The Hill's A.B. Stoddard sits down with Pundits bloggers John Feehery and Peter Fenn to discuss what impact the Boston Marathon bombing will have on the gun control and immigration debates.
View Comments
Showing posts with label Legislative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legislative. Show all posts
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Thursday, December 27, 2012
The Craziest Republican Legislative Proposals Of 2012
1. Outlawing the dollar.
Washington state lawmakers introduced a bill that would have outlawed the paper dollar, because “only gold and silver may be recognized as government legal tender.” This is just part and parcel of the extreme right’s continuing fascination with goldbuggery, a fascination to which the Republican party’s presidential candidates gladly pandered.
2. Striking the words ‘sea level rise.’
In Virginia, the Republican-led legislature commissioned a study to determine the impacts of manmade warming on the state’s shores, only to ban terms like “climate change” and “sea level rise,” deeming them “liberal code words.” And North Carolina Republicans voted to ignore studies that predict rapid sea level rise due to global warming.
3. Banning ‘Sharia Law.’
Republicans in states like Florida and Kansas passed Sharia-law bans in their state legislatures. In Kansas, a spokeswoman for Gov. Sam Brownback (R-KS) went so far as to say that the ban meant that the state “will not consider the laws of foreign jurisdictions.” The bans signified yet another year of the Republican establishment endorsing fringe Islamophobes.
4. Defining life as beginning before conception.
In Arizona, Republicans passed a new round of restrictive, anti-choice laws in the last year, chief among them HB 954. The bill, which one Republican defended by comparing women to cows and pigs, outlaws abortions after 20 weeks and actually starts the clock after a woman’s last menstrual period.
5. Allowing citizens to shoot at cops.
The NRA pushed Republicans in Indiana to pass a law that allows any citizen to open fire on a “public servant” for “unlawful intrusion.” Police fear this means a citizen could shoot at a cop, then claim the cop was trying to enter his or her property.
6. Zeroing out foreign aid. 
American foreign aid saves literally millions of lives at miniscule cost to taxpayers. And there are millions still dying that more American support could help. Yet Republican Presidential candidates, including Mitt Romney, proposed cutting the entire foreign aid budget and starting from scratch. Though Romney later changed course, House Republicans proposed draconian cuts to lifesaving aid.
7. Creationism in schools.
The movement to question the science of evolution was alive and well this year, as Indiana state senator Dennis Kruse (R) proposed not one, but two bills to inject creationist teachings into the public school curriculum.
8. Promoting discrimination on military bases.
Though H.R.3828, Rep. Tim Huelskamp’s (R-KS) Military Religious Freedom Protection Act, appears to be about protecting military chaplains from having to violate their faith, it would ban using any military facilities for same-sex marriages and even “marriage-like” ceremonies.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Legislative Alert: Abolish the Economic Development Administration
Today, the House began debate on the first of the 12 annual appropriations bills; the Commerce, Justice, and Science bill (H.R. 5326). So far, Republican leaders have agreed to abide by their pledge to bring these bills to the floor under an open rule. This allows conservative members to offer amendments to cut more spending and eliminate wasteful and unconstitutional programs. It’s the votes on these amendments that often separate the conservatives from the statists.
The underlying bill appropriates $52.94 billion for the Justice and Commerce Departments, NASA, and some other related agencies. This is a $1.6 billion cut from last year’s spending, and is in line with the individual spending allocations established in the Ryan budget. This is a good start, but as is that case with all these spending bills, there’s a lot more to cut. After all, with the exception of the Census Bureau, we should be eliminating the Commerce Department altogether.
The most important amendment that has been proposed so far is Mike Pompeo’s amendment #37 to abolish the Economic Development Administration (EDA). The EDA is a failed Great Society program that serves as a stimulus/pork slush fund for special interest communities under the guise of assistance to economically distressed areas of the country. It’s nothing more than a fund for corporate welfare and a way of picking winners and losers in the market. It has been as successful in creating jobs as Obama’s stimulus. Senator DeMint wrote a great piece on the EDA last year.
Anyone who claims to oppose earmarks and stimulus must oppose the EDA. While the underlying bill cuts funding to the EDA, it still appropriates $219 million for FY2012. Call your members and ask them to support the Pompeo amendment to end the EDA. If we can’t close down this failed agency, we will certainly never eliminate any major agency or full department.
We’re waiting to see if other members will step forward with some more prudent amendments, such as one to abolish the Legal Services Corp. We’ll keep you posted on how the amendment process plays out and post the roll call votes of the major amendments.
It’s these spending bills that grant us the opportunity to truly reduce the size of government. Then, we must force leadership to stick with the House bills and refrain from abandoning them for omnibus bills negotiated with the Senate, which refuses to pass a budget. The time for talk of balanced budgets and spending cuts is over. Now is the time for action.
Cross-posted from The Madison Project
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)