Free Republic

Some House Republicans are growing frustrated that their leaders have not yet introduced a healthcare reform alternative. For months, the message from House GOP leaders on a healthcare bill has been similar to ads for yet-to-be-released movies: Coming soon. According to several GOP lawmakers, the leadership is split over how to proceed in terms of unveiling an alternative to the final Democratic bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) intends to unveil as soon as this week. Rep. Tom Price (Ga.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), revealed the schism within his party late last week. “There’s a difference...

Risk Specialists Companies, Inc. (RSC), a subsidiary of AIG Commercial Insurance, is introducing what it says is a first in the U.S.: a homeowners insurance product that is compliant with key Islamic finance tenets and based on the concept of mutual insurance. Advertisement The Takaful Homeowners Policy is underwritten through RSC member company A.I. Risk Specialists Insurance, Inc., in conjunction with Lexington Insurance Co. and in association with AIG Takaful Enaya. Headquartered in Bahrain, AIG Takaful Enaya was established in 2006 to provide Takaful products, including accident and health, auto, energy, property and casualty products. The Takaful home policy is...

House conservatives are renewing their fight to unilaterally ban earmarks for a year within the Republican Party. House GOP leadership has also renewed their own version of an earmark ban, but it's woefully diluted -- it is contingent on Democrats playing along. Frankly, that's too little, too late. But thanks to Jeb Hensarling, Jeff Flake, and the other RSC members who are pushing for an earmark ban now, I'm confident that we'll see a moratorium before the election. I've been told that they have the votes needed (50) to receive a conference-wide vote. This will force leadership to make a...

The Republican Survey Committee (RSC) has a plan. RSC is a caucus of more than 100 of the U.S. House of Representatives' most conservative Republicans, and their Action Plan for GOP members of the House was announced two days ago. You probably haven't heard about it before this posting, because the media is unilaterally ignoring it. Here's a summary: 1) THE END OF PORK-BARREL SPENDING House Republicans are committed to ending pork-barrel spending. We will not wait on the Democrat Majority to end “Bridges to Nowhere” and “Monuments to Me”— we declare an immediate earmark moratorium and pledge to reform...

Your children could be paying double the rate in taxes paid by today’s American workers in ten years but Republicans want to stop this trend in its tracks. The latest effort to restore fiscal responsibility comes in the form of a Spending Limit Constitutional Amendment. The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is targeting out of control federal spending in order to equalize federal government spending with national economic growth. Their goal is to decrease the burden on American families, so that the budget does not increase more than the collective incomes of those families. RSC members at a press conference yesterday...

FreedomWorks will be hosting a press conference March 21st on the Cannon House Office Building terrace at 12:00pm to show support for the Republican Study Committee's 'American Taxpayer Bill of Rights'. We have invited free-market groups in D.C. to join us to support these conservative congressmen. FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey will be hosting the event, and will be welcoming congressmen Jeb Hensarling and Jeff Flake, and Senator Jim DeMint. The press conference is part of Wednesday's FreedomWorks Liberty Summit, in which some of the top FreedomWorks activists in the region will come to D.C. to meet each other, receive training,...

They call themselves Main Street Republicans, moderates consigned to the back alleys of politics by their own party. But despite a severe bruising in the fall election, this minority within a minority finds itself with new avenues to explore, including working more closely with Democrats. The Republican Main Street Partnership, a leading voice of GOP moderates in Congress, lost seven of its 48 House members to Democratic challengers in the November election. Two other senior members, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., are retiring. The group also saw Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., one of its eight Senate members...

Top 10 Pro-Growth House Members Posted Aug 04, 2006 Ranked by The Club for Growth. 10. Steve Chabot (98%) – Liberals want Chabot’s seat. He’s in an evenly split district (Bush got 51% against Kerry), but that hasn’t weakened his exceptionally strong voting record. 9. Joe Pitts (99%) – A Vietnam veteran, Pitts has quietly attained a very conservative voting record in a state that continues to lurch leftward because of its increasing RINO congressional representation. 8. Sue Myrick (99%) – She’s part of the celebrated Class of 1994 who continues to fight for limited government even after 12 years...

Despite the clear economic case against a higher federal minimum wage, "moderates" in Congress are continuing the push the issue. Fortunately, House conservatives are not going along with this misguided effort, and members of the Republican Study Committee circulated this letter on Capitol Hill yesterday.

Several members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest conservative caucus in the House, have asked Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) to consider extending his term as chairman beyond this year. Pence’s term is set to expire at the end of this session of Congress, but colleagues say he has done an excellent job guiding the conservative caucus and don’t know of anyone with ambitions to replace him. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has risen to national prominence in the past year because of the political uproar over earmarks, said he is not looking to succeed Pence. “I think he’s...

In no particular order, here are the House members who are sponsoring the pro-growth RSC budget. (Those in BOLD were elected with Club member support) Mike Pence (IN-06) Virginia Foxx (NC-05) Jeb Hensarling (TX-05) Trent Franks (AZ-02) Gresham Barrett (SC-03) Louie Gohmert (TX-01) John Shadegg (AZ-03) Tom Price (GA-06) Patrick McHenry (NC-10) Paul Ryan (WI-01) Eric Cantor (VA-07) Phil Gingrey (GA-11) Gil Gutknecht (MN-01) Todd Akin (MO-02) Scott Garrett (NJ-05) Sue Myrick (NC-09) Joe Wilson (SC-02) Jeff Flake (AZ-06) Tom Feeney (FL-24) Steve King (IA-05) Roscoe Bartlett (MD-06) John Campbell (CA-48) Lynn Westmoreland (GA-08) Chris Chocola (IN-02) Kenny Marchant (TX-24)...

The Republican Study Committee released its budget for FY 2007 "Contract with America: Renewed" this morning amidst a crowd of supporters and reporters. Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.), RSC chairman, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R.-Texas), RSC Budget & Spending Task Force chairman were backed by 18 other members of the RSC as they publicly introduced the bill during a press conference. "The time has come to level with the American people -- we are not, as a nation, living within our means," Pence said. The budget proposed by Pence’s committee is based on the "Contract with America" budget passed in 1995...

RSC Balanced Budget Released Today (3/08/06) The RSC introduced a balanced budget based on the 1995 “Contract With America” at today's 11 am press conference. 2007 RSC Budget (word version) 2007 RSC Budget (pdf version) Click here for additional information.======================================================== Also on the RSC page reflecting their activities: Supplemental Appropriations Budget Requested (3/03/06) Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), on behalf of the RSC, sent this letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Josh Bolten, requesting a detailed accounting of how the supplemental appropriations already provided for the War on Terror and Gulf Coast hurricane relief have been spent.

RSC TO RELEASE BALANCED BUDGET IN PRESS CONFERENCE TOMORROW House Conservatives’ Budget Based on 1995 “Contract With America” Budget Washington, D.C. – Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN), chairman of the House Republican Study Committee (RSC), and Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), chairman of the RSC’s Budget and Spending Taskforce, together with other RSC members will introduce a balanced budget based on the 1995 “Contract With America” budget tomorrow. This morning the New York Times profiled the upcoming RSC Budget in an article entitled “House Conservatives Prepare Austere Alternative Budget.” See article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/politics/07spend.html. WHO: Congressmen Pence, Hensarling and members of the House...

WASHINGTON, March 6 — With Congress heading into a politically perilous budget season, influential House conservatives plan this week to propose an austere alternative spending plan that would pare more than $650 billion over five years, balance the budget and drastically shrink three cabinet agencies. The legislation, part of a push by some Republicans to re-establish themselves as champions of fiscal restraint, was taking shape as President Bush struck a similar theme on Monday by asking Congress to grant him line-item veto power to eliminate federal spending that he might judge wasteful. "We can't be all things to all people...

The conservative Republican Study Committee, led by Rep. Mike Pence, today released their top 10 legislative priorities for this congressional year. The list reads like a must-accomplish list of action items for conservatives. Topping the list is fundamental tax reform coupled with making the tax cuts permanent and budget process reform designed to incentivize Congress to be fiscally responsible -- the opposite of the way it is now. For the full list check the extended section. RSC TOP TEN 1. Make the Tax Cuts Permanent, including the repeal of the marriage-tax penalty and the death tax and pass fundamental tax...

In a show of rhetorical force yesterday, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) issued an ambitiously conservative 10-point agenda for the rest of this year. Calling their priorities “the nucleus of issues that minted this majority,” Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) said, “The remainder of the 109th Congress should be dedicated to affirming our commitment to limited government, fiscal discipline and traditional moral values.” Five of the 10 agenda items relate to budget reform, with one targeting earmarks. The RSC succeeded in pressing the House GOP leadership last year to seek offsets to supplemental spending on hurricane relief and in ginning up...

House Republican leaders have moved from balking at big cuts in Medicaid and other programs to embracing them, driven by pent-up anger from fiscal conservatives concerned about runaway spending and the leadership's own weakening hold on power. Beginning this week, the House GOP lawmakers will take steps to cut as much as $50 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget for health care for the poor, food stamps and farm supports, as well as considering across-the-board cuts in other programs. Only last month, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and other GOP leaders quashed demands within their party for budget cuts...

This morning, Representative Tom Delay was indicted in an alleged conspiracy to funnel soft money into Texas state legislature races. While the charge may be without merit and politically motivated, the initial damage was done. Almost immediately, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert announced that David Dreier, a socially moderate amnesty supporting California Congressman, would be Delay'’s temporary successor. Since Delay and others knew of the pending indictment, it is clear that the House leadership and White House anointed the smooth-talking Drier. The House Republican Conference was supposed to accept the nomination. However, members voiced their dissent at the conference...

Shakespeare: The Biography Peter Ackroyd Chatto and Windus, £25 THE cultural juggernaut that goes by the name of William Shakespeare seems to be hurtling forward with unstoppable momentum. The world's favourite playwright was 441 years old last April, but he has never looked more lively, on stage and page. The reconstituted Globe theatre is doing a roaring trade in London, and for 2006 the RSC is planning an ambitious 12-month festival of the complete works, with all 37 of Shakespeare's plays to be produced in Stratford-upon-Avon by an international coalition of theatre companies. Meanwhile, academic heavyweights like Stephen Greenblatt and...