Fiscal and Economic
More on Fiscal and Economic
May 8, 2012
This amendment cuts more than a quarter billion dollars of unauthorized appropriations from the International Trade Administration. What does it do, exactly? The ITA has some legitimate functions enforcing trade agreements and treaties. This amendment leaves these functions untouched. But it also - to quote from its own material - provides counseling to American companies in order to develop the most profitable and sustainable plans for pricing, export, and the full range of public and private trade promotion assistance... as well as market intelligence, and industry and market specific research." That's well and good, but Mme. Chairman, isn't that what businesses, trade associations and the Chamber of Commerce are supposed to do with their own money?
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
March 28, 2012
I thank the gentleman (Mr. Ryan) for yielding and I thank him for his vision and courage. It has truly been an honor to serve on this committee under his leadership. Mr. Chairman, a year ago, the House passed a budget that would have put our nation back on the path to fiscal solvency and ultimately paid off the entire national debt. It would have saved Medicare and Medicaid from collapse and put them back on a solid and secure foundation.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
March 27, 2012
The House is about to consider a budget in a dangerous hour in the life of our country. Last year, we barreled past several urgent warning signals: the loss of our nation's triple-A credit rating; the size of the national debt surpassing our entire economy; a record third year of trillion dollar-plus annual deficits.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
March 26, 2012
This nation is on a collision course with a sovereign debt crisis the magnitude of which we have never experienced. This is not some moonless night on the Atlantic. We are spending full speed ahead toward that iceberg of debt in the full light of day and we can all see it plainly.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
March 26, 2012
The reason these times are so impassioned is because we have arrived at a moment when two very different visions of society are competing for our nation’s future, and they are very much reflected in the budgets put forward by the two parties in this House.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
February 8, 2012
This bill presents us with a simple question: "It is possible - just possible - that from time to time Congress has passed a spending bill or two that ought to have had greater scrutiny?" The answer to this question might elude some members of the House, but I assure them it is self-evident to everybody else.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
February 7, 2012
A family that excludes from its budget the mortgage payments it knows it must make is deluding itself and sabotaging its own finances. That's precisely what the federal government is doing right now with respect to billions of dollars of liabilities because of its ill-fated sponsorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
February 2, 2012
The simple question now before us is whether it is better for Congress to have more information or less information when it is deliberating on matters that directly affect the economy of this nation.
The answer should be self-evident, but apparently, some members of this house prefer blissful ignorance than having to go to the fuss and bother of actually assessing the full ramifications of the policies they are enacting.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic
January 25, 2012
After President Clinton took a drubbing from voters in the 1994 Congressional election, he realized his policies weren't working. He promptly declared, "The era of big government is over," and he then went about making good on that declaration:
• He reduced spending by a miraculous 3 1/2 percent of GDP.
• He attacked entitlement spending and abolished the ballooning open-ended welfare system.
• He signed what amounted to the biggest capital gains tax cut in American history.
• He delivered the only four budget surpluses in four decades.
Issues:Fiscal and Economic