Promoted from the diaries

Decades ago, when British Prime Minister Harold Macmillen was asked by a journalist what would decide an upcoming election, he replied: “Events, my dear boy, events.”  As we take stock of where we are – and what’s likely to happen between now and the first Tuesday of November – it’s clear that one of the greatest “events” facing us today – which also has the potential to escalate much further – is the European debt crisis.

The mainstream media has given a lot of coverage to the debt crisis and the bailout bonanza it’s unleashed – first the Greek bailout, then the Irish and Portuguese bailouts, then Greece again.  But the MSM conveniently forgets to mention two important things: the role of the International Monetary Fund in funding these bailouts (one-third of the cost, actually), and the fact that America is the largest contributor to the IMF.

This month, the European Union unveiled its umpteenth bailout of Greece, bringing the total cost of that bailout alone to $500 billion (or more than the entire Greek economy).  That doesn’t include the cost of the Ireland and Portugal bailouts (combined total: $259 billion), and the growing likelihood that Spain and Italy will need bailouts too.  While the MSM looks the other way, a critical mass of bloggers and activists are starting to ask the question, “At a time when America is borrowing over $1 trillion every single year, why are we borrowing more money – much of it from China – to bail out Europe?”

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The video above highlights two months of unprecedented dialogue, as part of House Republicans’ nationwide effort to seek the ideas and priorities of the American people.

As Congress prepares to enter a six-week District Work Period, House Republicans are stepping up our engagement with the American people in the process of creating a new policy agenda for America.

During August, House Republicans will continue the discussion with a series of specific solutions that reflect the priorities thus far communicated by the American people.

Join the dialogue today at AmericaSpeakingOut.com.

At a time when Americans are speaking out against government bailouts and wasteful spending, President Obama is committing at least $50 billion of U.S. tax dollars to help bailout Greece and the European Union.

Just today, the Financial Times reported that the IMF is seeking to boost its lending resources by another $250 billion. If the IMF is successful, the U.S. contribution to the E.U. bailout could be upwards of $100 billion.

I’ve been saying since I learned of this bailout, that the federal government should not be borrowing more money – much of it from China – to subsidize the fiscal recklessness of European nations.  That’s why I introduced a Congressional resolution opposing U.S. participation in the European bailout.

I recently posted my idea on America Speaking Out for the community to vote on, debate, and share with friends. If this is an issue you care about, help spread the word by sharing my idea on Facebook and Twitter.

Please take a moment to watch and share this Independence Day video message from House Republicans:

God bless our great country! And a special note of thanks to the men and women in uniform who are sacrificing to keep us all safe and free.

When a service member joins the military, it is not just a job; it is a family commitment to our country. Please keep all of our military members and their families in your thoughts this 4th of July.

How are you celebrating today?

At Tuesday’s Republican Leadership press conference, I said the following:

“When I hear the President and Speaker Pelosi talking about budgets, it reminds me of a character from Popeye’s cartoon, Wimpy. He always said, ‘I’ll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today’…. The ‘Wimpy philosophy’ toward budgeting has resulted in a wimpy economic recovery.”

You can watch the full video and read a transcript of my extended remarks below.

“Coming out of the G20 summit, there was some good news and some bad news. I would say the good news was that our allies were able to convince our administration that we need to cut our deficit in half by 2013 after it was tripled in the first year of this administration. The bad news is that we see little intention by the Obama Administration to really follow through when we continue to see more and more requests for stimulus funding. This is on top of $787 billion in stimulus last year that resulted in 4 million private sector jobs being lost. Now the Democrats aren’t even drafting a budget. According to the president’s own budget director, he said that asking the Democrats to cut spending this year would be a ‘fruitless exercise’ that would probably ‘go nowhere.’ Yet, the American people all across this country are demanding better. They would like to see some leadership from Congress to get our fiscal house in order.

“When I hear the president and Speaker Pelosi talking about budgets, it reminds me of a character from Popeye’s cartoon, Wimpy. He always said ‘I’ll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today.’ The ‘Wimpy philosophy’ toward budgeting has resulted in a wimpy economic recovery. America doesn’t need more stimulus. It needs leadership. To quote Paul Willen, the economics professor at MIT, he said ‘to create jobs, the private sector needs to know that Washington can make tough choices, that our leaders are willing to do things that are unpopular, and more than anything the people need to feel that the government is not out of control.’ The G20 summit was a wonderful opportunity for our president to exercise some leadership in taking control of where we’re headed with the global economy. Unfortunately, that opportunity was missed because we’re continuing to add $5 billion a day in debt that is going to be carried by our children and grandchildren.”