Taking Our Country Back.Org

We can dramatically cut the federal gas tax. States could adjust their gas taxes and make their own construction and repair decisions without costly union regulations.

By JIM DEMINT

The Congressional Budget Office now estimates that our national debt could nearly double over the next 10 years—to an astounding $29.4 trillion from $15 trillion today—so you might think Washington would be looking to stop the fiscal train wreck. You'd be wrong.

Despite all the hyperventilating about a tea party takeover in Congress, the sad truth is that in 2011 Congress increased spending from the year before, raised the debt limit by $2 trillion, and funded ObamaCare.

The highway bill is the latest example of Washington's bipartisan addiction to big spending. Every six years, Congress passes a spending bill that divvies up the revenues from the federal gas tax and other highway user fees. The money goes into an account called the Highway Trust Fund, and for decades Congress has promised not to spend more on roads and bridges than is available in the trust fund.

But the trust fund has run dry thanks to reckless spending and wasteful earmarks, so Congress bailed out the highway program—to the total tune of about $35 billion—in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Circulating now are two competing highway bills that both increase spending and force new multibillion-dollar bailouts. The Senate bill spends $109 billion over two years and includes a $12 billion bailout of the trust fund. The House bill spends $260 billion over five years and includes a $50 billion bailout. Is this bipartisan spending spree what voters asked for in 2010?

A serious highway bill would at least live within the means of the highway trust fund. But Republicans and Democrats have surrendered to the status quo of unsustainable spending.  

The only difference between the House and Senate bills is where the bailout funds come from. The Senate bill pays for the bailout with a bunch of accounting gimmicks that will lead to a larger national debt and higher taxes. The House, for its part, bases its bailout plans on the hope that Democrats will allow us to pursue oil and gas exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), offshore and in the shale of the Midwest.

While expanding our domestic energy resources is vital, it would be unacceptable to use the revenues from new exploration to grow government and not to pay down the national debt. It's a textbook example of attaching good policy to a bad spending bill so that conservatives will hold their noses and vote for it.

Here's a radical idea: Why not pay for new spending by actually cutting wasteful spending in other areas? It's no wonder our country is near fiscal ruin when the option of cutting spending is not even being considered.

It's also inexcusable that neither bill repeals the wasteful and corrupt Davis-Bacon Act, which forces the government to pay labor-union wages for federal construction projects. Davis-Bacon harms workers who choose not to join unions, and it needlessly raises costs to taxpayers.

According to the Heritage Foundation, Davis-Bacon cost taxpayers nearly $11 billion in 2011—money that should be going to fix bridges, not line the pockets of union bosses. It's no wonder Democrats support Davis-Bacon: It's a congressionally mandated kickback to unions that funnels millions to Democratic campaigns every year. But why do Republicans lack the courage to stand up against wasteful regulations and spending?

Our nation's fiscal situation is perilous. At $15.3 trillion, our national debt (as measured by the Treasury Department) has already overtaken our national economy, which at the end of 2011 came in at $14.95 trillion (according to the Congressional Budget Office). Bipartisan compromises on spending got us into this mess, and we'll never get out of it if Republicans don't offer a fiscally responsible alternative to the out-of-control spending that Democrats endorse.

We should devolve the federal highway program from Washington to the states. We can dramatically cut the federal gas tax to a few pennies, which would be enough to fund the limited number of highway programs that serve a clear national purpose.

In return, states could adjust their state gas taxes and make their own construction and repair decisions without costly Davis-Bacon regulations and without having to funnel the money through Washington's wasteful bureaucracy and self-serving politicians.

In order to avert a fiscal catastrophe in the near future, we're going to have to get a lot more serious about curtailing unnecessary federal spending. These highway bills—both Democrat and Republican—are anything but serious.

Contact Washington and tell them to vote NO!

Mr. DeMint is a Republican senator from South Carolina.

Our Mission is Economic Freedom

Club for Growth is a national network of thousands of pro-growth Americans, from all walks of life, who believe that prosperity and opportunity come through economic freedom. We work to promote public policies that encourage a high growth economy and a swift return to America's founding principles primarily through legislative involvement, issue advocacy, research, training and educational activity.
The primary tactic of the separate Club for Growth PAC is to provide financial support from Club members to viable candidates to Congress who believe in pro-growth policies, limited government, low taxes and economic freedom, both in Republican primaries and general elections.
Club for Growth Policy Goals:

• Reduce income tax rates
• Death tax repeal
• Limited government through limited spending and budget reform, including a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution
• Social Security reform with personal retirement accounts for younger workers
• Expanding trade freedom (free trade)
• End abusive lawsuits through medical malpractice and tort reform
• Replacing the current tax code (flat tax, fair tax)
• School choice
• Regulatory reform and deregulation

read more

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., left, accompanied by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., center, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated Tuesday Republicans would push for a vote on a transportation bill amendment that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline.

The amendment co-sponsored by McConnell, R-Ky., GOP Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota and several others would approve the TransCanada Corp. oil pipeline from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries using Congress’ foreign-commerce powers in the Constitution’s commerce clause. It’s one of a number of amendments Republicans have floated for a bill that would reauthorize surface-transportation programs for two years.

“There are amendments we would like to vote on, like the Keystone pipeline,” McConnell told reporters.

It still wasn’t clear whether Senate Democrats would agree to a vote on the measure. A similar effort by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to tuck it into the highway bill during a Senate Finance Committee vote was shot down when Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., ruled the amendment non-germane and said its inclusion would “take down the bill.”

Moreover, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., balked Tuesday at what he viewed as efforts by Republicans to slow down consideration of the chamber’s surface-transportation bill with amendments he said weren’t germane.

“Who knows the end of it?” Reid said Tuesday.

McConnell responded: “I hope we’ll be able to move forward on this bill with both non-germane amendments and germane amendments.”

Even if the amendment gets a vote, it would face a difficult path to winning 60 votes in the Democratic-held Senate. The GOP-controlled House of Representatives, on the other hand, has already made similar pipeline-approving language part of its five-year surface-transportation legislation, which President Obama has threatened to veto.

Senate Republicans, however, don’t appear to be letting up as they seek to circumvent the Obama administration’s denial of a permit for the project on Jan. 18. They have long claimed the project would create thousands of jobs and the resulting pipeline would bring much-needed oil from a friendly neighbor in Canada. Pipeline opponents call those notions exaggerated.

Hoeven took to the Senate floor where he sought to make the case for the amendment’s relevance to the Senate transportation bill.

“The highway bill is about infrastructure, vital infrastructure for our country,” Hoeven said on the Senate floor. “And that’s exactly what the Keystone XL pipeline is. It’s vital infrastructure that’s very much needed by our country.”

Efforts to amend the bill with Keystone XL language have come under fire not only from Democrats but also environmental activists, who staged a 24-hour campaign from noon Monday to noon Tuesday to flood the Senate with at least 500,000 messages urging senators to vote against any measure to approve Keystone XL.

The activists shattered their goal with more than 800,000 messages.

“I’m glad to hear people engaged in the debate,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in response to the news. “I don’t agree with them. I think it’s a self-inflicted wound to not build the Keystone XL pipeline.”

Reid has said he wouldn’t consider supporting such a measure unless it had a provision requiring the oil to stay in the United States. Pipeline foes worry much of Keystone XL’s oil would be exported.

Hoeven in turn called the export argument exaggerated and said Canada plans to develop its tar sands anyway, whether it goes to the U.S. or not — though similar efforts for a pipeline from the tar sands to Canada’s Pacific coast have faced considerable environmental opposition as well. Moreover, even if some oil is exported, the pipeline will still create new business for U.S. refineries that have tougher environmental standards and will therefore add value to the economy, Hoeven said.

“If you don’t build the pipeline, all of the oil goes to China. None of it comes here — none of it,” Hoeven said. “So we’re worried that some might get exported? Makes no sense — none.”

Boehner delays highway bill vote

By Keith Laing and Russell Berman - 02/15/12 10:00 AM ET

Speaker John Boehner is delaying a vote on the $260 billion transportation bill that was scheduled this week.

Boehner (R-Ohio) told his conference Wednesday morning that it was "more important that we do it right than that we do it fast" in explaining his decision, a clear signal GOP leaders lack the votes to win approval of the package.

"Given the volume of amendments and the need for a full, fair, open and transparent process, we may not finish energy/infrastructure this week," Boehner told his conference, according to a source in the room. "If we need more time to debate and consider amendments, that's perfectly fine with me. It's more important that we do it right than that we do it fast."

The GOP bill would pay for road and transit projects over the next five years and reauthorize the collection of the federal gas tax. It also authorizes expanded domestic oil and gas drilling, and projects revenue would be used to pay for some of the projects.

A Congressional Budget Office report on Monday, however, said the bill would leave the highway trust fund $78 billion in the red over 10 years. Republicans contend CBO underestimated increased federal revenue from expanded drilling.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Rep. Mica: House must pass transportation bill
• Reid calls bill 'obnoxious,' mocks GOP for delay
• Boehner splits up transportation bill

Boehner acknowledged that some members have concerns with the plan. But he told members that rising gas prices could help them win public support for the drilling provisions in the bill, which Democrats have called a "poison pill."

"This debate is a debate we want to have," Boehner said. "ABC News reported last night that we will soon see $4-a-gallon gas prices. Maybe higher. Certainly this summer will see the highest gas prices in years. Your constituents saw that report, and they’ll be talking about it. When they do, tell them about this bill that we’re working on.”

Boehner faced a tough vote this week even after breaking the measure into three pieces for a series of House votes intended to ease passage.

Democrats have called on Boehner to scrap the entire transportation bill, which has come under fire from the right for spending more than revenue that the federal gas tax brings in and the left for cutting funding for public transit, pedestrian and bicyclist projects. The Speaker could count on few Democratic votes in the House, and President Obama threatened to veto the bill if it passes.

Another complication for the Speaker arose on Tuesday night, when negotiators on the payroll tax extension agreed to use a federal pension reform to pay for extending unemployment insurance benefits and a fix to the Medicare reimbursement rate. The change partially overlaps with an offset in the highway bill, so Republicans must find another provision to ensure the highway legislation is fully paid for.

GOP leaders on Tuesday night acknowledged to their conference that they did not have the votes to win approval of the legislation.
"They said the whip card came back a little worse than the debt-ceiling whip count, which wasn't very pretty way back when," said Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio), a critic of the bill.

Critics of the GOP transportation bill in the House had pointed to the Senate's shorter, less controversial measure as an alternative. It received 85 votes in a floor vote to end debate last week. Supporters said the Senate bill, which would spend $109 billion over the next years and does not include drilling revenues, was on the fast track to passage in the upper chamber, but its momentum has slowed down this week as senators have offered unrelated amendments.

We must let our elected Officials know how we feel so please call our Senators; or in the case of out of state folks call your own, and the Senate Leadership.

Final Vote is TODAY on ANOTHER Debt Ceiling Increase -- We WON the First Vote, Tell Congress to Vote NO AGAIN:
https://secure.conservativedonations.com/rm_debtlimit/?a=7256
ALERT: TODAY is the final vote in the U.S. Senate against Obama's request for ANOTHER $1.2 TRILLION Debt Ceiling Hike!
WE WON the first vote -- but we MUST win this FINAL vote, too!
Congress voted last week on whether the nation's debt ceiling will be automatically raised from $15.2 trillion to $16.4 trillion at Barack Obama's request...and WE WON THAT VOTE!
Now we face the next big hurdle: a final vote TODAY. WE MUST TELL CONGRESS TO SAY NO...AGAIN!

DEMAND THAT CONGRESS REJECT OBAMA'S
REQUEST TO RAISE THE DEBT CEILING BY $1.2 TRILLION

Coach Bryant on occasion when Alabama was behind (we are not behind – BUT -) at the half he would tell his players “we’ve got them right where we want them”. He would go on to tell them how Alabama was going to win. His recipe for winning went something like this – attention to detail and technique, motivation and the will to do whatever it took(within the rules of course) to win and the attitude and belief that Alabama would prevail ---.

Folks this country is on the precipice and will topple if we allow Obama(the messiah – in his mind) and his regime four more years. We really can’t stand him four more minutes. We must keep the pressure on the congress to rebuff him at every turn –do whatever it takes.

For a part of what I would like for you to see, I am asking you to please, please, please go to our web site, www.takingourcountryback.org and view six postings that are very relevant to our mission to TBOC. One has in it a video of a speech given by General Boykin – it is a little long but very worthwhile. Nancy and I heard him in person last fall at The Family Research Council Value Voters Summit in Washington D.C.. A couple have to do with Obama, the Heretic, and his message to the so called “Prayer” Breakfast gathering. Obama is a bold faced liar and hypocrite. One from Eagle Forum has to do with the Komoni Foundation backdown and the pressure from Congress. You would know from which side of the aisle the pressure came but this gives the names.

What I am sending in this “Alert” are two items, one of which is action oriented. If we fail overtime to take action on this subject then we probably will witness it in a neighborhood close to us as it relates to Christian persecution. While you are at the web site please get the Contact ifo from there.

Sometime in the last two years Fox News sent a reporter out to investigate a neighborhood – in Chicago, I think but it doesn’t matter, where the Muslims had taken over. The Muslims had this neighborhood shut down to outsiders. They would not allow the reporter access. I would assume there are others across the country but you don’t hear about it. You do however hear what is being taught in the Mosques - Islam law.

This is longer and more cumbersome than I had planned but this is the start of the second half –WE MUST WIN.

My Thanks to you as we labor to TBOC.

Carl

On January 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reaffirmed a rule forcing nearly all private health plans to include coverage for all FDA-approved prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, as well as surgical sterilization.

An exemption provided for "religious employers" is so narrow that it fails to cover the vast majority of faith-based organizations, including Catholic, Baptist and Methodist hospitals, Christian and religious-based universities, and service organizations that help millions every year.

Non-profit religious employers that do not now provide such coverage, and are not exempt under the rule's extremely narrow definition of religious employer, will be given one year - until August 1, 2013 - to comply.

To correct the threats to religious liberty and rights of conscience by the Obama administration, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act has been introduced in Congress (H.R. 1179, S. 1467).

This measure will ensure that those who participate in the health care system "retain the right to provide, purchase, or enroll in health coverage that is consistent with their religious beliefs and moral convictions."

TAKE ACTION

The Obama administration continues to violate our most basic religious freedoms. It is critical that our elected officials do everything they can to reign in the out-of-control executive branch of government.

Email your representative and senators now and urge them to co-sponsor and strongly support the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

Related stories:
First, they came for the Catholics
President Obama...his contraceptive mandate

Email your representative and senators now!

The National Prayer Breakfast is an annual event that attracts over 3,000 people. Every U.S. president in recent decades has attended and spoken, and all of them have shed politics at the door. But not Barack Obama.
Yesterday he shamelessly wrapped his left-wing socialist political agenda in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't think Obama wears glasses, but he clearly needs a pair. He has looked at Karl Marx and confused him with Jesus Christ. For example, Obama said this:

"And I think to myself, if I'm willing to give something up as somebody who's been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that's going to make economic sense. But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that 'for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.'"

Notice the sleight of hand. Jesus did teach that we are to help the poor. If Obama had said, "Michelle and I, inspired by the Gospels, have decided to give our wealth to the poor," he could have a Christian argument. But, of course, that is not his public policy position. He is proposing to take other people's wealth under the threat of fines or imprisonment to give it to those he deems needy.
One will search in vain for any teaching by Jesus that calls for government to redistribute wealth. Christ's ministry was an appeal to charity from us as individuals. It was not a call for big government. (As you might recall, Christ's interaction with the big government of his time, Rome, did not go well.)
Obama said this:

"And when I decide to stand up for foreign aid, or prevent atrocities in places like Uganda, or take on issues like human trafficking, it's not just about strengthening alliances, or promoting democratic values…  It's also about the biblical call to care for the least of these -- for the poor; for those at the margins of our society.  To answer the responsibility we're given in Proverbs to 'Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.'"

This one falls into the category of deception. It is a gross exaggeration to state that the Obama Administration has emphasized human rights or human trafficking. From China to Iran, Obama has dropped human rights as a significant factor in the conduct of America's foreign policy. When Christians are murdered in Egypt, Nigeria, Iraq and elsewhere, his administration's response is tepid and perfunctory.
Obama also said:

"And so when I talk about our financial institutions playing by the same rules as folks on Main Street, when I talk about making sure insurance companies aren't discriminating against those who are already sick, or making sure that unscrupulous lenders aren't taking advantage of the most vulnerable among us, I do so because I genuinely believe it will make the economy stronger for everybody.  But I also do it because I know that far too many neighbors in our country have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years, and I believe in God's command to 'love thy neighbor as thyself.'"

There is no debate in Washington between those who favor unscrupulous lending and those who oppose it. There is no debate between people who want Americans to have health insurance and those who don't want us to have health insurance.
The debate is between those of us who think these problems are best solved with free market principles and those who think more government bureaucrats and regulations are the answer. When Obama suggests his big government approach is biblical, he is suggesting that those who oppose him are not faithful Christians.
Finally, the president said nothing about the clear biblical teaching on the sanctity of life. But God said, "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."
On the clear biblical teaching that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, Obama said nothing. The Scriptures tell us: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh."
And while we are instructed, "You shall have no other gods before me," Obama had nothing to say about religious liberty.
That's right! On public policy debates that are clearly about moral biblical concepts, Obama was silent because many of his policies are directly counter to the teachings of the Scriptures. He can find Dodd-Frank in the Bible, but he can't find "Choose life"!
What Barack Obama delivered at the prayer breakfast was not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was, not surprisingly, the Gospel of Jeremiah Wright, his fanatical, racist, anti-Semitic pastor of over 20 years. God help us if anyone at that breakfast was deceived.
Unfortunately, in the past 24 hours, I have run into a couple of stalwart, Christian conservatives who thought the speech was fantastic. Please don't let your friends and family members fall for this deception. Share this report with them so that the scales may fall from their eyes.
Economic Recovery Or Cover-up?
According to the Labor Department, the economy added more than 240,000 jobs in January. That's good news for those 240,000 folks. But it had nothing to do with Obama's policies.
I believe that the economy is improving now because Republicans slammed the brakes on the worst of Obama's agenda. Perhaps the most important consequence of the 2010 election was an agreement to prevent a massive tax increase by extending the Bush tax cuts for another two years.
You can't argue that a massive healthcare takeover that is not yet fully implemented is responsible for improved growth. It would be ludicrous to suggest that the failed stimulus bill, which did virtually nothing throughout 2009 and 2010, is responsible for improved growth now. And it can't be any of Obama's other policies, because, as he frequently reminds us, "obstructionist" Republicans in Congress keep blocking them.
Here's the "dirty little secret" about why the unemployment rate is going down: There are fewer and fewer people in the work force. The labor participation rate fell in January to a 30-year low.
As Professor Peter Morici put it, "The unemployment rate would be higher but for the fact that many adults have quit looking for work altogether, and the adult labor force participation rate remains depressed." Exactly. If everybody would just stop looking for work entirely, the unemployment rate would be zero.
That is the reality of the Obama economic "recovery" -- fewer Americans are working today.
But for now the unemployment rate is down, and no doubt the liberal media will be singing Obama's praises tonight on the evening news. How should Republicans counter that? It is important to make the facts known. But this election can't just be all about the economy.
As we are seeing, the economy can be unpredictable. Yet there are a host of reasons why Barack Obama does not deserve a second term. From values issues to his desire to "fundamentally transform" America to foreign policy, America cannot afford four more years of Barack Obama.
Justice Ginsburg: Ignore Our Constitution
One of the undeniable truths about the left is its desire to "fundamentally transform" America into something it is not. That is what the culture war to redefine our values is all about.
That is why the left is eager to abandon free enterprise and embrace socialism. And that is why left-wing judicial activists are so eager to incorporate foreign law into their decisions.
In a moment of candor, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, perhaps the Supreme Court's most liberal member, seemingly suggested that she prefers foreign constitutions to our own. During an interview with the Egyptian network Al-Hayat TV, Ginsburg offered her thoughts on how Egypt should go about writing its new constitution. Here is what she said:

"I can't speak about what the Egyptian experience should be, because I'm operating under a rather old constitution. …I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. …Canada has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. …You would almost certainly look at the European Convention on Human Rights. Yes, why not take advantage of what there is elsewhere in the world?"

Take advantage of everything that's out there, just don't look to America.
Why is it that so many liberals have such a low opinion of their homeland and feel the need to apologize for the country of their birth? Millions of people all over the world see America as a land of hope and opportunity. They want to come here to become Americans. Yet the left thinks they are confused and is constantly trying to make America like the rest of the world.

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