This morning Sen. DeMint was joined by several of his Republican colleagues to announce support for a one-year earmark moratorium and a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment.
The list of cosponsors goes as follows:
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina)
Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona)
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma)
Sen. George LeMieux (R-Florida)
Sen. Richard Burr (R-North Carolina),
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)
Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho)
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada)
Earmark Moratorium:
If passed, the earmark moratorium would prohibit the Senate from considering any legislation that contains earmarks (as defined in Rule 44 of the Standing Rules of the Senate). The Senate could waive the moratorium with a two-thirds majority...
INSIDE THE NUMBERS: OBAMA'S SPENDS TOO MUCH, TAXES TOO MUCH, AND BORROWS TOO MUCH
1. President Obama’s budget spends too much. Under President Obama’s budget, the federal government would spend a record $3.8 trillion in the fiscal year beginning October 1. This represents a nearly 30 percent increase in outlays since 2008. The President’s budget would also maintain the size of government for a second year in a row at 25 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), well above historical levels of 20 percent.
2. President Obama’s budget taxes too much. The President’s budget includes more than $2 trillion in tax hikes, with a nearly 20 percent jump in the first year alone. This includes tax increases on small businesses, investors, and families earning less than $250,000 per year -- a violation of the President’s campaign pledge. The last thing American families and small businesses need right now are new taxes that make it harder to save, invest, and hire.
3. President Obama’s budget borrows too much from our kids and grandkids. Under the President’s budget, the federal government will run up a record budget deficit of $1.6 trillion in fiscal year 2011. Deficits never fall below $700 billion, never fall below 3.6 percent of GDP, and end the decade at more than $1 trillion. The national debt would double over five years and triple by FY2019 from FY2008 levels. Paying the interest on this debt would set American taxpayers back roughly $6 trillion over the next decade...
This week President Obama presented his budget proposal for fiscal year 2011 to Congress. Coming off last year's record-high $1.4 trillion deficit, one would think Obama would choose to be a bit more fiscally responsible. Not so. His proposal spends $3.8 trillion, doubles the national debt within five years, and increases taxes by $2 trillion on American families and businesses.
During tough times, most families and businesses have to difficult budgetary decisions, cutting out unnecessary wants and oftentimes very real needs in order to make a tight budget work. When President Obama announced a spending freeze last week, Americans hoped he was finally ready to get serious about the nation's fiscal woes. Unfortunately, that is not the case...
Sen. DeMint speaks again about his opposition to the renomination of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve and calls for a full audit of the Federal Reserve.
This past Sunday Sen. DeMint joined Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to discuss the political future of their respective parties following Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate race on ABC News' "This Week."
This week the Senate will continue work on a bill that would raise the debt limit by $1.9 TRILLION, up to $14.3 TRILLION. Several amendments will be debated during the process, including one from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that would postpone raising the debt limit by cutting spending by at least $120 billion. In an op-ed in the Washington Examiner last week, Coburn explained his amendment and suggested that members who refuse to set priorities have abandoned their duties.
Today the Wall Street Journal endorses Coburn's proposal and points out that it's as much a test for Coburn's fellow Republican colleagues as it is for the few Democrats left who claim to be fiscally responsible: "The debate is also a test for the Republican Old Guard, some of whom dislike spending cuts nearly as much as Democrats do. If Republicans want to give voters a fiscal choice this autumn, they'll rally behind Mr. Coburn's amendment."
Also on the schedule this week: a vote on the renomination of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve. So far 17 senators have declared their opposition to Bernanke's reinstatement, including Sen. DeMInt...
As you may have heard a Transportation Security Administration screener thought it would be funny to joke around with a passenger by implying that she committed any number of felonies by trying to smuggle drugs onto her plane and/or blow up the plane. Ten days after the Christmas day bombing. The Philadelphia Inquirerdescribes the terror the young girl must have faced:
After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things. A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him. Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on - the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder. She remembers his words: "Where did you get it?"
…
Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears. Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn't. Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile. Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his...
Sen. DeMint discusses the decision of Erroll Southers to withdraw his nomination as President Obama's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administrator with FOX News' Neil Cavuto:
For the first time since the Heritage Foundation began measuring the economic freedom of countries worldwide, the United States no longer falls under the "freest economies in the world" category. For a while now America has been creeping downward on the scale but the final straw was government interference in the banking system this past year. By stepping in and bailing out the banks with taxpayer funds, government interference took on a whole new level.
