Jared Bernstein, Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, says that the U.S. is engaged in the most “transparent and accountable” treatment of a government program that the nation has ever seen. He bases this assertion on the progress the Recovery Act has made in saving and creating nearly 250,000 education jobs. (0:26)
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.”
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.”
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.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) accuses Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama of lying to Americans about why the stimulus package hasn’t reversed the nation’s spiraling unemployment rate. Boehner says that we should focus on tax relief to help families and small businesses to keep what they earned in order to reduce the impact of the financial crisis. (1:07)
Vice President Joe Biden says our nation desperately needs health care reform, and predicts we’ll get it by the end of August. (:08)
Hospital associations will be aiding the White House’s health reform effort by providing $155 billion in medicare and medicaid savings over the next ten years, announced Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday.
“All of these savings are based on policies the administration proposed in its budget to fund health care reform,” said Biden, adding that the announcement represented President Barack Obama’s goal to achieve deficit neutral reform.
The Vice President, who appeared with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for the announcement, stressed health reform’s urgency, stating that a plan needs to be in place by the end of August.
“We have tried for decades to fix a broken system. We have never, in my entire public tenure in public life, been this close,” said Biden.
The hospital associations will achieve the promised savings by reforming their delivery systems and reducing inflationary updates.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) was sworn into the U.S. Senate Tuesday by Vice President Joe Biden. Distributed by Tubemogul.
Vice President Joe Biden swore in Al Franken as the junior senator from Minnesota. Franken repeated the oath of office and was then congratulated by the Vice President (0:36)
Vice President Joe Biden says, “I am more optimistic about the place we are today”, referencing the new goal to achieve a clean energy plan. The opportunity, he says, is gigantic due to the “god-awful economic circumstance we find ourselves in.” (0:40)
