Posts Tagged ‘Tea Party’
The Best Jobs Idea
Aug26
By John Feehery
Our family car is a relic. It doesn’t have XM radio. It doesn’t have sync capabilities with the iPhone. It doesn’t have a satellite navigation device. It does have an AM/FM radio and a CD player, but since my wife threw out all of our compact discs, that isn’t much of an option on a long ride.
We drove back from our vacation in Florida, and as you are driving through the Old South, there aren’t many very good radio options on either AM or FM, unless of course, you want to listen to a Baptist preacher telling you how the world is going to Hell in a handbasket, and only your personal contribution to his church can buy your salvation.
With the earthquake and then the hurricane hitting Washington D.C., I could be convinced that the world is going down the tubes, but I probably would never be convinced to give any of my hard-earned money to a Baptist preacher, no matter how convincing he might sound.
Only once did I hear a radio show that didn’t have a religious theme, and it was a North Carolina representative of the NFIB talking about the crushing impact of regulations on small businesses.
As somebody who started up a small business (a very small business) four years ago, I can relate. Most of the regulations aren’t federal, especially if you live in the District of Columbia. And if you are a small business, your biggest investments early on are on lawyers and accountants. You need both to be able to figure out how to navigate the laws, the regulations, the regulatory agencies, the confusing paperwork requirements and all the other government mandates that come from all levels of the bureaucracy.
Federal regulations are the coup de grace for many small businesses. The Obama Administration seems most intent on killing starter businesses with their killer regulations. Obamacare is only the most famous of these job killers. The EPA, the NRLB, the Justice Department, the Commerce Department, OSHA, all seem to conspire to make it even more difficult to get a small business started.
John Boehner wrote Mr. Obama a letter today in which he asked the President to explain his new regulatory agenda. Boehner, in the letter, said: “I am asking that your Administration provide a list of all pending and planned rule-makings with projected impact on our economy in excess of $1 billion. I ask that you provide this information by the time Congress reconvenes so that the information will be available as the House considers legislation requiring a congressional review.”
Boehner is asking for this information because at some point and time, enough is enough.
I have a simple proposal. The Obama Administration should be required to waive regulatory requirements for all small businesses that make a profit of less than 10 million dollars for a period of two years. That includes minimum wage laws, OSHA, EPA, everything. This will give small businesses a chance to create jobs and get the government off of their backs. This will put people back to work and get the economy moving again.
We need something dramatic to jump-start the economy. Waiving all regulations for two years for small businesses is something dramatic. It will work at putting people back to work.
Credibility vs. Crassness
Aug10
By John Feehery
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell put some real thought into their picks for the Joint Super Committee that will decide the fate of so many spending programs and perhaps the financial health of the country.
Harry Reid? Not so much.
Boehner picked two real deal-makers in Dave Camp and Fred Upton, and a guy who learned how to drive a hard-bargain from the best hard-bargainer in the business (Phil Gramm) in Jeb Hensarling.
Neither Camp nor Upton are partisan bomb-throwers. Upton ran into some resistance from the hard right to his ascension to the Energy and Commerce Committee because he was viewed as too moderate, although Fred has been a very reliable conservative in his role as Chairman.
Upton has long experience in budget politics, having served at OMB under Reagan. He is also an expert on entitlement programs, and his appointment shows that Boehner is serious about getting serious on spending.
Camp has been very thoughtful in his new role as Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He said that he wasn’t going to jam the Ryan Medicare bill through the House only to see it die in the Senate, a signal to the world that Camp was no Kamikaze pilot on smashing the Republican Majority into a Senate cliff.
Hensarling cannot be called a moderate in any way, shape or form, but he appeared to be the moderate in the race when he ran for his leadership position against Michelle Bachmann. Jeb has a good head on his shoulders, and as a former staffer to Texas Senator Gramm, he learned the art of cutting a good deal.
McConnell also signaled that he is taking this whole exercise very seriously. He covered his right flank by putting Pat Toomey, the Pennsylvania Senator, on the panel. Toomey forced Arlen Spector to leave the Republican Party and while he is a Tea Party favorite, he was an anti-spending hawk well before the Tea Party was ever born.
Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican, represents the best that the party can offer when it comes to substance, demeanor, message discipline and courage. He is well-liked by the other side, he is an adult, and he won’t have the patience to make this merely a partisan game. He wants to get good stuff done. That was his reputation in the House and it will be his reputation in the Senate.
By picking the retiring Jon Kyl, McConnell not only picked somebody who understands where the GOP leadership is coming from, he also picked somebody who is immune to political pressure. He is retiring at the end of the Congress, and for his legacy, I am certain he would like to get good policy done.
Reid showed his hand by putting his campaign chief in charge of the negotiations. That is all you really need to know about where the Senate Majority leader is on this process.
Patty Murray’s job is to run campaign commercials against Republicans. She isn’t steeped in policy. She is steeped in politics. Her appointment makes it very unlikely that the Democrats will budge on anything. They want gridlock because they want to cut defense spending. That is the message I get from her appointment.
John Kerry has proven to be an effective attack dog since he lost his chance to be President. He was the first to try to pin the Obama downgrade on the Tea Party, for example. He is also a very political appointment.
Max Baucus apparently begged, pleaded and cajoled Reid to be named to the Super Committee, despite some reservations from the Left about his willingness to cut deals on taxes. But my guess is that Mr. Reid got some pretty strong assurances that the Montana Senator won’t be doing any free-lancing once this thing gets going.
As I write this, Minority Leader Pelosi has been the last to name her folks. You can bet that she won’t name Steny Hoyer to committee. My guess is that she names Chris Van Hollen, Xavier Beccera, and John Lewis to the Committee, but I could be wrong. She might also name Steve Israel, the Congressional campaign chair, or Jan Schakowsky, an ally and a reliable liberal to the Committee.
So far, the Republicans look like they want to get a deal. Their picks are credible. The Democrats look like they are mostly interested in playing politics. But of course, that is no surprise.
