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congress

Congress Kicks Spending Can Down the Road Again

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While the impeachment hearings attracted most of the news coverage on Capitol Hill this week, both the House and Senate agreed to a continuing resolution to keep the government funded until December 20.

But while shutdown theater was avoided for another month, Congress is yet again failing to go through an orderly appropriations process, by which congressional committees go line by line through spending bills for each department of government.

In recent years, regardless of which party controls the House and Senate, members have funded the government through continuing resolutions that temporarily keep spending levels intact or by voting on giant take-it-or-leave-it omnibus bills that give members no chance to make changes.  The omnibus bills invariably result in higher spending.

Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar says too often the Speaker of the House, whether Republican or Democrat, unilaterally decides what federal spending is going to look like.

“We have put way too much power into the hands of the speakers.  We need to have a process that’s generated from the members from their different committees.  The chairmen should be picked by members of the committees so they are beholden to the members, not beholden to leadership,” said Gosar, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

On Thursday, before approving the continuing resolution, the U.S. Senate voted to table, or delay, Sen. Rand Paul’s push for the “Penny Plan,” which calls for eliminating one penny of each dollar in federal spending.  More than half of Senate Republicans voted to put off consideration of the plan.

Gosar is not surprised.

“A lot is said when your leader actually says, ‘Nobody loses office by spending money,'” said Gosar, apparently referring to Senate Majority Leader Mich McConnell.  “It shows people are not serious about the process here.”

Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Gosar’s ideas for returning to more responsible spending.  He also explains why he believed Republicans lost the majority in the House of Representatives because of their unfulfilled promises and not because of President Trump.

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Bipartisan Backlash, Biden Campaign Berates Media Again, Trump’s ISIS Shrug

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Hey, we finally we have a good martini and it only took us until Thursday!  Today, Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America appreciate a bipartisan group of lawmakers blasting the NBA for kowtowing to China. They also slam the Biden campaign for whining that the New York Times is making common cause with Breitbart.com by covering Hunter Biden’s overseas activities. And they hammer President Trump for not worrying if thousands of ISIS prisoners go free because of Turkey’s attack on the Kurds because most would only wind up in Europe again.

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GOP Congressional Hopeful Slams House Dems: ‘These People Are Crazy’

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The presidential race promises to take up much of the political oxygen in 2020 but a Republican congressional candidate says electing her and a GOP House majority will help restore some sanity to the nation’s capital.

Former Illinois State Rep. Jeanne Ives is seeking the Republican nomination in her state’s sixth congressional district.  The seat is currently held up Democratic Rep. Sean Casten, who defeated longtime GOP incumbent Peter Roskam in 2018.

Ives says Casten needs to go because instead to going to Washington to seek solutions to problems impacting his constituents, he’s become a cheerleader for impeachment.  She also says Casten has practically become a member of “The Squad,” the name given to progressive lawmakers such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar.

“People need to understand: this is the most unreasonable, unserious Congress we’ve ever elected.  Look, if they’re not trying to ban your red meat, they want to take away your red hat.  I mean that’s where they are,” said Ives, in an interview with Radio America’s Greg Corombos.

Ives points to the push for a Green New Deal as another example of House Democrats, including Casten, losing touch with reality.

“Really?  You think the world is coming to an end in ten or maybe it’s twelve years?  And now you want to rearrange the entire economic engine of not only the State of Illinois but the entire United States because you don’t believe in fossil fuels?  These people are crazy,” said Ives.

Listen to the full podcast to learn what issues matter most to Ives and how she would chart a different course in Washington.  She also explains how her ability to get things done while vastly outnumbered by Democrats in the Illinois legislature proves she can get things done in Congress as well.

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Would A GOP House Actually Repeal Obamacare?

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Congress is currently engulfed in impeachment hearings, subpoenas, and talking points. But House Republicans say if they regain the majority in 2020, they will reduce the debt and repeal Obamacare.

Should they be believed this time?

Republicans made Obamacare repeal the centerpiece of their campaign messaging from 2010-2016.  After winning the House, the Senate, and the White House, Republicans tried to move on Obamacare.  Ultimately, GOP leaders did not push a straight repeal.  Instead they looked to repeal key mandates and make other reforms.  The legislation passed the House but died in the Senate.

The individual mandate was ultimately neutered in tax cut legislation, when the Republicans voted to fine people zero dollars for refusing to purchase health insurance.

However, costs are still rising and Americans are deeply frustrated with their coverage.  So would Republicans actually move to repeal Obamacare?  What other provisions ought to be part of any plan to remove Obamacare but still cover pre-existing conditions, bring down costs, and address other major concerns?

Greg Corombos asks Chris Jacobs, a longtime health policy expert and the author of “The Case Against Single-Payer.”

As Democratic presidential hopefuls argue about whether to pursue single-payer or keep private insurance but add a government-run public option, Jacobs explains why he believes those candidates are debating distinctions without a difference.  He reveals why a pubic option would also eventually lead us to government-run care.

Listen to the full podcast here.

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GOP Wins in Carolina, Iran Loves Bolton Exit, Trump Dynasty?

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are glad to see Republicans hold on to a pair of North Carolina congressional seats, including one that Democrats were hoping would be a harbinger of 2020.  They also shudder as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani cheers the exit of National Security Adviser John Bolton and now urges President Trump to end the maximum pressure campaign.  And they groan as Trump Campaign Manager Brad Parscale openly forecasts a Trump political dynasty.

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Record Spending Spending Again in Washington

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The latest report from the Treasury Department shows a record level of spending for the first nine months of the current fiscal year, and the U.S. is on it’s way to a one trillion dollar deficit by the time the year is through.

According to Treasury, expenditures from October through June totaled nearly $3.356 trillion.  Revenues came in at just over $2.6 trillion, leaving the nation with a deficit of more than $747 billion with three more months to go.

One of the nation’s top financial watchdogs says this is a bipartisan problem, noting the deficit was $5.4 trillion when George W. Bush left office.  That number jumped to $19.9 trillion when Barack Obama’s presidency ended.  Our debt is now headed towards $23 trillion just two-and-a-half years into the Trump administration.

OpentheBooks.com CEO Adam Andrzejewski says the current budget deficit is particularly bad considering the strength of our economy.

“Right now, we’re in a period of great economic expansion.  We shouldn’t be running one trillion dollar budget deficits.  You run budget deficits during an economic cycle when you slip into recession.  You don’t want to run them when you’re in economic growth and expansion,” said Andrzejewski.

Andrzejewski warns Republicans that running against the big government agenda of Democrats is going to be a tougher sell because of their own lack of fiscal discipline.

But with neither party wanting to remove funding for their friends and priorities, is there any room for common ground.  Andrzejewski says some ways to trim the fat ought to be obvious.

“The 20 largest federal agencies since 2003, they admit to $1.4 trillion going out the door in improper payments.  Just last year, our auditors at OpentheBooks.com found a billion dollars went out the door from these federal agencies to dead people,” said Andrzejewski.

It gets worse.  Andrzejewski says another six billion dollars went out in overpayments in student loans and grants and Medicare and Medicaid combined for $80-85 billion in improper payments.

Listen to the full podcast as Andrzejewski lists more wasteful spending projects that are wasting taxpayer dollars and how he encourages citizens to make their representatives pay attention to our soaring deficits and debt.

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Congressional Border Battles

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The House and Senate will need to reconcile vastly different bills designed to provide billions of dollars in emergency aid for the humanitarian crisis building on our southern border.

On Wednesday, The Senate rejected legislation passed by House Democrats and approved its own $4.6 billion measure.  House Democrats say the Senate bill is a non-starter.

While the two chambers head to the reconciliation process, Florida Rep. Ted Yoho says lawmakers cannot embrace what he considers an abandonment of law enforcement personnel along the border.

“It limits the authority of the Department of Homeland Security to surge employees at the border.  [The House bill] cuts overtime hours cuts overtime for the exhausted officers that we have working overtime.  They want to cut this.  These are the very people doing what we hired them to do,” said Yoho.

Yoho says Democrats also want to cut funding for the National Guard at the border and voted down funding for enhanced border technology that could not only detect illegal entry into the country but also protect migrants from sexual assault and trafficking by drug cartels.

He says the partisan bickering on this issue needs to stop.

“The border crisis is not a political crisis.  Well, it is a political crisis because Congress has failed to act.  But we should not be Republicans or Democrats.  We should come together to have a border security bill that solves this problem,” said Yoho.

“If we were doing what we were supposed to with border security and enforced the laws on the books, we wouldn’t have a crisis down there,” said Yoho.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Yoho discuss whether the House and Senate can find common ground in the border funding bill.  He also details why he believes the Freedom Caucus deserves credit for forcing a fight on this issue and how his forthcoming bill to reform policy for immigrant workers in the agriculture, hospitality, and construction sectors can help address the larger need for immigration reform.

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Brat Breaks Down Congress

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Former Virginia Rep. Dave Brat is now thoroughly enjoying the private sector as dean of the business school at Liberty University. However, the prominent conservative and former member of the House Freedom Caucus has plenty to say about the first few months of this Congress.

What is the role of the Freedom Caucus in the new Congress? How does he respond to accusations that the Freedom Caucus is now more devoted to defending President Trump than promoting limited government?

In the podcast, Brat addresses all of these questions and also tells House Republicans what they need to start doing right now to improve their chances of being back in the majority after the 2020 elections.

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The Inequality of the Equality Act

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Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed the Equality Act.  Supporters say they want to add anti-discrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity similar to the existing provisions for people based on sex, race, ethnicity, and religion.  However, critics contend the legislation would ramp up inequality for Americans who do not agree with the LGBT agenda.

Emilie Kao directs the Devos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation.  She says the Equality Act actually leads to more inequality.

“We don’t think anybody should be discriminated against simply because they are gay or transgender.  Everyone should be treated with respect.  But the problem with the Equality Act is that it doesn’t treat everyone with respect.  It basically codifies ideologies about sexual orientation and sex differences into civil rights law.  That will lead to the punishment of people who don’t agree with those viewpoints,” said Kao.

Kao says the bill would lead to an erosion of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and parental rights.

To begin, the Equality Act would trump the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, meaning wedding vendors such as bakers and florists who feel servicing a same-sex wedding would violate their consciences would not be able to cite their sincerely-held religious beliefs when sued under this law.

Kao says it would also strip legal protections for people who simply disagree with same-sex marriage or the transgender agenda.  She says teachers have been fired for refusing to use the preferred pronouns of a student identifying as a different gender and hospitals have been targeted for refusing to perform gender reassignment surgery.

According to Kao, the Equality Act would also gut parental rights.  And she cited a transgender case in Ohio as a preview for what the Equality Act would do nationwide.

“A Catholic family lost custody of their daughter when the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital said that she should be taking testosterone for gender dysphoria.  When the parents disagreed, the state charged the parents with child abuse and a judge terminated their custody,” said Kao.

Parents would also find themselves powerless in confronting an increasingly activist curriculum on these matters.

“In many cases, the parents are not even informed that children as young as kindergarten are being read stories in which they are told something that is a fallacy, which is that a person can transition from one sex to the other sex,” said Kao.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Kao explain how the Equality Act would lead to greater inequality and why the promoters of the legislation are determined to criminalize those who disagree with their agenda.

She says there is a lot more at stake here than most Americans realize.

“I think what people should be aware of is the endangerment of religious freedom – it’s already happening at the state level – the endangerment of parental rights, and the endangerment of women and girls’ safety and privacy, not to mention fairness in sports,” she said.

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Dems Launch ‘Medicare for All’ Push

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House Democrats are launching a serious effort to create a single-payer health care system branded as ‘Medicare for All,’ but a leading health care policy expert says the idea is a Utopian fantasy that is unaffordable and will lead to far worse care.

Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner joined experts from multiple perspectives testifying Tuesday before the House Rules Committee.  Chairman James McGovern is an enthusiastic supporter of eliminating private health insurance and tasking the federal government with running health care on the U.S.

“People aren’t going to lose their healthcare with Medicare for All.  You would actually get to keep your doctors and go to the hospitals you currently have.  The only difference is you wouldn’t have to deal with insurance companies,” said McGovern.

Turner told McGovern we’ve heard promises before about keeping doctors that were not true.

But while three House committees are pushing forward on Medicare for All, Turner says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems less convinced it is a good idea.

“Even Speaker Pelosi has been reluctant to get behind Medicare for All, I think because she sees how incredibly disruptive this would be to our health sector.  Everybody, except people in the VA and Indian Health Service, everybody else would lose their coverage.

“That means 173 million Americans with coverage through the workplace would lose their coverage.  People on Medicare would lose Medicare because this will be a new program replacing it.  People on Obamacare, people on the Children’s Health Insurance Plan; all of that would be wiped out,” said Turner.

In addition to imploring lawmakers to have less government involvement in the health care sector, Turner says a single payer program is impossible, with estimates suggesting a $32-38 trillion price tag over ten years.  She says Democrats are promising excellent care, quick access, and low costs and Medicare for All simply won’t achieve those goals.

“That’s not the way the world works.  Resources are limited.  Doctors will leave.  We can’t afford the Medicare program we have now.  In other countries, we see the vulnerable, people who are the sickest are the ones who are put at the back of the list for care.  That’s not the kind of system we want,” said Turner.

Listen to the full podcast to hear what Turner detail what life is like for patients in single payer systems and what approach she thinks would bring us quality, affordable, accessible care.

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