Obama On Jobs Bill: No Games, No Politics, No Delays

President Obama announced Monday that he is presenting Congress with the American Jobs Act and urged the legislative body to pass the bill “immediately.”

“This is the bill that Congress needs to pass,” Obama said from the Rose Garden where he was joined by Vice President Joe Biden and a handful of teachers, construction workers, police officers, firefighters and veterans. 

“No games, no politics, no delays,” Obama said. “I’m sending this bill to Congress today and they ought to pass it immediately.” 

Obama ensured that the $447 billion dollar proposal would be paid for in full and would not add a single cent to the deficit. The president said that he will unveil a plan sometime next week that would include details describing how he plans to pay for his jobs bill. The payment plan will also include measures to further reduce the country’s deficit, according to the president.

During his remarks, Obama called on Americans once again to call and email their representatives and urge them to shy away from partisan politics and pass his jobs bill sooner rather than later. 

“The fact of the matter is the next election is 14 months away,” Obama said. “The American people don’t have the luxury of waiting 14 months for Congress to take action.”

Pence: Credit Bush For Iraq Success

One of the most popular conservative lawmakers in Congress is accusing the Obama administration of unfairly attempting to take full credit for the U.S.’ ability to pull combat forces out of Iraq.

In an op-ed in today’s Washington Times, Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Republican Conference, argues that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are wrong to claim it was they who created an end to the war. “That’s not the whole story,” writes Pence.

However, in a primetime address to the nation tonight, Obama is expected to discuss his efforts to end America’s combat mission in Iraq, fulfilling a promise he made during his 2008 campaign.

According to Pence, most of the credit is owed to former President George W. Bush, who, with violence against NATO-led forces escalating, famously ordered a ‘surge’ of 60,000 American troops to Iraq in 2007. Pence wrote that contrary to the position of Democratic leaders in Congress at the time, Bush had “decided not to lose.”

Pence notes in his piece that then-Senator Obama opposed Bush’s surge and made remarks questioning whether sending additional forces to Iraq would improve the country’s condition. Along with then-Senator Biden, Obama voted 10 times to establish a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from the nation at war, writes Pence.

Republicans have generally been critical of Obama for invoking his predecessor’s name amidst debate over various issues during the past 19 months. Yet, Pence says he wouldn’t mind seeing that happen tonight.

“As the president addresses the nation tonight, let’s hope he gives credit where credit is due: to the men and women of the U.S. armed forces who wrought stability from tyranny and terrorism in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and, for once, let’s hope the president gives credit to a predecessor who refused to accept defeat.”

Republican Leadership Protests New Missile Defense Strategy

By Ravi Bhatia-Talk Radio News Service

A number of high ranking Congressional Republicans Thursday protested President Barack Obama’s recent decision to scrap an Eastern European based missile defense system.

Ranking Member of the House Committee on Armed Services Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Michael Turner and House Chairman Michael Pence (R-Ind.) all delivered statements.

“We’re seeing this administration’s real national security policy emerge,” McKeon said. “The administration is capitulating to Russia’s demands, rewarding Russia for its divisive policies and actions.”

The plan eliminates former President George W. Bush’s planned missile defense system, which would have deployed either a radar system in the Czech Republic or 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland in order to deter long range and short range missiles. Instead, the Obama administration will use a system aimed more toward intercepting shorter-range missiles from Iran, which Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes pose a more immediate threat.

“The sudden turnaround, the sudden release of new intelligence information - that has not come the way of the Hill - is puzzling, to say the least,” Cantor said. “We await the answers associated with that turnaround from our administration.”

Cantor also said that he hoped Vice President Joe Biden was “misquoted” when he said he was much less concerned about Iran because Iran does not have the potential capacity to launch a missile at the United States.

“To me, implicit in [Biden’s] statement is that we should not naturally concern ourselves with the threat to our allies in Europe, to our allies in the Middle East such as Israel,” Cantor said.

Acording to Michael Turner, the Obama administration has cut missile defense funding by $1.2 billion. He also said that the plan will not provide the United States with long range missile defense until 2020, while the former plan would have considered long range missile defense as early as 2013.

“They’re retreating from the deployment of a missile defense shield in Europe,” he said.

“The Obama administration is continuing a policy of appeasement at the expense of our allies,” Pence said. “History teaches that weakness and appeasement invite aggression against peaceful nations.”

Legal Experts Debate Congressional Authority Over Executive Power

By Learned Foote- Talk Radio News Service

Legal experts, former politicians, and a member of the Obama administration discussed the balance of powers in the U.S. government in a panel hosted by the Constitution Project and the Project on Government Oversight.

The conversation focused on the authority of Congress to obtain information from the executive branch in order to maintain oversight, an authority that some panelists argue has been compromised by the Bush and Obama administrations.

“Congress has been dealt a pretty good hand by the Founding Fathers,” said Morton Rosenberg, a legal expert on the separation of powers in government. “But of late, it’s been playing its cards very badly.” Rosenberg said he was “concerned about the state of Congress’ ability to engage in effective oversight...to ensure that its will is carried out.”

Former Congressman Mickey Edwards, a Republican from Oklahoma, emphasized that the American government puts power in the “hands of the people directly through their elected representatives.” He said that Congress has an “obligation” to exert authority over declarations of war, spending priorities, tax policy, and confirmations to the Supreme Court.

“If the Congress does not do everything in its power to get the information it needs to act on behalf of the American people, it has abdicated its responsibility, and it has been guilty in my view of malfeasance.”

Rosenberg described the mechanisms by which Congress exercises authority over the executive branch, including the threat of subpoena. He said that over the past decade, the efficacy of these mechanisms has declined, citing a case where the House of Representatives voted to hold two aides to George W. Bush, Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten in contempt.

Rosenberg also criticized the Obama administration, which he said has “not evidenced any substantial change in the executive’s attitude toward Congressional access to information.” He mentioned that Obama has upheld the “controversial Bush II practice of pin-pointing provisions of law that he was signing into law as being unconstitutional or suspect, and he would decide whether or not...to obey them.”

Ron Weich, the Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs in the Obama administration, said that the current executive branch agrees that Congressional oversight is important, and emphasized that President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden, along with many other members of the Obama administration, have served in Congress.

Nonetheless, he argued that the Constitution establishes “a healthy push-and-pull among the branches.”

Regarding the release of information to Congress, Weich said that there are “limits on what we [the executive branch] can provide, and these are embodied in long-standing principles.”

Boehner Rejects White House's Notion That Stimulus Has Worked

By Celia Canon-Talk Radio News Service

On Thursday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio.) slammed Vice President Joe Biden over the inefficiency of the Democrats’ stimulus plan and the lack of jobs it has created in Boehner's home state of Ohio.

“Ohio's unemployment rate is above 10 percent. The nation's unemployment continues to rise. And families and small businesses across the country are asking, ‘Mr. Vice President, where are the jobs?’,” Boehner said.

Boehner blamed the Obama administration for its inability to restore jobs to Americans across the country.

“The administration promised the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent, and they promised the stimulus would create jobs immediately. It's pretty clear now that the administration was wrong,” Boehner said.

The House Minority Leader cited other Democratic legislation that he believes could worsen the economy as well, saying “Here we are at a time when we're trying to save jobs in America, help get our economy going again, and all people see is a lot of wasteful Washington spending, job-killing measures like energy and health care, and, oh, yes, we've got to take care of the saltwater marsh mouse.”

On Wedndesay, Boehner said President Obama and Vice President Biden have been telling lies about why the Stimulus package hasn’t reversed the nation’s spiraling unemployment rate, and argued that GOP-backed tax cut plans would a better solution to return momentum to the struggling economy.

Boehner also touched on the recent letter which incriminates the CIA on enhanced interrogation methods, insisting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should apologize for having accused the intelligence agency of a lack of transparency.

“I do not believe that the CIA lied to Congress. I'm still waiting for Speaker Pelosi to either put up the facts or retract her statement and apologize. And I don't know that this letter changes anything with regard to the speaker's action,” Boehner said.