“So-called Blue Dog ‘conservative’ Democrats in the House have long touted their caucus as being fiscally-responsible, but what emerges from an analysis of their voting records is a pack of lapdogs who have voted largely in lock-step with their more radical counterparts in House leadership,” said Wilson.

“In vote after vote, the Blue Dogs have been all bark and no bite. Although they had the votes to do so, they have not stopped a single piece of budget-busting legislation in a year that saw the largest budget deficit in American history: $1.4 trillion,” Wilson explained.

“By over a 4 to 1 margin, so-called ‘moderates’ in the House have voted with the bankrupt Pelosi agenda of Big Government,” Wilson added.

The analysis shows 856 Yea votes and 207 Nay votes, which Wilson said “was not enough to stop anything.”

The ALG analysis includes votes on the $789 billion “stimulus”, bankruptcy mortgage “cramdowns,” ACORN funding, a $108 billion International Monetary Fund expansion, the Waxman-Markey carbon emission caps, the $2.1 trillion “public option” health system, the $154 billion assistance program for bankrupt states, and the $290 billion debt limit expansion.

According to the Blue Dogs’ website, “In the 111th Congress, the Coalition intends to continue to make a difference in Congress by forging middle-ground, bipartisan answers to the current challenges facing the Country. A top priority will be to refocus Congress on balancing the budget and ridding taxpayers of the burden the debt places on them.”

“By its own measure, the Blue Dog coalition has not succeeded,” Wilson noted. “The House of Representatives this year alone has voted to spend more than $3.6 trillion, to nationalize the health care system, to strangle the nation’s access to energy, and to bankrupt the Treasury—and yet the Blue Dog and so-called ‘moderate’ Democrats have done nothing to stop the profligate financial catastrophe unfolding at the nation’s Capitol,” Wilson said.

Wilson pointed to the record national debt which currently stands at over $12 trillion, as placing an “insurmountable burden on the next generation of Americans.” The total debt is projected to top the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011 at over $14 trillion. By 2020, it will top $20 trillion.

Wilson said that if entitlement spending is not reined in, it will soon half of the entire budget. According to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), entitlement spending as a percentage of budget outlays will continue to increase over the next decade. In 2019, OMB projects that entitlements spending will stand at $2.482 trillion (45.93 percent of outlays totaling $5.403 trillion).

According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, by 2050 entitlement spending “will consume nearly the entire federal budget.”

“While the nation is going bankrupt, House Blue Dogs and ‘moderate’ Democrats pretend that their support for these terrible pieces of legislation is ‘deficit-neutral.’ They have done nothing to stop the madness, which will only bankrupt the Treasury, destroy the dollar, and saddle American taxpayers without a debt that cannot be paid.”

Attachments:
“Blue Dogs and Moderate Democrats Voting Records, 2009,” Americans for Limited Government.

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“The Independent Medicare Advisory Board will become the Healthcare Soviet—dictating rules, rates and procedures in America’s health care system with no appeal. That is why Reid has given it the most protection,” Wilson explained.

In the Reid Substitute, under Section 3403 in a section entitled “Limitations on Changes to this Subsection,” it states, “It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”

Section 3403 establishes the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (IMAB), which would “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending” under the Reid substitute. Wilson said that is “rationing.”

“The whole purpose of this panel is to ration health care to seniors, no question,” Wilson said.

“To hide that, the bill states that ‘The proposal shall not include any recommendation to ration health care’ right after it gets through establishing the power for the IMAB to ration health care,” Wilson explained.

“This is Orwellian Newspeak of the first order,” Wilson declared, adding, “Right in this section, Harry Reid is saying that they’re going to ration health care away from seniors, but they’re just not going to call it that.”

“And then, to lock it in place, Reid goes as far as to require a two-thirds vote in order to amend or repeal the rationing board,” Wilson explained.

The Senate rules change was exposed on the floor of the Senate by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), as reported by the National Review Online. Senator DeMint said, “This is not legislation. This is not law. This is a rule change. It’s a pretty big deal. We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a Senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or repeal the law.”

DeMint said that under Senate rules, it should take a two-thirds vote of the Senate to invoke cloture on legislation that contains such rules changes. And, that, “[A]s the chair has confirmed, Rule 22, paragraph 2, of the standing rules of the Senate, states that on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the senators present and voting.”

However, the Senate President ruled that the rules change was not a rules change, but a change in procedure.

“This is completely unconstitutional,” Wilson noted, pointing to Article I, Section 5 of the Federal Constitution, which states: “Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings…”

“Under current rules, the Reid substitute, which includes a rules change making it out of order to amend or repeal a section of the bill, should require a two-thirds vote in order to be enacted,” Wilson explained, concluding, “That has not happened, and will not happen, meaning that once passed, any attempt to remove the health care rationing board will be deemed out of order forevermore. People are going to die.”

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The Alert is an online news wire and aggregation service provided for media outlets to enable them to instantly access the top news in the nation’s capital. Bipartisan and all-inclusive, The Alert, as its tagline proclaims, provides “The top news. All the time. In an instant.”

According to Washington News Alert Bureau Chief, Robert Romano, “The Alert is a valuable resource for reporters to turn to get original source material. As newsmakers send us their releases, statements, speeches, multimedia, etc., they will be fed into The Alert directly so that reporters will have a single source, turn-to site to get their hands on political news—directly from the newsmakers without any filters.”

Added Senior Editor Adam Bitely, “We have aggregated D.C.’s top media outlets that utilize RSS feeds, top newsmakers who utilize Twitter, and top national political bloggers into a single system that updates itself every time those outlets are updated.”

According to Bitely, the National News section includes top national, D.C. news outlets, such as Politico, Washington Examiner, Congressional Quarterly, and more than two-dozen others. As those outlets release breaking news, it is automatically included in The Alert.

“The Alert will help political reporters, opinion leaders, bloggers, and editors to keep up to date with the headlines, as well as what top newsmakers are saying as soon as it happens,” Romano said.

The Alert contains four prominent features:

• the Twitter feed of top DC tweeters;
• the National News feed of the latest headlines from the Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Politico, Congressional Quarterly, and other DC news outlets;
• the blog feed from top political bloggers; and
• the Breaking News & Commentary feed, which will include Congressional and not-for-profit releases, statements, opeds, etc. as well as “breaking news that ALG-NRN News identifies throughout the day, and up-to-the-minute,” said Romano.

Romano reminded elected officials, news outlets, bloggers, activists and organizations nationwide to send breaking news tips and headlines to press@washingtonnewsalert.com. Newsmaker Tweeters should contact Alert Senior Editor Adam Bitely at adam@netrightnation.com about adding their Twitter feed to the system.

“We look forward to adding new features to The Alert as time goes forward, and we encourage user feedback to help us with making those improvements,” Romano said, concluding, “Our goal is that The Alert will get better and better, and not miss a beat.”

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According House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s website, the bill (HR 2847) in total will cost $154 billion of taxpayer funds allocated from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

“The House has abandoned all sense of decency. No sooner than the banks pay back the TARP does Congress just take the money shell it out to bankrupt states and union bosses,” said Wilson.

“These are not loans to the states and public sector unions. They are Christmas gifts,” Wilson noted. “They will never be paid back. That $154 billion is gone. So much for TARP ‘paying for itself’—Congress has just poured it down the sewer of insolvency.”

The final vote in the House was 217-212 in favor of the $154 billion bailout.

Yesterday, in a letter Wilson urged members of the House to reject the bailout of state governments with taxpayer funds paid back by banks through the TARP.

Wrote Wilson, “Bailing states out of their own reckless decisions is as irresponsible as bailing out poor decisions by investment firms, or GSE’s like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I urge you to vote no on this legislation, which will raid TARP funds in a kickback to public sector unions that donated generously to your campaign coffers.”

This new $154 billion bill includes $48.3 billion in funds for highway construction unions and other infrastructure spending and another $23 billion for public education unions.

The $789 billion “stimulus” bill also contained $53.6 billion to bail out state and local governments.

Speaking on December 3rd in Washington, Barack Obama announced the plan: “Next year we’re going to still have some of those challenges because usually state and local government revenues lag the recovery as a whole. They may need some more help from the federal government.”

Obama indicated the federal government had a responsibility to engage in deficit-spending on behalf of revenue-strapped states. “Frankly, because state and local governments generally don’t have the capacity to engage in deficit spending, some of that obligation falls on the federal government,” said Obama.

“Transferring bailout funds to public sector unions in bankrupt states is the final insult for American taxpayers, who are being straddled with an insane $12 trillion debt that cannot possibly be paid back,” Wilson said, concluding, “Never have the American people been so poorly represented by Congress.”

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“Congress is ready to give the American people an early Christmas present: slavish indebtedness for perpetuity,” Wilson said, adding, “In the meantime, Moody’s has issued a stark warning against the deteriorating public finances of the U.S., which if not corrected, will likely result in the loss of the nation’s Aaa bond rating.”

Last week, Moody’s Investor Services stated that U.S. “public finances are deteriorating considerably and may therefore test the Aaa boundaries…”

According to the Washington Post, “The House may vote this week to raise the federal debt ceiling by at least $1.8 trillion, as the current limit is set to be breached by New Year’s Eve.” The legislation would be included in the House “stimulus” bill, which will be attached to the annual defense appropriations bill.

Wilson said that attaching the national debt increase to troops funding was “a cynical admission that on its own, the measure would face certain rejection by the American people. Washington’s big spenders are hiding behind the troops.”

Congressional leaders say that the increase in the national debt has been as a result defense spending. Wilson said that while defense spending as a percent of the overall budget has actually decreased, “the uncontrolled growth of the debt has occurred via entitlements spending, which has far outpaced any other part of the budget.”

According to an Americans for Limited Government analysis of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) data, annual entitlement spending has grown from $386.4 billion in 1992 (27.98 percent of budget outlays totaling $1.381 trillion) to $1.36 trillion in 2009 (38.17 percent of budget outlays totaling $3.653 trillion). (Sources: www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy10/pdf/hist.pdf, and http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/asset.aspx?AssetId=1702.)

Annual defense spending, on the other hand, has shrunk as a percent of total outlays from 21.6 percent to 18.12 percent.

“That is remarkable,” Wilson said, “when one considers the fact that defense spending has more than doubled since 1992.” Defense spending stood at $298.35 billion in 1992, and has grown to $662 billion in 2009.

“Entitlement spending over the same period has more than tripled during the same period,” Wilson added.

According to OMB data, entitlement spending as a percent of budget outlays will continue to increase, and defense spending will continue to decrease. In 2019, OMB projects that entitlements spending will stand at $2.482 trillion (45.93 percent of outlays totaling $5.403 trillion).

“Soon,” Wilson said, “entitlement spending will break the federal treasury and saddle the American people with an insurmountable bill that can never possibly be paid. In fact, we will not even be able to keep up with our interest payments.”

According to the New York Times, “the White House estimates that the government’s tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically.”

In a recent column, Wilson wrote that “even as interest repayments grow exponentially, the debt will not shrink. In fact, the national debt has grown every single year since 1958. And the government projects that trend will continue unabated for the next decade.”

Wilson said that the growth of the debt could be directly correlated and shown to be caused by the growth of entitlements. The national debt has grown by over 295 percent since 1992, and will have grown by over 492 percent by 2020. Entitlement spending has grown by over 351 percent since 1992, and will have grown by over 642 percent by 2020.

“Entitlement spending is the greatest contributor to the growth of the national debt because it is growing at an even faster pace than the budget as a whole. That means it is, without a doubt, the most uncontrolled, profligate, unaffordable and unsustainable portion of the budget,” Wilson explained.

Currently, the national debt stands at over $12 trillion and is projected to top the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011 at over $14 trillion. By 2020, it will top $20 trillion.

“This is a problem that, if not addressed by Congress now, will destroy the solvency and prosperity of the nation. The only solution is to rein in entitlement spending and figure out a way to actually reduce debt,” Wilson said, concluding, “For, if we do not, this generation and future generations of Americans will be enslaved to a debt that cannot be paid.”

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According to TalkingPointsMemo.com, under the plan “Insurance companies will have the option of creating nationally-based non-profit insurance plans that would offered on the exchanges in every state. However, according to the aide, if insurance companies don’t step up to the plate to offer such plans, that will trigger a national public option.”

“A vote for a triggered ‘public option’ is the same as a vote for the ‘public option,’” Wilson said. “Everyone knows the game will be rigged so that the trigger will automatically be pulled later. The fact is, the Reid proposal authorizes the establishment of the ‘public option,’ and that is reason enough to vote no.”

“Only Senators Snowe and Collins can stop this madness,” Wilson declared. “Now is a time for choosing for Senators Snowe and Collins, with the ‘public option’ aimed at the American people.”

“They must decide whether they will be the ones who pull the ‘trigger’ and help the government take over the nation’s entire health system. Or, whether they will stand with the American people and stop the trigger from being pulled,” Wilson explained.

In the latest Rasmussen Reports poll, 51 percent of voters surveyed say they oppose the proposed legislation. Only 41 percent support it.

“This plan will only result in the establishment of the government-run ‘public option’ that will lose trillions of dollars, ration of health care away from seniors, raise the cost of premiums, drive the American people off of private health options, and bankrupt the Treasury,” Wilson said.

A recent Congressional Budget Office study states, “Average premiums per policy in the non-group market would in 2016 would be roughly $5,800 for single policies and $15,200 for family policies under the proposal, compared with roughly $5,500 for single policies and $13,100 for family policies under current law.”

The Senate version of the “public option” will start operating at massive deficits starting in 2015, according to an Americans for Limited Government analysis of Congressional Budget Office data. By 2019, the “public option” will have spent some $361 billion more than it took in via new taxes.

“Senators Snowe and Collins can be heroes if they stop this highly unpopular, budget-busting government power grab. They are in an historic position to save health care for millions of Americans,” Wilson concluded.

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“Instead of using repaid TARP funds to bail out the public sector unions in bankrupt states like California and New York, it should be used to pay down the $12 trillion national debt,” Wilson said.

“Congress must reject the $200 billion states bailout, before TARP is allowed to become a political slush fund — a revolving line of credit for the big spenders in Washington to waste on whatever they want in state capitals across the country,” Wilson said.

While Obama, in his Allentown visit, made it a point to stage events at privately owned factories, top Administration revealed that in a speech scheduled for Tuesday, he intends to introduce a new federal “stimulus” package, which, according to AP will call for “sending the biggest chunk of fresh money to cash-strapped state and local governments.”

“One of the primary reasons state and local governments are ‘cash strapped,’” said Wilson, “is that they have allowed rapid increases in the number of government workers. The last thing the American people need is for bloated state and local governments to get a federal infusion of tax dollars to take on more overpaid, underworked government employees.”

Speaking on December 3rd in Washington, Obama announced the plan: “Next year we’re going to still have some of those challenges because usually state and local government revenues lag the recovery as a whole. They may need some more help from the federal government.”

Obama said it was up to the federal government to pay state bills. “Frankly, because state and local governments generally don’t have the capacity to engage in deficit spending, some of that obligation falls on the federal government.”

Wilson said that “balancing state budgets and bailing out public sector unions is becoming a permanent line on the federal budget,” reminding American news media that the $789 billion “stimulus” bill contained $53.6 billion to bail out state and local governments.

Wilson noted that “a lot of that spending has not even gone into effect yet, and the states are already lined up to bail out their 2010 deficit-spending needs. States like California and New York cannot sell enough bonds to keep up with the excesses of the boom years. If Congress bails them out, it will mean they will not have to make painful, necessary cuts in spending.”

“The worst medicine for profligate spenders in state governments nationwide is for the federal government to issue them blank checks to bail out their public union political constituencies,” Wilson said. “It is obscene for a bankrupt federal government to shell out hardworking taxpayers’ dollars to bail out wasteful state and local governments so that they can in turn hire a whole new army of overpaid, make-work bureaucrats.”

“The way to stimulate the economy and create new jobs, “Wilson added, “is to cut taxes, cut regulations, stop the government takeover of private industry, and allow the private sector to get back in its feet with real, product-producing jobs.

“More government bureaucrats — at any and every level — just means more waste, larger governments, and higher taxes on those few private sector employees left who are already bearing the burden of out-of-control government spending.”

Wilson pledged that his organization’s 400,000 members nationwide would “work at every level” to stop the new Obama spending program.

“Congress needs to stop wasteful government spending,” Wilson concluded, “and not allow the politicians to just shift its focus and disguise its intent. Bailing states out of their own irresponsible decisions is an irresponsible use of federal taxpayer resources.”

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