The Club for Growth urges all House members to vote "YES" on the Full Faith and Credit Act (HR 807) sponsored by Rep. Tom McClintock. Consideration of the bill is expected in the next few weeks. The vote on this bill will be included in the Club's 2013 Congressional Scorecard.

If enacted into law, this bill would take default off the table if Congress cannot come to an agreement on what to do with the debt ceiling if it is breached.

The bill codifies and mandates the Treasury Secretary's authority and ability to pay, above all other public expenditures, the principal and interest on the government's debt held by the public. This is a common sense plan that will help reduce anxiety in the financial markets and reassure credit agencies.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 113th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

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The Club for Growth urges all House members to vote "NO" on HR 1549, a bill designed to extend an ObamaCare program that has run out of money. Consideration of the bill is expected sometime next week. The vote on this plan will be included in the Club's 2013 Congressional Scorecard.

The Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan (PCIP) is a program that even President Obama found to be too expensive. Enrollment was below expectations and it was overrun with costs.

This proposal would further extend the federal government's role in healthcare. Because this bill eliminates a previous requirement for enrollees to be uninsured for six months, it creates the moral hazard of avoiding insurance until it is needed and provides an extra incentive for people to enroll in federally-run insurance.

Furthermore, this bill does nothing to lower healthcare costs, which should always be the goal of any health reform proposal. There are numerous ways to provide private insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. This includes making insurance portable when changing jobs, giving individuals the same tax break that employees receive, allowing a national market for insurance, and allowing mandate-free insurance. If high-risk pools need to be established, they should be created and maintained at the state level with no interference from the federal government. Finally, the fact that this bill is offset with the repeal of another ObamaCare program is irrelevant. ObamaCare as a whole was financed in part with borrowed money, so this bill will only contribute to more debt. Fiscal conservatives should be squarely focused on repealing ObamaCare, not strengthening it by supporting the parts that are politically attractive.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 113th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

UPDATE (April 24, 2013): Earlier this week, the Club issued a key vote alert against the PCIP Extension bill, (HR 1549). You can read that alert to re-examine our reasons for opposing the bill. Since then, the House Rules Committee made in order a Pitts/Upton amendment that many assumed was suppose to assuage conservatives' concerns with the bill. But the underlying proposal still funds an ObamaCare program that pays for federal high risk pools. Had the Pitts amendment re-directed funds away from this program towards state-level pools, rather than add on state-level pools, we would have been more open to dropping our key vote against the bill. But the fact remains that it doesn't do that. Therefore, we remain opposed to the bill, and the vote will be included in our 2013 congressional scorecard.

Separately, we remain strongly opposed to the Prevention Fund, and hope that House leaders will offer up a bill that terminates it and uses the savings to reduce the deficit.

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The Club for Growth urges all members of the U.S. House to vote "YES" on Rep. Mulvaney's amendment (#4) to the Sandy relief bill (HR 152). Consideration on the House floor is expected later today. This vote will be included in the Club for Growth's 2013 congressional scorecard.

This amendment would pay for the $17 billion bill by applying an across-the-board cut of 1.63% to all discretionary spending.

The underlying bill continues to remain unpaid for, and this amendment would fix that. It's the very least Congress can do to start acting in a fiscally responsible manner.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 113th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=16062

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The Club for Growth urges all members of the U.S. House to vote "NO" on both the $17 billion Sandy relief bill (HR 152) and the Frelinghuysen amendment (#2) to add another $33.67 billion in funding for long-term projects. Consideration on the House floor is expected this week. These votes will be included in the Club for Growth's 2013 congressional scorecard.

Disasters may be unpredictable, but we know with 100% certainty that they will occur. Therefore, Congress shouldn't keep passing massive "emergency" relief bills that aren't paid for, have little oversight, and are stuffed with pork. Also, Congress shouldn't use disasters like Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to spend billions on long-term projects that should be considered during the regular appropriations process.

As we have said in previous key vote alerts, there are more responsible ways to pass disaster relief legislation. For starters, funds could be released in installments to make sure the resources are spent more wisely. They should also strip out all immaterial line items, and fully offset all expenditures with spending cuts elsewhere. Serious reform would also include a way for the states to take over the responsibility for future disaster relief funding so that accountability is more localized.

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The Club for Growth urges all members of the U.S. House to vote "NO" on the bill to expand the National Flood Insurance Program's borrowing authority by $9.7 billion. Consideration of the plan on the House floor is expected to occur today. This vote will be included in the Club for Growth's 2013 congressional scorecard.

Congress should not allow the federal government to be involved in the flood insurance industry in the first place, let alone expand the national flood insurance program's authority.

As we have said in a previous key vote alert, the proper way to address disaster relief is to release the funds in installments to make sure the resources are spent wisely. They should also strip out all immaterial line items, and fully offset all expenditures with spending cuts elsewhere. Serious reform would also include a way for the states to take over the responsibility for future disaster relief funding so that accountability is more localized.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 113th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

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Yesterday, we notified members of Congress that we were key-voting "NO" on the rule for the so-called "Plan B" tax increase. That key vote still stands. However, we also plan to score two more votes:

1. If the rule to "Plan B" (H.Res. 841) is approved, we will urge members of the House to vote "NO" on the underlying bill (H.J.Res. 66). Our criticism of the bill remains the same as it was yesterday.

2. The Club for Growth also urges members of the House to vote "NO" on the Sequester Replacement Act (HR 6684). As we wrote earlier this year about this proposal, House leaders are refusing to make all of the necessary spending cuts now and instead are promising to make the cuts in a future Congress. They will try to claim that they aren't breaking the sequester because they actually cut more than the $1.2 trillion required over ten years. But this is misleading. They don't want to make all of the FY13 cuts, so they are pushing them into the future. This is a direct violation of the promise they made to the public last year.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 112th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=16028

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The Club for Growth urges all House members to vote "NO" on the rule for the so-called "Plan B" tax increase. Consideration of the bill is scheduled for later this week. The vote on the rule will be included in the Club's 2012 Congressional Scorecard.

On the substance, this bill is anti-growth. It increases tax rates for those making over $1 million while also raising taxes on capital gains and dividends. We don't buy into the Washington-speak, suggesting that these are actually tax cuts.

Also, it's no secret that this bill is not a final product, but a bargaining tactic to make a larger deal even worse. As such, we cannot support it just on substance, but also the procedure which dictates its consideration. Therefore, we are urging all members to oppose the rule.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 112th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=16025

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The Club for Growth strongly opposes Discharge Petition No. 0005 that would force floor consideration of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012 (HR 6083), otherwise known as the farm bill.

A House member's signature on this discharge petition, or any similar petition, will count heavily as an anti-growth action on the Club for Growth's 2012 Congressional Scorecard.

Frustrated by the bill's lack of attention, supporters of this discharge petition are attempting to force consideration of the proposal before the end of the year. However, fiscal conservatives should be acutely aware of the flaws in this big government spending bill. Among other concerns, it authorizes a whopping 60% increase in spending over the 2008 bill, it creates new entitlement programs that could prove extra costly to taxpayers, and it does nothing to reform the food stamp program.

Real reform would wean farmers off of subsidies all together, get the government completely out of the agricultural industry, and at the very least, block-grant food stamps back to the states.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 112th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=15961

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Member Comments (2)

The Club for Growth urges all House members to support Rep. Mike Pompeo's amendment to the C-J-S appropriations bill (HR 5326) that would defund the Economic Development Administration (EDA) and transfers the savings to deficit reduction. We expect a vote on this amendment to occur this week, perhaps as early as today. This vote will be included in the Club for Growth's 2012 Congressional Scorecard.

This amendment defunds the EDA, which is a "Great Society" program from 1965 that ostensibly provides financial aid to economically distressed areas of the country in order to stimulate economic growth. But it's nothing more than a redistribution scheme allowing politicians and bureaucrats to fund their pet projects.

The EDA is corporate welfare. The free market, not the government, should be in charge of picking winners and losers in the private sector. A better alternative to the EDA is to cut tax rates on individuals and businesses while at the same time eliminating special interest carve outs and regulations, thereby promoting economic growth without growing the government.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 112th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=15891

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The Club for Growth urges all House members to vote "NO" on the Interest Rate Reduction Act (HR 4628). The House may consider it on the floor as early as today. A vote on this plan, and perhaps procedural votes, will be included in the Club's 2012 Congressional Scorecard.

Regardless of the merits, the government should not be in the business of subsidizing student loans.

Before 2007, the interest rate for subsidized Stafford student loans was 6.8%, but House Democrats voted that year to lower the rate to 3.4% for the next four years. This bill would extend that rate for new loans for another year, costing taxpayers $6 billion. It's bad policy to subsidize student loans in the first place, but the net result will likely drive up tuition costs for all students, making the overall cost of the bill much higher than its current price tag. House Republicans want to offset this subsidy by repealing the Prevention and Public Health Fund that was created with the passage of ObamaCare. That fund should indeed be repealed, but fiscal conservatives should only try to repeal the entire law, not just parts of it. And for the most part, the offset is irrelevant. Fiscal conservatives should not be promoting bad policy, which this bill contains.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 112th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.

UPDATE: The bill passed 215-195.

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