Monthly Archives: March 2011

Fleischmann advises Budget Committee to ‘make the tough decisions now’

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U.S Rep. Chuck Fleischmann testified on Wednesday before the House Budget Committee, and asked its members to address the national debt “in a real and meaningful way.” Rep. Paul Ryan chairs the committee, and is a key figure in debates on federal spending. Republicans are divided on whether to include entitlement reform measures in a budget proposal.

Below are Congressman Fleischmann’s full remarks.

Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member Van Hollen and members of the Budget Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the 2012 budget. I appreciate the hard work ahead of you and wish you the best during this challenging process.

I will keep my comments short because I am not here to ask for additional funding in certain areas or spending that might help with a pet project or a campaign promise. Rather, as a recently elected Member of Congress, I want to stress the problems of our massive debt and uncontrollable spending, encourage you to set us on a path to fiscal sustainability, and stress my desire to help with this process.

As you know well, the current fiscal outlook is bleak, and it has gotten dramatically worse over the last few years. A few key facts:

· Our current national debt is $14 trillion which amounts to $45,000 per every U.S. citizen.
· The total national debt held by the public is $9.5 trillion, and it has increased 43% in just the last 2 years.
· Our public debt is on a path to being 100% of our GDP in just a few years, and 47% of that debt is owned by foreign sources.
· Currently, the federal government is borrowing more than 42 cents for every dollar it spends.

And the cause of this problem is increased spending, not a lack of revenue:

· Since 1970, federal government spending has grown 8 times faster than median household income.
· Since World War II tax revenues have averaged about 18 % of the economy, and these revenues are predicted to remain at about that level for the foreseeable future. During this time spending has averaged around 20% of the economy. However, recently spending has gone well above this 20% average, and it is now predicted to explode to nearly 80% of the economy in future years – a massive and unsustainable increase.

The effect of this massive debt is more than simply depressing numbers. There are real world consequences. In the short term, the debt drives out private investment, worries financial markets and slows economic growth. In the long term, it pushes us to financial instability and threatens our global leadership financially, politically and militarily. It even threatens our national sovereignty as foreign governments buy our debt and puts at risk important programs like Medicare and Social Security. Every day we wait to address the problem, it only gets harder to solve.

Of course, other parts of big government, like excessive regulations, also contribute to a stagnant economy and our high unemployment rate, but the debt is certainly a key contributor.

The American people, certainly the people of the 3rd district of Tennessee, understand the problem. They may not know every fact and every figure, but they know the federal government has gotten too large and the current fiscal path is simply unsustainable. Mr. Chairman, there is a very real sense that we might be the first generation of Americans to pass along an America in worse shape than the one we inherited, and the massive debt is the main reason.

However, there is good news. There is, as always in America, reason for hope. Simply put, the public is ready for action. I hear it in every town hall meeting and in almost every constituent discussion – “please make the tough decisions now so that we can pass along a better America to future generations.” With the American people ready for meaningful action, it seems like we, as Members of Congress, should seize this opportunity and begin the long, hard process of putting our fiscal house in order.

I sincerely think that H.R. 1 was a good start in addressing this problem. Congress showed that we are ready to have a robust and honest debate about spending priorities; and, in the end, we are willing to make the tough choices. But this critical legislation was just one small step in the right direction. We obviously have a long way to go.

Mr. Chairman, again, I wanted to use my time today to stress the need to address the debt in a real and meaningful way. I do not pretend to have all the answers, but I want to be part of the solution. I look forward to working with you and members from both sides of the aisle in the coming months to make the hard choices and put us on a financially sustainable course. Thank you.

‘The constitution is the constitution’ is the new ‘the Senate is the Senate’

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The Tennessee Plan for electing high-court judges has come under much attack over the past few years, and on Tuesday the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Ron Ramsey, cast a tie-breaking Senate Judiciary Committee vote for SB 0127 by Sen. Stacey Campfield. The bill would require direct election of all judges, and thus do away with the Judicial Selection Commission and retention elections.

Even though Ramsey voted in favor of the bill, he doesn’t necessarily view judicial elections as “best for the state in the long term.” He added, in a statement released to the press, “but the constitution is the constitution and the constitution clearly states that judges shall be elected.” Ramsey also said that he hopes his vote will cause the Legislature to take quick action on formulating a constitutional solution.

Ramsey’s predecessor as Speaker of the Senate and Lt. Governor, the late John Shelton Wilder, famously uttered “the Senate is the Senate” as a cryptic and philosophical rejoinder.

New website aimed to attract ‘red tape’ tattlers

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Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey wants to give you a place to complain about government bureaucracy. (We’re assuming they don’t have talk radio in Blountville.) Ramsey has launched a website, TNRedtape.com, that allows visitors to submit their personal horror stories of encounters with over-regulation.

In a statement to the media, Ramsey said “The best thing that government can do to promote economic growth is stay out of the way of people who create jobs. This website is designed to help highlight and expose the barriers government puts in the way of entrepreneurs trying to put people to work.”

What items do you plan to submit?

Also, what’s the over/under on the percentage of complaints submitted at TNRedtape.com that will actually have to do with local, federal, or downright nonexistent laws (as opposed to state statutes)?

Fleischmann to testify before House Budget Committee

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In a statement released Monday, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) said that he plans to address the House Budget Committee on Wednesday, March 30.

“As a recently elected member of Congress, I want to stress to the committee the problems of our massive debt and uncontrollable spending, encourage them to set us on a path to fiscal sustainability, and stress my desire to help with the process,” Fleischmann said.

“The current fiscal outlook is bleak, and it has gotten dramatically worse over the last few years with our national debt now totaling $45,000 per every United States citizen. The effect of this massive debt is more than simply depressing numbers though. There are real world consequences. In the short term, the debt drives out private investment, worries financial markets and slows economic growth. In the long term, it pushes us to financial instability and threatens our global leadership financially, politically and militarily. It even threatens our national sovereignty as foreign governments buy our debt and puts at risk important programs like Medicare and Social Security.

“Every day we wait to address the problem, it only gets harder to solve, and that is why I am testifying before the House Budget Committee – to bring more attention to a problem that must be solved now, not later.”

Note the phrase “important programs like Medicare and Social Security.” The committee’s chairman is U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who told Sean Hannity a month ago that he plans to address entitlement spending in his budget proposals, as they are “the drivers of our debt.” I inquired with Fleischmann’s office as to whether the Third District congressman is prepared to try and preserve entitlements as he faces Ryan’s committee on the question of spending. This is the response:

[Congressman Fleischmann] believes Social Security and Medicare are important programs to our country, but he knows we have to be smart as we move forward. He believes everything must be on the table if we are to solve this national problem. [He] hopes with his testimony he can add to this very important discussion.

Fleischmann’s remarks before the committee will be posted here once they are made available.

You can’t fight city hall — unless you’re the statehouse

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The Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Tennessee would like to prevent businesses with contracts for government work from discriminating against persons based on sexual orientation. Other cities and towns seek to establish a minimum wage that considers the local cost of living. Still others may decide that businesses operating within their boundaries need to adhere to competitive local standards regarding employee benefits.

Not so fast, says Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin. He has filed HB0598, which, summarizes Tom Humphrey, “declares that no local ordinance can go beyond state law in the dealing with discrimination, health insurance, minimum wages or family leave.”

Even though an amendment (and by inference, the bill itself) failed to pass the House Commerce Committee by one vote, Casada says it will be back.

Though voters in Memphis overwhelmingly decided to disband the city school administration—thus forcing Shelby County to absorb the tasks of providing public education for all within its borders—a state law aimed specifically at preventing a more or less immediate assimilation had already been filed, approved by the Legislature, and signed by Gov. Bill Haslam.

In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder recently signed into law a bill “giving broad new powers to emergency financial managers appointed by the state of Michigan to run struggling cities and schools….”

Municipal governments are not the only local entities gearing up for battle against their state counterparts. The Rutherford County Commission passed a resolution last week that asks its local legislative delegation to oppose a pair of bills introduced in the current General Assembly. The first, SB0756/HB1119, would require county governments to pay any legal costs that result from misbehavior by county election commissioners, though those commissioners are appointed by the state election commission. The second, SB0478/HB0453, would restrict a county’s ability to remove line items from a local election administrator’s submitted budget, and directs a county election commission to sue the county in chancery court if the county fails to fund all of a submitted budget.

Since the county would have to pay the legal fees for both itself and the plaintiff in such a suit, one surmises that county governments will simply and meekly accept election administrator funding requests, should this bill pass.

On the national political scene, the pendulum seems to be swinging away from central control by the federal government towards more authority being assumed by the several states. But the opposite is happening when it comes to state versus local governments. The question is, are state governments equipped to handle this dual consolidation of power? And will they continue to see a backlash from usurped local authorities? Finally, what kind of pressure do local governments put on their state legislative counterparts (such as Rutherford County’s resolution noted above)—and does it work?