Free Republic

Sequester We Hardly Knew Ye By Congressman Tom McClintock The great irony of the Republican decision to bust the budget sequester is that barely two months ago, congressional roles were reversed. The Democrats insisted on funding the government according to existing law. The Republicans sought one simple change: that the individual insurance mandate under Obamacare be delayed for one year. They were trying to spare the American people the Obamacare disaster that is now unfolding, but to no avail. The American people sided overwhelmingly with the Democrats on the principle that the government should be funded according to current law...

Yosemite Valley is a national treasure that was set aside in 1864 with the promise it would be preserved for the express purpose of “Public Use, Resort and Recreation.” Ever since, Americans have enjoyed a host of recreational opportunities and amenities as they have come to celebrate the splendor of the Valley. Now, the National Parks Service, at the urging of leftist environmental groups, is proposing eliminating many of those amenities, including bicycle and raft rentals, horseback riding rentals, gift shops, snack facilities, swimming pools, and iconic facilities including the Ice Skating Rink at Curry Village, the art center and...

The Honorable Daniel M. Ashe Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Re: Request for 90 day extension of comment period Dear Director Ashe: We write regarding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to list the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog and the northern distinct population segment (DPS) of the mountain yellow-legged frog as endangered species, and the Yosemite toad as a threatened species. We request you extend the comment period by no less than 90 days to ensure that public input is maximized and the effects of this proposal are fully understood. These listings and the associated critical habitat will...

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision on the so-called “Affordable Care Act,” the House will once again take up the imperative of repealing it. But the Supreme Court decision has much more dire implications for our nation and its cherished freedoms than merely affirming the government takeover of our health care. In reaching its conclusion, the Court obliterated a fundamental distinction between a penalty and a tax. Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes, and therefore, the Court reasons, it can apply a tax for any reason, even those otherwise outside the confines of the Constitution....

Mr. Chairman: If the House is to live up to the promises the Republican majority made to the American people to bring spending under control, some tough choices are going to have to be made. But this amendment isn’t one of them. This is about the easiest choice the House could possibly make: to put an end to the so-called “Essential Air Service” that lavishly subsidizes some of the least essential air services in the country. This program shells out nearly $200 million a year – including $114 million of direct taxpayer subsidies – to support empty and near-empty flights...

Mr. Chairman: If the House is to live up to the promises the Republican majority made to the American people to bring spending under control, some tough choices are going to have to be made. But this amendment isn’t one of them. This is about the easiest choice the House could possibly make: to put an end to the so-called “Essential Air Service” that lavishly subsidizes some of the least essential air services in the country. This program shells out nearly $200 million a year – including $114 million of direct taxpayer subsidies – to support empty and near-empty flights...

Subsidizing Failure House Chamber, Washington, D.C. June 1, 2012 Mr. Chairman: This amendment saves nearly one and a half billion dollars by ending the failed Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program. If we’re serious about an “all of the above energy policy” we’ve got to stop using taxpayer money to pick winners and losers based on their political connections, and instead require every energy company to compete on its own merits as decided by the customers it attracts by offering better products at lower cost. For too long we have suffered from the conceit that politicians can make better energy...

Subsidizing Failure House Chamber, Washington, D.C. June 1, 2012 Mr. Chairman: This amendment saves nearly one and a half billion dollars by ending the failed Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program. If we’re serious about an “all of the above energy policy” we’ve got to stop using taxpayer money to pick winners and losers based on their political connections, and instead require every energy company to compete on its own merits as decided by the customers it attracts by offering better products at lower cost. For too long we have suffered from the conceit that politicians can make better energy...

The Export-Import Boondoggle House Chamber, Washington, D.C. May 9, 2012 Mr. Speaker: The Export-Import Bank dragoons American taxpayers into subsidizing loans to foreign companies, making it cheaper for them to buy products from politically-favored American companies which in turn use those products to compete against less-favored American companies. Past beneficiaries include such upstanding enterprises as Solyndra and Enron. Since 2007, almost half of its money has gone to support that plucky little start-up called Boeing. Air India got $5 billion to purchase Boeing aircraft allowing them to undercut American carriers like Delta with their own tax money. We’re told we...

A defining aspect of the American tradition is that groups of citizens band together for a wide variety of civic purposes. They recruit volunteers, raise funds and spend those funds to promote whatever project or cause brings them together. For more than a century, our tax laws have recognized that such voluntary associations – non-profits, we call them today – should not be taxed, because their proceeds are devoted entirely to improve our communities through education, advocacy, and civic action. Section 501 of the Internal Revenue code recognizes them today, and civic groups like Move-on-dot-org, the League of Conservation Voters,...

After President Clinton took a drubbing from voters in the 1994 Congressional election, he realized his policies weren't working. He promptly declared, "The era of big government is over," and he then went about making good on that declaration: • He reduced spending by a miraculous 3 1/2 percent of GDP. • He attacked entitlement spending and abolished the ballooning open-ended welfare system. • He signed what amounted to the biggest capital gains tax cut in American history. • He delivered the only four budget surpluses in four decades. • And he produced a period of prolonged economic expansion. President...

Long ago, Jefferson warned, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.” The exceptions to that rule have been few and far between recently, and ought to be celebrated when they occur. One did this past week with the announcement that supporters of the so-called “Stop On-Line Privacy Act” and the “Protect Intellectual Property Act” have indefinitely postponed their measures after an unprecedented protest across the Internet. SOPA and PIPA pose a crippling danger to the Internet because they use the legitimate concern over copy-right infringement as an excuse for government to intrude...

Delivered House floor remarks this week about section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act: I rise in opposition to Section 1021 of the underlying Conference Report (H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act). This section specifically affirms that the President has the authority to deny due process to any American it charges with “substantially supporting al Qaeda, the Taliban or any ‘associated forces’” – whatever that means. Would “substantial support” of an “associated force,” mean linking a web-site to a web-site that links to a web-site affiliated with al-Qaeda? We don’t know. The question is, “do we really want...

House Chamber, Washington, D.C. October 26, 2011 M. Speaker: The government’s continuing failure to address our nation’s gut-wrenching unemployment stems from a fundamental disagreement over how jobs are created in the first place. We are now in the third year of policies predicated on the assumption that government spending creates jobs. We have squandered three years and trillions of dollars of the nation’s wealth on such policies, and they have not worked because they cannot work. Government cannot inject a single dollar into the economy until it has first taken that same dollar OUT of the economy. True, we can...

Congressman Tom McClintock (CA-04), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Water and Power, today made the following remarks on the House floor in opposition to administration plans for removal of Klamath dams. Mr. Speaker: This generation is facing spiraling electricity prices and increasingly scarce supplies. Californians have had to cut back to the point that their per capita electricity consumption is now lower than that of Guam, Luxembourg and Aruba. What is the administration’s solution? Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday that the administration is moving forward with a plan to destroy four perfectly good hydroelectric dams on the Klamath...

Congressman Tom McClintock, House Floor remarks in support of an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act to deny authorization for the use of funds for the war in Libya. Speech in Support of the Amash/ Kucinich Amendment to HR 2219 Congressman Tom McClintock Mr. Chairman: For more than three months, our nation has been amidst a quiet constitutional crisis that carries immense implications. The Gentleman from Florida is sadly mistaken to dismiss this as a meaningless philosophical discussion. This issue strikes at the very heart of our Constitutional form of government. On March 19th, completely without Congressional authorization,...

House Floor Remarks, June 3rd M. Speaker: Lets be clear: without prior Congressional authorization, under the War Powers Act, the President may only commit armed forces to hostilities for sixty days if there is a direct attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions or its armed forces. There was none, so there is no sixty day clock and the President’s unprovoked attack on Libya – from Day One – constituted an illegal and unconstitutional act of the highest significance. If the President felt there was moral justification to attack Libya, he was constitutionally required to make his case...

Mr. Chairman: History walks with us today as we begin this work. History offers us not a single example of a nation that has ever spent, borrowed and taxed its way to prosperity, but it offers us many, many examples of nations that have spent, borrowed and taxed their way to economic ruin and bankruptcy. And history is screaming this warning at us: nations that bankrupt themselves aren’t around very long, because before we can provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare, we have to be able to pay for it – and the ability of our...

M. Speaker: When the President ordered the attack on Libya without Congressional authorization, he crossed a very bright Constitutional line that he himself recognized in 2007 when he told the Boston Globe “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” The reason the American Founders reserved the question of war to Congress was that they wanted to assure that so momentous a decision could not be made by a single individual. They had watched European kings plunge...

March 23, 2011 The Honorable Barack Obama President of the United States The White House Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: I have read your letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate dated March 21, 2011 concerning your order that United States Armed Forces attack the nation of Libya. You cite the authority of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 and your "constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive." The Constitution clearly and unmistakably vests Congress with the sole prerogative "to declare...