Lawmaker News

While Obama lifts some restrictions on travel by Cuban Americans to the island, the administration remains firm on the US embargo.

Press speculation and reports this morning indicate that the President will lift travel restrictions on Cuban American travel to Cuba as well as the sending of remittances and other items to the island. There is no indication that the administration will go beyond those measures.  An urgent goal of the regime is the lifting of the embargo which will mean access to loans from international financial institutions.  To date, the regime has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign assistance and loans. Read more...

Since taking office in January, President Obama has taken some important steps in reorienting US foreign policy, from agreeing to participate in group talks with Iran to giving a major speech committing to the elimination of nuclear weapons. At the same time, he is raising concerns within the peace and security community by intensifying the military strategy in Afghanistan. There are reasons to be optimistic about the direction of US foreign policy, but a major question remains as to whether Congress will help or hinder advancing a new and better foreign policy.

To help voters see what role their representatives and senators have played in supporting positive changes in US foreign policy, Peace Action and Peace Action West have released our 2008 congressional scorecard. We graded representatives and senators on their votes on key issues such as funding for the war in Iraq, nuclear weapons and nonproliferation, torture, and wasteful weapons spending. Read more...

On April 2nd, Speaker Nancy Pelosi succeeded in passing her federal budget that outlines more than 3.5 trillion dollars in spending for fiscal year 2010. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected a 1.8 trillion dollar deficit for the current fiscal year (FY2009), and that projection does not include the stimulus bill that will cost Americans more than one trillion dollars, which was signed into law by the President on February 1st. As of April 7, 2009, the U.S. national debt stands at more than eleven trillion dollars (you can view the latest numbers here).

The sheer magnitude of Speaker Pelosi’s spending spree is mind boggling. Most of us do not use the number 1,000,000,000,000 in our daily lives, so it is difficult to attach tangible value to the figure. However, as Congress and the Administration continues spending your tax dollars trillions of dollars at a time, it is worthwhile to have a discussion about what these numbers really mean.

One of the simplest ways to get an idea of one trillion dollars is to consider the amount in terms of the passage of time. One million seconds is equal to roughly eleven days and twelve hours, and one billion seconds is thirty-two years. One trillion seconds equals thirty-two thousand years. Read more...

With Democrats on Capitol Hill stampeding to the left and Republicans gravitating toward the center, it’s important to take a detailed and subjective look at their voting habits. The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has done just that with the release of its 30th annual Rating of Congress. Not surprisingly, the number of “A” grades has decreased in the Senate, and the number of “Big Spenders” has increased in the House.

NTU’s Rating is unique from similar scorecards in that it scrutinizes every single vote that impacts tax, spending, and regulatory issues. In all, 286 roll call votes were rated – 182 in the House and 104 in the Senate. Rather than focusing on a handful of “key votes,” NTU rates every vote affecting fiscal policy – appropriations, authorization, and tax bills; budget target resolutions; amendments; and certain procedural votes that could affect the burden on taxpayers.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) became the first Republican Senator to receive a grade of “F” since NTU began issuing letter grades in 1992, with a Taxpayer Score of 12 percent. In the House, former Reps. Ray LaHood (R-IL) and Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) were the first Republican Members to receive “F” grades in a decade. Their story may give pause to those who say that Republicans need to compromise on principle to win at the polls, as may the fact that Republicans’ average scores in both houses of Congress fell significantly between 2007 and 2008. House Republicans average score dropped four points to 65 percent. The Senate GOP saw a nine point drop to 57 percent. Read more...

Writing last week in Time.com, Joe Klein became the latest in a steady stream of media pundits to call for the legalization of marijuana ("Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense"). That's right, 'legalization' -- with an "L."

While the notion of regulating the sale and consumption of cannabis for adults might still induce reflexive giggles from the Oval Office, the issue is no longer a laughing matter among the public. Read more...

I cannot believe what I heard yesterday -- President Obama is disarming America. Never before has a president so ravaged the military at a time of war.

In Afghanistan, our brave troops continue to fight while their President guts our military. Our sons and daughters are risking their lives fighting an enemy whose sole purpose is the destruction of our country and our way of life, while their President disarms America. And all this to support his welfare state. Read more...

On March 31, when the House passed the Free Flow of Information Act (H.R. 985) to protect the identities of reporters' confidential sources, bill sponsors Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN) said it was "a major victory for the public's right to know" and "reaffirmed our nation's commitment to a free and independent press."

Federal "media shield" legislation is sorely needed. Each year, scores of criminal and civil subpoenas seeking confidential information -- including the names of sources promised confidentiality - are served on journalists. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia have either shield laws or a common law privilege protecting the disclosure of a source's identity. But because of conflicting court opinions and the absence of a media shield law, there is no uniform standard in federal court. Inconsistent court opinions are not only undermining state laws, but are chilling the flow of information to the public as sources -- including whistleblowers -- are unsure of the rules of the road. If potential sources, including government and corporate whistleblowers, fear reporters may be forced to reveal their identities, these sources will be "chilled," and the public will lose the ability to hold institutions accountable. Read more...

The Democrat Leadership's 2010 budget calls for an unprecedented $3.5 trillion in spending and results in trillion dollar deficits for years. Except for World War II, these are the highest spending levels in U.S. history.

During a recent financial services hearing I questioned the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke about massive government spending. He assured me that I was "right to be concerned about the debt and the deficits" and commented that, "Obviously, trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see would not be sustainable." Read more...

I want the American auto industry to survive. But I don't want them to survive because of perpetual Congressional life support.

What Detroit needs is a jump start. For years, Americans gobbled up clunker vehicles because gas was cheap. Because of the demand for what they were making, the American automakers didn't see a reason to seriously retool. Toyota and Honda were busy making smaller, lighter, more energy efficient vehicles. But Americans still wanted their SUVs, so Detroit kept selling them. Then, the bottom fell out. As oil prices spiked our tastes suddenly changed and SUVs became passé. Read more...

During this week’s Senate debate of the fiscal year 2010 budget (the reported resolution), I offered the “1789 Amendment.” This amendment was designed to limit our debt, which grows at an alarming rate under the Democrats’ budget plan. The budget will double and ultimately triple the debt. In fact, it creates more debt than under every President from George Washington to George W. Bush combined. By the end of the five-year budget window, debt held by the public will be close to 67% of GDP. That is unsustainable for our economy, makes us more dependent on other countries to finance our debt and threatens the value of our currency. And it is simply wrong to pass that burden of debt and interest on to our children.

The 1789 Amendment would force the government to address the fact that our debt is spiraling out of control. It would create a budgetary point of order against make any budget that doubles, over a ten-year period, the debt already accumulated from 1789 until January 20, 2009. Such a budget would need 60 votes to waive the point of order, instead of allowing a simple majority of 51 senators to push through a plan that doubles or triples the debt. Unfortunately, the Democratic majority succeeded in defeating this important amendment and that is a loss for our future generations.