ADVANTAGE TERRORIST - STILL
26 February 2008
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Terrorists Still Have the Advantage
America, by the inaction of the U.S. House of Representatives, has been weakened substantially in fighting terrorism.
As I reported last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) and her left-wing allies decided to leave Washington without voting on the bipartisan Senate bill that would have extended key provisions of the Protect America Act, a bill that is essential for America’s ability to quickly and deftly track terrorist communications overseas.
This abdication of responsibility by such a high-ranking member of our government has been the most amazing anti-national security action by Congress in decades.
This is not a partisan analysis.
The vote in the House Democratic caucus reportedly had some 20 moderate votes opposed to leaving without voting on the Senate bipartisan anti-terrorism bill.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said this failure to act has weakened our ability to intercept and stop terrorists.
Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell (a career military officer) and Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey, in a letter to Rep. Silvestre Reyes (Tex.), the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, stated plainly, "We have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress’ failure to act." (View the complete letter at PowerlineBlog.)
I urge you to call your representative today and demand that they pass the Senate bipartisan Protect America Act bill (which got a filibuster-proof 68 votes in the Senate) immediately. Every day that passes is a day that America is more vulnerable.
Speaker Pelosi, Speaker O’Neill and the Censoring of Dissent
Speaker Pelosi and the House Democratic leadership must be feeling the heat.
House Republicans have challenged Pelosi and the Democratic leadership to live up to their campaign promises to reform the appropriations process by supporting an immediate moratorium on earmarks and enacting tough new ethical guidelines to prevent the use of taxpayer money to favor the election chances of incumbents.
As part of this effort, Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio) launched a website, earmarkreform.house.gov, which served as a hub for information about Republicans’ efforts to fix the broken appropriations process and to shine a light on the unethical earmarking practices of the majority. Now, Boehner is being forced to take down the website by the Office of the House Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Daniel Beard, a position Beard assumed with the support of Speaker Pelosi and the House Democratic Leadership.
The decision was a dramatic reversal on the part of the Office of the CAO, and its timing is suspect. Boehner received approval from the CAO for the website in August. However, it was not launched until earlier this month. Suddenly, just when their efforts were gaining traction, Beard’s office reversed its position, now claiming the site is against House Rules.
Leader Boehner is refusing to take down the site without a fuller explanation of why the site is allegedly violating House rules and an accounting of why this new decision was reached. You can read more at earmarkreform.house.gov (at least temporarily) or at Boehner’s website.
A Sign of Success
The majority’s actions remind me of the time in the early 1980s when Congressman Bob Walker and I were taking on the House Democrats on the floor of the House over their support for the Communists in Nicaragua. Speaker Tip O’Neill got so angry he ordered the C-Span cameras to pan the House Chamber to prove we were speaking to an empty chamber. Of course, we were speaking to several hundred thousand Americans who were watching C-Span.
The desperation of O’Neill’s maneuver convinced us we were getting through and energized us to redouble our efforts. It also drew national press attention and was the first big victory in the rise of what became the Conservative Opportunity Society activist Republicans.
Speaker Pelosi may soon regret this act of censorship. It may end up drawing more attention to Leader Boehner’s and the House Republicans’ efforts to bring ethics and accountability to the appropriations process than they would have otherwise received.
Green Conservatism and Whale Watching in Hawaii
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions
When Terry Maple and I wrote A Contract with the Earth a lot of people wondered why I challenged conservatives to develop a "green conservatism."
We argued that protecting the environment was too important to allow the left to dominate the issue and that conservatives had a duty to find entrepreneurial, market-oriented, science-and-technology-based solutions for environmental challenges and maintaining biodiversity.
If you want a good example of the marvels of the natural world and why they are worth saving, I highly recommend joining the Pacific Whale Foundation on a whale-watching cruise. Callista and I had the marvelous opportunity to view these magnificent creatures off the coast of Maui last week, and it was an extraordinary, lifetime experience. We saw whales breaching (throwing their 80,000 pound bodies out of the water), slapping their tails and swimming around our boat.
In fact, Callista and I were so moved that we adopted Migaloo by making a donation to the Pacific Whale Foundation. Migaloo is possibly the only pure-white humpback whale in existence. It was last sighted off the Eastern coast of Australia in 2007. You can learn more about Migaloo here: MigalooWhale.org. You can also support the Pacific Whale Foundation here: PacificWhale.org.
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions
Go to Newt.org to view the entire gallery of pictures Callista took of these awe-inspiring animals. After viewing them, see if you agree that there are indeed wonders of the natural world that require us to be concerned about a better environment and greater biodiversity.
One of the great challenges for our generation is to find new solutions that work for the environment and the economy, rather than accepting the left’s environmental solutions that weaken the economy through regulation, litigation and high taxes.
The Cost of Bad Government in California
A recent report from the American Legislative Exchange Council is a grim reminder of the human and financial costs of bad government. (Read the World Net Daily article here and the report here.)
The report, called "Rich States Poor States," estimates that $7 billion of California’s $14 billion deficit in 2003 was the direct result of successful Californians moving out of state in the early 2000s. More than 5,000 of the state’s 25,000 millionaires left California to avoid the high taxes and excessive regulations imposed by the special interests in Sacramento.
However, it’s not just millionaires leaving California. The report cites data from moving companies that shows California had the second-highest out-flow of domestic population of any state in 2005. It’s no wonder that California’s budget deficit has continued to grow (the latest estimate is $16 billion) as more and more Californians "vote with their feet" and take with them their earning power, talent and entrepreneurial spirit.
California will not only be denied their future income tax revenue — it will be denied the future jobs and new businesses created by the human capital that has fled the state. Once people leave a state it is hard to get them to come back. The special interests’ high taxes and burdensome regulations have created an albatross that will hang around the neck of Californians in perpetuity.
A Refusal to Heed the Lessons of the World that Fails
Lest we fall into the trap of believing the cost of bad government is a partisan issue, it is worthwhile to note what ALEC Chairman Democratic Arkansas State Sen. Steve Farris:
"States are in direct competition with each other for human capital and business investment. State governments that think they can attract jobs and people, and grow their economies, by taxing their citizens at a higher rate than their neighbors are sadly mistaken."
Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence and emerging bipartisan recognition that high taxes and burdensome regulations spell long-term disaster for states, some refuse to learn the lessons of the cost of bad government. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R.) has courageously refused to raise taxes to close California’s budget deficit, knowing that higher taxes will only accelerate the tailspin of human capital out of the state.
He is now being attacked by California’s supposedly independent state budget analyst, who has broken with tradition by drafting an alternative budget proposal to the governor’s. (You can read the L.A. Times article here.) She is eschewing spending cuts, calling instead for at least $2.7 billion in new taxes. Expect her call to be used as cover by left-wing state politicians to impose yet another round of oppressive taxation and regulations on the people of California.
The Big Question on the Economy for 2008
Other states are feeling the brunt of the cost of bad government. ALEC’s report shows again and again that the states with the strongest interest groups, the most powerful government employee unions and the highest taxes are killing jobs and driving up the cost of living, forcing people to move out of state.
This election, the most important question voters should ask themselves on the issue of the economy is simple: If the left does for all of America what it has done for California, Michigan, New Jersey and the rest, where will people move to find work?
Coming up: Can One Man Make a Difference?
As people talk about Arizona Sen. John McCain’s age and the feel-good, avoid-the-issues nature of the Obama campaign, it is worth remembering that one person can make an enormous difference.
March is the 25th anniversary of two speeches by Ronald Reagan — one on the Evil Empire and another on the Strategic Defense Initiative. The elites overwhelmingly opposed his strategies and his vision of a successful end to the Cold War. Yet history proved Reagan right.
Imagine if Ronald Reagan had decided in 1979 that he was too old to run. We would still be locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union and hundreds of millions would still be living under tyranny.
On March 12, I will be giving a speech at the American Enterprise Institute outlining the difference one man and two speeches can make in the lives of billions of people.
The speech will be webcast, and I invite you to watch it.
In addition, I urge you to encourage your favorite radio talk-show hosts to spend time in March replaying key parts of those speeches and reminding their audience what a difference one man can make.
P.S. — I am thrilled to report that Real Change: From the World that Fails to the World that Works has remained steady at No. 3 on the New York Times Bestseller list for three weeks in a row. It is encouraging that the message of Real Change is resonating. To help spread the word, please visit newt.org/realchange for tools and tips on how to get the message out to the rest of America.
