Hoyer: Balanced Budget Amendment Unnecessary

By Adrianna McGinley

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) today criticized Republican efforts to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment.

Although reporters noted that he supported a Balanced Budget Amendment in the 1990s, Hoyer said he no longer does because of fiscal “irresponsibility” on the part of Republican leadership over the last decade.

“What I said in 1995 I absolutely agree with today,” Hoyer said. “Unfortunately, I did not contemplate the irresponsibility that I have seen fiscally over the last 9 years or 8 years of the Bush administration and Republican leadership in the House and the Senate.”

Hoyer said Congress should be focused on finding ways to pay for the deficit, not passing constitutional amendments.

“The tough votes are paying for things, it’s not a tough vote to pretend you’re going to go for a balanced budget by having some amendment on the floor…if you want to cut revenues, make sure that you have the guts to cut spending…if you don’t have that kind of courage then don’t criticize others for saying we have to pay for things.”

Hoyer said, however, that he believes the so-called “super committee” tasked with creating a plan to reduce the nation’s deficit will meet its Thanksgiving deadline.

“Time is short but not so short that agreement can’t be reached,” he said. Failure, he added, is not an option because the billions in automatic cuts to domestic and defense spending that would result are “irrational and bad policy.”

Hoyer said that the U.S. has the resources to solve its problems but lacks “the courage and the will to do so.”

House Dem Urges Supercommittee To Look At Nukes

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called on the Super Committee  at a news conference on Tuesday to make extensive cuts from the U.S. nuclear weapons budget over the next decade.

“The Soviets are long gone yet the stock piles remain,” Markey said, pointing out that there are currently 5,000 nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile that cost American tax payers $50 billion every year. 

“That makes no sense,” Markey declared. 

When asked by TRNS about the very real threat of Iran developing nuclear weapons, he passed the question along to General Robert Gard Jr., chairman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

“We are not going to stop Iran from enriching Uranium by maintaing 5000 nuclear weapons in your stockpile,” Gard explained. “Getting down to 1000 nuclear weapons to deploy ought to be a sufficient warning to them that they probably ought not to imploy the weapons should they develop it.”

“We cannot make ourself any safer with more nuclear weapons,” Markey added. “America needs another nuclear weapon as much as Lady Gaga needs another outfit.” 

Markey advocated that the “excess” money used for nuclear weapons would be better utilized in funding for cancer and heart disease research institutions, healthcare for senior citizens and child nutrition programs.  

65 members of the House of Representatives have joined with Markey in this effort to cut $20 billion annually from the nuclear weapons program so that $200 billion could be used for funding family programs. 

“Simply put,” Markey concluded, “we must freeze the nukes and fund the future.”

Click here to see photos from today’s news conference 

GOP Doesn’t Mind Being ‘Party Of No’ On Spending

With Democrats in the Senate getting set to put forth a jobs bill, perhaps as early as Monday, their counterparts across the aisle are saying ‘no’ to more spending.

“We have a situation now that’s just too serious to continue to handle that way,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on Thursday. “It’s not an exaggeration to say our country is on the edge of a financial cliff.”

DeMint and fellow GOP Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and George LeMieux (R-Fla.) unveiled their party’s latest attempt to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, calling on Congress to support a one-year moratorium on earmarks along with a Constitutional Amendment to balance the federal budget.

“What we’re doing here today, is to try and challenge everyone in the Senate -- Republican and Democrat -- to join us in those steps that we can take...to address our growing deficit,” said DeMint.

“Everything is gonna get cut...it’s gonna be painful, but I guarantee you that we can cut the agencies of government...by 20 percent even, maybe 30 percent,” added LeMieux.

McCain, a noted opponent of federal earmark spending, blasted President Barack Obama for supporting using unspent Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds to fuel a jobs bill which could total over $100 billion.

“The President says he’s gonna have a spending freeze next year, and in the very next breath proposes a hundred billion dollars in new spending called a ‘jobs bill.’ It’s out of control.”

The hard part now for the 11 cosponsors of the measures will be to actually practice what they preach. Graham, for example, has a known record of not being averse to requesting earmarks. As recently as 2009, he helped secure nearly 10 million dollars to fund construction of a fitness center inside Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.

Graham, however, said he’s willing to bite the proverbial bullet in the short-run.

“It would be tough for us all, but it’s the right thing for the future. So I don’t mind an earmark system in the future that’s transparent, that’s logical and fits within a balanced budget.”

Obama Tells G8 Leaders That Health Care Reform Will Lower U.S. Deficit

By Sam Wechsler - Talk Radio News Service

Health care reform will drive down the federal deficit, President Obama said at a news conference Friday at the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy. Obama also discussed Iran, saying he hopes to soon welcome the politically-embroiled nation into the international community.

Obama said he understands Republicans’ concern for the U.S.'s massive budget deficit, but said “what cannot be denied is that the only way to get a handle on our medium and long term budget deficits is to corral and contain health care costs.” Obama said that while it is not absolutely necessary, he wants to pass a health care reform bill by the August congressional recess.

“My biggest job is to explain to the American people why this is so important and give them confidence that we can do better than we’re doing right now,” said Obama.

As for the nuclear weapons program in Iran, President Obama stated that he would evaluate that at the G20 meeting in September.

“The international community has said ‘here’s a door you [Iran] can walk through that allows you to lessen tensions and more fully join the international community.’ If Iran chooses not to walk through that door you have on record, the G8 to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries that say we need to take further steps,” said Obama.

Hoyer: Curtailing America’s Debt Is Not A Choice

By Jonathan Bronstein, Talk Radio News Service

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)

When financial giants Bear Stearns and AIG crashed, the American government came to their rescue to maintain stability of the economy. When “too big to fail” Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae did fail, the American government stepped in and prevented their demise.

However, “If a fiscal meltdown comes, there will be no one to bail out
America,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), adding that the U.S.’s lack of a responsible fiscal policy for the last 30 years has placed the nation in dire economic straits.

Hoyer spoke yesterday at the Bipartisan Policy Committee.

America’s 2009 budget is contending with a $1.7 trillion deficit, which will only inflate the national debt to $11 trillion. More than $3 trillion of that debt is held by foreign lenders, specifically China.

“Our debt has never been higher...(This) is our sad, debt-ridden fiscal state,” said Hoyer. As a result “hundreds of billions of dollars every year - hundreds of billions that could strengthen our national defense, or help young Americans go to college, or fund research for the next energy breakthrough - will instead go to interest payments, merely to keep us solvent.”

Hoyer stressed that Congress must take the lead and reform the nation’s economic policy in order to prevent such a devastating, demoralizing and dangerous event from ever occurring.

The first, and most important way to reshape America’s fiscal future is to reform the entitlement programs, such as Social Security Medicare and Medicaid.

“We will not bring our debt down if we do not reform entitlements,” Hoyer said, but cautioned that it will not be possible without bipartisan support. He cited Social Security reform in 1986, which was only possible because of a compromise between the Democratic Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neil, and President Ronald Reagan.