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Townhall...
So Refreshing --
Congress Doing Its Job
By Phyllis Schlafly
Republican members of the House, goaded on by tea partiers, have made a
good start in fulfilling their promise to cut $100 billion out of
current spending of taxpayers’ money. The House approved 66 amendments,
most on roll-call votes, to H.R. 1, the Full-Year Continuing
Appropriations Act for FY 2011.
Here is a sampling of those 66 amendments, which are only a drop in the
bucket for dealing with the federal deficit, but they reveal some of
the nonsense now imbedded in the federal budget. Democrats predicted
that House members at home during the Washington’s Birthday recess
would discover that constituents are angry about cuts, but congressmen
report getting more kudos than complaints because the American people
have wised up to the fact that government spending does not create jobs.
Amendment No. 8, sponsored by Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and passed
231-191, prohibits the use of any funds in the act to design, renovate,
construct or rent any United Nations headquarters. The UN was projected
to spend $1.9 billion to make its headquarters even more luxurious than
it already is.
Amendment No. 11, sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and passed 240
to 185, prohibits any of the act’s funds from being used by the Planned
Parenthood Federation of America or its affiliates. This big vote
reflects the 2010 election of many more pro-lifers and public opinion
moving against taxpayer funding of abortions.
Amendment No. 79, sponsored by Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and passed
241 to 184, prohibits the use of any of the act’s funds to pay the
salary of any Department of Health and Human Services employee who
develops or promulgates regulations or guidance about ObamaCare’s
health insurance exchanges. The public is still opposed to the mandates
and the costs of ObamaCare.
Amendment No. 83, sponsored by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and passed
246 to 182, prohibits the IRS from using appropriated funds to enforce
ObamaCare’s individual mandate to buy insurance. This vote probably
reflects the news that the IRS is hiring 1,054 new agents to enforce
the individual mandates and to fine Americans who don’t obey.
Amendment No. 84, sponsored by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., and passed 239
to 185, cuts out of the Environmental Protection Agency’s appropriation
the $8.5 million budgeted for the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Registry, which
was preparing to operate cap-and-trade. Pompeo said, “This data is the
very foundation of the EPA’s effort to pursue its radical anti-jobs
agenda.”
Amendment No. 100, sponsored by Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and passed
268-163, wipes out an appropriation of $42,600,000 for the U.S.
Institute of Peace and transfers it to the Spending Reduction Account.
U.S. taxpayers have already sunk $720 million into this boondoggle and
gave its bureaucrats an office building near the State Department.
Amendment No. 149, sponsored by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., and
passed 244 to 149, prohibits giving any of the act’s funds to the
U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That’s a welcome
strike against global warming propaganda.
Amendment No. 154, sponsored by Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, and
passed 235 to 187, prohibits any of the act’s funds from carrying out
provisions of the Education Jobs Fund, that mandates that only Texas
must certify that stimulus funds will be used to supplement and not
supplant state funding of education programs. How’s that for telling
one state how to spend its own money?
Amendment No. 196, sponsored by Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and passed
217 to 209, reduces the appropriation for the National Endowment for
the Arts by $20 million and transfers the money to the Spending
Reduction Account. Too bad the House didn’t totally defund the NEA,
since it has carried on years of offensive attacks on our culture.
Amendment No. 204, sponsored by Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and passed
249 to 175, prohibits any of the act’s funds from being used for
salaries and expenses for President Obama’s “czars,” who have not been
confirmed by the Senate. It’s probably a tossup whether this, or
defunding the redecoration of U.N. buildings, gets the popularity prize
with Americans.
Amendment No. 208, sponsored by Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. and passed 247
to 175, prohibits any of the act’s funds from being used for the
Presidential Election Campaign Fund or the Presidential Primary
Matching Payment Account. U.S. taxpayers have been increasingly
registering their disapproval of this expenditure on their annual
income tax returns.
Amendment No. 267, sponsored by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and passed 241
to 187, prohibits the act’s funds from being used to implement
ObamaCare this year, saving about $2.8 billion.
Amendment No. 404, sponsored by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and passed
244 to 181, prohibits any of the act’s funds from being used by the
Federal Communications Commission to implement so-called “network
neutrality.” Americans don’t want the government taking over
supervision of the Internet.
Read it on Townhall
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