Monthly Archives: August 2011

2nd most destructive hurricane in US History

August 23, 2011 – 6:49 pm

2nd most destructive hurricane in US History according to OurAmazingPlanet.com:

Damage from Hurricane Charley in 2004

Damage from Hurricane Charley in Arcadia, Fla., along Interstate 75 near Punta Gorda. Credit: USGS

2004: Hurricane Charley

Charley was one of a barrage of hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004.

Charley was headed toward the southwest coast of Florida as a Category 2 storm when it rapidly intensified to a Category 4 storm — winds jumped from 110 mph (175 kph) to 145 mph (235 kph) — in the six hours before it slammed into Florida. Unprepared coastal communities, expecting a mild hurricane, instead experienced widespread destruction.

Charley made landfall with maximum winds near 150 mph (240 kph) on the southwest coast of Florida just north of Captiva Island around 3:45 p.m. ET. An hour later, Charley’s eye passed over Punta Gorda. Both places were devastated by the storm’s ferocious winds. The hurricane then crossed central Florida, passing near Kissimmee and Orlando. Charley was still of hurricane intensity around midnight when its center cleared the northeast coast of Florida near Daytona Beach.

Charley killed 10 people in the United States and caused an estimated $14 billion in damages, making Charley the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

Before striking Florida, Charley had already hit Cuba as a Category 3 storm.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

National Debt will continue to skyrocket unless something is done about entitlements

August 23, 2011 – 6:47 pm

National Debt Set to Skyrocket

Everyone wants to know more about the budget and here is some key information with a chart from the Heritage Foundation and a video from the Cato Institute.

In the past, wars and the Great Depression contributed to rapid but temporary increases in the national debt. Over the next few decades, runaway spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will drive the debt to unsustainable levels.

PERCENTAGE OF GDP

 
 
 
 
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National Debt Set to Skyrocket

Source: Heritage Foundation calculations based on data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Institute for the Measurement of Worth, Congressional Budget Office, and White House Office of Management and Budget.

Chart 20 of 42

In Depth

  • Policy Papers for Researchers

  • Technical Notes

    The charts in this book are based primarily on data available as of March 2011 from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The charts using OMB data display the historical growth of the federal government to 2010 while the charts using CBO data display both historical and projected growth from as early as 1940 to 2084. Projections based on OMB data are taken from the White House Fiscal Year 2012 budget. The charts provide data on an annual basis except… Read More

  • Authors

    Emily GoffResearch Assistant
    Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy StudiesKathryn NixPolicy Analyst
    Center for Health Policy StudiesJohn FlemingSenior Data Graphics Editor

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in spending out of control | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Most destructive hurricane in US History 2005

August 23, 2011 – 12:09 pm

Most destructive hurricane in US History according to OurAmazingPlanet.com:

Flooding in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina

Views of inundated areas in New Orleans following breaking of the levees surrounding the city as the result of Hurricane Katrina. Credit: NWS/Lieut. Commander Mark Moran, NOAA Corps, NMAO/AOC

2005: Hurricane Katrina

On Aug. 29, 2005, after passing over the Caribbean and Florida, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale with winds of 125 mph (201 kph).

Though it was not as strong as some of the other destructive storms that have hit the coast when it struck, Katrina had been a Category 5 the day before it hit land. That previous strength and its large footprint in the Gulf of Mexico created large swells in the ocean waters, resulting in a huge, unrelenting storm surge when the hurricane finally did hit.

Storm surge flooding of 25 to 28 feet (7.6 to 8.5 m) above normal tide level occurred along portions of the Mississippi coast, with storm surge flooding of 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6.1 m) above normal tide levels along the southeastern Louisiana coast.

Ultimately, this storm surge was responsible for much of the damage as it flooded coastal communities, overwhelmed levees, and left at least 80 percent of New Orleans underwater.

By the time the hurricane subsided, Katrina had claimed more than 1,800 human lives and caused roughly $125 billion in damages. It was the deadliest hurricane to strike the United States since the Palm Beach-Lake Okeechobee hurricane of September 1928

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Comments (0)

Ron Paul “We Just Plain Don’t Mind Our Own Business! That’s Our Problem!” Republican Debate pt 5

August 23, 2011 – 10:06 am

Ron Paul “We Just Plain Don’t Mind Our Own Business! That’s Our Problem!” Republican Debate pt 5

MAGGIE HABERMAN comments below on the debate last night: 

Paul also against the debt deal

By MAGGIE HABERMAN | 8/1/11 5:20 PM EDT

With a 12-paragraph statement that came in longer than Newt Gingrich’s, Rep. Ron Paul registers his (unsurprising) disapproval of the debt-ceiling deal, a quarter of which is below:

“While it is good to see serious debate about our debt crisis, I cannot support the reported deal on raising the nation’s debt ceiling. I have never voted to raise the debt ceiling, and I never will.

“This deal will reportedly cut spending by only slightly over $900 billion over 10 years. But we will have a $1.6 trillion deficit after this year alone, meaning those meager cuts will do nothing to solve our unsustainable spending problem. In fact, this bill will never balance the budget. Instead, it will add untold trillions of dollars to our deficit. This also assumes the cuts are real cuts and not the same old Washington smoke and mirrors game of spending less than originally projected so you can claim the difference as a ‘cut’.”

“The plan also calls for the formation of a deficit commission, which will accomplish nothing outside of providing Congress and the White House with another way to abdicate responsibility. In my many years of public service, there have been commissions on everything from Social Security to energy policy, yet not one solution has been produced out of these commissions.”

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 20)

August 23, 2011 – 7:25 am

The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 20)

This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, but from a liberal.

Rep. Emanuel Clever (D-Mo.) called the newly agreed-upon bipartisan compromise deal to raise the  debt limit “a sugar-coated satan sandwich.”

“This deal is a sugar-coated satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see,” Clever tweeted on August 1, 2011.

Scott Austin of Georgia:

“First, thank you to the hundreds of constituents who have called, e-mailed and posted comments on my Facebook and Twitter pages.  This was a difficult vote, but because of the comments and calls, I cast it with the confidence that it was the right vote for the eighth district of Georgia.  My constituents know, as well as I do, that we should do all that we can to keep from defaulting on our obligations.  However, a leader in the White House would have never allowed the discussion of a default to begin with and would have prioritized spending before this crisis came to a head.

“While this bill included some of the main principles of my preferred “Cut, Cap and Balance” bill it did not include enough of them.  As families across Georgia have realized – you can only spend as much as you take in.  “Cut, Cap and Balance” as well as the “Boehner Plan” required the passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment before allowing the President to raise the debt limit a second time.  Unfortunately, this requirement was left out of the compromise. Additionally, this bill includes cuts, insisted upon by the President, which would disproportionately fall in the area of defense, to the exclusion of other areas that are the true drivers of our national debt. The uncertainty surrounding these defense cuts could have a devastating impact on thousands of jobs in Middle Georgia –  a risk I’m not willing to take at a time when our unemployment rate continues to hover near double digits.

“Middle Georgians sent me here to fight for the personal freedoms, individual liberties and economic opportunities for our generation and the next.  I will never cease in that effort.  Unfortunately, this bill falls short of those goals and that is why I voted against it.”

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in spending out of control | Comments (0)

Advice to Gene Simmons Part 7, (“Tip Tuesday Part C)jh17a

August 23, 2011 – 4:01 am

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Gene-Simmons-tvae-22.jpg

Gene Simmons Family Jewels

The series I have been doing on “Advice to Gene Simmons” that I am starting what I am calling “Tip Tuesday.” For the next few months we will be looking at the Simmons family.

In the July 19th episode  Nick said to his father “You were a great father but not a good spouse.” Sophie went even farther and said that Gene “was not a good dad.” Both of these clips were repeated in this week’s episode on July 26th.

The pain of finding out that her father had lied to her about being faithful to their mother really must have hurt Sophie  in a tremendous way.

In the message that Brandon Barnard brought to Fellowship Bible Church on July 24th he made a big point out of what the pathway of impurity is like. THE PATHWAY OF IMPURITY IS WOUNDING AND DISHONORING. Then Brandon read these verses:

Proverbs 6:32-33

English Standard Version (ESV)

32He who commits adultery lacks sense;
   he who does it destroys himself.
33He will get wounds and dishonor,
   and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

_______________________

Here above you see that Gene Simmons has been told to his face by his daughter that he was not a good dad. She was deeply hurt by her father’s unfaithfulness to her mother.

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Husbands, Take Care of Your Homes (John MacArthur)

Uploaded by on Sep 10, 2010

http://www.gty.org/Blog … Men, what if your employer described you in an annual review as “passive, indifferent, and irresponsible”? Without a radical change in attitude and behavior, you’d find yourself looking for another job. If you can’t get away with it at work, why would you think it’s okay to slough off at home? The sad reality is that many husbands—though willing to work hard and expend great energy in the workplace, at recreation, or even with hobbies and leisure—many act like indolent teenagers at home, shirking their responsibilities toward their wives and children.

In today’s selection, John takes a baseball bat to the world’s version of manhood, and shows from Ephesians 5 what real manliness looks like. Here’s a bottom line: True manhood starts and ends in the home. Husbands, listen to the whole clip (wives, make sure they do it!).

Gentlemen, now that you’ve heard this for yourselves, ask your wife to listen and then do a little exercise. Ask your wife to rate your performance in the workplace on a scale of 1-10 (1 is a low score, 10 is high). Then ask her to rate your performance in the home, as a husband and as a father. After that, if you dare, come back to the comment thread (http://www.gty.org/Blog/B100909) and let’s discuss what we’ve learned. It might be painful, but that’s okay—no pain, no gain, right?

http://www.gty.org/Blog/B100909

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Comments (0)

Part 1 of Tribute to and interview of Rev. Dr. John R. W. Stott (April 27, 1921 – July 27, 2011)

August 22, 2011 – 4:12 pm

Uploaded by  on Aug 6, 2011

Sermon preached in the memorial service celebrating the life of the late Rev. Dr. John R. W. Stott (April 27, 1921 – July 27, 2011) by Rev. Canon Dr. James I. Packer.

Scripture: Hebrews 13:7-8
Duration: 33:25bb

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Back in the 1970’s I read the book “Basic Christianity” by John Stott. While in London in 1979 I had the opportunity to attend a Tuesday evening prayer meeting where there were about 40 people and I got to hear John Stott speak. I was so thrilled to get to hear him speak in person.

I have included several clips on him because I wanted to honor him after the wonderful godly 90 years he lived.

Uploaded by  on Aug 19, 2008

John Stott’s classic book has introduced generations to Christianity with wisdom and clarity. This video celebrates the 50th Anniversary Edition of this important book by one of the world’s most important Christian voices.

__________-

[The

John Stott Funeral (edited version)

Uploaded by  on Aug 11, 2011

John Stott died on 27 July 2011 aged 90 years. This video contains highlights of his Funeral at All Souls Langham Place in London on Monday 8 August 2011. Produced and displayed with permission from John Stott’s family.
Music clips used by permission of All Souls musicians and Jubilate Hymns (www.jubilate.co.uk)

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Al Molher interviewed John Stott several years ago and here is a portion of that interview:

The funeral for John R. W. Stott, one of the most famous evangelical preachers of the last century, will be held today in London at All Souls Church, Langham Place, where he served with distinction for so many decades of ministry. In honor of John Stott, I here republish an interview I conducted with the great preacher in 1987. The interview was first published in Preaching magazine, for which I was then Associate Editor.]

John R. W. Stott has emerged in the last half of the twentieth century as one of the leading evangelical preachers in the world. His ministry has spanned decades and continents, combining his missionary zeal with the timeless message of the Gospel.

For many years the Rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, in London, Stott is also the founder and director of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. His preaching ministry stands as a model of the effective communication of biblical truth to secular men and women

The author of several worthy books, Stott is perhaps best known in the United States through his involvement with the URBANA conferences. His voice and pen have been among the most determinative forces in the development of the contemporary evangelical movement in the Church of England and throughout the world.

Preaching Associate Editor R. Albert Mohler interviewed Stott during one of the British preacher’s frequent visits to the United States.

Mohler: You have staked your ministry on biblical preaching and have established a world-wide reputation for the effective communication of the gospel. How do you define ‘biblical preaching’?

Stott: I believe that to preach or to expound the scripture is to open up the inspired text with such faithfulness and sensitivity that God’s voice is heard and His people obey Him. I gave that definition at the Congress on Biblical Exposition and I stand by it, but let me expand a moment.

My definition deliberately includes several implications concerning the scripture. First, it is a uniquely inspired text. Second, the scripture must be opened up. It comes to us partially closed, with problems which must be opened up.

Beyond this, we must expound it with faithfulness and sensitivity. Faithfulness relates to the scripture itself. Sensitivity relates to the modern world. The preacher must give careful attention to both.

We must always be faithful to the text, and yet ever sensitive to the modern world and its concerns and needs. When this happens the preacher can come with two expectations. First, that God’s voice is heard because He speaks through what He has spoken. Second, that His people will obey Him — that they will respond to His Word as it is preached.

Mohler: You obviously have a very high regard for preaching. In Between Two Worlds you wrote extensively of the glory of preaching, even going so far as to suggest that “preaching is indispensable to Christianity.”

We are now coming out of an era in which preaching was thought less and less relevant to the church and its world. Even in those days you were outspoken in your affirmation of the preaching event and its centrality. Has your mind changed?

Stott: To the contrary! I still believe that preaching is the key to the renewal of the church. I am an impenitent believer in the power of preaching.

I know all the arguments against it: that the television age has rendered it useless; that we are a spectator generation; that people are bored with the spoken word, disenchanted with any communication by spoken words alone. All these things are said these days.

Nevertheless, when a man of God stands before the people of God with the Word of God in his hand and the Spirit of God in his heart, you have a unique opportunity for communication.

I fully agree with Martyn Lloyd-Jones that the decadent periods in the history of the church have always been those periods marked by preaching in decline. That is a negative statement. The positive counterpart is that churches grow to maturity when the Word of God is faithfully and sensitively expounded to them.

If it is true that a human being cannot live by bread only, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, then it also is true of churches. Churches live, grow, and thrive in response to the Word of God. I have seen congregations come alive by the faithful and systematic unfolding of the Word of God.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

99th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s birth (Part 12)

August 22, 2011 – 7:35 am

Milton Friedman: Life and ideas – Part 04

99th anniversary of Milton Friedman’s birth (Part 12)

Milton Friedman was born on July 31, 1912 and he died November 16, 2006. I started posting tributes of him on July 31 and I hope to continue them until his 100th birthday. Here is another tribute below: 

Perspective | Sheldon Richman

Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman and TheFreemanOnline.org, and a contributor to The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. He is the author of Separating School and State: How to Liberate America’s Families. … See All Posts by This AuthorSecurity or Friedman

Individuals Can Best Judge for Themselves How to Use Their Resources

By Sheldon Richman • April 1999
Posted April 01, 1999
Print This Post • 1 comment
 

True joy is waking up to a Milton Friedman op-ed. He never quits. In January the New York Times published his article “Social Security Chimeras.” What a breath of fresh air!

Milton Friedman begins by criticizing the increasingly common suggestion that individual accounts replace part of each person’s Social Security benefits. “Why replace only part and not all of Government benefits?” he asks. He goes on to refute the response that the government needs the money to pay current retirees.

Friedman’s op-ed really shines when he demolishes the case for a mandatory privatized system. As advocated by economist Martin Feldstein and others, everyone would be forced to save a minimum amount specified by the government. Feldstein says that’s necessary because, “First, some individuals are too shortsighted to provide for their own retirement [and] second, the alternative of a means-tested program for the aged might encourage some lower-income individuals to make no provision for their old age deliberately, knowing that they would receive the means-tested amount.”

Friedman’s response:

[T]he fraction of a person’s income that it is reasonable for him or her to set aside for retirement depends on that person’s circumstances and values. It makes no more sense to specify a minimum fraction for all people than to mandate a minimum fraction of income that must be spent on housing or transportation. Our general presumption is that individuals can best judge for themselves how to use their resources. Mr. Feldstein simply asserts that in this particular case the Government knows better. . . . I find it hard to justify requiring 100 percent of the people to adopt a Government-prescribed straitjacket.

Friedman ends by calling for a voluntary pension system. (In one sense, it would still be compulsory; we’d be taxed to support people now on Social Security.) “I believe that the ongoing discussion about privatizing Social Security would benefit from paying more attention to fundamentals,” Friedman said, “rather than dwelling simply on nuts and bolts of privatization.” Hear, hear!

* * *

Corporate layoffs make for good, glitzy television-news reporting. The addition of jobs is dry and statistical. No wonder people have a sense that layoffs outnumber new jobs. Charles Baird looks at the facts and finds a whole different picture.

Richard Cobden once pointed out that when government touches something—he had trade and religion in mind—it’s twisted into something else entirely, and not for the better. Bruce Benson demonstrates that science can be added to Cobden’s list.

The energy crisis, a production of your government, is long gone, but the regulations designed to whip us into efficient energy users live on. Worse, we get new ones all the time. Ben Lieberman shows the lengths to which such inanity can go.

If you lived through that crisis, you might have thought the future would be an eternal nightmare compliments of oil sheiks and—these letters were scarier than “IRS”—OPEC. Since then the price of a gallon of gas has fallen below the price of a gallon of milk. What happened to the big bad cartel? Christopher Mayer will fill you in.

What is really happening in China? Is it going capitalist even as it defends the socialist revolution? Why is it jailing dissidents? James Dorn brings lucidity to the enigma.

The term “the tragedy of the commons” has become a cliché, useful to free-market advocates as well as statist environmentalists in promulgating their policy views on property and ecology. Bruce Yandle explores how tragedies can become triumphs.

The welfare state doesn’t miss a trick. Under President Bush, the Commerce Department started a program to subsidize private companies in the development of new technology. You see, markets aren’t good at that and—well, John Sparks will give you the scoop on this creative piece of governance.

During the 1920s, the monetary authority did something to set the stage for the economic debacle of the 1930s. But what? The literature is full of conflicting answers. Richard Timberlake sorts it all out in the first of a series of articles.

Labor-relations law is premised on the Marxist notion of an irreconcilable conflict between workers and employers. Economists have debunked the notion, and so have some businessmen. Daniel Hager tell us about one: James F. Lincoln.

The withholding tax is a classic case of adding insult to injury. It’s bad enough the government appropriates a chunk of our income; but it does so before we even see it. Donald Boudreaux and Andrew Morriss point out that withholding is more than just an insult.

If you tell people you don’t want government benefits you are “entitled” to, people sure look at you funny. That’s what Mark Reboul found out when he was laid off.

FEE president Don Boudreaux’s monthly Notes from FEE column moves to the front of the magazine beginning this month. In other columns, Lawrence Reed reports on a new study about high-school economics texts, Doug Bandow dissects the minimum wage, Dwight Lee exposes the “hidden technology” myth, Mark Skousen wonders about Diamond Head and property rights, and Walter Williams takes on the government schools. Roger Meiners looks at what William Weld has to say about property rights and the environment and implores, “It Just Ain’t So!”

Our book reviewers examine tomes on conflicting outlooks about the future, the wealth and poverty of nations, America’s role in the world, the economy ahead, misery in Africa, and the memoirs of Clarence Carson.

—Sheldon Richman

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Milton Friedman | Comments (0)

The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 19)

August 22, 2011 – 7:15 am

The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 19)

This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, but from a liberal.

Rep. Emanuel Clever (D-Mo.) called the newly agreed-upon bipartisan compromise deal to raise the  debt limit “a sugar-coated satan sandwich.”

“This deal is a sugar-coated satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see,” Clever tweeted on August 1, 2011.

 

Related Documents

AUDIO: Kingston Opposes Debt Limit Increase

 
 
Washington, Aug 1-Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) released the following statement after casting his vote against a proposal to increase the nation’s statutory debt limit

“I commend the Speaker for fighting the good fight.  We moved the debate from tax increases to spending caps and matched each dollar of debt limit increase to more than a dollar of spending cuts.  But as far as we came, the deck was stacked against us.  Controlling one-half of one-third of government limits the ability of small government conservatives to change the direction of our country overnight.

It is clear America has a long struggle ahead of her as we continue to rein in spending and get our fiscal house in order.  I intend to continue the fight and work for the reforms and spending cuts we need so badly in America.”

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in spending out of control | Comments (0)

The Tea Party is watching the votes of this Congress

August 22, 2011 – 6:46 am

Ernest Istook, US Congressman, Heritage Foundation, http://www.heritage.org, spoke at the Saint Paul Tea Party Rally 4/16/2011. Hosted by North Star Tea Party Patriots, and Sue Jeffers.

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Being in Boston this week and walking the Freedom Trail  was a great experience. Lots of the information the tour guides gave was about Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty that put together the Boston Tea Party. What would they think of this congress today?

File:J S Copley - Samuel Adams.jpg

Here is list of the notable members of the Sons of Liberty according to Wikipedia:

I got to hear Ernest Istook of the Heritage Foundation speak in Little Rock a while back and I wrote about it on this blog. Mr. Istook is a Tea Party favorite speaker and the Heritage Foundation website (www.Heritage.org) is one of my favorite website. I am so glad that Heritage Action is grading the members of Congress on their votes. See below this article that came out today:

Mike Needham

Sneak Peak: A Tough Conservative Scorecard

Mike Needham

With every vote cast in Congress, freedom either advances or recedes. From reckless spending and stifling regulations to Obamacare, Americans see their freedoms – and those of their children and grandchildren – slipping away. We went to the polls last November to turn the tide. And while conservatives are winning the day on the message, the policy is lagging.

Later this week, Heritage Action will release our first legislative scorecard, which will show which Members of Congress are saying the right things AND doing the right things. Conversely, those who say one thing and do another will no longer be able to hide. This will be a revealing barometer of a lawmaker’s willingness to fight for principled conservative policies in Congress.

Allow me to pull back the curtain just a bit.

No single Senator or Representative achieved a perfect score – something that is practically unheard of in the world of Congressional scorecards, but reflects the fact that there is no perfect politician in Washington. The average in the Democrat-controlled Senate was 39%. Liberal politicians in the House bring the average down to 42% in the GOP-controlled chamber.

While the House has done many big things right this year – the bold House budget, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, and Obamacare repeal, for example – conservatives still had too many losses with moderate Republicans teaming up with Democrats to defeat good legislation. As a result, the GOP average in the House is only 67%. Senate Republicans did better with a 76% average, though they have not yet voted on the often revealing appropriations bills. In all, 13 Senators and 27 Representatives scored an 85% or higher.

Like I told the crowd at the RedState.com Gathering a couple weeks ago, we are tough graders and don’t apologize for it. After all, we are conservatives, not tenured university professors.

And if there is one thing conservatives need, especially in Washington, it is unapologetic champions. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, one such champion, is “thrilled” about the scorecard. She said, “it is time now that we look at the spending habits of our legislators. It’s time that we look at what they’re doing with debt. It’s time that we look at how they’re spending taxpayer money.”

When the federal government engages in the sort of reckless spending that has come to define the previous decade, freedom recedes as the power and scope of the federal government expands. America’s future – and the economic freedom of our children and grandchildren – diminishes.

Heritage Action’s scorecard encompasses 30 votes and five co-sponsorship scores in the House and 19 votes and four co-sponsorship scores in the Senate. The votes cover the full spectrum of conservatism, and include legislative action on issues both large and small.

There is a tendency among some lawmakers to do the right thing on the big issues – repeal of Obamacare, for example – and then revert to “big government conservatism” on the small issues when they think no one is looking.

For example, 105 House Republicans joined every Democrat in voting against an amendment by Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) which would have cut $3 billion from Interior-Environment appropriations. In the Senate, 15 Republicans joined every Democrat in killing an amendment that would have repealed the non-essential Essential Air Services. These two votes are illustrative of the challenges conservatives face in Congress.

Our task is daunting, but not impossible. After a long hard fight, conservatives won the day on earmarks. Now, we must lead the fight against small bills that expand the size and scope of government. Legislation like the NAT GAS Act (HR1380) and extension of trade adjustment assistance’s welfare-style benefits must be made as politically toxic as earmarks.

Highlighting these small votes, as well as holding the line on contentious issues like the near-blank check debt ceiling increase, has ruffled some Establishment feathers. According to the Weekly Standard, Members of Congress are taking note:

[Heritage Action’s] newfound influence in politics—not just policy—has rankled a few Republicans otherwise in good conservative standing, especially since Heritage Action announced it would be scoring certain votes.

Heritage Action does not do electoral politics, but we certainly do policy politics. With all the economic indicators pointing towards anemic economic growth, if not another recession, Americans are looking for principled leadership that can steer our country off the path of slow decline and towards actual economic growth. The next 15 months are an opportunity to define the future of America – prosperity, or slow decline.

If we’re going to save the American dream for our children and grandchildren, we cannot pull punches or engage in partisan “rah-rah” type actions. Heritage Action’s scorecard will be revealing – and a tool for conservatives outside the beltway to hold their Members of Congress accountable and get America back on track.

Mike Needham

Mike Needham

Mike Needham is the Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Action for America, a grassroots advocacy organization dedicated to advancing legislation that promotes freedom, opportunity and prosperity for all Americans
Related posts:

Ernest Istook of the Heritage Foundation speaks in Little Rock on 6-22-11 (Part 1)

The third monthly luncheon with featured speaker Ernest Istook was excellent. First, we got to hear from Dave Elswick of KARN   who came up with the idea of this luncheon, and then from Teresa Crossland of Americans for Prosperity. Below is a portion of Istook’s biography from the Heritage Foundation:   Ernest Istook Distinguished Fellow Government Studies Ernest […]

Ernest Istook: “it’s time to put away childish things” and tackle deficit, will Senator Mark Pryor do it?

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor at the 2009 DPA J-J Dinner U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor at the 2009 Democratic Party Jefferson Jackson Dinner, Arkansas’s largest annual political event. (Did you notice that besides Mike Ross, EVERY OTHER DEMOCRAT THAT PRYOR MENTIONS DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB IN WASHINGTON IS NO LONGER IN OFFICE, SNYDER, LINCOLN, and BERRY)

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events, spending out of control, Taxes | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)