| ALG's "The Team Obama Spotlight" Focuses on Vice President Joe Biden |
The House is not in session this week. But they are out speaking to constituents and Republicans are revealing transparency never before shown under the prior reign of Speaker Pelose. Here is one example which readers are welcome to use. Each week the House is in session, the House Republican Study Committee Budget and Spending Taskforce compiles a weekly report on the latest budget and spending news. Additionally, the RSC Money Monitor tracks how bills passed by the House affect authorizations, mandatory spending, and federal government revenue.
A couple bills recently introduced which would be productive, conservative solutions for America’s future:
- Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) introduced legislation to stop the Obama Administration’s costly bailouts of Greece and other European nations, rescinding the IMF’s authority to spend up to $108 billion made available to fund these bailouts.
- Seeking to prevent another taxpayer bailout, Rep. Darrell Issa (CA-49) introduced the Postal Reform Act to implement sweeping, structural reforms of the United States Postal Service (USPS), represents the most fundamental reform of the postal service that has been proposed since USPS was first created from the old Post Office Department.
The Senate reconvene but there are no votes are scheduled. On Tuesday the Senate will take up the nominations of James Cole to be Deputy Attorney General, Virginia Seitz to be Assistant Attorney General, and Lisa Monaco to be Assistant Attorney General. In addition, they may vote on more amendments to S. 679, the nominations reform bill.
The Hill writes today, “President Obama will now take a leading role in negotiations to raise the debt limit, a test of his leadership that will have profound economic effects. . . . Obama will meet this morning with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and this afternoon with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). . . . It’s a tough test for Obama, whose handling of the economy has been the subject of mounting public disapproval. . . . Democratic lawmakers have privately and publicly criticized the president for not taking control of the deficit reduction debate.”
In an op-ed for CNN today, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained what he’s looking for in his meeting with the president. He writes, “I will sit down with President Barack Obama to discuss his request to increase the nation’s debt ceiling, and I will make a request of my own: What, Mr. President, are you prepared to do about the massive deficits and debt that have grown dramatically on your watch?
“What Republicans want is simple: We want to cut spending now, we want to cap runaway spending in the future and we want to save our entitlements and our country from bankruptcy by requiring the nation to balance its budget. We want to finally get our economy growing again at a pace that will lead to significant job growth. The Democrats’ response has been a mystifying call for more stimulus spending and huge tax hikes on American job creators. That’s not serious, and it is my hope that the president will take those off the table today so that we can have a serious discussion about our country’s economic future.”
Leader McConnell adds, “At some point, Democrats need to realize that the reason our nation’s debt has skyrocketed 35% over the past two years is that government spending is out of control. America does not face a debt crisis because we tax too little, but because Washington spends too much. And tax hikes can’t pass the Congress. Not only is there bipartisan opposition, the consequences of massive new tax hikes would be fewer jobs.”
Even MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough granted McConnell’s premise on “Morning Joe”: “I don’t usually say that about Mitch, but he said something very revealing, which is, they weren’t able to pass tax increases last Congress when Nancy Pelosi was speaker. Why should they do it now? This actually does unearth an essential truth in these budget negotiations. . . . We hear that Republicans don’t want to raise taxes and of course, you’ve got Democrats playing to their base and ginning the base up saying we need to raise taxes. But if you talk to them, they don’t want to raise taxes for two reasons. One, there are some people in the Obama administration that believe it would be a drag on the economy over the next year and two, they think it would hurt them politically. Again, they had control of Congress. Not only did they not raise taxes, they extended the Bush tax cuts.”
Tags: Washington, D.C. US House, US Senate, debt, federal spengind, taxes, Barack Obama, Mitch McConnell, ALG, Joe Biden To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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