e-News May 28, 2010

Statement

The Week Just Past: Kicking the Can Down the Road
Why Can't They Just Stop Spending?
Memorial Day Arrives With No Bill to Support our Troops in Afghanistan and Iraq
A Presidential Trip to the Gulf - About Time?
House Acts to Protect Intelligence and Military Professionals
Governor Christie Leading!
Hurricane Hunter in New Jersey Schools

The Week Just Past: Kicking the Can Down the Road

"The Washington Post editorial on Tuesday said it best: "Only in Washington, it seems, is the long-awaited "pivot' to fiscal restraint nowhere to be seen. As the mid-term elections draw near, Congress is considering a raft of new spending, necessary and otherwise, most of which won't be paid for.'

"Just a short six months ago, our national debt hit $12 trillion. On Wednesday, our national debt hit $13 trillion. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is so committed to her out-of-control spending spree that she's not even going to propose a budget.

"The budget is now six weeks overdue -- and in that time, Congress has done absolutely nothing of consequence while the Members have been here. In fact, C-SPAN was forced to dip into its library of re-runs on Wednesday as the House stood in recess for most of the day while the Majority debated with itself over how much deficit spending was enough!

"And now the House is going to adjourn for ten days without doing the most important thing we could be doing right now - passing a budget that reins in spending, helps create private sector jobs, and gets our economy moving again.

"Every family knows that in tough times, a budget plan is even more important -- not less important. A $13 trillion national debt should be both an alarm bell and a wake-up call together that demands more than just lip service. It demands real leadership.

"And as a sage once said, "if you cannot budget, you cannot govern!'

"We should not be kicking the can down the road when we should be reining in out-of-control spending, getting our economy moving again, and creating private sector jobs and employment opportunities here in America."

Rodney Frelinghuysen

See Rodney's floor speech on the budget here.

Recommended Reading: Tuesday's Wall Street Journal editorial, "merican Jobbery Act, Dissecting this week's stimulus bill."

Why Can't They Just Stop Spending?

In the very same week Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to ram a spending bill through Congress that would have added another $130 billion onto the national debt, President Obama proposed a piece of legislation that would allow him to cut "wasteful" spending. The bill would award President Obama and his successors the ability to take two months or more to scrutinize spending bills that have already been signed into law for dubious programs and projects.

With our national debt at $13 trillion, here's an easy solution: why can't they just stop spending now?

Noted with Interest: One month after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano proclaimed to the world that the southwest border of the United States is "as secure now as it has ever been," President Obama announced he is dispatching another 1,200 National Guardsmen to "secure the border!"

If we had kept in place the Guardsmen sent to the border by the previous Administration, we probably would not be seeing drug wars, gangs, and illegal human trafficking today!

Memorial Day Arrives With No Bill to Support our Deployed Troops in Afghanistan and Iraq

Memorial Day is a formal opportunity to remember our nation's unbroken line of heroes stretching back to the days when General George Washington's troops encamped at Jockey Hollow. We honor those men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend and preserve these United States.

It is ironic that with hundreds of thousands of our brave warfighters in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the globe pursuing an enemy who attacks innocent civilians, Congress is failing to do its duty. Congress needs to put our troops first and pass a clean, wartime supplemental spending bill that will provide our warfighters with the tools and the funding they need to complete their missions.

The President sent up his wartime supplemental spending request four months ago. Since then, Congress has done nothing short of abdicate its responsibility both on this legislation and so much more.

Out-of-control spending, failure to oversee and eliminate wasteful programs, shirking entitlement reform, and amassing record-level debt are a shameful way to remember and honor all those who have valiantly worn our uniform.

Recommended Reading II: Nick Timiraos, writing in Monday's Wall Street Journal, describes a great saga of continued mismanagement: "Fannie, Freddie Fix Is a Federal Hot Potato."

A Presidential Trip to the Gulf - About Time?

Today, President Obama made his second trip to the Gulf Coast since BP's offshore oil platform, Deepwater Horizon, suffered a catastrophic "blowout."

On the subject of the worst oil spill in the history of the United States, the President said his administration understood the "potential enormity" of the crisis from "day one," and made it the administration's "highest priority since the crisis occurred." He says those who have criticized the government's response "don't know the facts." And he said that the government, and not BP, is in charge of the response.

Why, then, does the oil continue to flow???

House Acts to Protect Intelligence and Military Professionals

A section of the Defense Authorization Act passed today takes aim at the so-called "John Adams Project," a program run by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to publicly identify covert intelligence and military officers who participated in the interrogation of terrorists after 9/11. These intelligence and military officers were secretly photographed and then these photographs ended up in the hands of suspected terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"Anyone who has ever visited the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, as I have, knows that the security personnel there deliberately obscure their uniform name tags to prevent possible retribution against themselves or their families by the terrorist network," Rodney said. "Now this outrageous ACLU program is putting at risk the lives of our brave intelligence and military personnel who have worked day and night to protect the homeland. They deserve better. They deserve our protection."

Many of those detainees who Attorney-General Holder would like to bring to New York City for civilian criminal trials are the same terrorists who were given photographs of their interrogators by their attorneys.

Rodney voted for an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill which requires the Department of Defense Inspector General to investigate the conduct of military and non-military lawyers representing Guantanamo Bay terrorists to determine if their conduct violated any law or posed any risk to a member of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Governor Christie Leading!

Governor Chris Christie has received national attention for his management of New Jersey's budget crisis. Frankly, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid could learn several lessons if they read his opinion piece, "The Reform Agenda: Changing Course in N.J.":

Hurricane Hunter in New Jersey Schools

The Atlantic Hurricane season officially begins on Tuesday. With that in mind, Rodney brought a National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) "Hurricane Hunter" to visit with students at three middle schools in his Congressional District last Monday. Lieutenant Commander Peter Siegel, a NOAA aviator and navigator, met with students at the Mount Prospect School in Basking Ridge, the Central Avenue Elementary School in Madison and the Lester C. Noecker Elementary School in Roseland.

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