Committee Meeting Notice

[american.swan]

Nov 6, 2010 - Committee Meeting Notice
US Senate Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Tue, Nov 09, 2010 2:00 PM. Hearings to examine advanced fraud schemes in the Russian market.

[american.swan]

source: http://www.washingtonwatch.com/blog/2010/11/06/first-up-a-symbolic-cut-in-pay/


The Hill reports that the likely Speaker of the new Republican House, John Boehner (R-OH) will move first to cut representatives’ pay.

Cutting member pay would show voters the new GOP majority in the House is going to lead by example in their efforts to rein in spending and start with their own wallets, say officials with three prominent taxpayer advocacy groups in Washington, D.C.

Give a read to the whole article, and some themes recur: “gesture”, “symbols”, “symbolic gestures”, “symbolic moves”, “symbolic things”, “the right message”, “signals and symbols”, “symbol to the public”.

Symbols are great, but they don’t actually do anything. Rather than symbols, it might be better to hear a commitment to substance. …

Or even procedure! A commitment to pass the appropriations bills on time would be good, for example. That would provide the public an opportunity to weigh in on the spending priorities of Congress.

A pay cut sounds like a good idea, as a symbol. It will take much more than that to deliver actual change.

[american.swan]

source: http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/teda/jubilant-tea-party-eyes-gop-with-suspicion

Jubilant tea party eyes GOP with suspicion

Politics is about power. The politician craves power. Fortunately this week, the voters have exercised their individual but minuscule power and many members of Congress were removed from power.

The next gigantic step for the Tea Party revolution is to force Congress and the President to enact legislation reducing the size and scope of government, which will facilitate opportunities for all Americans to invest time, talent and money. This is essential for freedom and prosperity.

How?

First, We the Citizens must appreciate the power of independent voters and Tea Party organizations. Frank Lutz recently analyzed the growing power of the Tea Party: “Given this new data, the tea party is just as viable as the Republican and Democratic parties. It’s vibrant, it’s sustainable,”

Dick Armey, former Republican Majority Leader of the House, knows and has witnessed that politicians fear their constituents - a united group of voters, who time after time influences public policy. Armey, now Chairman of FreedomWorks, was recently interviewed by Kenneth Vogel of Political:

“The fact of the matter is most of the most prominent people in the Senate have within the past four months been in touch with me to try to figure out ways in which we can have a better working relationship,”

…. I’m seen as a liaison to the tea party. And (lawmakers) are saying ‘you know, these folks are carrying a pretty big influence across this country and I sure want them to love me.’ So all of a sudden, I’m a matchmaker,” said Armey, whose group was among the earliest national supporters of victorious tea party Senate candidates Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah….

Unfortunately, the establishment remains overbearing Big business, labor and a hoard of special interest will always attempt to buy the vote of all elected officials. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) warns incoming members of Congress: “The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy.”

The countervailing power for the independent voter is to continue participating with action organizations that monitor proposed policies: Tea Party organizations that reward politicians for good policy and punish politicians voting for harmful policy.

Vitally, the Tea Party movement must continue to spontaneously unite to collectively exert their power to influence good public policy.

[american.swan]

Source: WashingtonWatch.com newsletter.

When Congress returns next week, it will have until early December to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. Running the government from October 1st to December 3rd under Public Law 111-242, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 cost about $6,500 per U.S. family.

Should the current Congress or the one elected last week determine spending for the rest of this fiscal year? A recent WashingtonWatch.com blog post titled "Post-Election Spending Politics" touches on some of the issues.

P.L. 111-242
The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
Costs $6,573.36 per family

[american.swan]

Source: http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/23844.html


"Removing the snake from the garden with a stick was a rejection of the snake, but should not be seen as particularly an endorsement of the stick -- except as the closest available tool with which to eject the snake," writes Tony Blankley.

The stick, of course, is the GOP. Blankley, who as Newt Gingrich's spokesman saw up close the Republican triumph of 1994 (with nothing like the number of seats they captured Tuesday!), puts forward a possibility that is deeply troubling to those of us who are temperamentally conservative: the breakup of our two party system. Talk about the transformation of America!

Commentators haven't a clue:

The very fact that most of the commentators are comfortably discussing how nothing useful is likely to get done in the next two years may be heard as both shocking and pathetic. Americans are sitting up nights worried about almost every aspect of their lives, while TV know-it-alls glibly talk of neither party even trying to get anything fixed....

The best chance for the GOP is to actually start proposing in the budget resolution real, honest, non-tax-increase-based solutions to the excessive costs of entitlements. No gimmicks. No budget rouses. No stupid policy tricks. Just honestly dealing with that central threat to our economic future may vouchsafe the public's trust in a reborn GOP. Let the Senate or the president reject it if they wish.

I was encouraged by the solemn tone of Speaker-presumptive John Boehner's remarks Tuesday night, and it's undeniable that a lot of the new men and women coming to town mean business. But, as the Examiner points out, they aren't the only members of the GOP gearing up to fight:

The insurgent conservative Republicans and Tea Party candidates elected Tuesday are obviously a pugnacious and determined bunch, but they're not the only ones fixing for a battle over the direction of the party. The Republican Beltway establishment and the K Street wing of the GOP are ready to fight any effort to end pork-barrel spending and kill corporate welfare.

Like the commentators who drone on about gridlock, these people don't get it. The voters, who after all must foot the bills for Washington's excesses, do. They will eject the GOP and the two-party system itself if the K Street Republicans keep the spending coming.