Paul Pounces On Lagging Super Committee

By Adrianna McGinley

Presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) blasted the so-called super committee for failing to produce a plan to reduce the national deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, an amount Paul called “laughably small.”

In a statement released Monday, Paul said the super committee “merely needs to cut about $120 billion annually from the federal budget over the next 10 years to meet its modest goals, but even this paltry amount has produced hand-wringing and hysteria on Capitol Hill.”

Paul said the cuts the 12-member panel was tasked with making were from previously proposed increases, and nothing substantial would have emerged even if a deal was made. The fact that they did not accomplish that goal, Paul said, “shows how unserious politicians are about our very serious debt problems.”

The Texas congressman accused the federal government of “lying” when promising to provide Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits to future generations while simultaneously “maintaining our wildly interventionist foreign policy.”

To eliminate new debt and create a balanced budget, Paul proposed returning to the $2.3 trillion federal budget of 2004, a figure he estimates will match that of the national GDP.

“Was the federal government really too small just seven years ago, in 2004? Of course not,” Paul said. “Only Washington hysteria would have us believe otherwise.”

The super committee is expected to announce Monday that no deal has been reached.

Paul Ryan Takes Aim At Obama, Defends GOP Budget Proposal

By Andrea Salazar

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) accused President Obama today of “sowing social unrest” as he travels across the country promoting his jobs bill.

Ryan said that as a presidential candidate, Obama pledged to put politics aside to tackle the country’s problems. However, the chairman said the president has not followed his own advice.

“Instead of working together where we agree, the President has opted for divisive rhetoric and the broken politics of the past,” Ryan said during a speech at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. “He is going from town to town, impugning the motives of Republicans, setting up straw men and scapegoats, and engaging in intellectually lazy arguments, as he tries to build support for punitive tax hikes on job creators.”

Ryan later defended his budget proposal, which came under severe attack earlier this year by Obama and congressional Democrats. 

“The President has wrongly framed Republican efforts to get government spending under control as hard-hearted attacks on the poor,” Ryan said. “In reality, spending on programs for seniors and for lower-income families continues to grow every year under the House-passed budget – it just grows at a sustainable rate. We direct tax dollars where they’re needed most, and stop spending money we don’t have on boondoggles we don’t need.”

Instead of working toward “equality of outcome,” Ryan suggested working toward “equality of oportunity” by reforming the tax code, instead of raising taxes on the rich.

“Let’s stop trying to pick winners and losers in Washington, through the tax code or through spending, and just lower the rates and broaden the base so everybody’s treated the same and so that our companies are competitive,” Ryan said.

New Mexico Lawmakers Want More Money For Nuclear Waste Cleanup

By Andrea Salazar

Times may be tough but nuclear waste is no area to skimp on.

That’s what Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) are arguing as Congress begins appropriating spending for the 2012 fiscal year budget.

In a letter to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the New Mexico duo urged for more funding for New Mexico’s Water Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) “fence-to-fence” cleanup.

“The senators acknowledge the constraints of the current budget climate and that things are very difficult right now,” said Udall spokeswoman Marissa Padilla. “But what Sen. Udall and Sen. Bingaman are saying is that these are, essentially, two top priorities for New Mexico. They have great importance to the country, and it’s important that they’re properly funded.”

Regarding LANL, waste in the area affects the local community greatly because it affects their drinking water, Padilla said. However, it also has an impact on the country because WIPP receives waste shipments from around the country.

The senators are asking for an increase of $30 million over last year’s funding for WIPP and a budget of $358 million for LANL’s cleanup efforts. They cited safety and a need to comply with the Department of Energy’s consent order to clean up LANL by 2015 as reasons for the increased budgets.

“The importance of removing TRU (transuranic) waste from the site was clearly highlighted this summer when the massive Las Conchas forest fire threatened various laboratory facilities,” the senators wrote in their letter to the subcommittee.

Neither Feinstein nor Alexander could be reached for comment.

Pelosi Predicts Little To No Democratic Support For Boehner Plan

By Vanessa Remmers

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Thursday that she expects few to no Democratic votes for the budget plan crafted by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

Perplexed at the lack of compromise shown by Republicans on raising the debt ceiling, Pelosi noted that Democrats compromised with former President Bush on such an issue in the past.

In addition, Pelosi said that while the differences between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev) and Boehner plans are stark, many initiatives in the Reid plan, such as using the overseas account and steep cuts, have been supported by Republicans in the past.

“They have a similarity in that neither of them has revenue, but that is not possible to pass in the Senate. But that is where the similarity ends.  The idea of a short-term or a long-term is not about a calendar, it’s about a holding up the process by saying we’re going to do this all over again … it’s just an unending hardship for the American people,” Pelosi said.

During her press conference, Pelosi also said she was not surprised at Rep. David Wu’s (D-OR) decision to resign, declining to comment further by saying, “the issue is closed.”

House Democrats Support Executive Order On Debt Limit

Vanessa Remmers

House Democratic leaders are prepared to stand behind President Obama if he issues an executive order to increase the debt ceiling in the event Congress fails to reach a debt limit deal before August 2.

“House Republicans have failed to govern, failure is not an option for our country, and therefore, you leave it to the President to take whatever action is within his power,” Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said.

In his push for an executive order, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) drew from President Truman’s executive order in the 1940’s.

“[An executive order to raise the debt ceiling] will bring calm to the American people and stability to financial markets,” Clyburn said.

Both House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Clyburn said the President should veto a short-term debt ceiling increase with the same pen that he signs an executive order, even though both recognized the President’s firm stance on the issue.

In regard to House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) budget plan, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) chuckled at its potential support and rumored uptick in momentum.

“The real question is how many Republicans would vote for it,” Larson said.

The final result of the budget battle remains uncertain as Larson admitted that more Democrats would vote for the Reid plan, but placed all predictions on conditional terms.