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Recently in Washington Washington, D.C – “Every year the House Budget Committee starts the budget process by creating the federal budget resolution, which then goes to the House floor for a vote. It is one of the few things that Congress must do every year: it sets the spending framework within which Congress must work that year, and creates a budget picture for years into the future. It is one of the basic responsibilities of Congress, upon which every spending decision is based. You may not have heard, but this year, there is no budget. “The deadline for a House budget passed with little fan-fare on April 15th, and while the President has submitted his unbinding proposal and the Senate has begun consideration of their version, Speaker Pelosi and the House Democrats appear unwilling to reveal theirs. “In a year when spending restraint and long term budgeting are more crucial than ever, you may ask why there is no budget. The truth is disheartening. Speaker Pelosi simply doesn’t want her members to be on the record as supporting what could be the largest federal budget in history and she doesn’t want them to be forced to explain themselves to their constituents before elections this fall. A budget would reveal the trillion dollar deficits and expose the results of the reckless spending of the last several years, made drastically worse this year by passage of the budget-busting health care bill. However, a $1.5 trillion yearly deficit is not something you can hide from. “Democrat leaders have said it best themselves in years past -- in 2006 Representative Steny Hoyer said that enacting a budget was “the most basic responsibility of governing,” and the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, John Spratt, said, “If you can’t budget, you can’t govern.” I couldn’t agree more. “Yet this will be the first time since the 1974 Congressional Budget Act that the House will fail to pass a budget. As families and businesses across the country continue to make sacrifices and cut their budgets, Congress can’t be bothered to even create theirs. As we move forward this month, I sincerely hope Democrat leadership changes course and begins the regular budget process. Only then can Congress start implementing responsible spending limits and begin working on slowing down the growth of government and the national debt.” Congressman Simpson is a member of the House Budget Committee.
House Legislative Business This Week TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2010 Suspensions (18 Bills):
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2010 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK On Thursday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business and recess immediately. At approximately 11:00 a.m., the House will convene in a Joint Meeting with the Senate for the purpose of receiving an address from His Excellency Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, President of the United Mexican States. On Friday, the House will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative business. Suspensions (9 Bills):
Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendments with a House Amendment to H.R. 4213 - The American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act (Subject to a Rule) (Sponsored by Rep. Levin / Ways and Means Committee) Further Action on The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Subject to a Rule) (Sponsored by Rep. Gordon / Science and Technology) In the News Once a crisis passes, it's easy to be brilliant If an Idaho Republican acts sanely in the middle of a financial crisis, it's certain a pair of right-wing challengers will force him to defend the obvious on statewide television. So there was 2nd District Congressman Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, Sunday, swatting off attacks from his GOP primary opponents, John Birch Society member Chick Heileson and state Rep. Russ Mathews, both of Idaho Falls. Back in the fall of 2008, the nation's financial system had seized up. With the value of their assets plummeting, banks suddenly lacked enough capital to be deemed safe and sound. Their financial cushions melting away, many were on the verge of failure. With no confidence in the markets, money stayed on the sidelines. People were fleeing the banks. Big corporations - General Electric and General Motors - couldn't get credit. Neither could local retailers secure operating loans on the eve of the Christmas season. Where was the bottom? No one really knew. For a generation with no living memory of it, the Great Depression was more of an abstraction. The choices weren't good. You could do nothing and maintain that intervention is outside the proper role of government. If so, the banks might survive, although they'd be so weak the credit markets would remain frozen. Then again, there might be a collapse. Depositors in a federally insured savings account would be made whole. But someone with a money market account or a retirement tied to stocks or bonds would be wiped out. Businesses would fail. Unemployment would be epidemic. And while the country inevitably would pull through, a lot of innocent people who had nothing to do with Wall Street's excesses would have suffered horrendously, perhaps for a decade. Or you could step in by extending a massive line of credit to the banks and restore some modicum of confidence. Not enough to avoid a deep, brutal recession. Certainly not enough to spare millions who lost their jobs, businesses and homes. But enough to shore up the system. Simpson and then-Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, voted for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Then-Congressman Bill Sali and Sen. Mike Crapo, both R-Idaho, voted no. Simpson and Craig have been vindicated - if by vindicated, you mean the program worked, the economy responded and the taxpayer was safeguarded. Of the $750 billion allocated, a third was never spent. Almost another third has been repaid with interest, and it's now expected the program may cost no more than $87 billion - which could be recovered as a tax imposed on Wall Street. But they've not been vindicated if by vindicated you refer to the vitriolic criticism of right-wing radio, Fox News and Tea Party rallies. Throw in a strong dose of anti-incumbency, a pair of ideological primary election opponents who contend TARP was unconstitutional, unwise, unneeded and unfair - and you have a cocktail that could expose Simpson to some grief. Of course, it's easy for Heileson and Mathews to be brilliant 19 months later. Just as it was easy to be brilliant about stopping Hitler by July 1940. Just as it was easy to be brilliant about realizing Ronald Reagan had been right about the Soviet empire - by June of 1994. Or recognizing the vulnerability of American society to terrorism by December of 2002. Brilliance was in short supply when panic overwhelmed the country in the fall of 2008. Simpson had to know what was coming his way if he voted for TARP. Still, he was willing to do it. - M.T. |
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 Bring the F-35 to Idaho  Congressman Simpson questions Forest Service Chief at Appropriations Subcommittee Interior Hearing |
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