The Republican Study Committee - Keeping the Pledge

Good for Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH).  He is one member of Congress that gets it.  Clearly the Tea Party movement has an ally in Congressman Jordan and the Republican Study Committee (RSC).

Advertisement

Jordan, the Chairman of the RSC, is pushing for more cuts to the federal budget.  They have an amendment to the Continuing Resolution (CR) in the House to cut billions more in spending.  The RSC Amendment would keep the Republican Pledge to America and cut a full $100 billion in non-security discretionary spending with an $18.5 billion in cuts on top of the existing cuts in the bill.

Let’s see if other right leaning Members of Congress are listening to the American people and ready to fight the big spending Obama Administration on spending issues.

The RSC idea is to impose a 5.5% across the board cut for all non-security spending.  The RSC budget has a special provision to impose an 11% across the board cut for the legislative branch.  This would cut Congress’ budget more than other portions of the budget and provide a great example of leadership.

Dan Holler over at Heritage Action for America argues that the RSC cuts are necessary to keep the Pledge.
On Tuesday, the House began consideration of a 7-month continuing resolution, which would fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2011.  When compared to the President’s request, the CR will decrease discretionary spending by $99.6 billion.  This is a good start and we are happy to see the numbers moving in the right direction, but these cuts still do not fully meet the requirements House Republicans laid out in their Pledge to America because they contain $19 billion in security cuts that are not part of the Pledge.
Advertisement
Some Republican moderates have teamed up with Dems to protect some sacred cows of government spending.  According to Politico some wobbly Rs are teaming up with Democrats on legal aid to the poor and the COPS program.
Sixty-eight Republicans, backed Democrats in defense of preserving at least reduced funding for legal aid to the poor, for example. Minutes later, 70 Republicans joined 158 Democrats on a 228-203 vote that restored $280 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services or COPS program, a favorite initiative of Vice President Joe Biden. And given the power of the firefighter lobby, the dike seemed to break when as many as 132 Republicans backed an amendment by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) to restore $510 million for Homeland Security grants for first responders.

No matter what happens on this and other amendments, The House is expected to send a strong signal to the Senate that deep cuts will be necessary to get this CR to the President’s desk.

The next stop for the CR is the Senate where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has used the term “shutdown” to scare Republicans into rubber stamping the President’s priorities.  They are deploying the possibility of a government shutdown if the Senate can’t agree on a bill and Senate Dems are trying to pin the shutdown on the Republicans with 2 weeks before the Senate debate has commenced.  Senate Ds only have 53 members of the caucus and they are going to have to negotiate with Senate Republicans and a Republican controlled House to get a bill to the President’s desk.

Advertisement

The President has issued a veto threat and written to Congress that “the Administration does not support deep cuts that will undermine our ability to out-educate, out-build, and out-innovate the restore of the world.”  This is further proof that President Obama favors a Washington centered approach to educating America’s youth.  The President favors a government investment policy to build things and he wants to borrow another trillion dollars to dole out federal highway projects to his friends.  Furthermore, he believes that innovation comes from the federal government — not the private sector.  This veto threat is further evidence that the President is hostile to capitalism and free market solutions to our nations’ problems.

The fact that the House is debating deep cuts to the CR is a wholesale rejection of the President’s big spending policies.  Today is the second anniversary of the President’s failed Stimulus plan. That plan was a $1 trillion, if you count interest, Keynesian big government failure.  Government failed to produce an economic stimulus, because the federal government is an inefficient allocator of resources.  Two years after the Stimulus, the Republicans in the House are starting to dismantle the Obama agenda.

More from Politico:

On the second anniversary of President Barack Obama’s giant 2009 stimulus bill, the $60 billion-plus package of spending cuts underscores the changed environment in Washington. And even as Senate Democrats allied themselves with Obama’s five-year spending freeze, their emphasis was that these new limits truly constitute a cap for the party — “the minimum” savings Democrats will try to achieve, said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Advertisement
House Republicans are not increasing spending like the President did two years ago, with the consent of a Democrat controlled Congress, in the so called “Stimulus.”  House Republicans are not freezing spending over the next five years like the President promised in his State of the Union.  They are cutting spending and the crux of the debate is not whether to cut, but how much to cut.  This is a great debate to have and a preview of things to come in Congress.

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos