Today’s Agenda
Today, Senator Lee will question Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the company’s possible anticompetitive business practices during an Antittrust Subcommittee hearing.
From the Senator’s Desk
From Senator Lee’s op-ed “A Pro-Growth Jobs Agenda,” published by Roll Call:
Instead of lecturing Congress to pass yet another stimulus package “right away,” the President should be focusing on ways to minimize the federal government’s burden on individuals and job creators, giving them more money in their pockets and more freedom to invest, save, innovate, and prosper. A pro-growth jobs agenda would include:
(1) Enforceable spending restrictions. Immediate spending cuts will reduce the deficit and national debt, and signal to businesses, investors and the credit-rating agencies that the federal government is serious about balancing its budget. It will also significantly reduce our debt-service costs, which over the next decade are expected to balloon to $1 trillion per year. Whatever one’s vision of government may be – vast and expansive or limited and defined – interest payments of this magnitude will severely limit our ability to finance current government programs.
The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, which I sponsored in the Senate and was later passed in the House, proposes the most comprehensive and serious spending reform in the last two decades. Passage of the CCB Act would create the kind of certainty the market needs to create jobs across the economy.
Furthermore, fiscal discipline will encourage improved monetary policy and help reverse the ruinous trend of a rapidly depreciating currency.
(2) Restrictions on regulatory overreach. While all Americans expect clean air, clean water and competitive business practices, very few believe it is necessary (much less desirable) to have 165,000 pages of regulations to achieve those goals. Such regulations cost businesses $1.75 trillion annually and have a chilling effect on economic growth and job creation. Congress should immediately pass S. 1438, the Regulation Moratorium and Job Preservation Act, and S. 299, the REINS Act. The former would place a moratorium on all new regulations until unemployment reaches 7.7%, the rate at which unemployment stood when the President took office.
The latter would restrict Congress’s pernicious practice of delegating its authority to unelected, unaccountable executive branch bureaucrats from assuming the power of legislators. Regardless of how competent these public servants might be, individuals who are neither elected by nor accountable to voters cannot be entrusted with the sensitive task of making major rules and regulations carrying the force of federal law—at least not without Congress’s explicit approval.
(3) Encourage domestic energy production. The President should reverse his assault on the productive sector of our domestic energy industry and remove excessive barriers to increased energy production. America has vast quantities of untapped oil and gas resources primarily because the regulations surrounding their development require an unnecessarily prolonged and restrictive federal regulatory approval process. Congress should act on legislation such as S. 706, the Domestic Jobs, Domestic Energy, and Deficit Reduction Act, to encourage on- and off-shore energy exploration.
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.@scottcdunn You can go review S.804, which I co-sponsored w/ @SenRandPaul and @grahamblog to fix Social Security.
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#Solyndra debacle timeline (h/t RPC) http://pic.twitter.com/LGMouphJ
SenLeePressSec
Votes went long today so our #Utah press call will be held tomorrow at 4:30pm ET. Let me know if you’d like to call in. #leeutpresser
Recent Votes
Senator Lee voyed YEA on the amendment to provide trade promotion authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in order to create a “fast track” for trade deal legislation.
Around the Water Cooler
Fact check: Are rich taxed less than secretaries?
The latest IRS figures are a few years older — and limited to federal income taxes — but show much the same thing. In 2009, taxpayers who made $1 million or more paid on average 24.4 percent of their income in federal income taxes, according to the IRS. Those making $100,000 to $125,000 paid on average 9.9 percent in federal income taxes. Those making $50,000 to $60,000 paid an average of 6.3 percent.
Over $760,000 Stimulus Funds Go To Interactive Visual Dance
According to Recovery.gov, the website that tracks the money spent under the Recovery Act, The University Of North Carolina is receiving a $762,372 grant for it’s ‘Dance.Draw’ project.
Utah lawmakers target pesky prairie dogsThe bill is in reaction to damage animals have inflicted on the Paragonah Cemetery in Iron County and to the runway at the small airport in Parowan. Currently, the Fish and Wildlife Service can only legally remove prairie dogs from agricultural lands because they are protected by the Endangered Species Act. The Utah bill would allow the government to remove the animals from airports and cemeteries as well.
“This issue goes beyond the desecration at one burial site or the public safety hazard of one airport,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a co-sponsor of the legislation announced by Sen. Orrin Hatch. “The very rules that surround the protection of certain species are outdated, unfair and have disastrous consequences.”
A Look Ahead
Tomorrow, Senator Lee meets with representatives from Prostate Cancer Constituents, Mahogany Energy, and with Bob Sonju, UASSP Middle Level Principal of the Year for Utah. He has interviews with WFLA, the Glenn Beck Show and will discuss the Google hearing with CSPAN for their program “The Communicators”.