Spending Cuts and Debt

Tax hikes are looming. Not with my vote, of course, but I’m only one vote in Congress, and right now I’m in the minority. Our government spends significantly more money than it takes in. Except for me and a fair number of other Republicans in Congress, there’s simply no appetite in Washington to reduce spending like we need to. This means additional spending for things like this… Read more »

Here’s what to expect from the Democrat-controlled Congress, the mainstream media, and your social media newsfeeds over the next several weeks. But first, some reminders:   Remember Democrats are about to bulldoze through another $1.9 trillion in spending they claim is for coronavirus relief.   Remember this $1.9 trillion is actually packed with inexcusably bad… Read more »

This week, the House is considering yet another coronavirus spending bill.  This will be in addition to the $4 TRILLION that’s already been allocated.  Never mind that more than a trillion of that hasn’t even been spent yet – Democrats want to add another $1.9 trillion to the tab. Remember all this coronavirus money is borrowed from our children – we don’t have this sitting… Read more »

It looks like Democrats want to bring back earmarks. Does everyone remember those? Let’s back up just a minute and talk about “appropriations” in Congress, which is the process of allocating your tax dollars to specific government functions. The Constitution places this responsibility directly on Congress. Every year in the House, we’re supposed to craft 12 appropriations bills – each… Read more »

No surprises here. Let’s run through some of President Biden’s executive orders during his first week in office. These are campaign promises he’s making good on – we knew they’d be coming.   PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT: It’s basically a sham. There’s no objective standard – each country gets to define what it wants to do. Countries can lie six ways from Sunday about whether they’re… Read more »

You just cannot defend what happened last night in Congress. Yesterday we were literally emailed a 5,600-page PDF that contained one of the largest spending bills in our history – over $2.3 trillion. And NOT ONE Member of Congress had time read it before a vote was called just a few short hours later.   This entire thing was negotiated behind closed doors. No hearings. No… Read more »

Below is a full replay of my telephone town hall, which took place on Thursday, July 30th. During this call, I covered a wide variety of issues including our COVID-19 response, our economy and jobs, our federal spending and national debt, along with several other important topics. Read more »

Within the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) is a separate fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (“OCO”) fund. Originally used to finance the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, OCO funds are managed by the U.S. Department of Defense and State Department to support the global war on terror and other international military operations.   Over the last two decades,… Read more »

This Friday afternoon, top-ranking liberals in the House of Representatives are trying to finalize a 5th piece of COVID-19 legislation. They’ve nicknamed it “CARES 2” to coattail on the popularity of the original CARES Act, which passed overwhelmingly in late March. This is unfortunately not the bi-partisan effort it should be. Negotiations are taking place behind the scenes and most of… Read more »

The recent CARES Act definitely had some spending that shouldn’t have been included as part of a COVID-19 response package. So yesterday, I co-sponsored a bill to claw back over $27 billion from that legislation. Let’s dispense with the obvious first: Every bill is a compromise, and every member of Congress must decide whether – considered in its entirety – the good of that legislation… Read more »