Topic: Cap and Trade
Club for Growth's Andy Roth Discusses The Debt Limit On CNBC
Posted on Dec. 18, 12 | 02:36 PM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and TradeFreshmen Vote Study: "Just How Tea Party Are They?"
Posted on May. 16, 12 | 03:05 PM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and Trade
The Club put out a Freshman Vote Study yesterday, based completely on the scores received by the so-called "Tea Party" class of Republicans elected in 2010 on our Congressional Scorecard. You can find the study here: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/freshmanvotestudy/.
After a careful review to see if their records match their rhetoric, we found that for many of the freshmen Republicans, promises of fiscal responsibility have proven to be empty.
Our review of the voting records of freshmen Republicans on economic issues found:
If you haven't yet, feel free to check out our entire 2011 Congressional Scorecard (and prior scorecards) by clicking here. Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=15898
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After a careful review to see if their records match their rhetoric, we found that for many of the freshmen Republicans, promises of fiscal responsibility have proven to be empty.
Our review of the voting records of freshmen Republicans on economic issues found:
- In 2011, freshmen Republicans received an average score of 71% on the Club for Growth’s Congressional Scorecard. The average veteran received a 69%. This means the freshmen Republicans voted, on average, about the same as the Republicans who were already in Congress.
- A majority of freshmen Republicans voted against the conservative Republican Study Committee budget.
- Only 14 freshmen Republicans signed a pledge promising never to raise the debt ceiling until “Cut, Cap, and Balance” had passed.
- “Tea Party star” Rep. Allen West received an anemic 64% for voting to raise the debt ceiling and by repeatedly voting against spending cuts.
- The two freshmen in the Republican Leadership received vastly different scores, with Rep. Tim Scott receiving a 92% and Rep. Kristi Noem receiving a 60%.
- Charlie Bass ran for the seat he lost in 2006 by declaring that the agenda of the tea party “is exactly the same as mine.” He received a pathetic 48% in 2011.
- The Ten Highest scoring freshmen Republicans were Reps. Amash (100%), Huelskamp (100%), Labrador (100%), Mulvaney (99%), Walsh (99%), Stutzman (99%), Quayle (98%), Duncan (97%), Gowdy (97%) and Ross (96%).
- The Ten Lowest scoring freshmen Republicans were Reps. Rivera (47%), Grimm (46%), Stivers (45%), Runyan (45%), Gibson (44%), Hanna (44%), Fitzpatrick (43%), Dold (42%), Meehan (42%) and McKinley (37%).
If you haven't yet, feel free to check out our entire 2011 Congressional Scorecard (and prior scorecards) by clicking here. Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=15898
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Chris Chocola Appears on Varney and Company To Discuss The GOP Presidential Field
Posted on Jan. 24, 12 | 01:10 PM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and TradeClub for Growth's Andy Roth Discusses Mitt Romney's Tax Rate on CNN
Posted on Jan. 18, 12 | 01:33 PM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and TradeClub for Growth's Chris Chocola Talks To The WSJ About 2012 and Obama
Posted on Sep. 15, 11 | 12:34 PM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and TradeClub President Chris Chocola appears on MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown"
Posted on Aug. 17, 11 | 01:11 PM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and Trade
Part 1: Part 2:
Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=15521
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From ReasonTV: "Raise the Debt Ceiling: The Rap"
Posted on Jul. 26, 11 | 06:01 PM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and TradeSolve the debt-limit problem and promote growth?
Posted on Jul. 21, 11 | 06:22 PM by David Keating | Topic: Cap and Trade
Larry Kudlow makes a good point in his column this week:
So is a deal possible? I still think it is. The high end of the budget cuts from the White House and the House GOP possibly could be coupled with a tax deal on repatriation and even future tax reform. After all, economic-growth measures should be crucial in this sputtering economy.
Unfortunately for fans of tax hikes, a government can’t pay its bills with tax rates. This requires tax revenues—real tax revenues. In addition to the 56% increase in the capital gains tax rate, the U.K.’s “Emergency Budget” also raised their VAT by 14%, from 17.5% to 20%. So, how successful were all of these the tax increases in increasing real government revenues?
Lesson: Growth is key for jobs and for solving the budget deficit. Growth generates revenue and cuts spending on programs like unemployment insurance and food stamps. Tax hikes could make the debt problem tougher to solve and leave everyone poorer.
Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=15399
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So is a deal possible? I still think it is. The high end of the budget cuts from the White House and the House GOP possibly could be coupled with a tax deal on repatriation and even future tax reform. After all, economic-growth measures should be crucial in this sputtering economy.
Reducing the corporate-tax wedge and reducing the budget-spending wedge, to quote my friend Arthur Laffer, would provide a tonic for the economy. In other words, a debt deal can still work and promote growth.
And Louis Woodhill warns in his new Forbes column about the failure of the UK's take hike in their budget deal, noting that "the tax increases derailed England’s economic recovery." Excerpt:Unfortunately for fans of tax hikes, a government can’t pay its bills with tax rates. This requires tax revenues—real tax revenues. In addition to the 56% increase in the capital gains tax rate, the U.K.’s “Emergency Budget” also raised their VAT by 14%, from 17.5% to 20%. So, how successful were all of these the tax increases in increasing real government revenues?
U.K. government revenues in April and May 2011 were £80.7 billion, up 3.1% over the same two-month period in 2010. Unfortunately, year-over-year CPI inflation was 4.5%. This means that real government revenues actually declined by 1.4%, despite all of the tax increases.
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An Optimistic View on the Debt Problem
Posted on Jun. 27, 11 | 05:41 PM by David Keating | Topic: Cap and Trade
Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein are out today with an optimistic view of solving the budget challenges ahead. And they could well be right -- I certainly hope so.
Part of the solution is higher revenues, which they see rebounding even if tax rates are not increased. This would add trim about 4% of GDP of the budget gap if revenues rebound to roughly 18.5% of GDP from growth.
They see the budget negotiations leading to a drop in discretionary spending of 1.5% of GDP.
So, still a budget gap of roughly 3% of GDP.
Excerpt:
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Part of the solution is higher revenues, which they see rebounding even if tax rates are not increased. This would add trim about 4% of GDP of the budget gap if revenues rebound to roughly 18.5% of GDP from growth.
They see the budget negotiations leading to a drop in discretionary spending of 1.5% of GDP.
So, still a budget gap of roughly 3% of GDP.
Excerpt:
Of course, that still leaves the long-term entitlement problem. But even there we can see the outlines of solutions looming in the distance. For Medicare and Medicaid, which are much bigger problems than Social Security, we think ultimately the forces of smaller government win. We do not know whether it will be in 2012, 2016, or 2020. But one of those elections is likely to result in a Republican in the White House with control of both the US Senate and House. And at that point, they can enact major reforms along the lines of some recent proposals to turn Medicare into premium support and turn Medicaid into block grants to the states.
Parliamentary rules will allow the GOP to enact these changes with only a simple majority in the Senate (with no chance for a Democratic filibuster). And to reverse these reforms, because it would make future budget deficits larger, Democrats would need 60 votes in the Senate!
Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=15272
Parliamentary rules will allow the GOP to enact these changes with only a simple majority in the Senate (with no chance for a Democratic filibuster). And to reverse these reforms, because it would make future budget deficits larger, Democrats would need 60 votes in the Senate!
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Chris Chocola Op-Ed argues for Balanced Budget Amendment
Posted on May. 02, 11 | 10:50 AM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and Trade
Balanced budget: A Sisyphean task
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Constitutional amendment would ease the uphill fiscal struggle
By Chris Chocola
The Washington Times
Sisyphus, a king in Greek mythology, was punished by the gods by being forced to roll a boulder up a hill over and over again. No matter how high he got, the boulder would slip through his fingers and roll back to the bottom of the hill. Poor Sisyphus was doomed to keep repeating this task for eternity.
For decades, the American people have felt like Sisyphus, bearing the burden of a boulder that is ever-larger spending and debt. Poor Sisyphus could never make it up the hill because of the rules the gods had made for him. But what if the gods had changed the rules? What if they shrank the boulder? What if they allowed poor Sisyphus finally to push the boulder over the top?
In Washington, the politicians are like the gods who created the rules by which Sisyphus lived. Their rules make it impossible for Americans to get out from mountains of debt, just as Sisyphus could not cease pushing his boulder. Right now, the proposed solution to the growing debt burden on Americans is a one-time cut in federal spending and then a raising of the federal debt ceiling. That is equivalent to simply telling Sisyphus to "try harder this time."
A balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution (BBA) is the rule change Americans need. A BBA would cause the stock market to take off, open up credit, encourage investment and restore the American economy to greatness. The Club for Growth supports the BBA proposed by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois. Their BBA caps spending at 18 percent of gross domestic product and requires supermajorities in both the House and the Senate in order to raise taxes, spending and the debt limit. It is, in short, the change we need that finally would allow Americans to end the cycle of spending and debt caused by a government that is simply too big.
A BBA to the Constitution has been embraced by the Senate but not by the House. We have a historic opportunity to change the spendthrift ways of Washington by rewriting the rule book, and organizations such as the Club for Growth intend to pressure Speaker John A. Boehner and the Republican leadership to embrace it.
If we were able to get two-thirds of the vote in both houses of Congress, the BBA easily could pick up enough momentum to be ratified by the states. The Republican Party controls the governorship and both houses of the state legislature in 22 states. Four more states have Republican governors with split legislatures. States like Kentucky and Missouri that are more conservative by nature add seven more to our total, giving the BBA 33 states - and enough momentum to inspire five more to make it happen, especially after the stock market takes off and Standard & Poor's upgrades our debt forecast once again. Like a heavy boulder rolling down a hill, it would be impossible to stop.
If someone changed the rules to help Sisyphus, he easily would get the boulder over the hill. If politicians change the rules by passing the BBA, it will be possible for us to cut spending and shrink the debt. Politicians Washington in rarely do the heavy lifting unless they are forced to do it. They need to be forced by the American people to embrace these new changes. Sisyphus never had standing to fight with the gods, but the beauty of American democracy is that there is little difference between the politicians and ordinary men.
Chris Chocola, a former Indiana congressman, is president of the Club for Growth.
Permalink: http://www.clubforgrowth.org/perm/?postID=15065
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Former Club for Growth President and Senator Pat Toomey on Fox & Friends
Posted on Apr. 28, 11 | 09:08 AM by Barney Keller | Topic: Cap and Trade
