To the GOP: We don’t want more of the same (No MOTS)

House Leadership Appointments Good and Bad  

A week ago I wrote an article, "Two Key U.S. House Chairmanships in Play," about two key committee leadership positions which the GOP must fill. Well today those positions were filled.

THE GOOD

Congrats to Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), the newly elected Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman, who will lead the conservative caucus in the 112^th Congress.

I am happy for my Representative, Jim Jordan’s recent election as chairman of the conservative caucus for the new Congress. This will be an important position because of the makeup of the conservative makeup of the 60+ new representatives elected on November 2, 2010. The RSC functions as the conscience of the conservative movement. Hopefully Rep. Jordan will wield a powerful influence for good on his fellow Republicans. That said, I would have preferred to see Louie Gohmert (R-TX) as chairman of this group. Only because he has more experience and boldness to stand up to the entrenched Country Club Republicans that his hold a lot of power.

THE BAD

I don’t especially like the election of Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) as Chairman of the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee. After all, he is the ‘brain’ behind the move to get rid of the incandescent light bulb in favor of the mercury-laden CFL bulbs. This may be a very unwise move on the part of the Republicans. It seems to me to be a business-as-usual move not in keeping with the change demanded by the November 2^nd election. I am very disappointed. I would have preferred to have Cliff Stearns (R-FL) elected as chairman of that committee. I think he would have provided stronger principled conservative leadership.

Upton: A Bad Idea

The GOP also selected another entrenched good old boy, Hal Rogers, to lead the very powerful House Appropriations Committee. I join the Club for Growth who were disappointed that Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) was not selected. Kingston would have been a fresh face with good ideas to cut spending. The Democrats, commenting on the selection of Rogers in a Poltico.com story, called him a “King of Pork” claiming he brought in over 130 earmarks totaling ¼ billion dollars for his district. Not a good sign.

Hal to the King?

I imagine that both Upton and Rogers had the blessing of incoming Speaker John Boehner. These two selections are not boding well for the change that the American people voted for in November.


The GOP was given a second chance by the American people. Compromising with the President on the extension of the unemployment benefits for 13 months at a cost of $120 Billion, and the selection of men like Upton and Rogers are not in keeping with the expected change Americans are wanting. Let’s hope the GOP wakes up before the gavel opens the 112^th Congress …


If there is one message I would like to get through to John Boehner and the GOP leadership it is this. We don’t want more of the same: No MOTS! The GOP must appoint the brightest and most conservative of the new Congressmen and Congresswomen to the key committees to offset the appointment of the likes of Upton and Rogers. Otherwise 2012 will be a repeat of 2006 and 2008!

Further Reading:

 

“Rep. Louie "Terror Babies" Gohmert: Tea Party Pick for House Leadership”

"GOP taps Hal Rogers for House Appropriations Committee Chair"

"Upton will chair House Energy & Commerce Committee"

61 Days ‘til Statism on Trial

Remember in November

Two months until the Day of Reckoning. Two months until the Ultimate Tea Party! 61 days until the Mid-Term Report Card is given for the controversial and increasingly unpopular President and his Democrat cronies in Congress.

Was the election of the controversial and increasingly President a mirage or a mandate? The answer will come on Tuesday November 2, 2010, when hopefully many conservatives will rescue this nation from the socialist policies of the current administration and Congress.

Remember the extreme Statist, socialist, liberal policies and legislation pushed through Congress.

Remember the all the passed Congressional PORK in November ...

Remember the Stimulus Bill with nearly $1 Trillion in wasted taxpayer dollars causing future generations a tremendous needless debt burden

Remember the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was passed by the Democratic controlled House of Representatives.

Remember in November

Fire Congress ...

Another Town Hall Tell Off . . . 8/27/09 Town Hall with NY Rep. Anthony Weiner

Hat Tip to BluegrassPundit who recently twittered this video link, http://bit.ly/8klrQ, about a woman who goes off (rightfully) on Rep. Anthony Weiner [D-NY9] at Town Hall Meeting held last Thursday (August 27). Following the embedded video is a transcript of the Bonnie Cohen’s testimony, which was provided by the BluegrassPundit and the description that accompanied the YouTube video.

"Thank you Congressman. My name is Bonnie Cohen. I'm a patriotic, law abiding, tax paying citizen who clings to her religion. We the American people were fed up with Washington so we voted for change. But we did not vote to remake the nation! You may not be aware of it but we love this country!

"I'm an Independent; I've never been interested in politics. But, let me tell you Congressman that for the first time in my adult lifetime I am afraid for my country. I see Washington bankrupting our future one day at a time! From TARP to Stimulus to 9000 earmarks to auto bailouts to Cap and Trade. And now you guys want to take over health care after you screwed up housing.

"I think its fair to say that Congress has been acting stupidly! My question for you Congressman is; do you plan to go back to Washington and deliver for us what we actually voted for? Or is that above your pay grade and do you plan to just promote your own career and campaign every hour on MSLSD (Popular conservative talk radio show host Mark Levin endearing term for MSNBC?)”

Ms. Cohen expresses the growing sentiment of many independents and conservatives across America today. We do not want any more big government than we have, no ObamaCare, no Cap and Trade and we want all the ridiculous and wasteful spending and programs and pork stopped.

The Stimulus: Waste Not, Want Not

Speaker Pelosi's Pork House, Leading to the Poorhouse?

Pelosi & Pals' Payoffs and Pork Bill

According to a recent post on FRCblog, “(T)he Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently found that the cost of the Pelosi-Reid stimulus package now exceeds $1.1 trillion. CBO also estimated that only 7 percent of infrastructure money would make its way into the economy by the end of the year and only 38 percent would be spent by the end of the 2010 fiscal year. Senator Jeff Session's (R-Ala.) office estimates the actual number going to tangible road and bridge construction is just a little more than 3 percent.

“Where is this money going to? A not exhaustive look at the 1,588 page legislation, H.R. 1, "The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009" shows the bill is more payoffs and pork then stimulus . . ."

Here are a few examples of the many political payoffs and the slices of pork that make up the falsely named economic "stimulus package." It is an appropriations bill that bypasses all the Congressional debate and public scrutiny. As a whole it is a shameful and egregious waste of taxpayer money. No Senate Republican or principled Democratic Senator should vote for this horrific bill.

The following list is a condensed version of the one outlined on the FRCblog post.

PAYOFFS

(I.) To the "Green" Lobby –(Environmental extremists)

$600 Million To Buy New Cars For Government Workers (Page 89)

These cars would be "green" friendly cars - however very few gas pumps have the right gas to run these cars. The Federal government already spends $3.5 billion a year.

(II.) To the Unions - (The Leftist Teacher's Unions, etc)

"$150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education's current budget. The proposed emergency expenditures on nearly every realm of education, including school renovation, special education, Head Start and grants to needy college students" Sam Dillon, "Stimulus Plan Would Provide Flood of Aid to Education," New York Times. January 27, 2009. NOTE: Private and religious schools are excluded.

(III.) To the Abortion Industry - (The Pro-Death Crowd)

Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) inserted in the original bill billions of dollars for family planning groups, including the abortion giant, Planned Parenthood. Pressure and public exposure from Congressional Republicans forced the Democrats to remove such funding from this bill. However the bill still provides billions in reforming the health care system and working towards nationalized health care - with little to no debate.

$2.7B in NIH grants which would be targeted to among other things embryonic stem cell experimentation. (Page 56)

(IV.) Other Special Interests - (Homosexual Activists, etc.)

$3 Billion for Prevention & Wellness Programs, Including $335 million for STD Education and Prevention -- Recent government expenditures in this area include
· a transgender beauty pageant in San Francisco that advertised available HIV testing and

· an event called "Got Love? - Flirt/Date/Score" that taught participants how "to flirt with greater finesse."

$83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don't pay income tax. SOURCE Wall Street Journal

$4.19 billion open to ACORN. The Pelosi-Reid bill makes groups like ACORN eligible for a $4.19 billion pot of money for "neighborhood stabilization activities."

MISCELLANEOUS PORK

Some of the biggest winners in the package are federal agencies and Congressional relatives:

$2 Billion for national parks. "A top House Republican is demanding an investigation into whether the more than $2 billion for national parks in the House stimulus package is proper in light of the fact that the chief lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association is the son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (chief author of the bill.)" Stephen Dinan and S.A. Miller, "Stimulus has plum for Lawmakers Son," Washington Times, January 29, 2009.

$54 billion will go to federal programs that the Office of Management and Budget or the Government Accountability Office have already criticized as "ineffective" or unable to pass basic financial audits. SOURCE Wall Street Journal

$1.2 billion to the National Science Foundation (Page 46) "Chuck Grassley knows it when he sees it. The "it," of course, is pornography. And Grassley has seen it deep in a demurely titled section of a report from the National Science Foundation -- a report that says NSF employees have been spending significant amounts of company time on smut sites and in other explicit pursuits . . . In one particularly egregious case, the report says one NSF "senior official" was discovered to have spent as much as 20 percent of his working hours over a two-year interval 'viewing sexually explicit images and engaging in sexually explicit online 'chats' with various women.' Investigators calculated the value of the time lost at more than $58,000 -- for that employee alone." Andie Coller, "Grassley Launchers Porn Inquiry," Politico, January 29, 2009.

TAKE ACTION

Please call both of your U.S. Senators and find out where they intend to vote on the Stimulus bill. Express you concerns about this terrible bill and urge them to vote against the Stimulus Package. Click on Democrats/Republicans for a phone list of U.S. Senators.

Stifle the Stimulus

Demise of America - #4

During President Barry Soetoro's (a/k/a Barack Obama) first week in office he posted his radical socialist agenda on the Whitehouse.gov website, he rebuked "torturing" Islamic terrorists, advanced the torture and killing of babies by signing an executive orders to close Guantanamo Bay and to export abortion funding abroad.

Then, during his first full week in office he attacks the free enterprise system setting in motion the creation and expansion of a socialist state through political payoffs, pork and patronage. He called this economy saving scheme a "stimulus package."



American taxpayers are being sold a bill of not-so-goods with this $819 billion dollar "stimulus" boondoggle. The flaw-filled porkibus appropriations package, misnamed “economic stimulus,” is being pushed by President and Chief Pusher Barry Soetoro (a/k/a Barack Obama) and his gang of Clinton-Chicago political dealers. The only thing that it will stimulate is economic collapse. All that the so-called “stimulus” will bring is

· bigger government
· more debt
· wasteful giveaway programs, and
· more free enterprise stifling socialism

Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives stood in unanimity, along just short of a dozen brave Democrats, and said “no” to this lame measure. My hat’s off to those few courageous Dems and the Republican Party, which finally stood for something. The Republicans took a step toward what the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) referred to as, “Regaining their fiscally responsible brand.” This brand was badly tarnished by Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress during the last two years.

All conservative and fiscally responsible Americans must get ready for a major fight that is shaping up in the U.S. Senate next week (Monday). We need to make sure that enough members of both parties will put the country's fiscal health above personal power and political patronage and slay the deficit-breathing and debt-spawning dragon.

DISSECTING THE DRAGON

This deceitful “stimulus package” includes everything on the big-government wish list from government health care rationing, to net neutrality Internet regulations, to earmarks for global warming computer modeling-- but nothing that would actually stimulate economic growth.

Some specific examples of the “stimulus” handouts include:

-$4.19 billion to ACORN, the advocacy group under investigation for voter registration fraud

-$600 million to buy new cars for government workers, and

-$335 million for adult sex workshops

TAKE ACTION

Please join over 11,000 other Americans and me by signing AFP’s No Stimulus petition at www.NoStimulus.com to help stop this disastrous trillion-dollar debt scheme, known as the “Stimulus Package.” Spread the word and support the AFP so they can get the word out, too.

Much of this article was based on information received in an email from the Americans for Prosperty (AFP).