Today, Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and the House Republican majority are introducing their much-anticipated 2012 budget plan. The bold proposal — “The Path to Prosperity” — is refreshingly comprehensive in addressing the nation’s debt crisis and promoting economic prosperity. According to Congressman Ryan:
For starters, it cuts $6.2 trillion in spending from the president’s budget over the next 10 years, reduces the debt as a percentage of the economy, and puts the nation on a path to actually pay off our national debt. Our proposal brings federal spending to below 20% of gross domestic product (GDP), consistent with the postwar average, and reduces deficits by $4.4 trillion.
A study just released by the Heritage Center for Data Analysis projects that The Path to Prosperity will help create nearly one million new private-sector jobs next year, bring the unemployment rate down to 4% by 2015, and result in 2.5 million additional private-sector jobs in the last year of the decade. It spurs economic growth, with $1.5 trillion in additional real GDP over the decade. According to Heritage’s analysis, it would result in $1.1 trillion in higher wages and an average of $1,000 in additional family income each year.
Furthermore, Ryan’s budget cuts taxes and strengthens to the social safety net with commonsense reforms to Medicare and Medicaid and by advancing the discussion to sure up Social Security for future generations.
Simply put, the proposal is a real and comprehensive solution to a grave spending and debt crisis that threatens America’s future. Failure to act to right the nation’s fiscal ship, and now, is no longer an option. The Path to Prosperity budget deserves serious consideration, not the partisan politics as usual that has already begun.
Read more details on Ryan’s budget plan here. For the complete plan, click here (.pdf).
This week provides a stark contrast between a leader actually willing to risk political capital, versus a man who now seeks four more years of politics-as-usual.
On the one hand, we have House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R – Wisconsin). Tomorrow, Congressman Ryan will unveil a federal budget proposal that reduces spending by $4 trillion over the coming ten years, provides pro-growth tax reform and caps runaway federal spending. All without reducing Social Security benefits by a single penny for anyone already receiving them or over 55 years of age, along with Medicare reform that will save it from its catastrophic fate if nothing is done. Congressman Ryan knows full well that by offering budget leadership, Democrats will possess a “political weapon” to use against him, even if it means that “they will have to lie and demagogue” to do so. But instead of shrinking, he has chosen leadership.
On the other hand, we have the President of the United States. The purported leader of the Free World. The most powerful man on Earth. The man who formed a blue-ribbon deficit commission, then proceeded to ignore it. Instead of making sure that a Congress dominated by his own party could even manage to pass a 2011 budget, instead of offering decisive world statesmanship amid worldwide crises and instead of providing leadership in averting a national debt catastrophe, Obama instead focused on unveiling his 2012 reelection campaign this week. Instead of offering a plan, the AWOL Obama will apparently just sit back and attack Paul Ryan’s.
So there you have it. One man seeks to cut spending by $4 trillion, and the other man seeks to spend $1 billion getting himself reelected.
Join CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino today from 4:00 p.m. CST to 6:00 p.m. CST (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST) on Northwest Florida’s 1330 AM WEBY, as she hosts her radio show, “Your Turn.” Today’s guest lineup includes:
If you follow the debates over whether voters should be required to present a photo ID at their polling place, you’ve probably heard the standard Democratic refrain before: there’s very little real voter fraud out there and voter ID policies are just a cynical Republican plot to suppress turnout amongst key Democratic constituencies. As is the prevailing tendency, however, liberal rhetoric is now being undermined by stone cold facts.
Last week, the U.S. House’s Administration Committee heard testimony on a Colorado study that used the 2010 election to put claims of scarce voter fraud to the test. The results, as The Hill reports, were shocking:
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican, told the panel that his department’s study identified nearly 12,000 people who were not citizens but were still registered to vote in Colorado.
Of those non-citizen registered voters, nearly 5,000 took part in the 2010 general election in which Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican Ken Buck.
Colorado conducted the study by comparing the state’s voter registration database with driver’s license records.
We applaud our Democratic friends for their efforts to increase voter turnout. We just wish they’d stick with legal voters.
As the House and Senate enter budget negotiations, House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor must not sacrifice the Kline Amendment de-funding the Obama Education Department’s so-called “Gainful Employment Rule” on the altar of false compromise.
The Gainful Employment Rule, which sets arbitrary bureaucratic formulas for federal student loan repayment, is a transparent attempt by the Obama Administration to cripple private career colleges. And the tale of its creation is a long, sordid one. First, there were allegations of insider trading between Education Department officials and short-sellers with a financial interest in seeing career colleges’ stock prices fall. Then, the the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had its sting operation against career colleges exposed as defective, ultimately forcing its retraction. These allegations are serious enough that separate investigations were commenced in the Senate and House.
Fortunately, a bipartisan group in the House of Representatives voted to de-fund any enforcement of the Gainful Employment Rule in budget bill H.R. 1. In an era of intense party acrimony, the fact that opposition to the Gainful Employment Rule attracted strong bipartisan agreement speaks volumes. Now, it’s a matter of Speaker Boehner holding strong on de-funding implementation of the rule, rather than offering it as “trade bait” to Senate Democrats. Please don’t allow the Kline Amendment de-funding the Gainful Employment Rule to become a casualty of politics as usual, Speaker Boehner.
Politico highlights how the budget battles between the Tea Party and Big Labor are threatening to shift firefighters and police officers into the Democratic Party, setting up a dilemma for fiscal conservatives.
The blowback from unionized first responders is being felt by Republicans in Ohio, New York, and Wisconsin. In the latter, Republican Governor Scott Walker tried to exempt police and fire from the ban on public employees collectively bargaining, but they still refused to follow his order to remove protesting teachers from the state capitol.
Ironically, Politico quotes one police union leader saying his members are going to hold pro-union Republicans “accountable” for the cuts being made to balance state budgets.
Apparently, it’s a different kind of accountability than one based on sustainable funding formulas. If the GOP is serious about reining in runaway government spending, it’s going to have to take on all public employee unions, and demand lower compensations (e.g. pensions, buy-outs, overtime, retirement eligibility, etc.).
We’ll see who has the stomach to make that case anytime soon.
Freshman Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is taking a much more traditional approach than colleague Rand Paul (R-KY) when it comes to proving his Tea Party credentials. Paul continues to thumb his nose at the GOP establishment by founding the Senate’s Tea Party caucus, and feeding speculation he may run for president in 2012.
Rubio didn’t join the Senate Tea Partiers, and until recently has been publicly silent about his immediate intentions. That changed with a recent column in the Wall Street Journaldemanding major budget changes.
Interestingly, Paul is building a national brand while Rubio focuses on few – but profound – policy statements. In an age of 24 hour media, Rubio’s statesmanlike approach could be an indication of very good things to come.
In this week’s “Freedom Minute,” CFIF’s Renee Giachino makes the case for conservative optimism. Giachino points to the continued public backlash against ObamaCare, the growing movement against government excess, and widespread opposition to Cap-and-Trade and Net Neutrality, among other big government regulations, as evidence that the nation is committed to restoring to America’s founding limited-government principles.
In an interview with CFIF, Megan Brown, a Litigation and Appellate partner at Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, D.C., discusses the highly publicized Walmart Sex Bias lawsuit and other pending cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
CNBC’s Fast Money quotes an investment strategist who says that when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives his first press conference on April 27, his remarks “could induce a 10 to 15 percent correction” in the market. Here, “correction” means “drop.”
The reason the market might drop one-tenth of its value in a matter of hours is due to some analysts’ fear that Bernanke will not continue printing money (i.e. quantitative easing) to inflate the value of assets. When values return to more realistic levels, investors are likely to stop banking on government-distorted policies to bail them out.
The purpose of the Fed is to tinker with the money supply and interest rates to stabilize the economy. So far, the only stability it’s guaranteeing is as fake as a free lunch.
Bloomberg reports that the rumored $33 billion in cuts being negotiated by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is looking like the key number both sides are working towards. For perspective, that’s $28 billion less than the House of Representatives passed a few weeks ago, and $67 billion less than Republicans promised during last year’s mid-term elections.
When the $61 billion cut was passed, Tea Party-backed legislators accepted the reduction under the assumption that half a loaf is better than nothing at all. Now, the loaf is down to a third, and activists are having none of it.
Whatever sum gets approved, it’s a sure bet the Tea Party and the members of Congress friendly to it won’t forget the importance of starting the cut threshold even higher next time. At this rate, don’t be surprised if the 2012 battle cry is, “$500 Billion in Cuts or Fight!”
Remember the line that President Obama used so often to soothe the anxieties of Americans worried about healthcare reform? “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it”? Well, things have gotten a litte more complicated since those earlier, more innocent days. Just ask Joel Ario, the HHS bureaucrat charged with overseeing Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges. According to The Hill’s Healthwatch Blog:
“If it plays out the exchanges work pretty well, then the employer can say ‘This is a great thing. I can now dump my people into the exchange and it would be good for them, good for me,’ ” Ario continued.
A kindly reminder from those of us not serving in the Obama healthcare politburo. If, like the majority of Americans, your employer provides your healthcare, you don’t get to choose whether or not you keep your current healthcare. And the government is putting its hand on the scales.
Indiana Republicans are expected to pass major school choice legislation in the next few days, allowing a family of four with incomes as high as $60,000 the opportunity to spend their tax dollars on the kind of education they want.
Here’s a perfect summary of the argument for public school vouchers from one Hoosier supporter:
“We fund education for a reason — to give individual children the skills they need to compete in life,” said Luke Messer, former executive director of the Indiana Republican Party who now heads School Choice Indiana. “If the money follows the child, parents ought to have the right to put their child in whatever opportunity they think would best serve their family.”
Vouchers put power into the hands of those most affected by choices about schools: families of students. Let’s hope Indiana Republicans go to the mat for this one.
It’s been a while since former Rep. Charles Djou (R-HI) lost his reelection bid last November. CFIF profiled Djou prior to his upset victory in a special election last May. Now, it looks like Djou might run for a U.S. Senate seat, but only if former Governor Linda Lingle (R-HI) decides against it.
Of the two, Djou is the more conservative; especially when it comes to fiscal matters. That said, either candidate would certainly be an improvement over retiring Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI).
For everyone astonished or disgusted at the ease by which the political left either defends Obama vis-a-vis Libya or stifles the hysteria it unleashed against George W. Bush, there’s now a must-see video for you. From “Obama is awesome” to Fox News slurs to citing “Saturday Night Live” or “The Colbert Report” as authority, the rationalizations offered by the female avatar defending Obama will sound familiar and elicit laughter. Watch as the Obama defender’s male counterpart explains that Bush’s Iraq coalition was actually broader than Obama’s “multilateral” effort, that Bush actually obtained Congressional approval while Obama did not and that Saddam Hussein’s record of slaughter dwarfs Colonel Gadhafi’s:
Republicans in Congress are currently split on whether to accept incremental budget cuts in the name of political pragmatism or to hold a hard line — and face the possibility of a government shutdown or a freeze in the debt ceiling — in the name of principle. Freshman Florida Senator Marco Rubio takes to the editorial pages of the Wednesday edition of the Wall Street Journal with a message that leaves no doubt where he stands:
“Raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.” So said then-Sen. Obama in 2006, when he voted against raising the debt ceiling by less than $800 billion to a new limit of $8.965 trillion. As America’s debt now approaches its current $14.29 trillion limit, we are witnessing leadership failure of epic proportions.
I will vote to defeat an increase in the debt limit unless it is the last one we ever authorize and is accompanied by a plan for fundamental tax reform, an overhaul of our regulatory structure, a cut to discretionary spending, a balanced-budget amendment, and reforms to save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
For months now, we’ve heard “sober” politicians tell us that it’s time to have “an adult conversation” about the size and cost of government in which “everything is on the table”. It looks like Marco Rubio is calling their bluff.
Last week we told you about how President Obama’s steadfast refusal to open up America’s energy resources is keeping prices at the pump artificially high. But as we transition into the summer driving season, it’s important to remember that Obama isn’t the first Washington busybody who wanted to micromanage your gas tank.
Though current oil volatility will mask its effect, decades old federal regulations mandate that gas stations sell a “summer blend” gasoline from June 1 to September 15 (some localities extend the period). The blend is intended to cut down on air pollution in local areas, but it also adds an average of 10 cents per gallon to the cost of gasoline. Just what we needed.
The Pentagon doesn’t want it. The Senate has voted it down. The House has voted it down. The Bush White House sought to stop it. The Obama White House has sought to stop it.
Yet the unnecessary duplicate engine for the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter refused to die, riding the wave of Washington, D.C. pork-barrel political force.
Fortunately, the Defense Department has ordered General Electric and Rolls-Royce to stop wasting dollars on a second engine for the F-35.
Pratt & Whitney serves as the main producer of the F-35 engine, but forces in Congress perpetuated the wasteful General Electric and Rolls-Royce second engine. Although both the House and Senate have voted to end the second engine and allocate those precious defense dollars on more critical needs, the project kept going because the previous Congress never passed a 2011 budget. That left the Defense Department to operate on continuing resolutions based on the fiscal 2010 appropriations.
It’s an embarrassing illustration of wasteful Beltway politics, and a reminder of what we who favor fiscal sanity must continually overcome. Fortunately, the Defense Department just provided an assist in that effort.
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