Dayton Daily News...
Tea Party chastises Boehner for debt ceiling deal
Activists say speaker was only ‘scheming and posturing for votes.’
By Jack Torry and Jessica Wehrman

Sunday, August 21, 2011 

WASHINGTON — Tea Party activists in southwest Ohio assailed House Speaker John Boehner for his role this month in forging a deal with President Barack Obama to extend the federal government’s debt ceiling, charging that the GOP lawmaker from West Chester Twp. “chose to defend your elected office and that of your peers over the will of the people you represent.’’ 

In a letter released last week, Tea Party and Liberty Group members from Boehner’s district complained that “only a politician could view a massive increase in the debt ceiling as a success. The country was crying out for leadership and a clear direction, while all we received was constant scheming and posturing for votes in 2012.’’ 

Obama signed a bill approved by the House and Senate this month that linked raising the government’s debt ceiling with reducing the deficit by $2.3 trillion during the next 10 years. But the Tea Party activists said that even with those cuts, the government will add nearly $3 trillion to the national debt by the end of 2012, which would be Boehner’s second year as speaker. 

“It will be extremely difficult for this group to determine the success of your leadership as it is now understood behind an additional mountain of debt,’’ the activists wrote. $55M added to small business loan program. 

Ohio last week received $55 million in federal funding to expand access to credit for Ohio small businesses looking to grow operations and create jobs, Sen. Sherrod Brown said last week. 

The funding will be made available through the U.S. Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative, a program that was passed as part of the Small Business Jobs Act, which was signed into law last year. 

That bill created a $30 billion loan fund — at no cost to taxpayers — to enable community banks to make loans to small businesses seeking to expand operations or hire new workers. 

Brown, D-Ohio, said the funds are expected to leverage up to 10 times the award amount in private investments, which could lead to up to more than $551 million in total support for Ohio small businesses. 

GOP freshmen criticize Senate’s budget effort 

Three Ohio freshmen Republicans joined 37 colleagues last week to send a letter to Politico touting their own work during the recent debt crisis and criticizing the Senate. 

Reps. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus; Bob Gibbs, R-Lakeville; and Bill Johnson, R-Marietta; emphasized in the letter that the nation could’ve avoided a credit rating downgrade had the Senate passed the “Cut, Cap and Balance” bill. That bill, pushed by the conservative Republican Study Committee would’ve cut federal spending by $111 billion next year, capped future expenditures and required passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. It passed the House earlier this summer. The Study Committee is led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana. 

The letter also criticized Senate Republicans for failing to pass a budget. “Given the fiscal crisis we are facing as a nation, the Senate’s failure to act is unacceptable — both to our creditors and to all Americans, who must ultimately shoulder the burden of paying our debts,” the letter read. 

The letter called for the Senate to pass a budget and pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. 

“We, the Republican freshmen, were elected to fundamentally change the way things are being done in Washington. We are making the tough decisions necessary to ensure that we remain the greatest and most prosperous nation in the world,” the letter concluded. “We simply need a Senate that will get to work and join us in this effort.” 

Read it at the Dayton Daily News