GOP Leader Blog
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Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
August 25, 2009
Today, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released simultaneous reports on the budget deficit - and the picture both reports paint is a grim one, of ever higher deficits, ever increasing debt, and ever greater government growth. As ABC News reported this morning, "the Obama administration announced today that it has revised its 10-year cumulative budget deficit projection to around $9.051 trillion, up from its February projection of $7.1 trillion." In fact, CBO and OMB estimate that the deficit this year alone will round out at around $1.6 trillion (11.2 percent of GDP) - more than three times the previous record. The President's $3.6 trillion budget, passed earlier this year by the Democrats in Congress, is perhaps the most reckless budget ever enacted. It raises taxes on small businesses, families, and investors by $1.5 trillion; increases non-defense discretionary spending by 11 percent; creates massive deficits which never fall below $500 billion over the next 10 years; and explodes the national debt, resulting in a debt-to-GDP ratio of approximately 70 percent by 2019. Only in President Obama's Washington could a budget this reckless be entitled, "A New Era of Responsibility." The following chart, from the CBO report, illustrates the radical new path the President's budget puts the country on:
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
August 24, 2009
It's been more than six months since the President signed a $1 trillion "stimulus" into law and the American people continue to ask, "where are the jobs?" The silence is deafening from Democrats and this Administration. As a USA Today/Gallup poll released last week illustrated, the American people don't buy the President's claims that the "stimulus" has had anywhere near the impact the Administration claims. Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the state-by-state unemployment figures for the month of July. The numbers speak for themselves - and paint a picture of an economy sorely lacking the "stimulus" the Administration has claimed has "saved or created" hundreds of thousands of jobs. In fact, the Bureau noted that "[f]ifteen states and the District of Columbia reported jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent in July" and "[e]ight states reported significant over-the-month unemployment rate increases in July" Some of those states with unemployment rates above 10 percent are included in the following chart, from the Wall Street Journal. Gray indicates the national unemployment rate (currently at 9.4 percent); purple represents Ohio (11.2 percent), turquoise represents California (11.9 percent), yellow represents Nevada (12.5 percent), and blue represents Michigan (15 percent).
Economists at the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium in Wyoming gave the Obama administration's fiscal-stimulus program a mixed review, saying it wasn't as well targeted as it could have been and pointing to the challenges of balancing stimulus against long-term deficit worries. In a paper being presented Saturday at the conference, Alan Auerbach of the University of California at Berkeley and William Gale of the Brookings Institution noted...‘Government investments were part of a longer-term Obama agenda and are probably not best characterized solely as stimulus.'The "stimulus" hasn't created the jobs the President promised because it relies on big-government spending instead of helping small businesses, which are the foundation of job creation in America. House Republicans offered a plan to let small businesses and families keep more of what they earn, but Democrats ignored it, took a go-it-alone approach, and passed their trillion-dollar big government plan anyway. And it's the American middle class that is paying the price.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
August 14, 2009
Over the last few weeks, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) has posted three new noteworthy videos. The first is the lighthearted "I'm Not a Doctor, But I Play One on TV" video about the decisions Obamacare could be making for you: The second is Boehner's floor speech responding to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's claim that the Obama Administration has "rescued the economy": And the third is the "Bloodhounds" video asking "Where are the jobs?"
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
August 04, 2009
Yesterday, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) released a web video, adapting the old joke "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV," to President Obama's proposed government takeover of health care. Leader Boehner said of the video: "This is a lighthearted video, but it underscores a serious point that Congressional Democrats are going to hear throughout August as they travel outside of Washington: Americans want lower health care costs not a trillion-dollar government takeover of health care that increases costs and lets Washington bureaucrats make decisions that should be made by doctors and patients." To read about House Republicans' better solutions to strengthening America's health care, click HERE.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
July 30, 2009
Democrats have long pushed for a single-payer health care system - but have repeatedly denied that the "public option," their euphemism for the government-run health care plan that is the centerpiece of the their $1.5 trillion health care bill, will inevitably lead to a government-controlled health care system similar to those in Canada and the United Kingdom. In a newly unearthed video, however, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) candidly admits that the entire point of the "public option" is to force tens of millions of Americans off their private insurance plans and onto the government rolls. When confronted by a supporter of the single-payer system, Rep. Frank is blunt in his assessment of the so-called "public option," stating that "if we get a good public option, it could lead to single-payer, and that's the best way to lead to single-payer." As Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has pointed out, "[t]he ‘public option' isn't honest. It is designed to make private insurers go away." Americans want health care reform - and House Republicans agree - but a government takeover of the health care system isn't the answer. There's a better way to reform the best health care system in the world. House Republicans have a plan that will reduce costs, expand access and increase the quality of care in a way we can afford - without raising taxes on small businesses or middle class or putting the federal government in control of Americans' health care. To read more about House Republicans' plan, click HERE.
Posted by
Dave Schnittger
on
July 30, 2009
Americans oppose the government takeover of health care proposed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Washington Democrats, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said today -- and he said he doesn't need polls to prove it. What makes him so confident? Call it the Skyline Chili test. During his weekly press briefing in the U.S. Capitol today, Boehner invoked the name of Cincinnati's famed delicacy as he fielded questions from the Capitol Hill press corps. An excerpt: REPORTER: 'Mr. Leader. . .You said that August was going to be a hot summer as people, you know, debate and consider what this [health care] plan is. What makes you so convinced? You cited polls earlier, but what makes you so convinced that -- that the Republicans and their opposition to this plan is going to win out. . .?' BOEHNER: 'This isn't about Republicans. This is the American people's opposition that is growing. . .I don't need to see the polling. You know, I walk through airports. I go to Home Depot. I go to Skyline Chili. I've got people who stop me nonstop to voice their concerns and their outrage.'
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
July 29, 2009
This week the President finally delivered on his pledge to find "$100 million" in savings. Actually, his Administration bested the $100 million mark by $2 million, proposing cuts amounting to $102 million for this year. While any savings in government waste are laudable, the Administration's cuts pale in comparison to the mind-numbing $1.8 trillion deficit that will occur this year, in large part as a consequence of the wild spending orgy that has taken place in Washington in the months since Democrats took complete control of the federal government. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal noted this morning, these efficiencies amount to "0.006% of the estimated federal deficit." The Wall Street Journal has the details on just what those cuts include:
With the budget deficit soaring toward $2 trillion, the Department of Justice has figured out how to play its part: double-sided photocopying. There are other acts of national sacrifice. The Forest Service will no longer repaint its new, white vehicles green immediately upon purchase. The Army will start packing more soldiers onto R&R flights. The Navy will delete unused email accounts.These savings are paltry compared to our deficit. In fact, the Associated Press reported that the cuts "amounted to a pledge to cut about $1 for every $10,000 of the $1 trillion budget for agency budgets approved by Congress in March. That represented the equivalent of cutting a foot-long submarine sandwich from the budget of a construction worker making $60,000 a year." In other words the cuts the President proposed won't even make a dent in the federal deficit. After passing a $1 trillion "stimulus" that's not working for the middle class, a $410 billion omnibus spending bill, and $3.6 trillion budget - it shouldn't be too hard to find more government waste. After all House Republicans have proposed $375 billion in taxpayer savings over the next five years, which House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) outlined in a letter to the President earlier this year. And, led by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Republicans have also called for an alternative federal budget that includes strict annual caps on federal spending, forcing Congress to live within its means on a yearly basis - something the Democratic-controlled Congress has steadfastly refused to do. Cutting $102 million from the budget is a good start - but there's a lot more that Congress and the President can do to return America to a path of fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, the Democrats' spending spree is making that task harder than ever.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
July 28, 2009
It's been nearly half a year since the President signed the $1 trillion "stimulus" that was supposed to create jobs "immediately." As recently as June, the Vice President was still defending the "stimulus," insisting that it provided "an initial big jolt to give the economy a real head start." In fact, on the day the Democrats rushed through their 1,100 page "stimulus," Speaker Pelosi said: "[a]fter all of the debate, this legislation can be summed up in one word, ‘jobs'." But with unemployment continuing to climb closer and closer to the 10 percent mark - and in 15 states, already exceeding it - the American people are asking a simple question: "where are the jobs?" The Democrats' haven't been able to answer that question. Instead, they've repeated their claim that "if we hadn't done that stimulus package, the unemployment rate would be even higher," as Speaker Pelosi said this past Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" - even though when the Democrats rushed the 1,100 page "stimulus" package through the Congress, they promised that the "stimulus" would keep the unemployment rate from going above 8 percent. So if the "stimulus" isn't creating jobs, where is all that money going? Well, in New Hampshire, the "stimulus" just bought four new commuter buses, as an editorial in yesterday's New Hampshire Union-Leader pointed out:
And in New York, "stimulus" money is being spent on new toilets, as yesterday's New York Post reported:
The fundamental problem with the "stimulus" is that it relies on government largess, not small businesses, to create jobs - throwing literally a trillion dollars over ten 10 years at the economy in the hopes that some of it sticks. But the engine of job creation in the United States is small business, not government. And the "stimulus" does little to nothing to help small businesses get back on their feet and start creating jobs. The same folks who brought you the "stimulus" are now attempting to rush a government takeover of health care. In fact, Speaker Pelosi recently said that: "the health care bill is a stimulus package." But after the disastrous results of the Democrats' first "stimulus" package, Congress has an obligation to get an overhaul of health care right. As House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) recently stated: "Speaker Pelosi and her colleagues in the Democratic leadership need to scrap this costly plan" and "start over with a bipartisan bill" that will provide affordable, high quality health insurance for all Americans.
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
July 23, 2009
Well, the "most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history" is at it again. House Democrats, as today's Roll Call reported, "are preventing Republican House Members from sending their constituents a mailing that is critical of the majority's health care reform plan, blocking the mailing by alleging that it is inaccurate." It's understandable that Speaker Pelosi is nervous about letting the American people know the consequences of their government takeover of health care - but are the Democrats running so scared that they've decided to block House Republicans from communicating with their own constituents? Apparently so, as Roll Call notes:
The dispute centers on a chart created by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee to illustrate the organization of the Democratic health care plan…In a memo sent Monday to Republicans on the House franking commission, Democrats argue that sending the chart to constituents as official mail would violate House rules because the information is misleading. In their eight-point memo, which was obtained by Roll Call, Democrats identify a litany of areas where they believe the chart is incorrect. Brady. . .said Democrats are simply threatened by the content of the graphic. ‘I think their review was laughable,’ Brady said. ‘It’s ... downright false in most of the cases. The chart depicts their health care plan as their committees developed it. The chart reveals how their health care bureaucracy works, and people are frightened by it,’ he added. ‘So this is their effort to try and discredit’ the chart.Here's the chart that's giving the Democrats such heartburn:
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
July 21, 2009
Yesterday marked the six-month anniversary of the President taking the oath of office. It was also supposed to mark another milestone: the date which the President's Cabinet members were to have announced the $100 million in budget cuts promised 90 days ago. As the Wall Street Journal reported:
Three months ago, when President Barack Obama announced he was extracting $100 million in spending cuts from his cabinet secretaries...But the president had a deadline to keep: ‘As part of his commitment to go line by line through the budget to cut spending and reform government he will challenge his cabinet to cut a collective 100 million dollars in the next 90 days,' the White House fact sheet proclaimed.So where are those cuts? The Journal story continues: Well, on this, the 91st day, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki and White House budget office spokesman Ken Baer released identical statements when queried about the results. ‘The recommendations have been gathered by the Cabinet Secretary who will be reporting them to the President shortly,' they said in separate responses. When pressed, Psaki said we should see the exact cuts ‘in the coming days.'While the deficit has already passed the $1.1 trillion mark and expected to hit nearly $2 trillion for this fiscal year alone - it shouldn't be too difficult to identify $100 million worth of savings. In fact, just weeks after the President announced his intention to cut a measly $100 million from a $3.6 trillion budget, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) sent a proposal to President Obama outlining $375 billion in taxpayer savings over the next five years. Led by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Republicans have also called for an alternative federal budget that includes strict annual caps on federal spending, forcing Congress to live within its means on a yearly basis - something the Democratic-controlled Congress has steadfastly refused to do. Now, the Administration is promising to rein in federal spending on health care, with the President promising recently: "I will not sign on to any health plan that adds to our deficits over the next decade." Based on their track record on everything from a $1 trillion "stimulus" that isn't working to a $3.6 trillion budget that doubles the national debt in five years and triples it in ten - and with Roll Call reporting today that the House Democrats' government takeover of health care would cost at least $1.6 trillion - the Administration's promise not to sign on to a health care bill that doesn't add to the deficit would require the wiling suspension of disbelief. |
