On September 17, we celebrate the creation of our Constitution, one of the greatest governing documents ever conceived by the hand of man. This is the day we commemorate the birth of the United States as a nation, based on the rule of law and dedicated to the preservation of personal liberty, political freedom, economic opportunity, and the natural rights with which we are all endowed by our Creator. But 223 years after the formal signing of the Constitution, our country stands at a dangerous crossroads, the likes of which …
In October 1964, then spokesman Ronald Reagan stepped into the national political spotlight for the first time with his now-famous “A Time for Choosing Speech,” delivered in support of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. His words stand in stark contrast to those of many of America’s elected officials today, as this video by the Republican Study Committee shows.
A bill signed by President Barack Obama on August 10th was supposed to save teachers’ jobs. It was a $26 Billion dollar spending bill that allocated $10 billion for education spending so school districts could rehire laid off teachers or prevent districts from having to fire more teachers. Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought it was so important that she called the House of Representatives back from August recess to pass it. However, there seems to be a problem. A report that came out last week notes that some of the states …
Not satisfied by the billions in federal bailouts already passed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently announced that she intendeds to bring the House back from the August recess to pass yet another multi-billion-dollar federal bailout. This version—costing taxpayers $26.1 billion—is touted as aid “to save teachers’ jobs, help seniors and children.” Perhaps anticipating a backlash against additional billion-dollar bailouts (the national debt recently polled on par with terrorism as threats to the United States), congressional Democrats were quick to claim that this would all be “paid for.” Unfortunately, even a …
This Congress has broken a lot of ground, but for all the wrong reasons. Now it has another ridiculous notch to add to its belt: Congress is poised to pass a major piece of legislation without bothering to give it a name. To recap, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told us that health care reform would have to pass before we could find out what’s in it. Then, for the first time since the modern budgetary process was enacted, the House decided not to pass a budget (avoiding one of its …
In January 2009 after it became clear that the leftist majority in Congress would pass President Barack Obama’s $862 billion economic stimulus bill without a single vote from a Republican, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) defended her partisan approach, telling Politico: “Yes, we wrote the bill. Yes, we won the election.” Last Friday, some 19 months after the stimulus bill became law, the Labor Department issued its monthly jobs report showing the U.S. economy shed 131,000 jobs and unemployment tread water at 9.5% as 181,000 workers left the workforce entirely. These …
Want to see what Obamacare really looks like? Take a gander at this dazzlingly complex chart mapping out America’s new health care system (the chart was developed by the House Joint Economic Committee). It’s no wonder that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in March said of Obamacare, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.” Well, the health care monstrosity passed and we’re left with a confusing fog of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.
Imagine a Congress running in a tough environment—the electorate is angry; a war is going badly; the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high. And imagine such a Congress facing the prospect of passing a nice, pre-election tax cut for all. They’d pass the tax cut faster than Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) can say “Ronald Reagan.” Suppose instead of passing a tax cut, Congress faced the even more compelling prospect of preventing the largest tax hike the middle class has ever seen. Hitting the middle class with tax hikes is a prescription …
Last week in a legislative briefing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) stoked the unemployment insurance (UI) debate by stating that unemployment checks are the fastest way to create jobs. Let me say that unemployment insurance… is one of the biggest stimuluses (sic) to our economy. Economists will tell you, this money is spent quickly. It injects demand into the economy, and it’s job creating. It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name. Given that a similar debate over extending federal unemployment benefits may also …
According to the official site of the House Rules Committee, “questions of privilege” relate to “matters affecting the safety, dignity or integrity of the House, or the rights, reputation or conduct of a member acting as a representative.” House leaders are poised to use a procedural tactic of questionable constitutionality to move the single most consequential piece of legislation in over seven decades through the House without a vote. Here’s the idea: (1) pass a rule to bring to the floor a “reconciliation” measure that would detoxify certain provisions in …
