Highest Unemployment Rate in Over Two Decades

Congressman Brady: Congress Needs...

In the aftermath of one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression, one thing the government owes U.S. voters and taxpayers is a full, clear and honest accounting for who and what caused this mess.

The Courier was in the lead last fall calling for Congress to create something along the lines of the 9-11 commission to investigate the financial collapse, determine the causes for it and offer recommendations on how we can avoid such incidents in the future. Any such commission would need to be truly bi-partisan, balanced and objective.

Instead, a Democratic-lead Congress appears to be preparing a partisan hatchet-job that will point fingers everywhere but at the members of their own party who helped contribute to this mess. If that’s where they’re headed with their proposed commission, it needs to be stopped in its tracks. Better no commission at all than a flawed analysis that seeks to conceal rather than reveal.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, has been among those who have worked to create a truly bi-partisan commission to investigate the financial crisis. Brady, a member of the Joint Economic Committee, introduced H.R. 2111, the Congressional Commission on Financial Accountability and Preparedness Act. The legislation uses the 9-11 Commission as its model, and intends it to delve into all factors that contributed to the financial abuses and collapse including the role of lawmakers in Congress. According to Brady’s legislation, the commission would have consisted of five members, with two Democratic appointees, two Republican, and one member appointed by the Democrat majority leaders in the House and Senate but in consultation with the Republican minority leaders, thus assuring a non-partisan appointee.

But it appears the Democratic leadership in Congress doesn’t want a truly bi-partisan commission. Instead, the House recently put separate legislation creating a commission into a bill aimed at mortgage fraud protection. At first, according to Brady, Democrats tried to pass a version whose members would have included representatives of the financial services committees led by Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank – some of the people who actually should be targets of any commission investigation. After protests arose about such a biased plan, the House leadership opted instead for a commission of which a majority of its members would be appointed by Democrats. Of the 10 members of the proposed commission, six would be appointed by Democrats and four by Republicans.

“This commission is a sham. Like the fox guarding the henhouse, it shields Congress from scrutiny and protects lawmakers from being held accountable for the decisions they made that helped create this crisis,” said Brady, who is the ranking House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee.

Even worse, the Democratic leadership’s proposed commission wouldn’t finish its work and produce a report until December 2010, one month after the next congressional elections.
It’s clear already that there is plenty of blame to be spread around for this mess among both Democrats and Republicans. If voters and taxpayers want a full accounting of the mistakes that lead to our current financial crisis, they need to urge Congress to block this sham and instead adopt a truly bi-partisan plan, H.R. 2111.

Stimulus Checks Sent to the Deceased

In a week where America and people learned that the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds are running out of money faster than ever before and the U.S. Treasury ran a deficit of nearly $21 billion last month, news reports show that 8,000-10,000 'stimulus' checks totaling millions of dollars are being mailed out to the dearly departed. In one case, the recipient died 34 years ago – in Italy.

“How much money is this Administration going to waste? This just seems unreal and I hope it is,” said Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX), lead House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee.

“As the American people continue to see example after example of the massive waste embedded in the stimulus bill rushed through Congress earlier this year, we must hold the Obama Administration accountable,” added Brady who has consistently advocated for more taxpayer protection in the Administration's spending bills.

A description of the criteria for theses payments is on the Social Security Administrations webpage.

Kevin: Rosy Economic Predictions Won't Help to Fix the Economy

The Obama Administration should put away the rose colored glassesRosy economic projections by the Obama administration mask the true cost of future deficits and undermine global confidence that America will address its dangerously escalating debt-to-GDP ratio that is raising worldwide concerns about the stability of the dollar.

The Obama Administration has shown great confidence in the success of the stimulus and the President’s budget, but that confidence may be misplaced. Unfortunately, trillions of tax dollars are being spent based on overly optimistic economic assumptions that the Administration has failed to update. The Administration continues to project that America’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will decline by 1.2% this year — less than half the 2.8% decline forecast by the Blue Chip Consensus. The Administration continues to assume that the unemployment rate will be 8.1% this year — yet the current jobless rate is 8.9%. Unrealistic economic assumptions result in faulty projected deficits. In other words, the debt the Administration and Congress are piling on our children will be much worse that the White House is willing to tell us.

The Economist called the Administration’s budget assumptions “deeply flawed” in an article entitled, “Wishful, and dangerous, thinking.” These faulty economic assumptions are dangerous because they understate the real costs of the Administration’s expansive — and expensive — new spending proposals. The result will be huge budget deficits and a doubling of the publicly held national debt as a share of GDP by 2017. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office also warns that by 2019, the annual budget deficit will be $1.2 trillion, much larger than the $779 billion deficit projected by the Administration. Between 2008 and 2019, the publicly held debt will grow from $5.8 trillion to $17.3 trillion.

Congressional leaders also have their heads in the sand. They orchestrated passage of the President’s budget by relying on accounting gimmicks to keep the costs down. As the Washington Post observed, “Congress deals a blow to ‘honest budgeting.’” The end result will be virtually the same dangerous level of excessive deficit spending and debt as the Administration proposed. Our children and grandchildren will have to pay the price for this irresponsibility for decades to come.

What is Tax Deferral?

Take a few minutes to watch this wonderfully instructive video put out by the Tax Foundation...