National News:USA TODAY (with graphic): USA owes $63.8 trillion Visit the link to access the interactive break-down of our debt:
Posted by: Press Secretary
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Letterkenny Army Depot Showcase
Last night, Congressman Shuster attended the Letterkenny Army Depot Industry Showcase in Chambersburg. The fourth annual showcase highlighted Letterkenny's impact on the local economy and its success in preparing our warfighters for the battlefield in an ever changing wartime environment.
Congressman Shuster addresses LEAD employees and local business leaders at the Showcase
The keynote speaker at last night's event was Brigadier General Bennet Sacolick, the Deputy Commanding General of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School based at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. General Sacolick pulled from a wealth of experience in special operations and irregular warfare while addressing the audience on the future of warfare. During his speech, the General pointed out how the vehicles built at the Letterkenny Depot, especially the MRAP mine resistant vehicle, directly saved the lives of his soldiers in the field in Iraq.
Brigadier General Sacolick addresses the crowd at the LEAD Showcase
Posted by: Press Secretary
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Shuster Staff to Hold Office Hours in Fulton County This Friday
**COMMUNITY NOTICE**
Shuster Staff to Hold Office Hours in Fulton County This Friday
On Friday May 29th from 2:00 to 3:00pm, district staff from the office of Congressman Shuster will hold a session of office hours at the McConnellsburg Fire Hall.
WHO: Members of Congressman Shuster’s district staff.
WHAT: Fulton County mobile office hours.
WHEN: 2:00 to 3:00pm on Friday May 29th.
WHERE: McConnellsburg Fire Hall located at 112 East Maple Street in McConnellsburg, PA 17233.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
New GITMO poll is telling
New Rasmussen poll finds 49% of Americans oppose closing GITMO. Read the report here.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Morning Must Reads
Friday, May 22, 2009
What Does $3,100 Mean to the Average Family?
How much will the Democrats’ national energy tax cost?
The Democrats’ national energy tax will confiscate approximately $3,100 per year from hard working families, kill jobs, and lead to more government intrusion.
What could the average family do with $3,100 a year?
- A driver could fill their car’s fuel tank more than 100 times.
- A family could pay for 15 months worth of disposable diapers.
- A young professional could pay for roughly 7 years of cell phone service.
- A Midwest wheat farmer or a Northeast dairy farmer could fill up their tractor’s fuel tank 33 times.
- A family of four could pay the grocery bill for 5 months.
- The average Illinois family could pay for more than 3 years of electricity bills.
- An energy-conscious consumer could buy 822 GE 13-watt energy efficient light bulbs.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Chairman doesn't know what is in his own energy tax bill
The video speaks for itself - the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee admits that he doesn't know what is in the national energy tax bill:
Posted by: Press Secretary
Cap and Trade is a job killer
One look at this graph from the Heritage Foundation is enough to realize that cap-and-trade (the national energy tax) is an absolute job killer. Learn more here.
Posted by: Press Secretary
American Conservative Union award
This morning, Congressman Shuster received an award from the American Conservative Union for his 92% conservative rating in 2008.
Posted by: Press Secretary
The climate industrial complex
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting editorial today entitled "The Climate Industrial Complex." It is worth a read as Congress gears up for a showdown over cap-and-trade legislation that will have a crippling effect on our economy and our position as a global economic power in the years to come. Here is a sample from the editorial:
U.S. companies and interest groups involved with climate change hired 2,430 lobbyists just last year, up 300% from five years ago. Fifty of the biggest U.S. electric utilities -- including Duke -- spent $51 million on lobbyists in just six months.
The massive transfer of wealth that many businesses seek is not necessarily good for the rest of the economy. Spain has been proclaimed a global example in providing financial aid to renewable energy companies to create green jobs. But research shows that each new job cost Spain 571,138 euros, with subsidies of more than one million euros required to create each new job in the uncompetitive wind industry. Moreover, the programs resulted in the destruction of nearly 110,000 jobs elsewhere in the economy, or 2.2 jobs for every job created.
The cozy corporate-climate relationship was pioneered by Enron, which bought up renewable energy companies and credit-trading outfits while boasting of its relationship with green interest groups. When the Kyoto Protocol was signed, an internal memo was sent within Enron that stated, "If implemented, [the Kyoto Protocol] will do more to promote Enron's business than almost any other regulatory business."
Posted by: Press Secretary
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Cap and Trade Delusions
Here is a link to a good article that details why the Democrats' national energy tax proposal masquerading as a climate change bill will derail the economy and fail to create jobs:
Another way to look at the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade proposal is that it functions like a tax increase. Under the bill, about half of all revenues raised by the cap-and-trade system between 2012 and 2025 will be recycled to businesses and consumers, with the other half spent by federal government. While recycling revenues is better than nothing, it introduces inefficiencies because the process distorts how workers and businesses would have spent the money had it not been collected and redistributed by the government.
Read the rest here: Cap and Trade Delusions
Posted by: Press Secretary
Don't think spending can get worse? Look at this
Here's a startling graph from the Heritage Foundation about the amazing spending resulting from Cap and Trade, a.k.a. the national energy tax:
Obama's new auto rules will transform the auto fleet in the US
Obama's new rules will transform US auto fleet. Including higher prices for the pick-up trucks you need for work and home and the mini-vans you use to carry the kids. In a time of economic stress, the Obama Administration's new rules could easily force yet another unexpected tax on your finances.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Why government can't run a business
In today's Wall Street Journal John Steele Gordon has an op-ed that hits the nail on the head and explains why government shouldn't be trusted to run any private enterprise. All we have to do is look to the past to see that nearly every time the federal bureaucracy gets close to running something once managed by the private sector, disaster is sure to follow. Why Government Can't Run a Business - a must read.
Here are some clips from the op-ed:
When the federal government nationalized the phone system in 1917, justifying it as a wartime measure that would lower costs, it turned it over to the Post Office to run. (The process was called "postalization," a word that should send shivers down the back of any believer in free markets.) But despite the promise of lower prices, practically the first thing the Post Office did when it took over was . . . raise prices.Cost cutting is alien to the culture of all bureaucracies. Indeed, when cost cutting is inescapable, bureaucracies often make cuts that will produce maximum public inconvenience, generating political pressure to reverse the cuts.
and
Capitalism isn't perfect. Indeed, to paraphrase Winston Churchill's famous description of democracy, it's the worst economic system except for all the others. But the inescapable fact is that only the profit motive and competition keep enterprises lean, efficient, innovative and customer-oriented.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
New friends on Facebook - the Somerset Daily American
It's good to see that Facebook is catching on among members of the 9th district press corps. Congressman Shuster has a page on Facebook and we'd like to welcome the Somerset Daily American to the great "online discussion."
Check the Daily American Facebook fan page out here.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Editorials on National Energy Tax
Tony Phyrillas' blog has links to two recent editorials on the Democrats' national energy tax proposals worth reading.
h/t: Tony Phyrillas
Posted by: Press Secretary
Monday, May 18, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Problems with the stimulus are mounting
Great article today in the DC Examiner by Byron York - "Biden's rosy report can't hide stimulus problems." It's worth a read even for this nice spring Friday afternoon.
The real news about the stimulus is buried inside the Biden report. It says that as of May 5, $88 billion has been "obligated" for spending. "Obligated" is federalese for money that has been committed but not yet spent. A much smaller number, $28.5 billion, has actually been shoved out the door -- that is, $28.5 billion out of the stimulus total of $787 billion has so far been spent.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Shuster, Platts meet with students from Middlesex Elementary in Carlisle
Yesterday, Congressman Shuster and Congressman Platts met with students from Middlesex Elementary School in Carlisle. This gave the students the chance to hear from two members of Congress and see their government in action first hand.
Take me out to the ball game
Our Washington, DC intern Alexandra Brunory had the chance to meet legendary pitcher Curt Shilling this week and got this photo from the meeting.
Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’
President Obama finally acknowledges that we can’t tax, spend, and borrow our way back to prosperity:
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”
Posted by: Press Secretary
Morning Must Reads
National News:
The Washington Post: Speaker’s Comments Raise Detainee Debate To New Level
WSJ Kim Strassel Editorial: “How does closing Guantanamo Bay make us safer?"
WSJ Peggy Noonan Editorial: What’s Elevated, Health-Care Provider?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Morning Must Reads
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tax increases could kill the economy
The Wall Street Journal Opinion: Tax increases could kill the economy
Great op-ed from the Wall Street Journal detailing why tax increases proposed by President Obama could kill our chances of ending the recession:
The current outlook for an economic recovery remains precarious. Although the stimulus package will give a temporary boost to growth in the current quarter, it will not be enough to offset the combined effect of lower consumer spending, the decline in residential construction, the weakness of exports, the limited availability of bank credit and the downward spiral of house prices. A sustained economic upturn is far from a sure thing. This is no time for tax increases that will reduce spending by households and businesses.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Office Hours in Mifflin County this Thursday
**COMMUNITY NOTICE**
On Thursday May 14th at 2:00pm, district staff from the office of Congressman Shuster will hold a session of office hours at the McVeytown Borough Building.
These office hours bring Congressman Shuster’s district staff to residents who don’t live close to the congressman’s district offices or are unable to get to the offices during the week.
WHO: Members of Congressman Shuster’s district staff.
WHAT: Office hours in Mifflin County.
WHEN: 2:00 to 3:00pm on Thursday May 14th.
WHERE: McVeytown Borough Building located at 10 North Queen Street in McVeytown, PA 17051.
Obama's budget so large, it's hard to actually put it into words
The Washington Examiner: Obama’s dangerous budget leaves GOP at loss for words
"Republicans are facing that obstacle as they try to explain the dimensions of Obama’s spending plan. The GOP pollster told me he tries to explain it by asking people to think of a dollar as a second — one dollar, one brief tick of your watch. A million seconds, the pollster explained, equals eleven days. A billion seconds equals 31 years. And a trillion seconds equals 310 centuries."
Posted by: Press Secretary
Media highlights Administration's fuzzy math on healthcare "savings"
HOW WILL THE WHITE HOUSE PAY FOR ITS MULTI-TRILLION DOLLAR, GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE PLAN?
More at the Republican Leader's Blog here.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Monday, May 11, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Keep Terrorists out of America!
Congressman Shuster on the Keep Terrorists out of America Act:
“When President Obama signed an executive order in January to close the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay without a plan for dealing with detainees, he put politics before our national security.
It’s now five months later and President Obama still has no plan in place detailing how he would close the facility and more important – no plan in place that absolutely prohibits the terrorists held there from being sent to the United States.
Many of these detainees are dangerous, committed and determined to do us harm. Bringing them into our prisons and our communities will not make us safer. I will not allow the Administration to move terrorist detainees into the United States without a fight and that fight begins with the Keep Terrorists out of America Act.”
For more information on this critical issue visit: www.gop.gov/detainees
Morning Must Reads
National News:The Washington Times: A report from the Director of National Intelligence shows that Speaker Pelosi was briefed by the CIA on the use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques.
The Washington Times: “Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Iran's state-run broadcasting corporation this week to protest the monopoly it seeks over public opinion in the run-up to June 12 presidential elections.”
Associated Press: “Employers are letting up a bit on the mass layoffs they resorted to earlier this year to cope with the recession, but the unemployment rate is climbing because many businesses remain wary of hiring given all the economic and financial uncertainties.”
Posted by: Press Secretary
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Morning Must Reads
National News:
Wall Street Journal: Banks need at least $65 billion in Capital
Posted by: Press Secretary
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Video of Shuster on Fox and Friends!
Just added video of Congressman Shuster's interview this morning on Fox and Friends.
This morning Congressman Shuster appeared on Fox to discuss the Chrysler bailout and its impact on the economy. In the interview, the congressman reaffirmed that bankruptcy, while painful, is the best way for Chrysler to emerge as a strong competitor in the marketplace. Shuster also questioned whether President Obama overstepped his boundaries by threatening bondholders who are concerned about loosing money the bankruptcy.
Check the video out below:
Posted by: Press Secretary
Shuster on Fox and Friends
Congressman Shuster was on Fox and Friends this morning to talk about the Chrysler bankruptcy. We'll have video from the interview posed on the blog once it becomes available.
Morning Must Reads
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Republicans speak out on Debt Day
House Republican Leader John Boehner has a post up on his blog showing how House Republicans marked Debt Day across the country. Congressman Shuster's op-ed that ran last week is front and center. Check it out here.
Posted by: Press Secretary
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)