Yesterday, the Daily Caller posted a story on its website about the confusion on Capitol Hill on both sides of the aisle about the future of Obamacare. It featured a quote from Congressman Heath Shuler (D-NC) on the White House’s healthcare strategy: “I was actually surprised that they’re pushing it again. The most important thing is jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. We need to focus on jobs,” said Rep. Heath Shuler, North Carolina Democrat and a leader of the 54-member Blue Dog coalition of conservative Democrats. Rep. Shuler is right. Finding …
Congress needs someone like Mike Rowe to do the dirty job that politicians won’t touch. Our $1.4-trillion (and rising!) annual deficit and $12-trillion accumulated debt are not caused by the economy. They’re caused by runaway spending. Unable or unwilling to specify and enforce spending cuts on their own, some in Congress are calling for help by establishing a new commission that would both identify ways to cut back and force Congress to vote on it. It’s not a substitute for the immediate self-discipline that lawmakers need, but it could help. …
According to the Washington Post the only speed bump left in the Senate-House budget reconciliation process is Blue Dog insistence that pay-as-you-go budget rules (PAYGO), that supposedly would prohibit new initiatives that increase the annual budget deficit, be enshrined in federal law. We appreciate the Blue Dogs desire to rein in federal spending. After all, they did cave in and vote for President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus and a $410 Omnibus spending bill, but as Heritage fellow Brian Riedl details, PAYGO rules are no substitute for saying ‘No’ to …
Has the Blue Dog Coalition given up on their version of fiscal responsibility? Jim Cooper (D-TN), leader of the Blue Dogs – the self-described fiscally-conservative group of congressional Democrats – was quoted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed announcing, “I’m not sure the old rules are relevant anymore… It would be unfair to the new President to put him in a budget straitjacket.” This effectively kills any plans for PAYGO budgeting in the 111th Congress. Apparently budgetary trade-offs no longer apply when liberals occupy the oval office. Interestingly enough it …
While campaigning against Republican fiscal malfeasance in 2006, then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi promised to institute “pay-as-you-go budget discipline” to help lower the federal debt. Speaker Pelosi quickly betrayed that promise to the American people when the House failed to offset the $50.6 billion cost of protecting more than 20 million middle-class taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax. Since then the House leadership has dropped all pretense of fiscal discipline, demonstrated most recently by tacking $54 billion in spending for veterans’ education benefits onto the latest Iraq/Afghanistan war supplemental. Fortunately, there …
As Heritage’s Michael Franc documents again today, the Democratic party is rapidly becoming a party of rich cultural elites: Through May 1, the Democratic presidential field has suctioned up a cool $5.7 million from the more than 4,000 donors who list their occupation as “CEO.” The Republicans’ take was only $2.3 million. … Wall Street firms, long a symbol of American elite accomplishment, also tilt decisively toward the Democrats. Employees in storied Wall Street institutions such as Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley have all favored the Democratic …
