Texas GOP Vote

The following was sent in from Texas State Representative John Garza's campaign: Last week’s headlines focused on the United States losing its AAA bond rating. While stocks plummet this week, our first response is that this is a fiscal crisis; it is in reality a leadership crisis in our nation. While past administrations have practiced deficit spending, under President Obama it has reached unprecedented levels.

Our federal government has built a monumental debt reaching the maximum allowed by law. The solution to this crisis by our President and Congress was not to balance the budget and cut spending, but to change the law raising the debt limit and declaring a need to increase taxes.

Most of us realize that the recent debt deal did not accomplish even a hint of genuine agreement on spending cuts. Instead, the deal struck includes raising the debt ceiling, future (unspecified and unenforceable) spending cuts, and no new taxes. That battle is over for now.

But the larger and more consequential battle is the ongoing fight to demand that America’s policy makers accept and deal with the reality that economic facts are among the rules we cannot change.   Read more »

This past week we have seen a confluence of some of the most astonishing financial events in our lifetime. It started with the last minute debt ceiling deal that pleased no one and did little or nothing to reduce the nation’s enormous debt problems. This was followed by a large downdraft in the stock market, which was, in turn, followed by very bad news from Europe. As the week ended, the Italian debt problems became very severe and then on Friday evening, a major announcement from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) told the

Speaker Boehner Pres Office - Following another disappointing jobs report and S&P’s decision on the United States’ credit rating, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) urged President Obama in the Weekly Republican Address to abandon his ‘stimulus’ policies and support solutions that will promote long-term economic growth -- solutions like a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution and the House-passed Path to Prosperity budget which would preserve and protect our entitlement programs from bankruptcy. Watch the address here and read more below:

The crash of last week showed the brilliant people they really weren’t so brilliant after all. After several bail outs of Greece and the collapse of the Greek welfare state, Europe woke up to the fact that Italy and Spain weren’t so far behind Greece, and unlike Greece, both of these countries are simply too big to bail out. Europe is heading for a recession and the collapse of the European welfare state continues.

The problem with Europe is that they have a central currency but no political

The recent unemployment numbers gave the administration some breathing room since instead of sucking totally, they were merely mediocre. It presents a challenge to Republicans since the big debates on the budget have really just begun. As I mentioned in a previous posting, it doesn’t matter who “won” the debt ceiling debate since it did not change the dynamic of the basic debate

The vote in Congress this week to raise the debt ceiling shows the power of the people to change the debate in Washington. In 2010, the American people changed the terms of our ongoing debate over federal spending and debt. In 2012, the resolution of that debate will arrive, and the people will have the chance to strengthen their message into a mandate.   Read more »

On Monday, I reluctantly supported the debt ceiling compromise for several important reasons. First, America will run out of money in early August, putting us at risk of a default. The ratings agencies have threatened to downgrade our AAA credit rating, which would drive up interest rates, shrink our GDP, and collapse our economy. For every 1% increase in interest rates, we lose a trillion dollars worth of spending cuts we enact.

There is a particularly well researched explanation of the debt ceiling problem at www.bipartisanpolicy.org. Click on the debt limit analysis,

NRCC - Democrats took advantage of the focus on the debt limit last week to push through their job-destroying environmental agenda, announcing new regulations that may destroy up to 220,000 auto industry jobs, outlining a new timeline for a job-destroying ozone rule and continuing to oppose new measures that will increase American made energy and create jobs:

75% OF DEMS SIDE WITH OBAMA’S EPA, OPPOSE PLAN FOR NEW ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND JOBS. (H.R. 1938, Roll Call #650, Passed 279-147, 7/26/2011)

DESPITE THE FACT THAT THIS PLAN COULD CREATE UP TO 230,000 NEW JOBS. (“Restarting the Engine: Securing American Jobs, Investment, and Energy Security,” IHS Global, 7/29/2011)

OBAMA ANNOUNCES NEW FUEL ECONOMY STANDARDS AT A COST OF UP TO 220,000 JOBS: “The recent

After months of meetings, speeches, threats and dire warnings of a US government debt default, Congress this week finally gave in to the pressure and passed another massive debt ceiling increase. It was a great show for the media and for the political class which followed every move like as if it were a Super Bowl game in progress, but in the end nothing really significant was accomplished.

The net result of this “grand compromise” is that the United States government will continue to spend itself into bankruptcy. Besides raising the debt ceiling