You may not know much about Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan unless you happen to live near Mansfield or Lima, but you will if he decides to stay in Congress for a while. Jordan is a dynamic conservative who has scored 100 in the ACU Ratings for all three years he has been in office and is quickly taking the initiative on a number of issues.
Now he has teamed up with freshman Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) to introduce the perfect antidote to the economic poison coursing through our country’s veins as a result of the Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda. It is called the Economic Freedom Act and the bill number is H.R. 5029.
This bill takes the opposite approach of the Obama Stimulus—that the way to spur economic growth is not through government spending programs but through allowing American individuals and businesses to keep more of their own money.
Here are the highlights:
Cut the payroll tax in half for one year.
Eliminate the Capital Gains tax. This stands in stark contrast to Obama’s plans to raise the rate on Capital Gains to 40% on those with higher incomes (easily amendable in future years to those with lower incomes).
Reduce the corporate tax rate to 12.5%. The U.S. rate of 35% is the highest in the world. This would do more to keep jobs in the U.S. than all the weeping and wailing by politicians about jobs going overseas.
Make the repeal of the Death Tax now in place for one year permanent.
Provide immediate business expensing to encourage long-term reinvestment in businesses.
How to pay for temporarily reduced revenues? Simple. H.R. 5029 eliminates the hundreds of billions of planned spending for TARP (the bank bailout fund) and the stimulus.
Of course, the chances of this bill passing during the Obama Administration are nil, but this bill gives the lie to the argument that conservatives don’t have an agenda to fix the economy. It’s an agenda that believes in growing the economy through economic freedom, rather than through the confiscatory tax system we have now used by people who believe government can create jobs by picking winners and losers of federal spending.
If you like the bill, call your member of Congress and urge they become a co-sponsor of HR 5029.
Two House Republicans, including the favorite to be the next Senator from Delaware, Congressman Mike Castle, have joined the Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in sponsoring legislation to make it more difficult for companies to participate in politics under the recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission. That decision held that free speech rights to support or oppose a candidate apply to businesses and unions as well as individuals. This restriction has never applied to huge media corporations, such as The New York Times. Joining Castle is maverick North Carolina Republican, Walter Jones.
Knowing they can’t actually overturn a decision they really hate, the Democrats have crafted a bill that would force companies and unions and other organizations sponsoring ads to disclose their donors and personally endorse their ads. But a further catch is that companies who receive “government assistance” would be barred from participating in the process. We have yet to see how that is defined. Castle’s move has allowed the Democrats to call the bill “bipartisan” although the vast majority of Republicans will oppose the bill. This will be on a fast track in the House with passage possible by Memorial Day. The Senate is another matter where it is sure to be held up for a while even though New York Democrat Chuck Shumer, who used to head up his party’s campaign committee, has made this his number one priority.
It’s beginning to look like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is willing to highjack the entire Senate agenda to support what he thinks he needs to get reelected in Nevada. It was only a month ago after Obamacare was signed into law that the Democrats were telling everyone in earshot that they were going to focus “like a laser beam” on jobs and the economy. That was then. Now, the laser beam has become a dim flashlight.
Rather than allow a bipartisan deal to pass the banking reform bill, which even very liberal Senators such as Connecticut’s Chris Dodd seem willing to do, Reid has decided to hold a series of failed votes to proceed to the Democrat-only bill, because he believes that folks in Nevada will fall for the ruse that “Republicans are defending Wall Street” and he will move up in the polls. Instead, as people have had more time to actually read the 1,300 page bill (imagine actually reading a bill first!) even the most objective observers have found that, indeed, the bill gives the FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Secretary blanket authority to bail out or liquidate large financial firms as they see fit without ever coming back to Congress for approval. In other words, making permanent the “too big to fail” concept. They have also realized there is nothing in those 1,300 pages that do anything about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises that help cause the housing market collapse (while allowing Democrat bigwigs like Franklin Raines to soak the agencies for tens of millions of dollars). To add insult to injury, Reid had to make a formal apology to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for saying McConnell “lied” about what was in the banking bill. This is a “no-no” in Senatorial courtesy.
Next, Reid has double-crossed Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, Democrat John Kerry and Independent Joe Lieberman and shoved aside their new version of the cap and trade bill to make room for another attempt to give amnesty to illegal immigrants. Word is that left-wing Latino leaders in Nevada, a state with a 20% Hispanic population, told Reid he could forget their help this Fall unless there was an immigration bill they liked put to a vote.
To find out where the Senate is headed next, we may have to start checking with Reid’s campaign manager, rather than his legislative staff.
The Senate is headed this afternoon toward an historic turning point for the 111th Congress as they vote on a motion to proceed to the banking bill. It looks like Majority Leader Harry Reid’s attempt to shove the bill down the Republicans’ throat without a compromise will fail, thus marking the first time that Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown’s election as the 41st Republican Senator will make the difference on an important bill. Brown’s vote against the health care bill was neutered when the Democrats were able to use the reconciliation process which only requires 50 votes to succeed. Then Brown voted with the Democrats to pass extension of unemployment insurance and other “extension programs” without offsetting cuts to avoid increasing the deficit.
The result will be to force the Democrats to conclude negotiations on a bipartisan banking bill. The big question: will the compromise remove or change language that would grant the head of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Treasury Secretary the power to bail out favored institutions if they all agreed on a course of action. This enormous transfer of power to the executive branch is in keeping with other legislation such as the original bank bailout (TARP), the takeover of General Motors and Chrysler and the health care bill, which placed enormous power in the hands of bureaucrats who no longer need to go back to congress for approval of their actions.
The likelihood is that the power grab will still take place if there is a compromise, but it would be more restricted to liquidation of failing banks and thus prevent more bailouts. But here’s the catch: the House has already passed an even worse bill that sets up an entirely new federal agency and gives the same bank bailout powers to the executive. So any bill that passes the Senate could come back with the House provisions and in a form that only requires a majority vote.
When the health care bill passed, there was a glaring hole in the cost figures used to analyze the bill. That was an analysis by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the agency within the Health and Human Services Department responsible for these programs. Now we know why. Having waited as long as they could to avoid the ugly truth, CMS today projected a cost increase of one percent over the next ten years. This after the major goals of the bill were increased insurance coverage and reduced health care costs.
But wait, there’s more. This small increase in costs is based on the $500 million in Medicare cuts included in the bill, cuts which no one on Capitol Hill of either party believes will ever take place. On top of that the CMS Report states that if the Medicare cuts did take place, it would drive about 15 percent of hospitals and other institutional providers into the red, possibly jeopardizing access to care for seniors. To top it off, the CMS report posted a disclaimer, saying “This report does not represent the official position of the Obama administration.” No kidding.
Monday should prove to be an active day on the Hill, with a scheduled procedural vote on the bank bill and the unveiling of a new version of the “cap and tax” global warming bill being devised by Republican Senator Lindsay Graham and Democrat John Kerry. Furious negotiations are underway as I write this on both bills. On the bank bill, it is unclear whether Republicans will hold fast to knock out provisions that transfer enormous authority to federal bureaucrats to decide which banks are “too big to fail.” On the energy bill Graham and Kerry want energy industry support for provisions that will increase your motor fuel and utility bills but are OK by industry executives who want to stop EPA going forward with their own greenhouse gas regulations. Stay tuned.
The below letter was sent to all Senate Chiefs of Staff and Legislative Directors today by the American Conservative Union. The letter encourages a ‘NO’ vote on on cloture on the motion to proceed to S.3217, the financial services overhaul bill without an agreement to remove provisions allowing federal agencies to gain enormous new executive powers to decide the fate of big banks and codify the “too big to fail” designation. Find your Senators’ phone numbers here http://www.conservative.org/action-desk/.
House Republican Leader John Boehner gave chapter and verse to Fox news viewers today on the key provisions of the pending bank bill which give permanent bailout authority to the federal government without further congressional approval. As Boehner pointed out, “even if they take the $50 billion out of the bill they still have the authority at the FDIC, Treasury and the federal Reserve to create money, to borrow money, to bail out all of these firms.”
Boehner also pointed out that by setting up a mechanism in the bill to designate favored banks as “too big to fail,” they will be doing this at the expense of regional banks and the smaller community banks that won’t have the implicit guarantee of federal support.
Boehner also joined with Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte today in announcing a proposed resolution calling on the Democrats to join Republicans in a one year moratorium on earmarks. All but three House Republicans have said they would adhere to their party stand although Senate Republicans have refused to go along. No one should hold their breath waiting for the Democrats to agree. For their part, the Democrats have pledged to avoid earmarks for private firms, but some of the most egregious earmarks go to “non-profits” run by wealthy folks who give a lot of campaign contributions or to favored universities and foundations.
The earmark battle was a lonely one for Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and a handful of others who risked the wrath of members of the Appropriations Committee who hold the power to decide who gets the taxpayers money. But recent scandals involving earmarks to contributors, family and friends, plus the rise of the Tea Party movement and their opposition to wasteful spending, produced an agreement by the House Republican Conference on the one year moratorium. I should point out that Boehner has always noted that he personally does not ask for earmarks. Remarkably, he has been reelected by overwhelming margins nevertheless.
Two enterprising members of the conservative Republican Study Committee in the House, Kevin Brady of Texas and Jason Chaffetz of Utah, have formed a Sunset Caucus to come up with specific federal programs that should be eliminated. In this target-rich environment, they have honed in this week on the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. This program was designed to force community banks to lend to folks they otherwise found not to be credit worthy, a problem that lay at the heart of the recent financial crisis. CRA assigns “grades” to banks based on their low and moderate income lending, which is then used by federal bureaucrats to decide applications for deposit facilities, mergers and acquisitions.
Despite data showing 99% of all banks are in full compliance community banks have to spend $90,000 a year to go through all the hoops of showing they are in full compliance. This money could better be used to help local businesses and create jobs.
You can find some other wasteful programs the Sunset Caucus has found by going to www.rsc.tomprice.house.gov.
The left’s passion against Second Amendment rights has once again trumped the left’s passion for more votes in Congress. The House this afternoon canceled plans to vote on the long-stalled bill to create a new congressional district for the District of Columbia. The bill has been sitting in the house for a year after the Senate added a provision which would repeal DC’s draconian gun control laws once and for all. Now House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says it is officially dead for this Congress. If he holds to that promise, an entirely new bill would have to be introduced in the 112th Congress which convenes in 2011.
Apparently, the Democrat leadership thought they could browbeat pro-gun Democrats to change the language passed by the Senate in the same way they browbeat pro-life Democrats into voting for the health care bill after watering down the Stupak Amendment which would have prevented taxpayer funded abortions.
The bill would have increased the number of congressional districts from 435 to 437 and would have been subject to constitutional challenge due to the special provisions in the constitution for DC. DC also gets special payments from American taxpayers in return for all the untaxed land used by federal buildings.
Meanwhile, on the Senate side, Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to answer reporter’s questions about fund raising events with Wall Street executives for his reelection campaign possible including executives from Goldman Sachs which has been accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Reid has claimed the bill he supports to regulate the big banks is opposed by these same Wall Street banks.
After being held in limbo for a year, the bill to give the District of Columbia its own congressional district is suddenly on the House of Representatives calendar for this week. A goal of liberals in congress for decades, this latest scheme involves an increase in the size of the House from 435 to 437 members. An additional member of the House would be given to the state of Utah for the election of 2010. After that, the House districts would go through the regular apportionment process based on the Census.
The House refused to take up the bill for final passage in 2009 after the Senate attached an amendment which would repeal the restrictive gun control laws in DC. The ACU Ratings for 2009 included the Senate votes on both the pro gun rights amendment and the vote to add the two seats (Votes numbers 9 and 10 on the Senate scorecard). Now, faced with major election losses in 2010, the Democrats are apparently willing to accept the gun rights amendment to get what they want. However, as with the health care bill, they plan to go through procedural contortions to mollify the left wing of the democratic caucus. They intend to take three separate votes so the left can claim the voted against gun rights, then the three votes will be merged in a vote package that they Senate will have to pass again. There is sure to be a constitutional challenge if this bill becomes law due to the special status given the District of Columbia in the Constitution and the special federal payments given to the District from taxpayer funds.
Word has just come in that Senator Susan Collins of Maine has become the 41st Senator to sign onto a letter saying Republicans are united in their opposition to the financial overhaul bill as approved by the Senate Banking Committee. This means that they might be able to prevent the bill from coming to a vote without changes.
Capitol Hill was abuzz today with the news that President Obama’s favorite bank, Goldman Sachs, has been charged with fraud. Goldman Sachs, who produced Treasury Secretaries for the Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations, was a major beneficiary of the bailout of AIG which has cost American taxpayers about $80 billion. As a result, Goldman Sachs is making record profits while the taxpayers are still in the hole. Now the SEC says that Goldman misstated and omitted facts about their debt obligations related to the sub prime mortgage debacle.
Not surprisingly, Goldman is a major backer of the Obama financial overhaul bill, which sets up a slush fund that could be used for future bailouts without ever having to come for Congress for approval. House Minority Leader John Boehner had this to say:
“These are very serious charges against a key supporter of President Obama’s bill to create a permanent Wall Street bailout fund.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he wants to rush the bank bill to the floor perhaps as soon as next week while others are trying to push it off a few more weeks. We will keep you informed.
The Democrats are yelling like scalded dogs after their bill to give permanent bailout authority to federal bureaucrats has been exposed, so President Obama met today with congressional leaders promoting compromise. The bill he has been touting has been described as a way to “regulate Wall Street.” Instead it gives authority to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to spend many billions of dollars to prop up those banks they happen to like or liquidate those they don’t. Banks that are designated for the program will be known to one and all as “too big to fail” so will be attractive to investors. Those not on the favored list will be considered a higher risk.
Led by Senate Republican Leader McConnell and Senator David Vitter (R-LA), a member of the Banking Committee, Senate Republicans have come out fighting after Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) found out in months of negotiations that the Harry Reid approach is “my way or the highway” and ended the talks. For their part the Democrats felt they could demagogue the Republicans into submission by saying they are “defending Wall Street bankers.” Now Obama is saying he wants the two parties to make nice with each other and go back to negotiating.
It remains to be seen whether Republicans will stick to their guns and insist that any bill eliminate provisions that would codify “too big to fail” and create yet another slush fund for federal bureaucrats.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his crew have taken to the floor of the Senate to denounce Republicans for opposing a vote on extending unemployment insurance. Here’s what Harry Reid won’t tell you and the media leaves out of their stories:
Back in March, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) agreed on a bipartisan approach to extend unemployment insurance and COBRA health benefit subsidies while adding some business tax breaks to encourage job hiring. The bill would have been offset by some spending cuts. After left wing Democrats objected to the tax breaks and spending cuts Reid said he would not allow the bill to come to a vote. Then, just before Congress took a two week Easter recess, Republican and Democrat leaders agreed on another extension package which again would have been paid for by various means. But when Reid took this proposal to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her minions it was rejected out of hand. So Reid’s objections are really an attempt to cover up his inability to stand up to Nancy Pelosi on the issue of increasing the trillion dollar deficit.
Senate Republicans have awakened to the danger of the permanent bailout authority embedded in the Financial Overhaul bill scheduled for Senate floor action in the next few weeks. Please take a look at Senator McConnell’s speech on the floor of the Senate today on this issue. ACU will be encouraging more members of Congress to speak out on this bill.
Congress returns after a two week Spring Break. While the House will be marking time considering minor bills, the Senate will vote to end debate on another extension of unemployment insurance and additional COBRA health care subsidies along with many expiring extensions of old programs both houses have not been able to agree on.
After the president signed into law with great fanfare in February legislation mandating offsetting spending reductions or revenue increases in return for additional spending, the Democrat leadership has ignored it by labeling everything “emergency spending.” Republicans have insisted these extensions be paid for out of stimulus funds but the Democrats have flatly refused. They will likely win this vote as some Republicans are reluctant to be seen as opposing these extensions.
Next up in the Senate is a so-called financial overhaul bill that the Democrats and the Obama Administration will claim cracks down on big banks, but the way it has been written by Senate banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and Treasury Secretary Geitner, the federal government will be handed permanent authority to bail out big banks without having to go back to Congress for approval. We will have more to say on this legislation when it is brought to the floor.
