The Administration

President Obama was wise to re-consider his campaign promise to reinstate the controversial assault weapons ban, which some gun-control groups are trying to link to drug violence in Mexico.

With drug violence south of the border at a crisis level, some in Congress are looking at a back door push for the return of a previously failed assault weapons ban. Ending violence and bloodshed by lawless drug cartels is the issue, not a divisive return to policies that infringe upon the American people’s Second Amendment rights.

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I am just as frustrated with the out-of-control spending in Washington that Americans who are participating in taxpayer tea parties all across this country are. Americans want lawmakers to create policies that create jobs, protect jobs and protect pension plans. The massive spending bills passed by this Congress don’t prove to hardworking Arkansans that we are using their tax money efficiently. We need to curb wasteful spending, focus on job creation and debt control. We need to do what is best of our country and I’m committed to looking for alternative solutions and fighting for a capitalistic democracy.

The Obama administration’s decision to begin the process of imposing expensive, cumbersome regulations in an effort to regulate greenhouse gases should alarm all Americans. EPA’s decision will do more to endanger families, farmers and workers with new energy taxes and lost jobs than it does to protect the environment.

EPA carbon regulations will raise the price of energy. Environmentalists do not dispute this point – they welcome it. While they use the euphemism “putting a price on carbon” what they really mean is making energy more expensive so people don’t use it. However, hitting families with more expensive power, heating, cooling, food, and gas bills is a bad idea in good times, but to propose such a plan in the middle of an economic crisis is irresponsible at best. Right now, families all across the country are struggling to make ends meet and now it appears that President Obama is prepared to ask them to suffer an even heavier burden.

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Last week’s Tea Parties were a powerful message to Washington in protest of the “spend and tax” binge that the federal government has been on over the last several months. The last thing struggling families need is Washington taking even more money out of their pockets.

Every day, Americans are making tough choices as they deal with this economic recession. Families are tightening their budgets and small businesses are cutting expenses. I believe that the federal government has to do the same when it comes to the federal budget.

As most Americans know, over the last few months Congress has gone on an unprecedented spending spree. It began with the so-called “bailout” last Fall, then the “stimulus package”, which was intended to create jobs. Instead, it put taxpayers on the hook for a $1 trillion bill that will only stimulate more government and more debt. Several weeks later, the Congressional leadership rushed through Congress more than $400 billion in an “omnibus” spending plan to fund the government for only seven months.

I voted against all of these bills because I believe that massive spending will not lead to a growing economy; it will only lead to a mountain of debt to be inherited by our children and grandchildren and possibly beyond.

The American people know that we can’t borrow and spend our way back to prosperity. The path to our economic recovery starts with fiscal responsibility in Washington.

Instead of continuing a policy of bail-outs and the nationalization of our economy, I call on the President and Congressional leadership, to reach across the aisle to work together and consider ideas from all House members, not just those in the Democrat majority.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday signed a pre-publication copy of a finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions present a danger to the public health and welfare. The finding means carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions can be regulated under the Clean Air Act by the EPA.

I am disappointed that the administration has chosen to act on its own. Global climate change is a serious problem and we should address it through well thought out legislation for that reason, not because of a threat that draconian regulations will be imposed by the administration. Read more...

No timid wimp is former CIA Director Michael Hayden. And he's not reluctant to tell you so. You can find out what a tough guy he really is by reading his opinion piece, written with former Attorney General Michael "Not sure waterboarding is torture" Mukasey in the April 17 Wall Street Journal, defending the use of torture and objecting to the release of the nightmarish memos. We're talking here about "walling", (repeatedly smashing a detainee against a wall), stress positions (hanging a person from the ceiling with feet barely touching the floor -- including a one legged man), sleep deprivation for as long as 11 days, cramped confinement (put in a casket-sized box or smaller -- insects optional), and that medieval favorite, waterboarding.

In fact, it was the torture described in these memos, the existence of secret prisons, Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib that endangered the security of the United States. What better tools could there be to inflame and recruit new terrorists and instill hatred for our country throughout the Muslim world and beyond? Still Mukasey and Hayden clearly believe that these techniques should have been used and should be used in the future. They are in favor of torture. Read more...

Last Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency initiated what could indeed become a very dangerous regulatory process for this country.  EPA proposed an “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.  This move by EPA will unleash a torrent of regulations that will destroy jobs, harm consumers, and extend the agency’s reach into every corner of American life.  While such regulations will create another massive burden on the economy, there will be no positive effect on global climate change as a result.

A year ago, Representative John Dingell correctly stated that an endangerment finding will produce a “glorious mess.”  EPA now has the power within its reach to regulate emissions from schools, farms, hospitals, assisted living facilities and other sources that meet minimum thresholds in the Clean Air Act.  Need confirmation? Just by looking through the comments filed in the docket to EPA’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for greenhouse gas emissions, one is struck by how broadly the Clean Air Act would apply.  Any major economic development could be open to review by the EPA.  The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis found that potential EPA greenhouse gas regulations would destroy over 800,000 jobs and result in a cumulative GDP loss of $7 trillion by 2029.

Some now claim this is why it is time to pass cap-and-trade legislation.  Unfortunately that would replace one very bad approach with another.  In last year’s debate on the Lieberman-Warner-Boxer climate bill, the enormous costs of cap-and-trade legislation were exposed.  What Congress should pass is a simple, narrowly-targeted bill that stops EPA from implementing regulations that will have a significant negative impact on the American economy and do nothing to affect climate change.

Today, President Obama made his best attempt to date at espousing fiscal responsibility by requesting that his Cabinet secretaries cut $100 million total – that’s government-wide – from their respective agencies. While $100 million is by no means a small number in and of itself, when considering it in relation to President Obama's $3.5 trillion budget outline for 2010 passed by both Chambers of Congress, that number represents a cut of just 0.003%.

While it's certainly a laudable move, it's akin to shooting a giant hole in the side of a cruise ship and then bailing the sinking ship out with a dixie cup. Moreover, trimming millions of dollars means absolutely nothing if Congress and the President continue to add billions to the national debt.

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I was very pleased by the National Institute of Health (NIH) draft guidelines regarding human embryonic stem cell research. In every key respect, they match the terms of the legislation Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) and I have sponsored for the past four years, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.

The draft guidelines represent a policy that both respects human life and offers enormous hope to Americans who are suffering from diseases and debilitating conditions such as cancer, Parkinson’s, juvenile diabetes and spinal-cord injuries.

Most importantly, the guidelines will allow hundreds more stem cell lines to be eligible for federally funded research – allowing developments that enables our best scientists, for the first time, to fully pursue the promises of this exciting and crucial field. As in my bill, Federal funding will be allowed under these guidelines only on stem cell lines derived from embryos that were created through in vitro fertilization, but are no longer needed for reproduction, would otherwise be discarded, and are donated without any financial or other inducements. For too long, political interference has delayed research that holds the promise for millions of Americans who suffer from a wide range of diseases.

I am anxiously awaiting the final approval of these guidelines in July and look forward to future possibilities in stem cell research.

Today’s announcement is long overdue and marks the EPA’s first real response to the April 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which confirmed that greenhouses gases should be regulated as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.

The science about global warming is clear. The need to act is urgent. This announcement is further proof that the Obama-Biden Administration is serious about addressing global warming. We will not be waiting another eight years for action. Read more...