Newsroom
Latest News
August 1, 2011. The “Budget Control Act of 2011” increases the debt limit by between $2.1 and $2.4 trillion, the biggest explosion of debt in American history. It allows the government to avoid spending reductions for the next two years while squandering our last best hope of averting a sovereign debt crisis.
I am opposed to this measure for the following reasons:
August 1, 2011. This act increases the debt limit by between $2.1 and $2.4 trillion, the biggest explosion of debt in American history. It allows the government to avoid spending reductions for the next two years while squandering our last best hope of averting a sovereign debt crisis.
I am opposed to this measure for the following reasons:
1. The purported cuts, even if realized, are far below the $4 trillion deficit reduction that credit rating agencies have warned is necessary to preserve the Triple-A credit rating of the United States Government.
July 29, 2011. This measure immediately increases the debt limit by $900 billion with conditional provision for an additional $1.6 trillion, yet is unlikely to achieve savings sufficient to prevent a downgrade of the nation's credit rating. It increases spending authority by a half trillion dollars above the House Budget Act and postpones any significant reductions in anticipated spending for years into the future. The immediate impact for FY 2012 is to reduce spending $22 billion, or 2/3 of one percent after a 28 percent increase over the last three years.
Column, Washington Times: Imagine a family that earns $50,000 a year but is spending more than $88,000 with a credit card balance of $330,000. The discussions around the kitchen table are likely to be a little tense.
Proportionally, that’s where Washington’s finances are today, and that’s why the national discussion is a little tense, too.
Mr. Speaker: On June 26th, a roadside bomb in Jalula, Iraq claimed the life of a young man from Oroville, California. He was Army Staff Sergeant Russell Jeremiah Proctor, age 25, on his third tour of combat duty.
He was laid to rest last week in solemn ceremonies in California. Sgt. Proctor leaves behind a grieving widow, a devastated family, and a nine-month old son who will know his father only by reputation.
And it is reputation that I want to speak of today. I never met Sgt. Proctor. I, too, know him only by reputation.
This vote stands as a defining moment in this crisis. Every rating agency has warned that an increase in the debt limit without a credible plan to balance the budget will damage our nation’s credit. Worse, fiscal experts warn that without such a plan, we risk a sovereign debt crisis within just a few years.
M. Chairman: This amendment saves $166 million by relieving taxpayers of having to subsidize another year of handouts to the solar industry.
Solar power is not a new technology. Photo-voltaic electricity generation was invented by Edmund Becquerel in 1839 – more than 170 years ago.
And in more than 170 years of continuing research and development and technological advancement – not to mention untold billions of taxpayer subsidies – we have not yet been able to invent a MORE EXPENSIVE way to generate electricity.
M. Chairman: This amendment would save roughly ten percent from this appropriations bill, or $3 ¼ billion, by getting the federal government out of the energy subsidy business.
For more than 30 years, the Department of Energy has squandered billions of dollars subsidizing research and development that no private investor would touch – with the promise it would make our nation energy independent. Every year we have spent untold billions on these programs and every year we’ve become more dependent on foreign oil.
Mr. Chairman: For more than three months, our nation has been amidst a quiet constitutional crisis that carries immense implications.
The Gentleman from Florida is sadly mistaken to dismiss this as a meaningless philosophical discussion. This issue strikes at the very heart of our Constitutional form of government.
On March 19th, completely without Congressional authorization, the President ordered an unprovoked attack against Libya.