This morning, House Democrats held a press conference to unveil their health care reform bill, which they claim will expand coverage for all and decrease costs. Sounds good, but once you peel away the “feel good” rhetoric, there’s nothing to be excited about. This 2,000-page bill includes a job-killing employer mandate, an individual mandate that requires Washington bureaucrats to define what kind of coverage is acceptable, burdensome tax increases, Medicare cuts, and a huge expansion of Medicaid that will break already strained state budgets.  

You see, the Democrats are playing a game of bait and switch when they talk about the costs of this legislation. For instance, they say that costs will be kept under the arbitrary $900 billion cap that President Obama has requested. Well, they’ll stay under the cap simply by expanding Medicaid eligibility. In other words, they’ll be shifting the costs off one set of taxpayer-funded books to another set of taxpayer-funded books.  And, don’t forget: we just had to bail out those states in large part because their Medicaid budgets were bleeding them dry!

Social Security is broke, Medicare is broke, Medicaid is broke – and all of them were created with the best intentions. But we have to face reality. Our deficit is at an all-time high. Our debt is nearing $12 TRILLION with no signs of slowing. We’re on a crash course for financial ruin. This isn’t conjecture, it’s basic economics.

Republicans have put forth alternative after alternative taking a patient-centered approach -- not focused on government, focused on you -- that will keep costs down, but each and every one of them has fallen on deaf ears. They weren’t even considered by Democrat leadership. Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune did a great job highlighting several of these Republican alternatives that won’t break the bank (a bank that’s already bankrupt).

 As the Tribune points out:

“Let insurers sell policies across state lines. That would loosen the strangling state-by-state regulations and unleash competition to drive premium prices down.”

“Give people who buy insurance in the private market the same tax breaks as those who get it through employers. Now, employers that offer coverage get a tax break on the premiums they pay for employees. And employees don't pay taxes on the value of the coverage they receive. People who want to buy insurance in the individual market should get the same tax breaks. That would help millions of people acquire coverage.”  (That’s what my Health Care Freedom of Choice Act does!)

“Expand the ability of small businesses, trade associations and other groups to set up insurance pools to offer coverage at more attractive rates.”

“Control health costs in part by reining in the medical malpractice system that raises insurance premiums and forces doctors to order tests to protect themselves from lawsuits. Limiting certain kinds of damage awards would reduce spending on health care by about $11 billion in 2009, or about one-half of 1 percent, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. Think about that in human terms: Reform would save millions of patients the expense and trauma of unnecessary tests and procedures.”

As this health care debate plays out, please don’t fall for the rhetoric and take a closer look at what the Democrats’ bill really means. If you do, you’ll realize that it’s a prescription for economic disaster.

Do you remember the famous chart that Christina Romer, then the chief architect of President Obama’s plan and now Chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, produced to help sell the President’s “stimulus” plan to the public?
 
Her analysis found that unemployment would drop to 7% by the end of 2010 if we passed the “stimulus” bill.  Her analysis also showed that even without the “stimulus,” unemployment would peak at 9%.

That hasn’t been the case. 2. 7 million jobs have been lost since “stimulus” began. Seven months after the “stimulus” was passed, 49 of 50 states have lost jobs. Manufacturing and construction, which the White House promised would gain the most jobs, are actually among the largest job losers by percentage. And, economists – including Ms. Romer – now agree that unemployment will hover around 10% through 2010.

And what’s worse, apparently we’ve already seen the biggest jolt that was expected from the “stimulus.”  Romer said last week in testimony before Congress that, “Most analysts predict that the fiscal stimulus will have its greatest impact on growth in the second and third quarters of 2009.  By mid-2010 fiscal stimulus will likely be contributing little to further growth.”

Yet, we continue to hear stories each week about how your “stimulus” dollars are really being used, and abused. For instance, it’s been reported that Wichita, Kansas is using part of its $26 million to spay and neuter pets.  Eric Cantor, the Republican Whip, first brought some of the abuses of this funding to light on his blog, including this one:

Eight Tampa Bay cosmetology and massage schools are receiving $2.3 million in stimulus funds to pay the tuitions for hairdressers, masseuses and nail technicians. The $2.3 million is coming out of the Pell Grant program which received $17 billion in federal stimulus grants.

Monica Ponce, the owner of Tampa’s Muse The Salon, doesn’t believe there is actually a demand for more beauty school graduates in the bay area. Chad Malm, owner of Tampa’s Salon Jack, agreed with Ponce noting there are already plenty of hairdressers in the area. According to Malm, not only is the idea of subsidizing beauty school tuitions ridiculous, it’s also “wasting tax dollars.”

In fact, only 1 to 2 percent of beauty school graduates will be working in the field five years from graduation, according to the Florida Cosmetology Association. Meaning, American taxpayer money is going towards non-permanent jobs within a profession that isn’t hiring.

Source: Tampabay.com
 
What’s worse:  Congress hasn’t seemed to have learned its lesson!  Later today, the House is expected to consider and pass a new continuing resolution to keep government funded until Congress finishes its work on the fiscal year 2010 spending bills.  And, the Democrats have turned it into a “mini-stimulus,” according to news reports!  They’re loading it up with more “stimulus” provisions, including provisions to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the housing giants that perverted their mission of providing mortgage assistance to the poor, leading to the housing market meltdown – to provide mortgages for up to nearly $730,000. 

With fiscal irresponsibility like this, it’s no wonder why Americans have such a low opinion of Congress. Let’s get real.
 

To hear the Democrats and most of the mainstream media you would think that Republicans are not bringing any alternatives to the health care debate. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Back in September during an address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama said his office would always be open to Republicans who wanted to present ideas on health care reform. I wrote the President to present my alternatives and request time with the President to discuss them. I took him at his word that the door was open for honest discussion; but I am still waiting for a reply.

To the contrary, Democrats have shut Republicans out of all discussions on drafting the health care bill.  In fact, the Democrats are being so hyper-partisan that they’ve physically locked Republican members out of a committee room. So much for the era of post-partisanship that the President and Speaker Pelosi promised.

Well, at least the Chicago Tribune is paying attention. Today, they published an editorial: “A GOP health plan.” You see, there’s been no shortage of great ideas offered by Republicans which would give us much needed reform without breaking the bank. In fact, I’ve authored the Health Care Freedom of Choice Act to give people who buy insurance in the private market the same tax breaks as those who get it through their employers. The Tribune actually mentions this as one of several viable solutions for true health care reform.

The fact of the matter is: our country is broke. We’re close to $12 TRILLION in debt, an all-time high, and facing staggering deficits for years to come. Do this Congress and Administration care? Apparently not. While they may give lip service to our perilous economic situation, their actions don’t match their rhetoric. Priority number one in Washington should be getting our fiscal house in order.

You may recall that when Congress was bailing out the auto industry, I had real concerns about whether the taxpayers would ever get that money back. The auto industry, GM in particular, has had a poor track record with loans in the past, having come back to the federal government again and again with its hand out. Last December, the U.S. Treasury Department loaned General Motors $13 billion. In the spring, Treasury loaned GM another $6 billion. In June, days before GM declared bankruptcy, the Administration loaned another $30 billion – just in time to convert taxpayer loans to equity taking ownership of GM. That’s a total of $49 billion.

The problem is that President Obama’s former “car czar,” Steve Rattner, estimates that the taxpayers’ stake in GM now stands around $25 billion. That means $24 billion of taxpayer dollars may have been lost for good. In fact, despite this multi-billion dollar cash infusion to GM, sales declined by 45% in September, while privately-owned Ford Motors fell only 6%. And, that makes it far less promising for taxpayers.

What’s more, we know little to nothing about how this whole transaction transpired.  The President’s Automotive Task Force has operated in complete secrecy and they must be held accountable for their actions.  Taxpayers deserve both fiscal responsibility and transparency from their government.
 

With ACORN and its employees popping up in court rooms around the country for voter registration fraud, you would think Congress would be actively engaged in safeguarding this country’s voter registration process. Yet, some in Congress are taking legislative steps that could open the voting process up to more fraudulent activity.

Testifying before the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections, Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita – who has been both active and vocal in promoting online voter registration services in his home state – was critical of a leading Democrat proposal, the Voter Registration Modernization Act of 2009. It’s Secretary Rokita’s view that this bill “prohibits states from implementing safeguards to protect against the widespread and fraudulent ACORN-style registration tactics….”

According to a press release from the Republicans on the Committee on House Administration:

“Specifically, Rokita criticized a provsion included in the legislation that would prohibit a state from verifying an individual’s identity and eligibility to vote. ‘If this provision is not eliminated, fraudulent applications such as those submitted in the spring of 2008, would be added to the voter rolls – permitting a fictitious ‘Jimmy John’ or ‘Mickey Mouse’ to vote,’ Rokita warned.”

Is it any wonder that Congress has such a low approval rating with the American people? The right to vote, one of the most sacred and cherished tenets of U.S. citizenship, should be protected and not manipulated through fraudulent registration tactics.  Congress should work to ensure fair elections, not be lead the way to greater fraud. Some in the majority party here in Washington don’t seem to get that.

Reuters is reporting that there is a very real possibility that the United States could lose its “AAA” rating if we do not take the necessary steps to reduce our deficit in the next three to four years. Moody’s lead analyst for the United States said very bluntly, “The AAA rating of the U.S. is not guaranteed.”
 
At the end of this fiscal year (September 30, 2009), the U.S. government recorded a deficit $1.417 trillion, the highest it’s ever been in our nation’s history. Yet, this startling number has not fazed President Obama and Democrat leaders in Washington one bit and they continue to plow forward with their reckless spending agenda.
 
It’s hard to deny that a big contributor to this astronomical deficit was the $700-billion bank bailout program (known as TARP) passed back in October of 2008. Just last week, TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky, who is in charge of overseeing the bailout program on behalf of the taxpayers, said that our economy may be at a greater risk now than we were at the time the program was put into place one year ago.
 
CNN’s Political Ticker has the story:
 

"These banks that were too big to fail are now bigger," Barofsky said. "Government has sponsored and supported several mergers that made them larger and that guarantee, that implicit guarantee of moral hazard, the idea that the government is not going to let these banks fail, which was implicit a year ago, is now explicit, we've said it. So if anything, not only have there not been any meaningful regulatory reform to make it less likely, in a lot of ways, the government has made such problems more likely.
 
"Potentially we could be in more danger now than we were a year ago," he added.

It seems the only thing Washington is good at is spending your money. There seems to be less than zero fiscal responsibility in Washington right now. With historic deficit and debt numbers, with Medicare and Social Security on the brink of insolvency, all they can think to do is pass a trillion-dollar government takeover of health care and a job killing cap-and-trade national energy tax. If we don’t get our fiscal house in order, future generations will surely inherit a broken nation.

The Treasury Department has reported that America faces a $43 trillion unfunded obligation in Social Security and Medicare benefits with 77 million retiring baby boomers and rising health care costs.

According to the CBO, paying for the promised benefits will eventually force Congress to impose a 63% income tax on the middle class and an 88% tax on the “wealthy.”

Yet, even as we try to figure out how to meet our current obligations, the President wants to create an additional health care entitlement and further increase spending elsewhere in the budget.

The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted by 2037, and the Medicare hospital trust fund will become insolvent by 2017 according to a report by the trustees of the two programs.  

In fact, next year – 2010 – Social Security’s costs will exceed it’s income.

Read More...

Thanks to the efforts of Senator John McCain, President Obama's nominee for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Craig Becker, has hit a road block in the confirmation process. Senator McCain currently has a legislative hold on the nomination, so 60 votes are needed before the Senate can proceed to an up-or-down vote on Becker.

This is crucial, because Becker is yet another Obama nominee with views too extreme for mainstream America. Mr. Becker, who is associate general counsel at the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), ACORN’s Siamese-twin-like ally, is a staunch advocate for "card check," which would take away the secret ballot for American workers.

Perhaps worst of all, Becker has written that the NLRB should be able to enact card check even without Congressional action.  Unions could get what they want without Members of Congress having to face the music from their constituents.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, Mr. Becker argued for rewriting current union-election rules in favor of labor.  And he suggested the NLRB could do so by regulatory fiat, without a vote in Congress."

In essence, he’d strip American workers of the secret ballot and Congress would be entirely unaccountable to the American people for doing so!

If card check passed, intimidation and harassment would run rampant in the workplace when voting to unionize. The right to a secret ballot is as American as it gets, and to take that privilege away for union gains is simply wrong. The decision about whether to unionize is a serious one and the process should be conducted with safeguards in place.

UPDATE: It's been almost a month since the Obama Administration slapped a gag order on Medicare insurers preventing them from communicating with their members about how the health reform proposals may affect their coverage. Thankfully, in the wake of criticism from so many of us in Congress, the Obama Administration has finally lifted the ban. 

As the New York Times editorial board said today: 

“The Obama Administration has dropped its ham-handed attempt to stop health insurers from warning buyers of private Medicare Advantage plans that their extra benefits might be cut under pending health care legislation.”

What a great victory for America's seniors!

(Original Post on 9/23/09) If you didn't believe that the President planned on paying for his health care overhaul in part by cutting Medicare, more than $100 billion in cuts, wait until you hear this.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which runs Medicare, has engaged in what can be argued as government intimidation, plain and simple. Remember when the EPA suppressed an internal report that raised questions about global warming, including whether carbon dioxide must be strictly regulated by the federal government? They couldn't let a little thing like facts get in the way of passing their cap-and-trade national energy tax.

Well, gangster government is at it again.

According to the House Ways and Means Committee, "the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) initiated an investigation into at least one provider of a Medicare Advantage (MA) health care plan for informing its enrollees that Medicare cuts proposed by the President and congressional Democrats could alter their benefits.  In addition to this investigation, CMS has since banned all MA health plans from providing similar information to beneficiaries."

Congressman Dave Camp, ranking Republican member of the Committee has taken CMS to task for this gag order. Yesterday, he sent a letter to CMS Acting Administrator Charlene Frizzera, noting that, “no such pressure has been applied to those supportive of the President’s Medicare cuts.” 

In fact, the Committee notes, "AARP, which boasts the largest MA plan, for example, has directly communicated with its members via email, a website and letters.  However, AARP’s pro-Medicare cut stance has apparently received no such scrutiny from the Administration.  CMS’ selective use of its regulatory authority, 'threatens the integrity of the agency and of our democracy.'"

Again, another clear example of the government silencing its critics while letting its allies carry on with their business.  About 11 million seniors use Medicare Advantage for their health coverage.  They deserve to know that the burden of paying for the President’s health plan will be on their shoulders.  They deserve some answers, and so do the taxpayers.

There's a lot of talk out there about ACORN being stripped of their federal funding, and restricted from receiving federal funds in the future. Sadly, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Here's what really happened:

On October 1, 2009, the President signed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep government programs running at their current spending levels for one month.  This was necessary because Congress has not yet passed the annual appropriations bills which fund all government programs into the new fiscal year, which began October 1st.

In the Conference Report accompanying that bill, Congress included the following provision in Division B which prohibited ACORN from accessing federal funding:  

Sec. 163. None of the funds made available by this joint resolution or any prior Act may be provided to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations.

However, the CR expires on October 31, 2009:

DIVISION B--CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS RESOLUTION, 2010

Division B provides continuing appropriations for all agencies and activities that would be covered by the regular fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills, until enactment of the applicable regular appropriations bill, or until October 31, 2009, whichever occurs first.

Congress can pass another CR if it hasn’t finished passing the spending bills.  That CR would also have an expiration date of a matter of days or weeks or maybe months.  But, unless that CR includes the same language as Sec. 163, money will flow right back to ACORN on November 1st.

Even if Congress passes its appropriations bills before November 1st, unless they include that language, ACORN will be eligible for funding again.  And, remember in that case, the language has to be in all of the bills.  There are 12 appropriations bills, each funding different government agencies and programs.  Adding the prohibition language to, say, the Transportation funding bill doesn’t stop ACORN from accessing Housing funds.

And, even if Congress were to include that language in all 12 appropriations bills, that ACORN-prohibition language would expire on September 30th – the final day of Fiscal Year 2010.

The only way to ensure that ACORN is barred from federal funds across the board and for more than a brief time is for the White House to suspend and bar ACORN from federal funds.  It doesn’t have to take an act of Congress.

Late last week we got word from Speaker Pelosi that more stimulus funding is being considered to get the economy back on track. Seems that the $787 billion ($1.1 trillion with interest) that you ponied up earlier this year just isn't getting the job done. But, honestly, we shouldn’t be surprised by this response – not when tax-and-spend-and-borrow liberals are in charge of everything from the White House to the Capitol.

More government spending and borrowing to boost our economy is like trying to dig ourselves out of a hole in the sand. When all is said and done, not only have we made no progress, but we’re further from our objective then when we first started. And, with a greater debt for our kids to boot.

Instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars on government giveaways in Stimulus, Part 1, the government should have focused on giving private business - big and small – a helping hand to create jobs. Jobs are what we need now to turn our economy around - and you don't do that by creating new government programs. You do that by allowing businesses to bring on more employees and grow the economy. But, sadly, it seems this Congress has yet to learn its lesson and is barreling toward Stimulus, Part 2.

Pretend for a second you work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and you have a certain amount of federal grant money to distribute to fire departments and first responders throughout the country to enhance fire prevention and fire safety. In Louisiana, you have several fire departments applying for funding --in fact, more than you have money to disburse. You would think actual first responders would have precedent over, say, ACORN?  Wouldn’t you?

Well, apparently, that makes too much sense for the federal government when it comes to fire prevention in Louisiana.

According to the Washington Times, "nearly $1 million in Homeland Security funding typically earmarked for fire departments has been awarded to ACORN."  The Times goes on to say, "It was one of only three such grants issued to the state and made up almost 80 percent of the firefighting money earmarked for Louisiana...."

Thankfully, U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) is all over this and has already requested that the grant be rescinded and given to someone with "expertise in this area."

It's not like there was a shortage of fire departments applying for the funding.  As the Times reports:

"One such group might have been the St. Tammany Parish Fire District No. 3, which applied for a $120,000 grant to purchase smoke alarms for low-income families after a January fire killed four children in a home that had no working detectors.

“’We wanted to buy smoke detectors to spread to homes all over the community to prevent that from happening again,' Chief Charles Flynn said in an interview Tuesday.

"'I have no problem with not getting a grant, I've lost grants before,' said Chief Flynn, one of the fire officials who complained to Mr. Vitter in a letter.

"'My issue is ACORN in New Orleans. Their mission statement says nothing about fire safety or fire prevention. It bothered me that ACORN got $1 million and there are so many smaller and bigger departments that have a need for that money.'

"The Monroe Fire Department was the only squad in Louisiana to receive a grant and will be awarded $192,000. The Louisiana State Fire Marshal's Office will receive $62,000.

"ACORN received $997,402, slightly less than the maximum allowable grant of $1 million. A total of $35 million was available for the grants project to fire districts across the country this year."

The announcement of this grant came after House and Senate votes to cut ACORN off.  But, it just goes to show you, the House and Senate voting to cut off funding to ACORN is nothing but a show until the President either signs it into law or he uses his authority to bar ACORN from federal programs and funds. The money is still flowing … and apparently it’s flowing from even the most unusual of sources.

Despite Congress’ mere lip service to defunding ACORN, the organization remains under intense scrutiny, and more and more entities are distancing themselves from this tarnished group. The latest:  In the latest round of allocations from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program, ACORN Housing Corp. received no federal funding.

The Wall Street Journal reports that last year, ACORN “was allocated federal funds that could total as much as about $25 million under the program.…”  This year, however, it appears that NeighborWorks America which allocates the money is waiting to see what happens, if anything, given the current scrutiny ACORN faces.

If only Congress could take such meaningful action.  While both the Senate and House did take votes to strip ACORN of its funding, having two votes on two entirely different bills in two different chambers against ACORN looks good, but accomplishes nothing when all is said and done.  It’s good PR, but little more than that.

This is all the more reason why President Obama must immediately use his authority to suspend all federal agencies from doing business with ACORN. The evidence is ample, but it seems the motivation is lacking on the President’s part to do so. This group should not be allowed its continued use of our hard-earned tax dollars to perpetuate their scandalous work. It’s just common sense.

One year ago today, Congress smartly allowed the ban on off-shore drilling to expire. After months of urging Congress to take every action at its disposal to increase the supply of American-made energy, I was thrilled to celebrate Energy Independence Day 2008. 
 
However, one year later, we have made no progress.  First, the Obama Administration put an abrupt halt to plans already in place to open up the outer continental shelf and public lands in Utah to energy exploration.  And, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced it could be 2012 before the administration even decides whether it will consider moving forward.
 
Washington is not only not making progress; it is, in fact, sending us further from achieving energy independence than even before.
 
Instead of increasing the supply of American made energy, Congress is pushing a national energy tax, Cap and Trade, that would increase the cost of energy and kill jobs.  In fact, a study by the George C. Marshall Institute, which reviewed a wide range of studies and analyses of the cap and trade legislation, found that the price of energy paid by the American consumer would jump:  5-15% for electricity, 12-50% for natural gas, and 9-145% for gasoline.  The White House’s own numbers show that cap and trade would cost the average American family an additional $1761.
 
The American people shouldn’t have to wait for another summer of $4-gas for the Administration and the majority in Congress to do the right thing.  Energy independence is a matter of fiscal prudence and national security.  And, an all-of-the-above energy strategy – which includes exploration of off-shore oil and natural gas and shale oil deposits in the Mountain West – is the way to achieve real energy independence.

Just in case you didn’t realize it, Washington has a spending problem. And this problem paves the way for a myriad of dismal scenarios. Last month, the White House released updated budget numbers that are downright scary. The Obama Administration is projecting a federal deficit of $1.6 trillion this year and his budget would create $9 trillion in budget deficits over the next decade--more debt than America accumulated from the Presidencies of George Washington to George W. Bush combined (1789 through 2008). And this is using President Obama’s own estimates.

Others like the Heritage Foundation find that the President’s budget will likely produce $13 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years--nearly $4 trillion more than the Administration forecast. Why is that? Well, according to Heritage, “the White House figures are based on unrealistic estimates of discretionary spending, interest payments, and interest rates. The White House also used budget gimmicks to hide the full cost of certain entitlements and failed to account for the full costs of cap-and-trade energy legislation and health care reform.”  

But regardless of whether it is $9 trillion or $13 trillion, it’s a heck of a lot of money we don’t have. And our nation’s debt now sits at well over $11 trillion, closer to $12 trillion, actually, the highest it’s ever been in our nation’s history.

I’ve made an update to my congressional website and have posted a debt clock so you can see for yourself the way our government is recklessly spending so much of your hard-earned money. If our federal government doesn’t kick its spending addiction, our nation will be in a world of trouble. And its future generations that will pay the price.