Free Republic

In the critical November 3rd special election for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, Rep. McClintock has endorsed the Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman. Doug Hoffman believes in the Conservative values and principles which are sorely lacking in Washington. Doug Hoffman shares Rep. McClintock’s opposition to the government takeover of our healthcare, the government bailout boondoggle, and Cap and Tax energy proposal. Doug has also signed the No New Taxes and the No Earmarks Pledge. Doug Hoffman stands as the real Conservative candidate in the race. In recent days polling is showing that Doug has pulled into the lead, but he needs...

M. Speaker, The last time our unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent was in 1983. Ronald Reagan responded by cutting taxes and reducing regulatory burdens on the economy, producing the biggest peacetime economic expansion in the nation’s history. Today, President Obama is doing exactly the opposite. Obamacare and Cap and Trade and many other bills promise the biggest tax increases and heaviest regulations our country has ever seen. Over the last 100 years, three presidents responded to recessions by reducing taxes and regulations: Warren Harding, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan – and all produced rapid and dramatic economic recoveries. Two...

M. Speaker: I rise in opposition to the rule and in opposition to the underlying bill. And to explain why, I’d like to walk through a little history and a little math. Let’s begin with history and two important years: 1978 and 1839. In 1978, the Wall Street Journal carried this headline: “Solar Power Seen Meeting 20 percent of Needs by 2000; Carter May Seek Outlay Boost.” Oddly, the same paper carried a headline in 2006 making the same promise this time for all renewable fuels – only this time by 2025 – but I digress. (view newspaper headlines) Billions...

Tea Party Boot Camp Saturday - October 24th 8:30 am - 2:00 pm Fresno Fairgrounds A Training Event How to transform yourself into a Government Butt Kicking Activist Four Training Sessions Session One - Activism 1. Street Activism - Scott & Saundra Hawkins 2. Boots on the Ground Activism - Julie Griffiths 3. Precinct Level Activism - Lonny Leitner from American Majority Session Two - Using the New Media Lonny Leitner from American Majority explains how to use Facebook, Twitter and Blogs to advance the Tea Party Movement. From beginner to online activist in one hour. Session Three - Health...

This event is shaping up to be great with Congressman Tom McClintock, Congressman Nunes, Assemblyman Dan Logue, Jon Coupal, Mark Meckler and lots of other great taxfighters all scheduled to speak. Be sure to tune in!

July 10, 2009. Competitive Enterprise Institute. I know that everybody likes to poke fun at California – but I can tell you right now that despite all of its problems, California remains one of the best places in the world to build a successful small business. All you have to do is start with a successful large business. Laugh if you will, but let me remind you that when these policies finish wrecking California, there are still 49 other states we can all move to – and yours is one of them. I should also warn you of the strange...

WASHINGTON, D.C. –House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) today named Rep. Tom McClintock (CA-04) as the new Ranking Member of the Water and Power Subcommittee. McClintock will take over the position from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) who was recently selected to serve as Ranking Member of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee on the Education and Labor Committee. “Rep. McClintock has shown tremendous dedication and leadership on a number of natural resources issues,” said Ranking Member Hastings. “As California faces a severe water crisis, it is more important than ever to have leaders in Congress, like McClintock, who...

Imagine working at a company that treats every employee exactly the same, irrespective of their individual effort. No matter how hard you work or how much your co-workers slack off, you get exactly the same pay. For millions of people, America's outdated labor laws and one-size-fits-all collective-bargaining agreements make this a reality. Maybe this is why studies show union members are less satisfied with their jobs than are nonunion workers, and many Americans simply refuse to work in union shops. Indeed, just 9 percent of nonunion workers tell pollsters they would like to join a union, and private-sector union membership...

Following is the floor speech that Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California's fourth congressional district gave last Friday in opposition to the cap and trade legislation that passed that day.I had a strange sense of deja vu as I watched the self-congratulatory rhetoric on the House floor tonight, and I feel compelled to offer this warning from the Left Coast. Three years ago, I stood on the floor of the California Senate and watched a similar celebration over a similar bill, Assembly Bill 32. And I have spent the last three years watching as that law has dangerously deepened California's...

Tough Love for California.House Chamber, Washington, D.C.June 11, 2009 M. Speaker: Gov. Schwarzenegger of my home state of California has called for the federal government to underwrite as much as $15 billion of Revenue Anticipation Notes that the state has to issue to avoid insolvency. I think that would be a colossal mistake, and that such an act would not only dig the nation deeper into the hole it is in, but would actually make California’s fiscal condition worse. Today, California faces a paradox: despite record levels of spending and borrowing, it can no longer produce a decent road system,...

Imagine working at a company that treats every employee exactly the same, irrespective of their individual effort. No matter how hard you work or how much your co-workers slack off, you get exactly the same pay. For millions of people, America's outdated labor laws and one-size-fits-all collective-bargaining agreements make this a reality. Maybe this is why studies show union members are less satisfied with their jobs than are nonunion workers and many Americans simply refuse to work in union shops. Indeed, just 9 percent of nonunion workers tell pollsters they would like to join a union, and private-sector union membership...

While politicians debate whether this week's rejection of various spending initiatives in California marks the beginning of an antitax insurgency, I can't help but wonder what might have been had Arnold Schwarzenegger immediately pushed for reform upon taking office in 2003. The Arnold of the state's recall election was the Barack Obama of the 2008 presidential election. He was a man of wealth and privilege, restyled as a populist outsider and overhyped by a fawning media, who came into office with a window of opportunity to achieve most anything his heart desired. For Mr. Schwarzenegger, that window remained open for...

A generation ago, California exemplified its nickname, the Golden State. State spending was less than half per capita, inflation-adjusted, what it is today. Its debt-service ratio was less than a third. Yet Californians enjoyed one of the finest highway systems in the world and one of the finest public education systems in the country. Water and electricity were so cheap many communities didn't meter consumption.

Rep. McClintock gave the following speech to the Council for National Policy in Washington DC on May 16, 2009. Here, in the winter of our despair, I want to pause to take stock of the state of our nation on this date of May 16th. Voters have swept our party from office after a failed Republican administration that abandoned conservative principles. The most left-wing President in our nation’s history has taken office with a 66 percent approval rating and strong majorities in both houses. His agenda includes radical intervention into energy markets, highly inflationary monetary policy, a determination to dramatically...

Here are Rep. McClintock's recommendations for the May 19th Special Election. Prop 1A: Extend the Tax Increases. NO. This is the fig leaf that hides certain deficiencies suffered by the legislators who caved into pressure for the biggest tax increase in California's history. This measure EXTENDS the tax increases for up to two ADDITIONAL years in exchange for a spending limit that doesn't limit spending. The "spending limit" is laughable – it requires placing "unanticipated revenues" into a special fund that is then to be spent for a variety of additional purposes including education, debt service and health care. And...

Sacramento, California. April 15, 2009. Let the word go forth today from gatherings like this across the nation that the silent majority is no longer silent. We are stirring. We are awakening. We are many. And we are Americans – the latest generation of Americans who have been called upon to defend our liberties and the constitutional principles of limited government that protect our freedom. Think about how far we have strayed from what Jefferson called the “sum of good government.” He described it as (quote) “a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall...

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay, introduced legislation on Tuesday that would allow banks to immediately pay back Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to the U.S. Treasury. Some banks that accepted TARP funding are now facing obstacles in how they will pay the money back to the government. “It is a travesty that banks seeking to repay taxpayer money should be prohibited from doing so after taxpayers were promised that repayment would be made as soon as humanly possible,” McClintock said in a press statement. The bill is narrowly written to amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to require the Secretary...

WASHINGTON -- As the politics of water grow more intense on Capitol Hill, Republican Rep. Tom McClintock is skeptical that there's a shortage in California, even though the governor has declared a drought emergency. "Don't forget we have the most water-rich region in the state," said McClintock, a newcomer on the House Natural Resources Committee, who represents California's 4th Congressional District. "And yet our communities are in ... drought alerts, not because of a shortage of water, but because of water that the environmental regulations allow us to use." It is becoming a common refrain for some Republicans in Washington:...

WASHINGTON – As an eager rookie in the House of Representatives, Tom McClintock came to Capitol Hill in January, ready to honor a popular president who had transformed the nation's politics. Yes, Ronald Reagan's 98th birthday was approaching. And McClintock, the new Republican congressman from California's 4th District, offered a resolution to celebrate the Gipper's life. It was never taken up by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "We were informed by the committee that they don't do birthday resolutions any more," McClintock said. The resolution was one of two pieces of legislation sponsored by McClintock in his first...

I'll be posting pictures, as I receive them.

Sacramento Tax Day Tea Party - April 15th Rep. McClintock will be speaking to the Sacramento Tax Day Tea Party at the State Capitol on Wednesday, April 15th. This should be one of the largest Tea Party gatherings in the nation. Fox New's Neil Cavuto will be broadcasting live from the event. Conservative talk show host Michael Reagan and Michelle Malkin will be there as well. We hope that you can join the thousands of people at the Tea Party. Where: California State Capitol, West Steps When: Wednesday, April 15th -- Tax Day Welcome at 11:00 am Rally from Noon...

Whichever term you prefer, Sacramento-area members of Congress last week requested more than $1.1 billion worth of them, from $400,000 for a Folsom hospital helipad to $154 million for major Natomas levee improvements. All but one of the region's five representatives posted funding requests on the Web, as required by new congressional rules. The fifth, Rep. Tom McClintock, a Republican whose district stretches from El Dorado County to the Oregon border, did not ask for earmark dollars because he opposes the system. The latest round of requests is for the next fiscal year. Critics have charged that the process is...

The Bee's editorial "Pork has its place" argues that congressional earmarks are all right as long as they're used for beneficial purposes. The Bee advises that I should abandon my opposition to this practice and emulate those congressmen who treat our national treasury like a grab bag for local projects – albeit projects of The Bee's liking. ... It should be no wonder that virtually all of the political corruption cases affecting Congress – including the infamous Jack Abramoff scandal – involve congressional earmarks. The Bee fails to consider that the price for obtaining a "beneficial" earmark for the district...

YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3ZgcnxmjDg Text: Honk If You’re Paying My Mortgage Rep. McClintock gave the following floor speech on March 17, 2009. M. Speaker: I have been asked to present more than 6,000 postcards generated by the Armstrong and Getty radio show to protest policies that can best be described by the new bumper sticker, “Honk if you’re paying my mortgage,” or today’s reprise, “Honk if you’re paying AIG’s bonuses.” Rick Santelli of CNBC struck a nerve last month when he asked, “How many of you want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage who has an extra bathroom and can’t...

Over 6,000 postcards from angry listeners of the Armstrong & Getty Show were delivered to the floor of the House of Representatives.

This morning’s breakfast had two very interesting speakers: climate skeptic Congressman Tom McClintock from California and Canadian author, columnist and environmentalist Lawrence Solomon. Solomon is a founder and managing director of the Energy Probe Research Foundation and is a strong advocate of renewable energy and written a book against urban sprawl. When Congressman McClintock addressed the audience he emphasized that the actual threat of global warming is a big one, but not because of temperature and more so because of what the radical environmentalist movement can do to control the message and hurt the economy. He discussed the detrimental economic...

If you want to fight the good fight against Draconian climate change legislation, catch your elected officials with witnesses around, don’t try to talk privately with them. That was the advice Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., gave while speaking at the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change held by The Heartland Institute in New York on March 9. He encouraged the audience to confront policymakers in public forums rather than one-on-one. “If you’re sitting in their office and you’re talking to them, you’re in exactly the wrong place,” McClintock said. “If you want to communicate with your legislator, don’t write them...

If you want to fight the good fight against Draconian climate change legislation, catch your elected officials with witnesses around, don’t try to talk privately with them. That was the advice Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., gave while speaking at the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change held by The Heartland Institute in New York on March 9. He encouraged the audience to confront policymakers in public forums rather than one-on-one. “If you’re sitting in their office and you’re talking to them, you’re in exactly the wrong place,” McClintock said. “If you want to communicate with your legislator, don’t write them...

Washington's response to the current recession illustrates one of the fundamental laws of political physics: the more that we spend on our mistakes, the less willing we are to admit them. The conventional wisdom is that if government can "inject" enough money into the economy, it can reverse the recession. Unfortunately, the hard and bitter truth is that government cannot inject a single dollar into the economy that it has not first taken out of that economy. .... True, government takes a dollar from Peter and gives it to Paul, Paul has one dollar more to spend and that dollar...

Tom McClintock may have barely squeaked out a win in a congressional district where Republicans hold a 15-point voter registration advantage. But he is clearly savoring his new speech-making perch in Congress. McClintock, of Northern California's 4th Congressional District, is aggressively attacking Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on global warming. And the man who loves to quote historic figures from Churchill to Jefferson is now quoting himself to take on President Barack Obama's economic agenda. On Schwarzennegger, McClintock arose to demand that the federal government hold firm against California's efforts to impose stricter emissions standards for automobiles. "I rise to urge...

I rise again to urge the majority to consider very carefully the damage they are doing to our nation’s economy by passing this unprecedented spending measure. There is still time to heed the warnings from economists across the nation that this bill will do long-term damage to the growth of our nation’s economy for many years to come. This is not mere economic theory: it is the consistent effect every time and everywhere that governments have tried to spend their way to prosperity. History is shouting its warning at us: never has a nation spent its way to prosperity –...

A Policy that Doesn’t Work House Chamber, Washington D.C. February 10, 2009 M. Speaker: Benjamin Franklin warned us that “Passion governs, but she never governs wisely.” As the Congress and the President rush to enact the latest in a long line of mega-spending bills, I think we would be well advised to spend a little more time on the dispassionate math of the matter. The Congressional Budget Office issued a report last week that warns us, as reported by the Washington Times, that the spending bill may “help in the short term but result in so much government debt that...

U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock has been a vociferous opponent in Washington about plans to pump nearly $1 billion into the economy through a new spending bill. But as a newcomer to D.C. politics, the veteran state legislator now serving as 4th District congressman has taken more tentative steps in introducing his own legislation. He did so last month, with introduction of his first bill, to honor former President Ronald Reagan on his Feb. 6 birthday. That date came and went Friday with McClintock’s bill at the committee level. McClintock said he’s co-signed several pieces of high-visibility legislation but used the...

Put 257 eighth-graders in a room with a congressman, tell them to ask questions, and you’ll soon find out what’s on their mind. So it was on Friday, as freshman Republican Tom McClintock – on break from Washington and in the midst of a district-wide meet-and-greet – paid a visit to the students of Olympus Jr. High in Roseville. The conservative legislator held forth on the importance of political involvement and American values – with a heavy dose of Lincoln and de Tocqueville thrown in for good measure. “It’s fun talking to eigth-graders, because they’re studying the American constitution and...

Candidates around the country proved with their latest financial filings that it’s never too early to begin the next campaign — especially if you’re a freshman. Newly sworn-in members of Congress from all over raised money for 2010 before they even took the oath, while others with eyes on potentially bigger prizes, like the Senate, began their quests. Among the top fundraisers for the five-week year-end period were freshman Reps. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Pete Olson (R-Texas), Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) and Bobby Bright (D-Ala.). All raised $80,000 or more, with McClintock pulling in $120,000, and all could be top House targets...

WASHINGTON -- With a new occupant in the White House, California could soon start enforcing its 2002 law that requires a sharp reduction in vehicle emissions. State leaders and environmentalists are pressing for quick approval of a waiver that would let California and at least 13 other states impose tougher air-quality standards than are allowed under federal law. The Bush administration rejected the request a year ago, but that could be reversed by President Barack Obama and his environmental team. During the presidential campaign, Obama said that he backed the California law. Last year in the Senate, he co-sponsored a...

WASHINGTON – Tom McClintock arrived in Washington last week, ready to say no. He'll say no to President-elect Barack Obama's plan to spend roughly $800 billion to rev up the economy. He'll say no to spending billions to bail out the auto industry. And he'll say no to his home state of California and others looking to Congress to get out of their budget messes. He said the federal government doesn't have the money and needs to spend less to avoid "the same folly" as California, which is projecting a $40 billion shortfall in the next 18 months. "My state...

Newly elected 4th District Congressman Tom McClintock, who is being sworn in today at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., is looking forward to committee appointments and has put together his team for the coming term. The selection process for congressional committee assignments starts tomorrow, McClintock said, and he has requested Natural Resources, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Budget. “I was asked to serve on the Judiciary Committee, which involves immigration policy among other things,” he said Monday. “I have indicated I have no objection to that assignment either.” McClintock said he plans to maintain frequent dialogue with his constituency. “I intend...

Congressman-elect Tom McClintock will take the oath of office and be sworn in as the U.S. Representative from California's 4th Congressional District at noon Eastern Standard Time January 6th. A ceremonial swearing in, open to the media, will be held in the Rayburn Room H-207 in the Capitol at 3:15 EST. A reception for constituents and guests will begin at 11:30 a.m. that day in room 508 of the Cannon House Office Building. The District Office, located at 4230 Douglas Boulevard, Suite 200, Granite Bay will open and constituents are welcome to visit and meet the staff.

McClintock to take Oath of Office January 6th Announces Staff Appointments Congressman-elect Tom McClintock will take the oath of office and be sworn in as the U.S. Representative from California's 4th Congressional District at noon Eastern Standard Time January 6th. A ceremonial swearing in, open to the media, will be held in the Rayburn Room H-207 in the Capitol at 3:15 EST. A reception for constituents and guests will begin at 11:30 a.m. that day in room 508 of the Cannon House Office Building. The District Office, located at 4230 Douglas Boulevard, Suite 200, Granite Bay will open and constituents...

December 3, 2008 Charlie Brown concedes to McClintock Ex-Sen. Tom McClintock had already declared victory as northern California's newest congressman, but Democratic opponent Charlie Brown made it official today with a phone call to the Thousand Oaks Republican. Brown shared the news in an e-mail to supporters. "So a short time ago, I called Senator Tom McClintock to congratulate him on a hard fought victory, and to wish him well in Congress," he wrote. To his supporters, Brown said, "I can only offer my deepest gratitude -- for your generosity of time and resources, and your unwavering energy and encouragement....

Great Victory ... Thank You! Butte County took a little longer to come in than we had expected, but it was worth the wait. The count is now complete with the possible exception of a handful of votes in El Dorado County and the election result stands at: McClintock 185,615 and Brown at 183,840. The lead of 1,775 votes is a margin of victory that puts us well outside the possibility of a recount changing the outcome. To put it in perspective, it is more than twice the margin by which I lost the race for State Controller in 2002....

Butte County took a little longer to come in than we had expected, but it was worth the wait. The count is now complete with the possible exception of a handful of votes in El Dorado County and the election result stands at: McClintock 185,615 and Brown at 183,840. The lead of 1,775 votes is a margin of victory that puts us well outside the possibility of a recount changing the outcome. To put it in perspective, it is more than twice the margin by which I lost the race for State Controller in 2002. The numbers came in a...

State Sen. Tom McClintock on Friday surged to nearly a 1,800-vote lead in the tight congressional battle against Democrat Charlie Brown, perhaps sealing victory in the foothill 4th District. "We're not claiming victory, but we just think it's mathematically impossible for (Brown) to win," said Bill George, spokesman for McClintock. George said the thousands of Placer County votes tallied Friday stretched McClintock's lead from barely 300 votes to 1,793, with only about 4,500 more votes to count in the nine-county district. Brown spokesman Todd Stenhouse said Brown would not concede, noting that thousands more votes remain to be counted, most...

The campaign of Republican congresisonal candidate Tom McClintock said the vote tally released late Friday from Placer County "mathematically ensures McClintock victory" in the 4th District. "Placer County today completed the process of counting absentee and provisional votes, and Tom McClintock gained 1,464 votes," the campaign announced. "The final Placer County tally gives McClintock a lead of 1,793 votes over (Democrat) Charlie Brown. With the vote tally completed in Placer and Nevada Counties, there is no mathematical way Charlie Brown can overtake McClintock’s lead in the Fourth Congressional District election. “The votes are almost all in and the result is...

Democrat Charlie Brown closed to within 329 votes of Republican Tom McClintock Friday in the ongoing ballot count for the 4th Congressional District race. Brown, from Roseville, was as close to McClintock's lead as he'd been since Election Day, and an e-mail to campaign supporters said that provisional ballots from Nevada County deserved the credit. "Every day, we are hearing that election day provisional ballots, thousands of which have not yet been tallied, are breaking for Charlie by substantial margins in Placer, El Dorado, and Nevada counties," Brown campaign manager Todd Stenhouse said in the Friday e-mail, which also requested...

Just over the transom, the McClintock campaign is claiming victory, saying that their new lead is greater than the number of ballots left to be counted. Here's the email from McClintock campaign Communications Director Bill George: Vote Tally Mathematically Ensures McClintock Victory in Fourth Congressional District Race Placer County today completed the process of counting absentee and provisional votes, and Tom McClintock gained 1,464 votes. The final Placer County tally gives McClintock a lead of 1,793 votes over Charlie Brown. With the vote tally completed in Placer and Nevada Counties, there is no mathematical way Charlie Brown can overtake McClintock's...

WASHINGTON – Tom McClintock and Charlie Brown are staying at the same Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, where they first bumped into each other Sunday night. They've toured the Capitol together. They've dined together at the Library of Congress. And tonight the two men and their wives will attend a reception for incoming freshman Congress members at the U.S. Botanic Garden. There's only one problem: Neither has been elected to Congress. With thousands of ballots yet to be counted in California's 4th Congressional District, McClintock, the Republican, clung to a 562-vote lead – out of nearly 340,000 counted so far...

Nevada County has completed 85 percent of its uncounted ballots and the three days of tallies have cost us 1,350 votes of the 1,500 loss that we expected. However, El Dorado and Sacramento returns have been much higher than expected, so it now seems unlikely that we will dip into negative territory any time during the counting of the remaining ballots. As of tonight, our lead has narrowed to 691 out of 338,307 ballots counted, or 0.20 percent. But there are only 1,792 ballots left to be counted in Nevada County, and Nevada County is the only county remaining that...