Right On The Right

An Open Letter to Speaker Pelosi

On Friday August 1, 2008, at 11:23 a.m., your Democrat majority in the House of Representatives adjourned the House for five full weeks.

House Republicans believe that Congress should not go on vacation until we take action to lower gas and energy prices for struggling American families.

For the last two months we and our House Republican colleagues have used every tool at our disposal to try and get you and your Democrat majority to vote on legislation to lower gas and energy prices by expanding environmentally sound domestic production of oil and natural gas, improving energy efficiency, and encouraging the development of alternative energy technologies.

Many of the proposals we have asked you and your Democrat majority to allow us to vote on are bipartisan proposals that we believe would enjoy the support of a majority of the Members of the Congress. Yet because you and your Democrat Leadership personally oppose these proposals, you are not allowing them to come up for a vote. This past Sunday, you even told George Stephanopoulos that you will never allow this vote to occur ….

In protest of you and your Democrat majority not allowing an up or down vote on producing more American energy, we and our House Republican colleagues were prepared to take to the floor on Friday, August 1, 2008, and speak to the nation. Rather than allowing that to happen you and your Democrat majority adjourned the House, turned off the television cameras, shut off the microphones and turned out the lights. Nearly 50 House Republicans remained on the floor of the House in defiance speaking to those citizens gathered in the galleries and to the media.

Today we have again returned to the Capitol to continue speaking to the thousands of Americans from all across our country who are visiting the Capitol. We would have preferred if instead we were joined by our colleagues to have a true debate on this issue that ended in an up or down vote.

We think it is unconscionable that Congress has gone on vacation before we have addressed the high gas prices that are crippling our economy and hurting millions of families. We are asking that you reconvene the House from your five-week vacation and schedule a vote on legislation to increase American energy production. Let us be clear, we are not asking for a guaranteed outcome, just the chance to vote.

Signed by: John Boehner, Republican Leader; Roy Blunt, Republican Whip; Adam Putnam, Republican Conference Chairman; Eric Cantor, Chief Deputy Whip; and Members of the House Republican Conference

What are the Democrats doing while they should be working on legislation to protect our country? All kinds of pointless things. The GOP had to resort to a walk-out to push the issue, but it's still unresolved. We need FISA legislation, now. Here's a new web ad, via Freedom Project:

Democrats in the Senate, and an unfortunately high number of Republicans, failed the earmark test by rejecting a vote for an earmark moratorium. The Democrat Majority has pushed new taxes, and they plan on spending that money on a huge number of new programs. While the Republican Leadership in the House is getting serious about fixing Washington, we find ourselves witnessing the return of the Spendocrats to power. I turned to the Albuquerque Journal to make the point:

“Congress is no longer in session, and can’t inflict any more damage for a while.”

“Democrats in the House effectively raised taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars… Meanwhile, the House ramped up spending on domestic programs, effectively locking in years of higher spending.”

Republican Leader John Boehner's office is covering this tax hike, and they're fighting for strong responsible government in Washington. I'd be remiss not to point out that the Republicans lost their way prior to 2006, doing the same things the Democrats are doing now. Republican Leader Boehner promises that the GOP has changed their ways, and are going back to embracing Conservatism in government. They're fighting the return of the Spendocrats...

Senator Jim DeMint has been pushing the earmark moratorium in the Senate, and the movement for responsible government has gained a little steam. Even Barack Obama, who abused the earmark system, was supporting the moratorium. It wasn't enough. Last night's vote on the moratorium failed badly, and the Senate obviously doesn't want to give up pork:

WASHINGTON — The Senate rejected calls from both parties' presidential candidates to take an election-year break from pork-barrel spending as a Democratic-run Congress pushed budget plans that would torpedo hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts won by President Bush.

John McCain, the GOP nominee-to-be, couldn't attract even a majority of Senate Republicans to vote with him Thursday night behind the earmark moratorium touted by party conservatives as a way to restore the GOP's credibility with voters.

It failed on a 71-29 vote. Only three Democrats joined with Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in voting for it.

First off, this vote shows that our Congress doesn't want to be a responsible steward of our tax dollars, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. I don't understand why John McCain gets slammed while they don't "attack" Hillary and Barack for their failure to sway Democrats. They were just supporting this moratorium for political expediency anyways, so I can't be surprised that they weren't zealous campaigners for it.

A simple trip to the GOP's website will tell you how long it's been since the Protect America Act expired. The overtime clock shows how long it's been since the liberal Democrat leadership was truly invested in America's national security. Republican Leader John Boehner slammed the Democrat Majority on the failure to reform FISA via e-mail:

This latest FISA proposal from House Majority leaders is dead on arrival. It would outsource critical national security decisions to unelected judges and trial lawyers. It would hand over valuable national security oversight to a new commission charged with handling matters which already fall within the responsibilities of the existing House Intelligence Committee. And it would leave patriotic third parties exposed to unfettered and costly lawsuits at the hands of trial lawyers who are counting on their allies in Congress to block real FISA modernization.

“It is clear that the House Majority leadership has no intention of doing what’s right and giving our intelligence officials every tool they need to protect the American people. It’s also clear that trial lawyers are dictating national security policies to this Democratic Congress. This is reckless, and this is dangerous. And it’s time for rank-and-file Democrats to demand that their leaders to put our national security first and allow an up-or-down vote on the bipartisan Senate FISA bill. This latest proposal from House Majority leaders is a sham, and it is clearly unacceptable to the U.S. Senate, the President, and the American people.”

Harsh statements are one thing, but obviously the House Republicans mean what they say on this issue. Remember the walk-out? Representative Boehner and all of the Republican Caucus are showing a true regard for America's security, and the Democrats in the Majority are not.