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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.
Long ago, Jefferson warned, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” The exceptions to that rule have been few and far between recently, and ought to be celebrated when they occur.
One did this past week with the announcement that supporters of the so-called “Stop On-Line Piracy Act” and the “Protect Intellectual Property Act” have indefinitely postponed their measures after an unprecedented protest across the Internet.
Congressman Tom McClintock will hold a town hall meeting in Truckee on Tuesday, January 10 at 6:00 PM.
The meeting will be held in the Truckee Donner Public Utility District Conference Room, 11570 Donner Pass Road, Truckee.
Viewed in isolation, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 reduces total discretionary spending authority (those expenditures that don’t require statutory changes, including war and emergency spending) from $1.209 trillion in FY 2011 to $1.181 trillion in FY 2012), or $28 billion (2.3 percent). Viewed over the past five years, however, this still constitutes an increase of $144 billion, in discretionary spending (13.5 percent).
This may constitute an improvement over the past year, but begs the question, “Does it put the nation back on the path to fiscal solvency?”
One of the items of unfinished business remaining before this session is extending the payroll tax cut of last year that funds Social Security.
It’s an infra-marginal tax cut, meaning that it doesn’t change economic incentives and therefore it doesn’t produce lasting economic growth. But it does provide great relief to working families, allowing them to keep more of their earnings at a time of declining incomes, shriveling assets and rising prices, and it should be extended.
I rise in opposition to Section 1021 of the underlying Conference Report (H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act).
This section specifically affirms that the President has the authority to deny due process to any American it charges with "substantially supporting al Qaeda, the Taliban or any ‘associated forces'" – whatever that means.
Would "substantial support" of an "associated force," mean linking a web-site to a web-site that links to a web-site affiliated with al-Qaeda? We don't know. The question is, "do we really want to find out?"
HR 3630 – Payroll Tax Cut Extension: NO. Although the temporary payroll tax cut doesn’t produce lasting economic growth, I support its continuation because it allows working families to keep more of their earnings at a time of declining incomes, shriveling assets and rising prices. But since the payroll tax funds Social Security, which is already in permanent deficit, these funds must be made up by other means. The healthy way to do so is HR 3551, which I cosponsored, to give every American the choice to receive the year of tax relief in exchange for delaying retirement by a month.
Topping the list of unfinished business this year is the impending collision of two closely related crises: the expiration of the payroll tax cut and the acceleration of Social Security’s bankruptcy.
Last year, Congress voted for a payroll tax cut that averages roughly $1,000 for every working family in America.
As warned, it failed to stimulate economic growth and it accelerated the collapse of the Social Security system. But as promised, it threw every working family a vital lifeline in tough economic times.