View This Statement At GOP.com

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele released the following statement today in response to the passage of Proposition C in Missouri, which protects an individual’s right to make their own health care choices.

“In a significant blow to the Obama administration, the people of Missouri overwhelmingly struck down a central pillar of ObamaCare by passing a statute that prevents the federal government from requiring individuals to purchase health insurance.  By rejecting ObamaCare with nearly three-quarters of the vote in a critical swing state, Missouri sent a clear message to Democrats and the Obama administration that government-run healthcare is a gross overreach of the federal government that needs to be repealed and replaced.  In addition to voter disapproval, lawsuits across the country are moving forward and this week, Virginia earned a major legal victory in its effort to challenge the constitutionality of the government’s individual mandate.

“Democrats experienced a backlash against ObamaCare at town hall events across the country a year ago, and despite clear opposition from the American people, they forced through their government takeover with backroom deals and midnight amendments.  Last night’s decisive vote against a key provision of ObamaCare, arguably the cornerstone of the Obama presidency, shows how completely detached the Democrat agenda is from the American electorate, and is another reason why Republicans will win back the majority in November.”

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Republican National Committee | 310 First Street, SE | Washington, D.C. 20003
p: 202.863.8500 | f: 202.863.8820 | e: info@gop.com

Posted: August 4th, 2010 under From the Right, In Congress, In the States.
Comments: 1

 Senator McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released a report that highlights 100 top projects from the stimulus package that they say have “questionable goals,” are “being mismanaged or were poorly planned” and are even “costing jobs and hurting small businesses.” Below are the top ten most wasteful released by McCain.

#1. $554,763 to replace windows at the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center at Mount St. Helens that was closed in 2007

#2. $760,000 to Georgia Tech to study improvised music

#3. $762,372 for interactive dance software development called “Dance Draw”

#4. $62 million for continued construction of the North Shore Connector in Pittsburgh, aka “tunnel to nowhere” – even Gov Rendell opposes it

#5. $1.2 million to convert an abandoned train station that was closed in 1971 into a museum

#6. $1.9 million to collect, photograph, and study difference species of ants in east Africa and the Southwest Indian Ocean islands

#7. $59,845 for a comparative study of the rise of colonial lawsuits in the Spanish Empire

#8. $529,648 to study the effect of local populations on the environment in the Himalayas

#9. $357,710 to repair stonework on a 140-year old abandoned iron furnace in Kentucky

#10. $89,298 for a town in OK to replace a new sidewalk with a newer sidewalk that leads to a ditch

Read the full Coburn – McCain Report Here.

Posted: August 3rd, 2010 under From the Right, In Congress, In the States.
Comments: none

QUOTES OF INTEREST

Mark Halperin:  (Time Magazine, 7/19)

“Democrats also fear that Biggs’ admission will impact the flow of donations from corporate interests and lobbyists, who tend to want to bet on the party more likely to win the majority. Open musing about a Speaker John Boehner, House Democrats believe, will drive mercenary donors to shift their support to the GOP.”

Cook Political Report:  (Meet the Press, 7/18)

“…identifies 64 House seats now held by Democrats that could fall to a Republicans.”

Posted: July 21st, 2010 under Elections, GOP Progress, In Congress.
Comments: none

Representative Ahn ‘Joseph’ Cao was shown to be a primary and general election leader by a recent survey released. Dr. Verne Kennedy of Market Research Insight surveyed 400 participants to discover the findings for Cao in the upcoming election. Representative Cao has been a supporter and key Member for the work that Log Cabin Republicans strives for. These survey results prove that “Inclusion Wins” in the Republican Party. A Republican takeover of Congress is not possible without the party being inclusive of all its members, Rep. Cao knows this. 

Key Findings from the Survey:

“The survey, conducted May 27 – June 2, 2010, shows Rep. Cao leading Cedric Richmond 51%-26% and Karen Carter Peterson 49%-30% in head-to-head matchups. When voters were asked if they would vote for Rep. Cao or “someone else,” Cao led 46%-29%. The Congressman has name recognition of 94%, 54% holding a favorable opinion of him and only 9% holding an unfavorable opinion.”

“The survey of 400 voters provides a survey error factor of 5.0% at a .95 level of confidence, meaning that if every voter in the Congressional District were interviewed, instead of this sample of 400, there is a 95% probability that results would be within 5% of those in this poll.”

For Additional Information:

 “Please contact Dr. Verne Kennedy at (850) 384-7040 or e-mail vkennedy@mri-research.com for more information. For additional comments, please call Bryan Wagner, Senior Campaign Advisor, at 504-616-6318.”

Posted: July 14th, 2010 under Elections, From the Right, GOP Heroes, GOP Progress, In Congress.
Comments: none

This week the Center for Public Integrity discovered a second labor union inaccurately filed their lobbying reports. An article in POLITICO acknowledged that the current system is troubled and confusing and lacks any sort of safeguard procedure. The National Association of Letter Carriers union failed to detail what specific issues the group was lobbying on, which is required by law. In May, the union group Maritime Officers was also revealed to inaccurately report their lobbying activity.  

 National Association of Letter Carriers reports that they represent 300,058 letter carriers and reports that they actively lobby the federal government. Any group that is a registered lobbyist must file quarterly reports to the secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House, which is mandated by the Lobbying Disclosure Act. These recent findings by the CPI reinforce the functional problems that exist with the Act. There are massive amounts of filings by lobbyists and few staff to review each filing.  The offices lack the resources to effectively monitor the system and punish those who file incorrectly. When groups feel no pressure to file correctly and there exists no punishment for misfilings, then it is nearly impossible to discover what organizations are reporting inaccurately, especially if no one is looking.

Posted: July 6th, 2010 under In Congress.
Comments: none

The Americans for Tax Reform released the following statement about the Senate Energy Bill that is costing America jobs and billions of dollars:

“Kerry-Lieberman Energy Bill Will Kill 522,000 Jobs and Reduce GDP by $39 Billion

New study proves disastrous costs of liberal Kerry-Lieberman energy bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act is an attempt by the Obama Administration to put a stranglehold on the economy by unnecessarily inflating the price of energy and taxing American families. This butchering of the free market will cause severe negative effects for the economy. A study performed by Chamberlain Economics, L.L.C on behalf of the Institute for Energy Research provides figures which illustrate this point:

• 522,000           Increase in unemployment in 2015[1]
• 5,000,000        Jobs lost by 2050
• $1,042              Cost to households annually
• $125 billion     Over economic loss each year
• 75 percent      Seniors that would forfeit 2.3 percent of their income
• 5.8 percent     Income forfeited for those making less than $10,000/yr
• 0.9 percent     Amount of cash income those making $150,000/yr would be taxed
• $1,174/yr        Increase in household bills for Northeast residents
• $987/yr          Annual increase households in the South would face
• 14 percent      Increase in petroleum prices to consumers
• 12 percent      Electricity and utility increase families will bare
• $39 billion       Reduction in GDP by 2015
• $384 billion     2050 total loss in GDP
• 119,000            Job losses to the petroleum industry
• 81,400              Natural gas and electric utility job losses
• 49,7000           Chemical product industry job losses

Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform had one thing to say, “Are the Democrats and Obama serious about this being their national energy strategy?”

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[1] All figures and statistics come from the Institute for Energy Research study

 Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a non-partisan coalition of taxpayers and taxpayer groups who oppose all federal, state and local tax increases. “

Posted: July 1st, 2010 under Action Alert, Democrats, In Congress, Issues in Focus.
Comments: none

Yesterday the Log Cabin Republicans issues a formal press release statement urging President Obama to sign the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace joined with Log Cabin to urge the signing of the sanctions. The sanctions include key provisions that prevent companies that do business in Iran from contracting with the U.S. Government.  Now, companies covered by this legislation will have to choose between doing business with Iran and doing business with the U.S.

Read the entire press release at http://online.logcabin.org/news_views/reading-room-back-up/log-cabin-republicans-call-3.html

Posted: June 30th, 2010 under Action Alert, In Congress, In the News, In the World, Log Cabin In Focus.
Comments: none

It is not the rich or the poor that are paying a large quantity of America’s annual federal taxes, reported a study from the Congressional Budget Office. CNSNews reported that “middle-class households that earned between $34,300 and $141,900 paid 50.5 percent of all federal tax revenues in 2007 (the most recent year analyzed), according to the CBO study released Thursday, and households that earned between $34,300 and $352,900 paid 66.7 percent of all federal taxes.”

 Those households that make over $352,900 pay only around 28 percent on federal taxes, but those households in the lower income brackets pay significantly less than the middle class and upper class. The households that make less than $34,300 paid only 5.2 percent, and those earning less than $20,500 had close to no federal tax burden.

 With such programs as Earned Tax Credit that pay credit to households making less than $34,300 are actually paying a negative amount of federal taxes! They receive a credit back on income taxes that was never actually paid.  According to the CBO data, taxation has been getting more substantial, but the taxation has lightened on lower income households while increasing on higher income households.

 The middle class is carrying the burden of America. Rising federal taxes are punishing the middle-range hard working Americans. The burden of the middle class is continually growing while lower income households taxes are growing lighter.

Posted: June 22nd, 2010 under Action Alert, Democrats, In Congress.
Comments: none

Republican Senators Scott Brown (R-MA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME) have all publically stated that they will not support a filibuster on the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that is planned for the Senate floor in the coming weeks. Yet if the wavering southern Democrats take a position against repeal, a filibuster could still be reached. Several Senators have not released their formal positions on the policy and how they will vote when the Defense Authorization Bill reaches the floor, with a repeal of the policy in the bill. Some Republican Senators understand that repeal is crucial and favored by a large majority of Americans, but others are still lacking.

Frum Forum writer Jonas Stankovich questions, “Why Republicans will spend energy on opposing a repeal overwhelmingly supported by the American voters is puzzling, when considering the necessity of saving political capital to fight upcoming Democratic bills on cap and trade, and another pork-filled “jobs” bill.  Republicans are wasting precious ammunition needed to stop a continued European-style liberal economic onslaught, just to make sure that our fighting men and women who are gay stay closeted.”

 The last fear soldiers defending our freedom need is the fear of being discharged because of their sexual orientation. When the Defense Bill reaches the floor, Senators have a decision to make; agree with 74 percent of the nation for repeal or waste time and energy to oppose repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Posted: June 9th, 2010 under From the Right, GOP Progress, In Congress, In Focus, Issues in Focus.
Comments: 1

This past Sunday on ABC’s This Week, General Colin Powell and Former Bush Adviser Matthew Dowd spoke for a repeal of the “outdated” policy.  

 “And today we’ve changed. The country has changed. I think we are at a point now where the policy — which is not a policy, it’s a law — should have been reviewed. It’s been reviewed. And I have always believed — and I said this many times recently — that you ultimately have to listen to the military authorities,” stated General Powell.

 Although General Powell believes it is time to repeal the law, he still believes in the full study and report from the military, which is expected to be completed by December of this year. Already repealed in the House and coming up in the Senate, the repeal efforts would rest on the completion of the military study before taking full effect.

 “The president said we’re going to do it. It’s a decision. And the Congress has to pass the law to allow that. And so let’s take the time to make the study, see what the implications are.”

 Matthew Dowd agreed with Gen. Powell by agreeing that our society is a different more accepting society then 10 or 17 years ago when the policy was implemented. Dowd shared insight of his son’s experiences in the military today and how the generational gaps are influencing the military.  

“[Today’s society] go to high school with kids that are now openly gay. They socialize with kids that are openly gay. And all of a sudden, they go into the armed services, somebody gives them a rifle, and they’re not supposed to be around gay people anymore?” questioned Dowd.

Posted: June 1st, 2010 under GOP Progress, In Congress, In Focus, In the News, Issues in Focus.
Comments: 1