Two nights ago President Barack Obama said he wanted to see the Republican’s budget alternative… Today he got it:
H/T: Michelle Malkin.
House Republicans Hold the Line
January 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Democrats pork laden “stimulus” bill passed the House 244-188… Republicans held the line not one them voted for it.
11 Democrats joined 177 Republicans in voting against it.
It’s about time Republicans showed a little testicular fortitude.
Now it’s on to the Senate… What are the odds the Republicans there will hold the line?
House Republican Tells Limbaugh to Back Off
January 27, 2009 By 1 Comment
Congressman Phil Gingrey of Georgia demonstrates again why Republicans have lost two straight elections in an interview with the Politico:
Responding to President Obama’s recommendation to Republican congressional leaders last week that they not follow Limbaugh’s lead, the conservative talkmeister said on his show that Obama is “obviously more frightened of me than he is Mitch McConnell. He’s more frightened of me, than he is of, say, John Boehner, which doesn’t say much about our party.”
Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., did not take kindly to this assessment in an interview with Politico Tuesday.
“I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell.”
Asked to respond to Gingrey, Limbaugh, in an email to Politico, wrote: “I’m sure he is doing his best but it does not appear to be good enough. He may not have noticed that the number of Republican colleagues he has in the House has dwindled. And they will dwindle more if he and his friends don’t show more leadership and effectiveness in battling the most left-wing agenda in modern history. And they won’t continue to lose because of me, but because of their relationship with the grassroots, which is hurting. Conservatives want leadership from those who claim to represent them. And we’ll know it when we see it.”
Rush nails it… There is serious lack of ideas and leadership coming from those who claim to represent us. We’re ready and willing to fight for them but they’re not fighting for the things that matter to us.
Whatever happened to the party that used to stand for fiscal responsibility, limited government, a strong defense and free markets? Where have all the principled conservative leaders gone?
House Republicans Ready to Walk Away From Stimulus Negotiations?
January 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment
The Politico is reporting that House Republicans Leader John Boehner and Whip Eric Cantor are urging caucus members to oppose the Democrats pork laden economic stimulus bill when it comes to the floor on Wednesday.
President Barack Obama is coming to the Capitol this afternoon to curry favor with congressional Republicans. But it appears GOP leaders have already made up their minds to oppose his $825 billion stimulus plan.
House Republican Leader John A. Boehner and his No. 2, Whip Eric Cantor, told their rank-and-file members Tuesday morning during a closed-door meeting to oppose the bill when it comes to the floor Wednesday, according to an aide familiar with the discussion. Boehner told members that he’s voting against the stimulus, and Cantor told the assembled Republicans that there wasn’t any reason for them to support the measure, according to another person in the room. Cantor and his whip team are going to urge GOP members to oppose it.
In a nod to the president, Boehner did point out that this is the third time that Obama has met with Republican leaders, compared with the zero meetings they’ve held with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — a now-familiar refrain from Republicans in the House. But Obama’s diplomacy clearly isn’t buying any votes yet.
This pre-meeting bluster should dampen the mood for an early afternoon meeting with the president, who is making the trek to hear Republicans’ input on the legislation before Wednesday’s vote. Once Obama is done with House Republicans, he will cross the Capitol to join the Senate Republican Conference lunch to pitch them on the stimulus.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning that Democrats in Congress are “drifting away” from Obama’s preferred stimulus plan, which was supposed to include 40 percent tax cuts and be free of earmarks.
Lets hope they have the courage to follow through and oppose this pig… The truth Democrats don’t need Republicans to pass the bill they have the votes to do it on their own. They need, or I should say want, Republican support for political cover that’s all.
On a related note Michele Malkin has the details on the latest Congressional Budget Office report on the stimulus bill. In short it’ll increase budget deficits and the infrastructure spending will take years to kick in.
Mark Levin: Thank You, House Republicans
September 30, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Mark Levin writing in National Review Online’s Conner Blog:
I have read the posts here and elsewhere. Sometimes these things are made to look more complicated than they really are. From an economic perspective, if the problem is liquidity and credit, there simply is no need for the federal government to assume massive amounts of debt on its book by assuming loans in anticipation that their holders or borrowers will default. This seems to me like a brand new expanse of government power that is not justified (if it ever is) by the arguments made on its behalf. The government controls monetary policy through supply and interest rates, among other things. It can further ease money supply and credit, thereby increasing the flow of capital. The government controls tax policy. It can increase liquidity and the flow of new money into the economy both from within the country and from foreign sources by eliminating the corporate income tax and the capital gains tax even on a mid-term basis. No matter what is done, some financial institutions will fail, as they did in the 1981-82 recession and have since. And the Fed and Treasury and other instrumentalities of government will have to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether to intervene and how to intervene. They will also have to determine whether other policies require modifying, such as the McCain proposal today, in which he suggests increasing federal insurance for individual depositors from $100,000 to $250,000. Other smart suggestions include modifying the mark-to-market rule requiring financial institutions to downgrade the valuation of assets. If the goal is to prevent panic in the economy by investors and depositors, then increase credit, liquidity, and the flow of capital, and deal with problem institutions that are significant enough in size that their demise could resonate to the wider economy. But the Soviet-style, top-down five year plan a la Paulson’s proposal, and to a significant extent the proposal that was voted down yesterday, could easily do more damage to both the economy and our governmental structure. So, in this respect, I must depart from NRO’s editorial. Read the rest…
My personal view is that a bailout of some kind has become a necessary evil… What I am opposed to is the “Paulson Plan”. There a number of things that can be done short of the Treasury using taxpayer dollars buying up billions in bad paper. As Levin points out we can quickly add liquidity to the market by suspending the corporate income tax and capital gains taxes and for example institute a government backed premium based mortgage insurance program. There are no perfect solutions to this problem and regardless of what actions Congress ultimately takes some financial institution are still going to fail.
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