Update on House Conservative Legislation

Red Meat Conservative ^ | 01/31/11 | Daniel

[red meat conservative]

The major legislation that was debated and voted on this past week was HR 38, the FY 2011 Budget Resolution..  This bill will limit non-defense discretionary spending to no higher than 2008 levels.  The Democrats are complaining about the ambivalence of the exact budget numbers, but Republicans are merely repairing a budget that was never dealt with a year ago.  This is a nice start but more needs to be done.  Here is an update on some other budget and non budget related bills that should be a priority for conservatives.

• Dr. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) introduced a tort reform bill that is being designated as H.R. 5.  This is one of the most direct causes of high health care costs and must be taken up immediately.  Here is a brief summary of the provisions in this bill from The Hill:

"Among other things, the bill would limit the number of years a plaintiff has to file a legal claim against medical practitioners and ensure that doctors are only liable for the portion of a procedure for which they are at fault. The latter provision would limit the ability of a plaintiff's lawyers to seek "deep pockets" in a legal challenge. The bill also ensures that more monetary awards would go to patients, not patients' lawyers, puts "reasonable limits" on punitive damages and allows states to maintain their own damage award caps."

• In response to our drift towards the European model of government ownership of the private sector, Congressman Michael Turner is proposing H.J. Res. 22.  This would propose a constitutional amendment stipulating that, "The United States shall not own, subscribe to, or otherwise have any interest in the stock or equity of any company, association or corporation: Provided, That the foregoing prohibition shall not apply to any investments through any pension funds."  This resolution already has close to 100 co-sponsors.

• Last week we reported on the RSC budget plan for the rest of 2011 and the subsequent 10 years.  We showed some analysis from the Heritage Foundation that detailed an extra few hundred billion dollars that are ripe for elimination.  This week, Michele Bachmann outlined a budget plan that would save $400 billion and includes many of those suggested cuts. 

• Once again, RSC Chairman Jim Jordan shows leadership by willing to reintroduce the D.C. Defense of Marriage Act in the 112th congress.  It's good to know that there are still some who are unwilling to call for a truce (retreat) on social issues.
• Conservative star Tom McClintock introduced legislation that would require the treasury to prioritize payment to debtors if the debt ceiling is not raised.  We must continue to drive home the argument that as long as we pay the debt first and cut other programs, we will not default on our credit.  
• Rand Paul released an awesome budget plan that would cut $500 billion a year, not just over 10 years.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

While this is a good warm-up, the real action will take place after the 2012 elections. Likely with a Republican controlled senate, and possibly, hopefully, a non-RINO president.

If you look at the US federal budget, what leaps out at you are the “big four” sections that make up 79% of the budget:

Defense - 23% of the budget
Social Security - 20% of the budget
Medicare and Medicaid - 19% of the budget
“Other Mandatory Spending” - 17% of the budget.

Other Mandatory Spending includes Food Stamps, Unemployment Compensation, Child Nutrition and Tax Credits, Supplemental Security for the Disabled and Student Loans.

The easiest one of these to attack are student loans, because for the most part, these are just subsidies to the grotesquely bloated American higher education system. Universities that gobble almost half the budget of many States, and still consume vast amounts of federal money.

The simple way to slash these loans is to limit what majors can be pursued with student loan degrees. No more federal loans or grants for basket weaving, women’s and ethnic studies, journalism, athletics, and the vast number of other majors for which there are no jobs, and will not be any jobs.

Students can still pursue those majors if they want, but not at the expense of taxpayers.

The only way to take on a real monster like SOCIAL SECURITY, however, is not to propose means testing, which is politically impossible, but to downgrade the system itself. Limit it to just minimum wage employees with no other form of retirement.

And then, make SS recipients a deal: If they have other income on which they have to pay tax, instead of taking the SS money, they can get a slightly larger net by taking a tax deduction instead. This will seem to be far more than their SS payment, because only a fraction of deductions actually reduces tax.

This means their choice: if they really need the money, take it; but if they have other income, the tax deduction is a better deal.

This means the SS system stops consuming so much of the federal budget, and eventually becomes a much smaller system, while nobody who has payed into it gets shafted.

Medicare and Medicaid are likely collapsing right now, as part of the Obamacare scheme, but once they are gone, hopefully the courts will throw out Obamacare. Hopefully the courts will take the hit for the end of these systems, and the Republicans don’t do something asinine, like restoring them.