New Blog: I know my loyal readers here on the Flash Report will be interested to know that I have a new blog on townhall.com known as the Green Eyeshade Blog. In my new role as chair of the Budget and Spending Taskforce for the RSC I will be posting a lot of information about fiscal matters before Congress on that blog. I’ll still be posting here on the FlashReport about many other issues and things related to California politics.
American Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights: In 34 of the last 38 years, the federal government has spent more money than it received in taxes. That’s through congresses controlled by both parties and presidents of both parties and every combination thereof. When the budget of 2008 is written, it will be 35 out of 39 years. Spending has run amok on every front – entitlements, earmarks, everything. In spite of the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, revenue to the federal government constitutes about the same percentage of the economy as it has since 1960. I’ve told you before that the majority of meetings I have in my office are with groups and people wanting more federal spending on whatever cause or program they support. If that happens to me, you can be sure it will happen to all members of Congress.
Congress has a spending problem. We have had it for at least 40 years. All the incentives are to spend, spend, and spend some more. It’s got to stop.
So, a group of us in the fiscally responsible Republican Study Committee today launched four major reform proposals that will fix this spending problem. They will change the structure of the budget in Washington and set boundaries around spending. These are not easy or minor reforms. They will not be easy to pass in this, or frankly any congress. But something like them is necessary if we want to prevent spending and taxes and deficits from spiraling out of control in the future.
The American Tax Payer Bill of Rights declares that the American taxpayers have:
- The right to a government that doesn’t grow faster than their ability to pay for it – The proposal would require that the growth in government is held to a level that can be sustained and is equivalent to the growth American families experience.
- The right to receive back each dollar that they entrust to the government for their retirement. – The proposal would prevent Congress from spending the Social Security trust fund on things other than Social Security.
- The right to a simple, fair tax code that they can understand .– The proposal would sunset all 7,000 pages of the tax code effective 01/01/11. This would give us a fresh start to create a fairer simpler tax system.
- The right to expect the government to balance the budget without having their taxes raised – The proposal calls for a constitutional amendment that would require congress to balance the budget every year, and require a super majority in congress to raise taxes.
Click here to read the entire proposal on the RSC website.
Quote of the week: As you have no doubt heard, the Democrats are fighting amongst one another over the president’s request for $100 billion to fund the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of the year. Some of them want immediate de-funding of the wars. Others fear the repercussions of a hasty withdrawal to the region and want to grant the president’s request. The following is a quote from the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee David Obey (D-WI) talking about his fellow Democrats. It shows the depth of the divisions within their caucus as well as their real intentions relative to the war funding bill: "We’re trying to use the supplemental to end the war. But you can’t end the war if you vote against the supplemental. It’s time these idiot liberals understand that."
If you want to see the video clip in its entirety, here’s the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAlkfYczY4c