Fiscal Predators: The Seduction of Governmental Dependency

U.S. Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter, Chair
The Republican House Policy Committee


The Left claims the Bush Administration manufactured a bogus war on terrorism to scare Americans into ceding their civil liberties to a police state. In reality, however, the Left is seducing Americans into surrendering their sovereignty, liberty, and prosperity to the welfare state.

Breaking their promise to provide fiscal responsibility to federal spending, every week the House floor echoes with the Democrats’ siren paeans to whatever slice of “social justice” du jour will ostensibly excuse hiking taxes and spending. By now taxpayers should be versed in the Left’s tricks of their trade: refusing to reduce government spending; refusing to prioritize government spending; and sweetly alleging only to be taxing a targeted group they’ve unfairly demonized to purportedly “help” a targeted group of vulnerable individuals - the poor, the sick, the kids (excepting the unborn). But in truth, the Left has only helped themselves in the near and long term to more of your prosperity, liberty and sovereignty.

Bent to feast upon the taxpayers’ money needed to sate their craving for social and electoral engineering, in the 110th Congress these Fiscal Predators have already:

• Passed five-year authorizations of $887,473,870,000, of which $25,476,250,000 is mandatory spending.

• Passed over $80,000,000,000 in NEW TAXES.

• Budgeted for the largest tax increase in American history – between $217,000,000,000 and $392,500,000,000.

• Raised the federal statutory debt limit by over $850,000,000,000 from $8.965 trillion to $9.81 trillion.

• Refused to devote a dime of deficit or debt reduction in their legislation.

• Refused to enact real earmark reforms.

• Refused to propose any entitlement reforms to defuse the ticking fiscal time-bombs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

• Ignored the fact economic growth – not tax hikes and Keynesian spending sprees – increased federal revenues by approximately $6,000,000,000 and will decrease the federal deficit by 36.2% at the end of FYO7.

Yet despite these alarming acts of fiscal irresponsibility, it appears the Left’s seductive spending is enticing the American electorate.

Earlier this year, in the Christian Science Monitor analyst Gary Shillings reported 52.6% of Americans receive “significant income from government programs… That's up from 49.4% in 2000 and far above the 28.3% of Americans in 1950. If the trend continues, the percentage could rise within ten years to pass 55%, where it stood in 1980 on the eve of President Reagan's move to scale back the size of government.” Future attempts will prove even more difficult. En masse, the aging baby boomers are hitting “entitlement age,” and beginning to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Compounding the problem, under the “progressive” federal income tax, a full 50% of the lowest earning Americans provide only 3.5% of federal tax revenues. In consequence, soon over half of all Americans will view future tax hikes and massive spending increases as bargain, if not a boon. And, by the way, since the Republican Party strayed from its root principle of fiscal discipline, the electorate empowered a new Democratic majority to handle America’s treasury. Combined, these events conspire to supplant free enterprise with wealth redistribution as Americans’ unifying economic philosophy and system.

The fiscal tipping point is passing. Like it or not, in our capitalist system money is not only a measure of your prosperity; money is a measure of power and, thus, your liberty and sovereignty in relation to the subservient national government. Thus, whenever Washington’s Fiscal Predators raise taxes, it reduces your prosperity and your liberty; and whenever Washington’s Fiscal Predators increase spending, it expands their power and diminishes your sovereignty over it. If nothing is done – and done quickly – to tether the Fiscal Predators and reaffirm the historic fact our free people engaged in free enterprise are the foundation of our national prosperity, Americans, who were once the masters of their fate, will be fated to be mastered by their once subservient government.

For the sovereign citizens of a free republic conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition government only exists to protect our God-given rights, this portends a less than divine descent into Hell.

McCotter Demands Ahmadinejad Apologize at Ground Zero

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 7, 2007

WASHINGTON D.C. -Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, Chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee, today released the following statement on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s upcoming visit to the United Nations and Ahmadinejad’s request to visit Ground Zero during his trip to New York City.

“The irrational ruler of Iran, which is reported to shield Al-Qaeda members from the full measure of justice, should only be allowed to view Ground Zero in order to apologize and pledge to atone by opposing terrorism.

“If Ahmadinejad does not, he will be going to gloat over the site where his terrorist cohorts invaded American soil and killed over three thousand American souls. To those who naively claim we can ‘negotiate’ with Ahmadinejad, his actions belie the sanity of your proposed diplomacy.”

McCotter issued his statement just as it was reported Coalition forces arrested a corps of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force officer in Sulimaniyah, who was involved in training foreign terrorists in Iraq and transporting explosive devises into Iraq responsible in the lethal attacks against the our soldiers, Iraqi Government, and all Coalition Forces.

NOTE: Ahmadinejad is scheduled to arrive September 24 to speak to the U.N. General Assembly, as the Security Council decides whether to increase sanctions against Iran for its uranium enrichment program.

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McCotter to Democrats: “Match Rhetoric with Results on Earmark Reform”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2007

WASHINGTON D.C. - Today Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Chairman of the House Policy Committee, signed a discharge petition which, if it acquires 218 Congressional signatures, will help put full transparency and disclosure into House tax and authorizing bills.  If the discharge petition is successful, House Democrats would be compelled to bring Minority Leader John Boehner’s H. Res. 479 to the floor for an up-or-down vote.  H. Res. 479 would require taxpayer-funded earmarks in all authorizing and tax bills to be publicly disclosed and open to House debate.

“This isn’t Washington’s money.  It is the taxpayers’ money, born of their hard-work’s perspiration and shorn from their hard-earned prosperity,” said McCotter, an original co-sponsor of H. Res. 479. 

“Any and all attempts by politicians to imprudently spend the people’s money must be publicly exposed and immediately stopped.”

“I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to match their rhetoric with results on fiscal discipline and earmark reform.  If not, they will be signaling their intent to continue wasting the people’s money and breaking the public’s trust,” said McCotter.

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Iraq: A Quartet of Critical Inquiries

By Rep. Thaddeus McCotter


As a person’s word is their bond, a nation’s word is its bond. Once broken, “its word is no good.”

In 2002, with the world – and especially our enemy – watching, America gave its solemn vow to the oppressed Iraqi people we would emancipate them from a tyrant to experience their God-given right to liberty. Over four years later, in Iraq our soldiers and civilians continue striving and sacrificing to honor America’s pledge; but, on the home front, the Left is bent upon breaking America’s promise to liberate the Iraqis, in particular, and forsaking America’s dedication to liberty, in general.

Before acquiescing to this execrable outcome, Americans must demand the Left answer this quartet of critical inquiries regarding Iraq :

1. If America breaks its vow and abandons the Iraqis to be slaughtered, who in the region or the world will trust our word?

2. If America belies its professed commitment to liberty, what can we possibly offer the Middle East ’s – indeed, the world’s – oppressed to turn them away from the enemy and toward us?

3. After Iraq is abandoned, how soon will the Left demand America ’s immediate retreat in the other “war without end” – Afghanistan ?

4. What are the consequences to America if we are defeated in Iraq and Bin-Laden is proven right: “ America is definitely a great power, with an unbelievable military strength and a vibrant economy, but all of these have been built on a very weak and hollow foundation”?

These questions and others will not and can not be answered by the Left. Offering constructive alternatives to and measuring the consequences of national security policies is neither their goal nor inclination. Their contempt for America as the greatest threat to “world peace” precludes it.

Possessed of our sanity, let us provide the answers to these questions.

1. No one.

2. Nothing.

3. Immediately.

4. A war without end.

Should the Left prevail and these answers become bitter realities, present and future generations of Americans will be faced with the dark specter of nuclear armed terrorist states in a war without end against an implacable enemy bent upon our destruction; and, our just God so disposed, the Left will be held to account for betraying the integrity of America’s word in this crucible of our nation’s War for Freedom.

And, make no mistake, we will not escape the history’s inquiry of us:

What did you do to win it?



United States Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter is the Chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee

Back by popular demand...McCotter Bowl 3

YOU ARE INVITED TO ATTEND OR PARTICIPATE!


BYOFA (Bring Your Own First Aid)

Am I Right? (9/14/07)

Is Petraeus correct that Iraq surge is working?

If you missed my oped in the Detroit News on Thursday, Sept. 13th.....

Is Petraeus correct that Iraq surge is working?
Iraq becomes more stable as U.S. starts winning 'War for Freedom'

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter


Critics whose foreign policy expertise fits on an eco-friendly foreign car's fender allege Iraq is a "bumper sticker war without end." This slogan is false. Finally, if fitfully, this integral theater in our nation's War for Freedom is becoming a free, stable state opposed to terrorism; and the Iraq war is ending because we are winning.

This news was obscured amid the repugnant partisan attempts to spin the congressional testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker as dishonest or erroneous. While it will arrive neither quickly nor cheaply, the truth will emerge as our troops succeed in their mission and start coming home.

Incorporating Crocker's diplomatic initiatives, Petraeus' new counter-insurgency strategy's goal in Iraq is to eradicate insurgents and place reconstruction efforts into local Iraqis' hands. This strategy is succeeding. Due to increased security and economic opportunity, Iraqis are choosing liberty instead of the insurgency.

Iraqi shift to liberty

In his Sept. 7 letter to the Multi-National Force-Iraq, Petraeus stressed the importance of Iraqis' political shift to liberty:

"We are also building momentum in an emerging area of considerable importance -- local reconciliation. Local Iraqi leaders are coming forward, opposing extremists and establishing provisional units of neighborhood security volunteers. With growing government of Iraq support, these volunteers are being integrated into legitimate security institutions to help improve local security. While this concept is playing out differently in various areas across Iraq, it is grounded in a desire shared by increasing numbers of Iraqis -- to oppose extremist elements and their ideologies.

"This is very significant because, as many of you know first hand, extremists cannot survive without the support of the population. The popular rejection of al-Qaida and its ideology has, for example, helped transform Anbar Province this year from one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq to one of the safest. The popular rejection of extremists has helped Coalition and Iraqi Forces take away other areas from al-Qaida as well, and we are seeing a spread of this sentiment in an ever-increasing number of Sunni areas. Now, in fact, we are also seeing a desire to reject extremists emerge in many Shia areas."

Iraqi security participation up

This critical local reconciliation has increased Iraqi participation in their security; hastened the day they will be solely responsible for it; and, as in the early days of American independence, Iraqi local reconciliation will precede, facilitate and dictate national reconciliation. But most important for Americans, Iraqis' local reconciliation is the reason Petraeus proposed commencing troop reductions this month and continuing them through July 2008, when nearly 30,000 of our citizen-soldiers will have departed harm's way for home.

Perversely, critics decry this good news as a "token" political stunt. Demanding our immediate retreat in Iraq, these detractors ascribe their own misdeeds upon others -- namely, playing politics with our troops.

A strategic retreat is a dangerous maneuver for a fighting force, which gets smaller as the advancing enemy grows stronger. When rushed, disaster results, as happened to the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. Petraeus and Crocker refuse to repeat this mistake. Thus, American troop reductions are based upon progress in Iraq, not politics in Washington.

This responsible nexus for our troops' return threatens the radical left because it mutes its propaganda claims that a "war without end" has somehow already ended in America's defeat. Instead, every American has a concrete "benchmark" to measure our progress to victory in Iraq: witnessing and welcoming the return of our triumphant troops.

True, our troops can't come home quickly enough. No, this does not mean the war is won, as arduous and dangerous work remains. Yes, our nation must vigilantly monitor the facts on the ground to ensure the Iraqis' local political shift to liberty proceeds with requisite speed.

But let those who won't unite behind the cause of victory at least welcome the news that our troops -- because of progress in Iraq -- are coming home with their "mission accomplished." Now that will look good on the grille of a Michigan-made SUV.

Rep. McCotter speaks on the House Floor about Gen. Petraeus' Testimony on the progress in Iraq.

Tonight I spoke on the U.S. House floor to discuss Gen. Petraeus' Testimony. Below is a video of my remarks.

Remarks to the "Fight for Victory" Rally

United States Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter
Upper Senate Park, United States Capitol
September 10, 2007


Good morning, sovereign citizens of our free republic: we unite today as the latest generation of Americans duty-bound to defend freedom in an hour of maximum danger; and, undaunted and determined, we affirm our full measure of devotion to our troops; their families; and American victory.

It is fitting we do so this morning, as on the morrow we observe the fateful date three thousand of our fellow Americans were murdered; and, so heinously invaded, our nation was thrust into an unsought struggle – the War for Freedom – against the butcher Bin-Laden’s death cult and Middle-Eastern fascism.

To our free people, who were errantly told the Soviet implosion was the “end of history” and liberty’s enemies, September 11, 2001, was a harsh truth told anew: As the world’s beacon of freedom and bastion of hope for the enslaved and oppressed, our nation is the target for every tyrant and terrorist bent upon usurping God’s dominion over humanity. In consequence, the enemy seeks to kill us for the “sin” of being free.

For some of our fellow citizens, the shock of events has proven overwhelming; and they deny the present danger’s gravity and/or the enemy’s reality. For example, some claim Iraq is not part of the “real war on terror,” though even the butcher Bin-Laden disagrees with them. My friends, it is clear: Al Qaeda is in Iraq. American troops are defeating Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Iraq is part of the real War for Freedom!

Thankfully, this is well understood by General Petraeus and our intrepid forces – who as we speak are being despicably smeared by the less than grateful in our nation. Yet, despite the radical Left shooting at these messengers, the heartening news is General Petraeus’ counter-insurgency strategy is providing the local security and reconstruction efforts sufficient to permit the Iraqi’s “local political shift” to liberty and away from the insurgency. This separation of the population from the enemy will be the foundation upon which is built a stable and free Iraq that captures terrorist instead of creating them.

Once America has won in Iraq, this “grassroots-up” unleashing of liberty will equally bear fruit in Afghanistan. Ultimately, as a sea of free peoples comes to envelope the despotic, terror-sponsoring Iranian regime, it will, like the Soviet Union before it, be propelled by its own people into the trash can of history.

So to those desperate for surrender who claim the United States has been defeated in Iraq, let us unequivocally reassert the principle our free people have historically and heroically championed to defeat our enemies: To ensure liberty for ourselves, we must extend liberty to the enslaved.

Thus, to retreat in the face of the Al-Qaeda death cult and Mid-East fascism now, would condemn Iraqis by the tens, perhaps the hundreds of thousands for the “capital crime” of believing in our professed commitment to their freedom;

To retreat in the face of the enemy now would betray our own revolutionary commitment to and inherited legacy of liberty;

To retreat in the face of the enemy now would ideologically disarm us for, if not liberty, what can we offer the people of the region to turn them away from the enemy and toward us; and

Truly, to retreat in the face of the enemy now would dishonor the sacrifices of American and coalition citizen-soldiers who gave the last full measure of their devotion to emancipate millions of Muslims from slavery and servitude so their region and our world could experience a new birth of freedom.

To this deplorable prospect of retreat and surrender, we say: Never!

My fellow Americans, through this crucible of liberty, our course is tough; our cause is just. Our enemy is the sire of tyranny; we are the children of liberty. We cannot co-exist. A world condensed by an internet will not endure half-slave and half-free.

Thus, with prudence and courage, we must prove our devotion to liberty transcends our enemy’s obsession with death; and, united amongst ourselves and with other free peoples, we can, we must, and we will win!

May God continue to grace, guard, guide, and bless the steps of our troops and their families; and of the majestic American people who, for the sake of generations yet un-named, walk and widen the path of human freedom.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter speaks to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County Fashion Show

This Afternoon I spoke to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County in Annapolis, Maryland, at their Fashion Show Fundraiser. Here is video of my speech. Enjoy.

Fighting the Spin on Petraeus Report...Rep. McCotter on Hill Tube

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said he's fighting the spin on the upcoming Petraeus report