The following oped by Rep. Ed Royce appeared in today's FlashReport.
Upon first becoming Speaker in 2007, Nancy Pelosi promised to "bring openness and transparency to the budget process." Today, with passage of the new House rules for the 111th Congress she is doing just the opposite.
The Democrat Leaders' new rules limit the dissent of the minority, inhibit open debate and cloud transparency. It reverts Congress back to undemocratic one-party rule and backroom deals that we rejected more than a decade ago.
This rules package makes it easier to raise taxes on hard-working Americans. It does so by limiting the ability of House Republicans to offer a motion to recommit – the only opportunity guaranteed to the minority party in the House to amend a bill.
Under the old House Rules, if a bill was brought to the floor that included a tax increase, House Republicans could use a motion to recommit to obtain a majority of the votes of Republicans and moderate Democrats in order to strike the tax increase and send the bill back to committee. However, because of the new rules, this motion would not be allowed.
By changing this rule, the Democrat Leadership is inhibiting the ability of House Republicans to challenge massive tax increases by a vote on the floor. Republicans used this tool effectively against Democrat majority tax increases, during the 110th Congress.
Not only does the new rules package make it easier to raise taxes, it also repeals term limits on committee chairmen. This reform was put in place by House Republicans in 1995 to stop the entrenchment of a handful of members in the House in maintaining positions of permanent power, with little regard for the impact their decisions have on the American people.
The rules bill repeals the "Medicare trigger" as well. This was an important tool of fiscal responsibility passed by the Republican led Congress to help keep the Medicare program financially sustainable. The "Medicare trigger" requires the President to submit legislation to Congress to improve Medicare’s solvency if the program relies on general revenues to fund more than 45 percent of its costs. Republicans created this trigger to focus attention on Medicare’s troubling financial outlook.
The bill also makes it easier for the Democrat Leadership to spend your money. Under the new rules, it can forgo its paygo rules by declaring a bill an "emergency" exception. As you may know, the pay as you go rule requires any spending increases to be paid for, usually by increasing taxes, or reducing spending in other areas. Now under the new rules, the Democrat Leadership can get around this requirement by declaring any spending as an emergency. I don't think this is the type of change Americans hoped for on Election Day.
