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Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison: So what’s to blame for joblessness in America: Look no further than the mammoth fortress of federal regulatory agencies

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Unemployment now stands at a staggering 9.1 percent. For the past 30 months, unemployment has been at 8 percent or higher. Recent indicators point to jobless numbers even higher than 9.1 percent in coming months.

President Barack Obama last week cited “bad luck” as the reason that economic recovery is not happening. Does this mean the American people and their elected officials are merely helpless pawns, at the mercy of a stubborn strain of bad luck?

So what’s to blame for joblessness in America: bad luck or bad policies? Look no further than the mammoth fortress of federal regulatory agencies.

Though private businesses have struggled to create jobs, under Obama, one sector in particular has experienced explosive growth: the federal government’s regulatory agencies. In the past three years, the U.S. economy has grown at an anemic 5 percent. The budget growth for federal regulatory agencies, in contrast, was 16 percent.

“If the federal government’s regulatory operation were a business,” Investors Business Daily reported, “it would be one of the 50 biggest in the country in terms of revenues, and the third-largest in terms of employees, with more people working for it than McDonald’s, Ford, Disney and Boeing combined.”

Keep reading at Politico...

39 GOP House freshmen: We are making the tough decisions necessary to ensure that we remain the greatest and most prosperous nation in the world - it's time for the Senate to join us

Rich Nugent (R-Fla.), Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), Austin Scott (R-Ga.), Bill Flores (R-Texas), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio), Rob Woodall (R-Ga.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Tim Griffin (R-Ark.), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Jeff Landry (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.), Robert Hurt (R-Va.), Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), Martha Roby (R-Ala.), Sean Duffy (R-Wis.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.), Allen West (R-Fla.), Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), Scott Rigell (R-Va.), Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.), Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), Frank Guinta (R-N.H.), Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), Diane Black (R-Tenn.), Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), Reid Ribble (R-Wis.), Sandy Adams (R-Fla.), Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and Steve Stivers (R-Ohio).

Just over a week ago, the creditworthiness of our country was officially called into question, for the first time since the United States’ “full faith and credit” was established in 1790.

Over the last few months, the House and the Senate have received the same dire warnings from Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and the other ratings agencies.

The House led by crafting solutions to our debt problem. Months ago, the House passed a budget that reduces short-term deficits by more than $4.4 trillion and addresses the unsustainable, long-term structural deficits that threaten this nation.

Just a few weeks ago, the House passed a bipartisan bill, “Cut, Cap and Balance,” that could have cut federal spending by $111 billion next year, capped future expenditures and required passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.

In doing so, the House twice met the requirements that Standard & Poor’s laid out to avoid a downgrade.

The Senate, on the other hand, did nothing. So far this year, the Senate has failed to adopt a budget or pass “Cut, Cap and Balance.”

In fact, it has been more than 850 days since the Senate passed a budget. Given the fiscal crisis we are facing as a nation, the Senate’s failure to act is unacceptable — both to our creditors and to all Americans, who must ultimately shoulder the burden of paying our debts.

Keep reading at Politico...

Sen. John Thune: For the president to hold trade opportunities hostage to a demand backed by his union base leaves us with nothing but missed opportunities

Sen. John Thune serves as the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee and ranking member on the Finance Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness.

In November 2006, the United States signed a free-trade agreement with Colombia, paving the way for better access to millions of consumers there. This was a big win for our trade negotiators — and they followed it up with similar agreements with Panama and South Korea in June 2007.

And then — nothing. For the deals to go into effect, the president must officially submit them to Congress for consideration. But Democrats in Congress blocked any possibility of a debate on the agreements until President Barack Obama took office. Now he has refused to send them down Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress. Instead, the White House is insisting that the agreements must include new spending on an expansion of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

At a time of budget austerity, programs with new spending should be considered separately and on their own merits — without preconditions.

Keep reading at Politico...

Sen. Jim DeMint: If conservatives want to continue our successes in 2012, it is essential we understand why we were so successful in 2010

Sen. Jim DeMint is a Republican from South Carolina. 

The 2006 and 2008 elections were disastrous for Republicans. When Republicans controlled Washington, spending and earmarks exploded. Democrats were more than happy to help us expand federal control of health care and education, increase the national debt exponentially and ignore our job-killing tax code.

We didn't keep our promises to reform Medicare, Social Security or reduce the size of the federal government. You could accuse the Republican majority of many things, but certainly not of being too conservative!

When I expressed my disappointment and frustration with the way Republicans in the Senate were doing business, one senior member of my party's leadership told me, "Jim, you can't change the Senate."

That's when I realized the people in the Senate were not going to change, and it was time to change the people serving in the Senate.

Keep reading at the Washington Examiner...

Sen. Jim DeMint: A debt crisis is coming, and simply raising the country's legal borrowing authority isn't going to stop it

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is a co-sponsor of the Cut, Cap and Balance Act.

Moody's and S&P have sent us a stark warning: They are likely to downgrade the nation's credit rating if the debt limit is increased without taking serious action to reduce the nation's long-term debt burden.

There is only one plan that can pass the House of Representatives and will avoid default by enacting real reforms to maintain our AAA credit rating. It's called Cut, Cap and Balance. This plan gives the president his debt limit increase, but only on three conditions:

• Significantly cut spending next year.
• Cap spending over the next decade at historical averages.Most editorials are accompanied by an opposing view — a unique USA TODAY feature that allows readers to reach conclusions based on both sides of an argument rather than just the Editorial Board's point of view.
• Send a constitutional amendment to the states to force Washington to finally balance the budget.

Cut, Cap and Balance is the only plan that reins in spending immediately and permanently, making this the last debt limit increase we may ever need.

Keep reading at USA Today...