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By Rep. Eric Cantor Posted in Congress — Comments (21) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The low-tax, limited regulation and small government Republican policies that have fueled unprecedented American prosperity and economic growth over the last several years are clearly under attack. Everywhere you look, it seems, another Democrat proposal pops up to raise taxes in the name of expanding entitlements.
House Democrats today pushed through an SCHIP reauthorization that amounts to a fiscally reckless $211 billion government handout. But it didn't have to be this bad. SCHIP began as a Republican program that offered federal dollars to help states insure indigent children who were not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. But the Democrats' new plan extends this entitlement to those with family incomes of $82,500 and higher. And how do they plan to pay for it? Two ways – by stripping $200 billion over the next 10 years from the more flexible privately administered Medicare Advantage, and, of course, by raising your taxes.
Beyond the SCHIP plan, the chorus of calls for tax increases by House Democrats include a $7.5 billion hit on U.S. farmers, which was enacted in the Farm bill to pay for food stamps; an $11.4 billion tax hike on domestic energy producers, which enables foreign oil cartels to capitalize on growing international energy demand and does nothing to lower the prices at the pump; and a 135 percent tax increase on the profits made by managers of investment partnerships, threatening the retirement security for millions of Americans invested in these funds.
These kinds of tax hikes magnify the differences in vision between our nation's two parties. They also set in sharp focus the obvious: that Republicans must unite now more than ever in defense of common-sense conservative solutions.
Read on . . .
Judging from what I have seen thus far in this Congress, conservatives have reasons for optimism. House Republicans have achieved significant success in stopping the liberal agenda.
We fought for fiscal discipline, as over 150 House Republicans – enough to sustain a veto – signed a pledge to uphold the president's rejection of excessive spending. We fought for worker's voting rights, as we formed a united front to defeat a union-backed bill that would deny workers the right to a secret ballot in union elections. We fought for transparency, as we forced the Democrat majority to end its habit of slipping earmarks into conference reports in order to avoid debate. In all of these areas and more, we stood on principle and won.
Yet our success over the long run requires that we find new ways to expand our audiences and articulate our conservative message. We must move beyond the reactive politics of the day-to-day and offer solutions to the problems faced by real people. I want to move beyond messaging to achieve a real, substantive dialogue with all Americans. The Internet is one area where Republicans can do so much more.
Over the past seven months, we have begun to use technology in ways that have never before been utilized on Capitol Hill. Our use of new technologies and tactics will only expand as we connect with more of the American People.
In this vein, I urge you to visit Solutions Factory on my website at ericcantor.com. Solutions Factory is a place where you can submit your ideas for the future of America, then rank and debate the solutions of others. Working together, we can build an agenda of conservative solutions for the future that will lead our party back.
Of course there will be doubters - pessimists who believe that the challenges are too great, that victory will never be achieved. I, for one, am more confident that House Republicans' best days are ahead.
Caution won't win elections, only courage will.
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Thanks for the feedback. I agree, there is a lot of potential to expand this concept in a host of ways and to really open up the process to all Americans, in ways that the blogosphere uniquely makes possible.
Redstate:
Despite your best efforts to emasculate the RNC it appears as if they are outraising the DNC. Donations dissapoint Redstate .
You will need to ge you act together, otherwise the Republicans may well be in a financial position to take on the Demonrats in 208.
What all too often has failed our party is a consistent, short meaningful message. exempli gratia your brief statement that SCHIP began as a Republican program.
I am curious how many people know that? Why is that not turned into a statement that takes it one step further such as "SCHIP was our idea and we know best how to make this program work effectively for America"? Surely we do not need to be prolix and invariably express our outrage. That is reactive, not proactive.
This party's membership has many good ideas for America. But we need to insure those ideas are not obfuscated in the message. I speak with many different groups across the political spectrum that are confused by our positions. Often, once they are explained we have a useful dialogue. That should not be the transition, since such an approach makes folks vexatious and less likely to make informed votes.
I see this as a substantial part of the battle ahead; many groups working towrds one goal with the same voice. Hopefully, this will be recognized and addressed.
-Chris
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
Contributor to The Minority Report
Chris - Thanks for the feedback.
I certainly agree that messaging is a critical component of our efforts; in other words, making it clear to the American People what it means to be Republican and why that is good for America.
In Alastair Campbell's new book, "The Blair Years" there is a passage from their time in the opposition. "Tony said that in opposition, what you said, how you said it, and how it was reported, was a large part of your armoury. Governments can do things. They can set the agenda with their actions. Our words are going to be vital."
That said, I believe that specifically on the Internet, we have an opportunity to engage the American People in fundamentally new ways. We can go beyond one-way communication into a true, meaningful dialogue about the future of this country.
I will once again take this opportunity to suggest we revise the site; adding a section where this type of intellectual capital is given prominence.
My thought is to add a section by RedHot, right margin. Create a menu where distinguished posters articles can be accessed. Organize it by name if you wish or any other catalogue method.
IMO, it is very useful to constantly reference much of this material, especially the weblinks. This builds a constantly accessible knowledge base.
This article is a perfect example of grass roots participative opportunities.
My apologies to the Representative for going off subject.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
Contributor to The Minority Report
Join the Win the War campaign, joshlevy@yahoo.com, www.win-the-war.com.
Our leaders waver, but we can give them the courage they need.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
of subsidies. I have no problem eliminating subsidies that are given to specific industries in order to reduce the overall tax burden on the American people. We should support the free market and strive to eliminate subsidies wherever we can (and not play word games and call them tax hikes).
....aside from the obvious creeping socialized health care. Why would you support a government program that takes people off private insurance?
Another thing that popped out at me is the new taxes levied on domestic oil producers. That is the epitome of ignorance. Liberals are so bent on punishing oil companies it's ridiculous. In an age when we are desperately trying to achieve more energy independence, this bill seeks to PUNISH American energy companies that produce oil here at home!!! The leftists like to pay lip service to energy independence, yet all this tax will do is INCREASE the incentive to buy oil from overseas. This is madness. Why produce American oil, by an American company, that has American owners, contributes to American GDP, and creates American jobs?
I know this is an SCHIP thread....I didn't mean to get off on an oil tangent, but that new tax is idiotic.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
that the current private insurance system is tenable in the long term?
The USA spends more than twice as much per person per year on healthcare than the next highest country (that's an average and on average we have mediocre coverage).
The problem with it is that at some point our system is going to put certain sectors of our economy at a competitive disadvantage to other economies where the health cost burden is not as high....think cars being made in Canada instead of the USA.
Look, no system is perfect, but according to the number....on the whole....our system is not tenable.
....to make private coverage more available and more affordable to people. We should not be taking people who currently can afford private health coverage and are on private plans off of those plans and on to taxpayer-funded government run plans. The current system is not working, that doesn't mean we need to move to more government control, higher taxes, and more bureaucracy.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
that the reason that the US system is so expensive vis-a-vis other countries is because of medicare and medicaid and SCHIP?
....is expensive for several reasons. First off, we have the best system in the world. We have the most advanced hospitals, the most qualified doctors, the most state-of-the-art medical equipment, and the latest and greatest prescription medicines. Trial lawyers have mucked up our medical system with frivolous lawsuits. Doctors are required to order an inordinate amount of many times unnecessary proceduces just so they cover their ass if they happen to get sued. Case in point: I had an $1,300 MRI done for a kidney stone recently. The fundamental reason, however, is the third party payer system in place that is combined with huge group insurance policies. We need to get the individual more involved in their own health care. I'm not a health care policy wonk, but I know what we need is less government and less bureaucracy.
The only medical procedures that have consistently gone down in price over the years is cosmetic plastic surgery and other elective procedures like LASIK. The reason being is because it is an all cash business (no insurance), and government doesn't have any hand in it. The result is that people shop on price and quality, and the medical professionals compete with each other for business.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
is no denying that the US system HAS the best AVAILABLE care, but it is disingenuous to say that on AVERAGE we have the best care.
The US legal system has certainly contributed to healthcare costs. Defensive over testing and very high malpractice insurance. But the more "private" the system becomes the more circling those vultures get and the higher the costs go for everyone.
I'll take your word on it that cosmetic / lasik are the "only" procedures that have gone down in price....but if I had more time I'd probably check into that as I intuitively feel that many "routine" things have probably had a similar pricing curve. The costs have increased because in addition to the legal influence we get more care (the first heart bypass was done in 1953.....now they are routine).
For my part, from what I've heard, the Democrats allowed very little discussion or review of this bill. Even reporters were left in the dark.
This entitlement program, which will include illegal aliens, should be right up there with the immigration bill in conservative's response to congress. This may even be more harmful than the failed immigration bill if allowed to become law.
The devils in the details. Look them up.
that there is no outcry against this vast expansion of the federal government? You only hear about this bill on conservative talk radio or see it buried on pg 6 of the local paper. It sets the limits way too high- a family of four can make like $83K and still be eligible. Worse, you can drop your current health care and take the government one. How can they allow that to happen? It just doesn't make any sense except to further the push towards socialized medicine.
[*Retread. Disregard. - Moe Lane]
I believe this one calls for coverage of those under 300% of the poverty line, as opposed to 400%.
This would make the income eligibility $62,000 instead of $82,000 under the other proposal.
by the RNC's website.
It could also be used to create other things. Why not allow the public to try to draft selected speeches, for instance?
"Do the day's work."