American people have heard all this rhetoric before, and they have only become more rather than less opposed to a government takeover of health care.  

That’s because Americans understand that these challenges call for a responsible, step-by-step approach focused on lowering costs, not a massive government takeover that would increase costs, raise taxes, slash Medicare benefits, and destroy American jobs.  Republicans have offered a bill that would protect patients and lower their premiums by up to 10 percent.  It’s not too late to scrap this job-killing monstrosity and start over with a clean sheet of paper.  This isn’t the Republican view; it’s the view of the American people.

The American people know a straw man when they see one.  After the public rejected Democrats’ government takeover of health care because it would not only raise costs but also slash Medicare benefits and destroy American jobs, the White House went about searching for an enemy - literally:

Last summer, as public support for health care reform began to recede, the president convened a series of meetings demanding to know why Democrats were losing the communications war.  For his part, [White House senior adviser David] Axelrod argued that the administration lacked a compelling bad guy…  ‘Axelrod would say, ‘We don’t have an enemy…,’ recalls one administration official.’

Now, with yet another “deadline” for legislative action upon us, the Obama Administration is frantically searching high and low for an “enemy.”  This “enemy” is referred to in both vague terms - such as “there are those,” “there are some,” “some people,” “a set of folks” - and more specific references, like the blog post in question.

So, brace yourselves: more of the White House’s earth-shattering insights are coming soon to a Blackberry near you.

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Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL) Delivers Weekly Republican Address

Delivering the weekly Republican address, Rep. Parker Griffith (R-AL) says that it is not too late to scrap Washington Democrats’ government takeover of health care and start over with a clean sheet of paper and a step-by-step approach focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs.  In the address, the lawmaker discusses how Washington Democrats’ big-government policies and partisan health care agenda spurred his decision to leave the House Democratic Caucus in December to join the House Republican Conference.

Rep. Griffith, a physician who spent 30 years treating patients across north Alabama, outlines the dangers of putting government in charge of medical decisions that should be made by patients and doctors.  Now in his first term in Congress, Dr. Griffith is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

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One Month Later, President Obama Still Silent on Boehner-Cantor Offer on Spending Cuts

One month ago today, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent President Obama a letter in which they urged President to work with Republicans to cut spending now to encourage job growth and reduce the national debt instead of simply punting tough spending decisions to a commission that won’t even issue a final report until the final months of 2010.   The Leaders invited President Obama to use his presidential authority to send Congress a “rescissions” package to force a debate on serious spending cuts, and pledged that if the president did so, Republicans would work with him to ensure his spending cut proposals were brought to a vote on the House floor.  Unfortunately, the White House has been silent on the Boehner-Cantor offer in the month since it was put forth.  Meanwhile, in Democratic-controlled Washington, the spending spree continues.

At his weekly press briefing today, Leader Boehner discussed his disappointment with the non-response from the White House:

One month ago, Eric Cantor, the Whip, and I urged the President to work with us on a rescissions package to start cutting spending now.  We don’t really need to have this new commission, we can start the cutting literally right now.   Unfortunately, the President has not responded.  He has appointed his commission that may allow a lame-duck Congress to pass a slew of tax increases after Election Day. 

That’s why I sent a letter yesterday to the co-chairs of President’s debt commission.  And I asked the panel, if all of his meetings would be made public, and I asked them if they would consider reporting their report by October 1st.   This way, the American people can review these proposals before the Election and see a debate between members and candidates over these recommendations, rather than having them unveiled in December, again, with a lot of members who will have been defeated or retired and not coming back.

As Leaders Boehner and Cantor wrote last month:

Here in the House of Representatives, there is no shortage of opportunities to vote on bills increasing spending or creating new programs, but very seldom do we consider bills to actually reduce spending or eliminate programs.  Since increasing the debt limit by $290 billion on December 16, the House has not considered one bill to reduce the national debt.  And now the House has voted to increase the debt limit by another $1.9 trillion.  We believe American can no longer afford to have its elected representatives delay action on proposals to reduce excessive spending.

Americans are asking “where are the jobs?“  And they realize the spending binge in Washington is stifling job creation.  Economists do as well.  Leader Boehner recently released a statement signed by 222 economists who believe reining in federal spending - as opposed to increasing it through further “stimulus” spending - is needed to help small businesses get back to creating jobs.

By taking this route, the GOP leaders note, President Obama could force Congress to debate the spending reductions he has proposed as part of his budget.  Boehner and Cantor pledged that if Democrats refuse to act on the bills containing the president’s spending cuts, Republicans would seize on the authority in the 1974 law that allows 88 House lawmakers to force a floor vote on the rescission bills.

The Boehner-Cantor letter came on the heels of a White House meeting in December when Republicans told President Obama that instead of simply punting tough spending decisions to a commission, as the president has proposed, Washington should cut spending now, just as working families and small businesses are.  Since 1974, presidents from both parties have used rescission authority to submit 1,178 rescissions totaling $76 billion. Congress, under both Democratic and Republican control, has approved 461 of these rescissions totaling $25 billion.  President Reagan proposed the highest number of rescission in one year (245 in 1985) and the highest dollar value ($15.4 billion in 1981).

America is broke. The spending binge in Washington is mortgaging the future of our kids and grandkids and costing jobs right now - and it’s time we restore some sanity to Washington.

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Media Highlights Boehner’s Call for Transparent, Open, and Accountable Debt Commission

Yesterday, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) sent a letter to the co-chairs of President Obama’s newly-established debt commission asking that the panel open all of its meetings to the public and vote on its final recommendations by October 1, 2010 to give the American people an opportunity to review and react to the commission’s final report. 

As Leader Boehner said yesterday:

If we’re going to have a commission like this, it should be a commission that will work in the transparent, open, and accountable way that the American people deserve.  All meetings should be open to the public, and final recommendations should be issued by October 1, 2010 to ensure the American people have adequate time to weigh in.

Following are a roundup of stories from yesterday and today discussing Leader Boehner’s letter:

Bloomberg News, “Boehner Says Deficit Commission Should Report Before Election“:

John Boehner, the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, called on the co-chairmen of a commission on cutting the federal deficit to issue their final recommendations before this year’s congressional elections…. Republicans say they are concerned that the commission will propose tax increases.

The Wall Street Journal, “Boehner Turns Up Heat on Debt Panel“:

House Minority Leader John Boehner, throwing another wrench in the workings of President Barack Obama’s federal debt commission, will say today he wants all its meetings open to the public and wants members to vote on the panel’s recommendations well before the November elections.

CNN, “Boehner: Let the deficit debates begin“:

Polls show that Americans are concerned about federal budget deficits. Now House Minority Leader John Boehner wants them to chew over possible solutions - before they vote in the midterm elections on November 2….So Boehner says it only makes sense that the commission should reveal its proposed fiscal solutions earlier ‘in order for the electorate to engage elected officials and candidates … prior to the election.’ He also proposed that all commission meetings be held in public.

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