Wisconsinites are headed to the polls to cast their votes in the Wisconsin recall elections. The recall campaigns — against six Republicans today and against two Democratic state senators next week — have gained national attention. They stem from the fierce standoff between the Legislature earlier in the year. The unprecedented circumstances in Wisconsin ensure low voter turnout and noncompetitive results won’t be a problem. Numerous politicians are calling for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s resignation following the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+. Congresswoman and presidential …
How’s this for transparency in the White House? Last week, the House joint Oversight and Small Business Committee held a hearing on a proposed Obama Executive Order mandating the disclosure of political donations by government contractors. The Committee questioned White House aide Daniel Gordon on the Order. His response? He danced, dodged, bobbed and weaved around the Committee’s questions, as captured in this video, above: Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC): Does it strike you at all as being ironic to invoke confidentiality and not answering questions when we’re having a hearing about …
Is President Barack Obama trying to perform an end-run around Congress in order to implement restrictions on political speech? It’s a question that 27 senators put to President Obama in a letter this week in which they urged him to reconsider a draft executive order (EO) that would require government contractors to disclose political contributions. In the letter, the senators cite to Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, who raised concerns over the underlying purpose of the executive order: Given similarities between the draft EO and some …
A group of senators is urging President Obama to reconsider a draft executive order to require would-be government contractors to disclose political contributions. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), ranking member on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) yesterday sent a letter signed by 25 of their Republican colleagues to the president to ask him to keep politics out of federal contracting. “We urge you not to issue the draft EO,” the letter states. “To ensure that taxpayers receive the best value for federal …
The recent debt limit increase passed by Congress has sparked a national debate on how to adequately reverse out-of-control federal spending. After much congressional hand-wringing recently over what budget process reform to attach to the must-pass increase in the debt ceiling, support for a bipartisan commission crafted by Senate Budget Committee leaders Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) crumbled. Lawmakers realized that the framing of the commission would most likely lead to tax increases with little real spending restraint with the same back-room deals of which Americans have become …
President Bush may have promised to veto any spending bill that does not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half, but as commentators were quick to point out, since Democrats are planning on holding back spending bills till the next President takes office, the threat is virtually worthless. Equally unhelpful is the White House’s Executive Order directing federal agencies to ignore future earmarks included in committee reports but not in the voted on legislation. The next President could issue a new Executive Order his (or her) first second …
In addressing earmarks in the State of the Union, President Bush said, “I also asked you to stop slipping earmarks into committee reports that never even come to a vote. … [T]omorrow, I will issue an executive order that directs federal agencies to ignore any future earmark that is not voted on by the Congress. If these items are truly worth funding, the Congress should debate them in the open and hold a public vote.” This is good policy, and it is a sign of how far we have drifted …
Taxpayers should welcome President Bush’s pledge in the State of the Union to veto spending bills that do not cut the number of earmarks in half. At the same time, Bush could have done so much more to address the surge in earmarks. Last year’s State of the Union message included a similar pledge to halve the number of earmarks, yet the President declined to issue an Executive Order canceling the extraneous pork in the mammoth omnibus spending bill. That bold step would have sent a strong message to Congress …
Sen. John McCain, a leading opponent of earmarking, today praised President Bush for his plan to issue an executive order cracking down on pork-barrel spending. During a conference call with bloggers, McCain said he was rejoicing at the thought of angry appropriators in Congress. “Thank God he’s doing it,” McCain said of Bush. “I don’t have to tell you about the billions in these committee reports. … The president redeemed himself to a great degree in my eyes by what he’s going to say tonight [in the State of the …
President Bush will issue an executive order tomorrow that directs federal agencies to ignore any future earmark that is not voted on by lawmakers and included in a law approved by Congress. It’s a long-overdue step by the administration to curtail earmarks, but falls short of what conservatives had hoped Bush would do. Bush’s maneuver will apply only to future earmarks, subjecting them to votes and greater transparency. However, it does nothing to block the nearly 10,000 earmarks included in the omnibus spending bill passed last month. The White House …
