A Raw Deal for American FamiliesPosted by GOP Leader Press Office on February 12th, 2009
Democrats’ Trillion-Dollar Spending Bill Provides $1.10 Per Day in Relief to Workers, While Saddling Every American Family With $9,400 in Added Debt Following are some very tentative quick facts on the trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending deal slated to be rushed through the House and Senate today or tomorrow by Congressional Democrats, as compiled by the Office of House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH). These are based on best estimates on legislative text and scoring and may be subject to revision. 1. Generational Theft. The final agreement will cost each and every household more than $9,400 in additional debt (including interest on the bill), paid for by our children and grandchildren. 2. Paltry Tax Relief for Working Families and Small Businesses. The “Making Work Pay” tax credit at the center of the plan amounts to $1.10 a day, not even enough to ride the bus one-way to work. 3. Massive Government Expansion. The final agreement is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government. 4. A Trillion-Dollar Spending Bill. The $789.5 billion final agreement slated for a House vote either today or tomorrow will exceed more than $1 trillion when adding in the interest of approximately $300 billion between 2009-2019. 5. Unnecessary Spending That Won’t Create Jobs. Apparently included in the final “jobs” bill is money for plug-in vehicles, money for STD prevention, and money for ACORN (via the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and CDBG program). The final agreement also creates new programs and funds existing programs that can be used to fund earmarks and pork-barrel projects. 6. The bill contains enough spending - $789.5 billion - to give every man, woman and child in America $2,600. $789.5 billion is enough to give every person in Ohio more than $68,000. 7. Supporters of the bill say it saves or creates 3.67 million new jobs. But, the data they are circulating shows only 3.46 million - that’s 210,000 fewer than their talking points claim, 500,000 fewer than President Obama promised, and a staggering 2.74 million fewer than the 6.2 million jobs that would be created by the House GOP alternative. 8. The bill creates 31 new programs totaling $97 billion (31% of all appropriations) and expands 73 programs by $92 billion which are part of the regular appropriations process, not “stimulative spending.” 9. Almost one-third of the so called “tax relief” in the bill is spending in disguise, meaning that true tax relief makes up only 26% of the total package - a far cry from the 40 percent that President Obama had requested. 10. A provision tucked in the bill will further increase government involvement in health care by putting bureaucrats - not doctors - in charge of health care choices for families and seniors. Money for Nothing: Chairman Rangel on Congressional Democrats’ Trillion-Dollar Spending PlanPosted by Nick on February 12th, 2009
Introducing the New GOP.govPosted by Nick on February 12th, 2009
Conference Vice Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) introduces the new and improved website of House Republicans: Dem “Stimulus” A Raw Deal For American FamiliesPosted by Dave on February 12th, 2009
Democrats’ trillion-dollar spending bill provides $1.10 per day in tax relief to workers, while saddling every American family with $6,500 in added debt. Following are some very tentative quick facts on the trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending deal slated to be rushed through the House and Senate today or tomorrow by Congressional Democrats, as compiled by the Office of House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH). These are based on best estimates on legislative text and scoring and may be subject to revision. 1. Generational Theft. The final agreement will cost each and every household more than $6,500 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren. 2. Paltry Tax Relief for Working Families and Small Businesses. The “Making Work Pay” tax credit at the center of the plan amounts to $1.10 a day, not even enough to ride the bus one-way to work. According to the Associated Press, “Officials estimated [the bill’s tax relief provisions] would mean about $13 a week more in people’s paychecks when withholding tables are adjusted in late spring. Critics say that’s unlikely to do much to boost consumption.” (Taylor, Andrew; “Economic stimulus package on track for final votes,” Associated Press, 12 Feb 09). While the specifics remain unknown, it appears likely that tax relief to help small businesses — the primary engine of American job creation — represents even less of a share of the final tax package, and it had been only a tiny percentage of the overall package to begin with. 3. Massive Government Expansion. The final agreement is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government. 4. A Trillion-Dollar Spending Bill. The $789.5 billion final agreement slated for a House vote either today or tomorrow will exceed more than $1 trillion when adding in the interest of approximately $300 billion between 2009-2019. 5. Unnecessary Spending That Won’t Create Jobs. Apparently included in the final “jobs” bill is money for plug-in vehicles, money for STD prevention, and money for ACORN (via the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and CDBG program). The final agreement also creates new programs and funds existing programs that can be used to fund earmarks and pork-barrel projects. Further details and analysis to come, as details become available. White House Census Takeover Could Waste Billions in Taxpayer FundsPosted by GOP Leader Press Office on February 11th, 2009
In a letter sent this afternoon to President Barack Obama, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and the entire House Republican leadership team joined Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and other Oversight & Government Reform Committee Republicans in warning that the Administration’s plan to transfer control of the 2010 Census to political operatives on the White House staff could result in billions of taxpayer dollars being abused and misallocated.An estimated $300 billion in taxpayer funding is distributed by the federal government annually on the basis of Census data - data that would be corrupted by partisanship under the current White House plan, GOP leaders warned.Under an Administration plan revealed late last week, control of the traditionally nonpartisan Census Bureau and the 2010 Census would be transferred from the Commerce Department to political operatives on the White House staff, which is headed by the former chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), Rahm Emanuel.
Contrary to Democratic claims, there is no historical precedent for placing the Census under the control of political operatives on the White House staff. According to former Census Bureau Director Bruce Chapman, who directed the Census Bureau from 1981 to 1983 under President Ronald Reagan: “[T]he White House and its Congressional allies are wrong in asserting that the Census in the past has reported directly to the president through his staff. Directors of the Bureau often brief presidents and their staffs, but, as a former director (under President Reagan), I don’t know of any cases where the conduct of the Bureau was directly under White House supervision. That includes Clinton in 2000, Bush 41 in 1990 and Carter in 1980.” Coast to Coast Criticism of Democrats’ “Stimulus”Posted by Kevin on February 11th, 2009
Newspapers and commentators from coast to coast have continued to criticize the House Democrats’ trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ bill as an ineffective and costly plan in editorials and columns this past week. The more Americans hear about the contents of the Democrats’ so-called stimulus bill, the less they seem to support it. In fact, according to Rasmussen, only 37% of Americans support the Democrats’ “stimulus”; 50% of voters say the “stimulus is likely to make things worse; and, 62% want stimulus plan to have more tax cuts and less spending. Here’s what editorials and opinion makers are saying about the Democrats’ bloated “stimulus” bill: “Stimulating welfare,” Rocky Mountain News:
“Mission Creep,” The Chicago Tribune:
“The President must improve stimulus legislation to get the biggest bang for America’s buck,” New York Daily News:
Rep. Manzullo (R-IL) Questions Bailout Czar Neel KashkariPosted by Kevin on February 11th, 2009
DEMOCRATS’ MIDNIGHT “STIMULUS” POWER PLAYPosted by Dave on February 11th, 2009
So this is “transparency” under the Democratic regime. . . It appears that Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid’s staff met all through the night in secret with Democratic conferees’ staff to cobble together the “stimulus” conference report. Republican conferees were frozen out. The objective appears to be to produce a final conference report on the trillion-dollar spending bill by this afternoon so that floor action can take place in both chambers by Thursday. They intend to ram this trillion-dollar spending bill through with as little debate and scrutiny as possible. The House voted unanimously yesterday in support of a Republican measure stating that the American people should have 48 hours to review the bill prior to passage. Will Democrats follow through? Or will they do the opposite of what they voted to do yesterday? Economists Dispute Notion of Consensus on “Stimulus”Posted by Kevin on February 10th, 2009
Last night, in a prime time press conference, President Obama said there is a consensus among economists that a dramatic increase in borrowing and spending by the federal government is necessary reverse the economic recession that is gripping our nation. With all due respect to the President, there are hundreds of economists who disagree. More than 50 American economists spoke out against the notion that our nation can simply spend its way back to prosperity via Leader Boehner’s “skeptical economists” project, launched in December after an Associated Press article quoted unnamed presidential advisors as saying “only one” prominent economist had questioned the concept of a massive stimulus bill focused on borrowing and spending hundreds of billions of dollars. Leader Boehner has publicly released comments from many of these economists; they can be seen HERE and HERE. The Washington, D.C., based Cato Institute published a full page ad in several newspapers which listed more than two hundred economists who don’t believe that a trillion-dollar spending bill will help steer the economy back on a path of growth or put Americans back to work. Many prominent economists who supported a stimulus package have since recanted their support for the Congressional Democrats’ “stimulus.” Among those economists who are now opposed is Mark Zandi, an often cited “former McCain advisor.” There are just two small problems with that - Zandi is a Democrat, and he opposes the Democrats’ “stimulus.” Mark Zandi, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal, said:
The Wall Street Journal noted that: Read the rest of this entry » Welfare Reform Under Fire in “Stimulus”Posted by Kevin on February 9th, 2009
One of the most successful bipartisan reforms of the 1990s was reform of the federal government’s welfare system-a system that had trapped successive generations in a cycle of dependence. Welfare Reform was one of the signature items of the GOP’s 1994 Contract with America. The Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Act, signed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton after two unpopular vetoes, led to dramatic drops in the States’ welfare rolls as a system of entitlements was replaced by a system of work and education requirements. Sadly , these highly successful welfare reforms-even requirements that recipients obtain a high diploma or GED-appear to be the latest causality of the Democratic Congress. Buried on page 608, deep within the $1 trillion, 778 page Senate version of the “stimulus bill,” is a provision to spend $3 billion for “temporary welfare payments.” (text of the bill here) Writing in the online magazine Slate, Mickey Kaus states that this provision is “part of a larger liberal campaign to use the recession to weaken work requirements and let millions of non-working single mothers back on the welfare rolls. Specifically, it would apparently reward states that expand their welfare caseloads–even if the increase is only the product of loosened work requirements rather than a worsening local economy.” Liberal opponents of welfare reform recognize that the “temporary welfare payments” contained in the “stimulus” bill will lay the groundwork for reversing the success of welfare reform passed by Republicans like Leader Boehner in 1996. Read the rest of this entry » |
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