House Republicans Slash And Burn Budget!

[Ryan Ruck]

House Republicans have been going through the federal budget and cutting a bunch of BS that needs cut.

Even though it won't necessarily go anywhere right now with the Senate and Presidency in Dem hands, I hope that once the adults are back in charge they follow through.

House Cuts Off Funding For Healthcare Reform, Planned Parenthood

February 18, 2011

The House on Friday voted largely along party lines to prohibit funding for President Obama's healthcare reform law and eliminate funding for family planning.

In a quick succession of two-minute votes, the House adopted three amendments to their stopgap budget bill that eliminates healthcare reform funding through the end of the fiscal year. The House also approved, 240-185, an amendment barring federal Title X family planning grants that was aimed squarely at Planned Parenthood.

The vote on the Planned Parenthood amendment from Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) was postponed Thursday night after three hours of bitter debate during which Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) revealed she once had to have an abortion. She made the revelation on the House floor after Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) described in graphic detail an abortion procedure.

"I really planned to speak about something else but the gentleman from New Jersey just put my stomach in knots because I'm one of those women he spoke about just now," Speier said. "I had a procedure at 17 weeks pregnant with a child who moved from the vagina into the cervix. And that procedure that you just described is a procedure that I endured."

Republicans say that, while Title X funding does not pay for abortions, the money is fungible and supports the nation's largest abortion provider. Democrats and abortion-rights advocates argue that the amendment hurts poor women.

"In attacking Planned Parenthood, the House Republican leadership has launched an outrageous assault on the millions of Americans who rely on Planned Parenthood for primary and preventive healthcare, including lifesaving breast and cervical cancer screenings, annual exams, family planning visits, birth control, HIV testing, and more," Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards said in a statement.

The other three amendments bar federal funding for the healthcare reform law:

—an amendment from health appropriations subcommittee Chair Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) blocks 2011 funding for the health and labor departments to implement the healthcare reform law;

—an amendment from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) blocks all federal funding for the law; and

—an amendment from Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) bars the Internal Revenue Service from using funds to enforce the law's individual mandate requiring Americans to have insurance by 2014. Two federal courts have ruled that the mandate is unconstitutional.

The continuing resolution faces high hurdles in the Democrat-controlled Senate. And President Obama announced he "strongly opposes" it before the new amendments even passed.

"If the president is presented with a bill that undermines critical priorities or national security through funding levels or restrictions, contains earmarks, or curtails the drivers of long-term economic growth and job creation while continuing to burden future generations with deficits, the president will veto the bill," the administration said this week.

[Ryan Ruck]

Republican House Votes To Defund Environmental Protection Agency

February 18, 2011

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved an amendment late Friday afternoon that will eliminate funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The measure, known as the Poe-Carter Amendment after its sponsors, Reps. Ted Poe and John Carter of Texas, is part of the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution.

The amendment will specifically cut funding for EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from stationary sources.

“I am pleased that my colleagues in the House have chosen to put a stop to the back-door attempts by the administration to bypass Congress and circumvent the will of the American people,” said Poe in a statement after the amendment’s passage. “The era of EPA overstepping its authority by imposing over-burdensome and unnecessary regulations at the expense of American businesses is over.”

The EPA has come under fire lately from Republican lawmakers for new regulations that target carbon emissions. A number of bills have been introduced in the House and Senate to repeal the regulations.

[Ryan Ruck]

House Defunds Corporation for Public Broadcasting

February 19, 2011

The House of Representatives on Saturday voted to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

According to UPI, by a party line vote of 235 to 189, the House passed a stopgap measure that would cut $61 billion from the 2011 budget:

The government would shut down March 4 without the funding bill, called a continuing resolution, which passed 235-189 after a marathon legislative session that ended in the early hours Saturday.

The bill cuts $61 billion in spending from the current budget.

[Ryan Ruck]

Rep. Steve Womack: Cut Funding For President's Teleprompter

The House formally began debate, which is expected to last three days, Tuesday afternoon following some wrangling over the hundreds of amendments lawmakers want to attach to the package.

More than 400 amendments were filed Monday night. Among them were a proposal from Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., to eliminate funding for the president's Teleprompter and one from Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, to strip funding for the alteration, repair or improvement of the executive residence of the White House and instead divert that amount to deficit reduction.

Womack told Fox News Tuesday afternoon that he pulled his amendment because he wasn't able to get an estimate on how much it would save.

"I think we made our point," Womack said. "We're asking people to do more with less. And I think the president ought to lead by example. He is already a very gifted speaker. And I think that's one platform he could do without."

[American Patriot]

LMAO

In MY day, the teleprompter was run by WHCA. Not sure about these days - but still, it's equipment that was in the military budget and handled by us, not by the White House.