Heritage Action for America

Heritage Action’s communications director, Dan Holler, has a new column out this week about Congress continuing the big-government work of the New Deal and Great Society programs. First, the Export-Import Bank was reauthorized and then, two amendments failed – one by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) and the other by Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) – which would have eliminated duplicate and wasteful government agencies. But Dan sees an upside:

“But before you get terminally depressed, none of this means the New Great Deal Society Party has replaced the Tea Party. In fact, there are reasons to be optimistic that conservative voices around the country – and a strong core of conservative lawmakers in Washington – are laying the groundwork for conservative policy victories.

“Just look at the facts.

“Last time Congress reauthorized Roosevelt’s Export-Import Bank it was by unanimous consent. In just six short years, it has become a defining issue for the conservative movement. We now have people in Congress willing to make the case against Johnson’s Economic Development Administration. And, the results from Indiana demonstrate the American people are not itching for a return to FDR and LBJ-style governance.

“Even in the midst of bipartisan reaffirmation of New Deal and Great Society programs, House Republicans managed to jumpstart a serious conversation on spending, welfare reform and defense. While the reconciliation measure, designed to replace the arbitrary defense cuts contained in last year’s absurd debt deal, fell short in some aspects, Republicans deserve credit for beginning the conversation.”

Continue reading The New Great Deal Society Party »

Last night, the Senate voted on five different budgets, including Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) Budget (S.Con.Res.44), a plan based off of The Heritage Foundation’s “Saving the American Dream.”

The Heritage Foundation analyzed the budget dynamics:

“Compare the President’s proposal — and Reid’s total lack of a proposal — with the four plans offered by conservatives in Congress, chief among them being Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) budget, which mirrors the bold and thorough reforms The Heritage Foundation first proposed in its Saving the American Dream plan. That includes limiting the size of the federal government, reforming entitlement programs, and simplifying the federal tax code in an effort to restore our nation’s economic prosperity and ensure that future generations are not saddled with today’s debt.”

Although we cannot reverse decades of mismanagement overnight, yesterday’s vote creates a solid foundation. It is now clear that there are good ideas out there on how to fix our country; unfortunately, none of them come from our President Obama and his partisan allies in the Senate. The vote results are below, along with a list of the Republicans who voted incorrectly.

Continue reading 17 Senators Voted to Save the American Dream »

Yesterday, Senate Democrats unanimously voted against every budget proposal brought to the floor. In the words of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner: “we don’t have a definitive solution…we just don’t like yours.”

Last month, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, claimed that he would produce a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. And, just like the previous year, he turned around and refused to actually do so. As a result, Senate Democrats offered no budget of their own, and instead voted against every proposal offered by Republicans that would actually put our nation on a path to fiscal sanity.

The most interesting – and telling – vote was for a proposal offered by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) on behalf of President Obama. Senate Democrats – for the second year in a row – voted unanimously against a Democrat President’s own budget.  Senate Democrats claimed they did so because it was not actually the President’s budget, which was the same excused used by House Democrats when the proposal was unanimously rejected in the House. The reality is that if Democrats felt that way, and agreed with President Obama’s budget plan, then they could have introduced the budget themselves, but surprise, surprise they didn’t.

Continue reading Senate Democrats Vote Against Every Budget Proposal »