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Blog
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Posted by
Press Office
on
May 10, 2012
The arbitrary military cuts in the Budget Control Act (BCA) signed by President Obama have at least one fan: a Senate Democratic leader Tweeted that these automatic cuts – which would “devastate” our armed forces according to the Obama administration – are a “balanced approach to reduce the deficit.”
The House just passed legislation protecting our troops by making common-sense spending cuts and reforms. But the president still hasn’t outlined a plan of his own. It begs the question: does President Obama agree with Senate Democrats that hollowing out our military is a “balanced approach?” Let’s compare Senate Democrats’ plan with the bill passed by the House today:
Unless the president agrees with Senate Democrats – and is willing to allow automatic defense cuts to go into effect that his administration says would hurt our national security – President Obama should outline a plan of his own to replace them.
Posted by
Press Office
on
May 08, 2012
Last night, the House Budget Committee approved legislation to replace devastating cuts to our national defense with common-sense spending cuts and reforms that will further reduce the deficit. You can read the bill online here (searchable PDF here). The House will take action on this bill soon.
According to Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), over the next 10 years the reforms passed by the House Budget Committee “achieve over 400 percent of the first-year” savings in the Budget Control Act, “replacing temporary, arbitrary cuts with lasting, permanent reforms.” Instead of forcing America’s troops to pay for Washington’s failures, the spending cuts and reforms passed by the Budget Committee eliminate taxpayer-funded bailouts and slush funds, restrain spending on government bureaucracies, stop fraud in taxpayer-funded benefit programs, and more. Unfortunately, President Obama has been too busy fighting straw men and touting political gimmicks to offer a plan to stop the automatic military cuts – even though his administration admits they would “hollow out” our armed forces. His latest gimmick is a “to do” list for Congress on jobs. This is ironic because the Democratic-controlled Senate has blocked dozens of House-passed jobs bills … and because the defense cuts the president is ignoring would damage our security and – at a time of high unemployment – jeopardize the well-being of America’s servicemembers and their families. The GOP proposals replace arbitrary military cuts in the Budget Control Act and “lay the groundwork for further efforts to avert the spending-driven economic crisis,” says Chairman Ryan. “House Republicans are bringing specific proposals to the table, and we invite the administration to do the same.”
Posted by
Press Office
on
May 07, 2012
A coalition of 31 organizations representing more than 5.5 million American troops and veterans says failure to stop automatic military cuts required by the Budget Control Act would be “catastrophic.”
The group says the cuts would “require massive force reductions of more than 200,000,” while threatening the “compensation, health care, and other support commitments” made “to generations of servicemembers, families, and survivors” at a time of high unemployment and stagnant wages. The Defending Defense Coalition agrees, arguing the cuts “must be stopped.” “[U]nits preparing to fight in Afghanistan and operate elsewhere in the world” would feel the effects of the cuts “almost immediately.” Unfortunately, President Obama has yet to propose a plan of his own for preventing these cuts – even though his administration admits they would “hollow out” and “inflict severe damage” on our armed forces. Instead, he’s touring the country picking fake fights, and promoting political gimmicks and tax hikes that would raise energy prices and hurt job growth. The House Budget Committee is meeting today to consider legislation replacing these military cuts with common-sense spending reductions that will reduce the deficit and protect hardworking taxpayers. Learn more here.
Posted by
Press Office
on
May 02, 2012
There is bipartisan consensus that the cuts to our military outlined in the Budget Control Act’s sequester would be devastating to our national security. President Obama spells it out clearly in his budget request:
But where is the president’s solution to the problem outlined in his own budget? The president has been AWOL. Others in the administration also have underscored the devastating nature of the cuts:
Only House Republicans have proposed a solution to solve the problem, a solution that both protects our nation’s defense and further reduces the deficit. The plan uses savings generated from the GOP reforms focused primarily on the unsustainable growth of autopilot spending to offset the cost (approximately $78 billion) of replacing the automatic across-the-board discretionary (including defense) spending cuts that are scheduled to occur on January 2, 2013. It also uses the additional savings beyond the $78 billion (more than $180 billion over the next 10 years) to further reduce the deficit. In the coming weeks, House Republicans will continue moving this plan forward. Six House committees have each approved measures that together generate savings both to replace the defense cuts and further reduce the deficit, and the House Budget Committee will consider the full package on Monday. House Republicans understand that the debt and deficit have placed a massive burden on our economy, on jobs, and on American families, and we have offered a plan to protect our Armed Forces and further reduce the deficit. The president, who just returned from a trip to Afghanistan to visit our troops in harm’s way, has no such plan. As the commander-in-chief, President Obama is ultimately responsible for our military readiness, so it’s fair to ask: where is his plan to stop military cuts that would ‘hollow out’ our Armed Forces?
Posted by
Press Office
on
April 24, 2012
The House will vote this week on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (H.R. 3523), bipartisan legislation that makes it easier for private-sector job creators to defend themselves and their customers’ privacy against Internet attacks by hackers and countries like China.
The legislation is sponsored by Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Rep. C.A. Ruppersberger (D-MD), and cosponsored by more than 100 lawmakers. It was crafted – and amended – out in the open in coordination with private-sector companies, trade groups, and privacy and civil liberties advocates. Alex Fitzpatrick at tech blog Mashable says Chairman Rogers wants to address the problem of “state-sponsored cyberattacks that steal top-secret information from American firms in order to give foreign companies an unfair advantage in the global marketplace.” Cyber-attacks are a serious threat to American job creation and economic growth -- VOA News says cyber theft “has cost U.S.-owned businesses about $14 billion in reported economic losses since last October” alone. TheHouse Intelligence Committee says the costs “range up to $400 billion a year.” According to CNN, “[f]oreign spies and organized criminals are inside of virtually every U.S. company's network,” and top cybersecurity experts believe “cyber criminals or terrorists have the capability to take down the country's critical financial, energy or communications infrastructure.” So what does the bill do? “Under the Rogers–Ruppersberger approach,” the Heritage Foundation says “[p]rivate sector entities would be given clear legal authority to defend their own networks and share cyber threat information with others in the private sector as well with the federal government.” And this sharing “would be purely voluntary” – the government can’t force companies to hand over information, nor can it stop access to websites or censor content (or order anyone else to do so). U.S. News & World Report says H.R. 3523 would also “allow the government to share all of its classified cyber-security knowledge with private companies.” Helping the private-sector defend itself “would hopefully keep China (and other countries and hackers) out of American computer networks.” Check out this background and Q&A for more information on the intelligence sharing bill – including the bill’s provisions protecting Americans’ privacy – and be sure to follow @HouseIntelComm on Twitter.
Posted by
Press Office
on
March 21, 2012
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) met with General John Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan in his Capitol office yesterday.
 Speaker John Boehner completes a meeting with General John Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. (Official Photo by Bryant Avondoglio) NOTE: A high resolution photo can be downloaded here.
Posted by
Press Office
on
March 20, 2012
As the commander-in-chief of America’s Armed Forces, President Obama is ultimately responsible for our military readiness – yet he has offered no plan to stop military cuts that his own Secretary of Defense says would ‘hollow out’ our military force and degrade its ability to protect the United States.
In a new budget released today by Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Republicans have offered a plan to achieve the full $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction required by the Budget Control Act without hurting our nation’s defense. HOW WE GOT HERE After the president asked for a blank check to keep spending and borrowing, Congress forged a bipartisan agreement – the Budget Control Act – to ensure that any debt-limit increase was accompanied by a greater amount of spending reduction. The Budget Control Act called for deficit reduction in three stages – immediate discretionary spending caps, a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (JSCDR), and an automatic spending reduction in the event the joint select committee failed. In the wake of the committee’s failure to achieve its deficit-reduction goals, discretionary spending levels will be automatically reduced by $98 billion on January 2, 2013 – and our armed forces will bear the brunt of the cuts. COMMON GROUND There is bipartisan agreement on the devastation to America’s national security that would result if these deep cuts go into effect, and both parties have expressed a desire to avoid this outcome by cutting spending elsewhere. Take a look at the testimony of President Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta:
HOUSE REPUBLICANS TAKING ACTION Despite bipartisan agreement on the challenge, only House Republicans – through this budget – have proposed a solution to address it. Our budget reprioritizes sequester savings to focus on the problem - which is government spending - and to protect national security from deep and indiscriminate cuts. House Republicans have now offered a plan to protect our Armed Forces. The Obama administration agrees on the problem – but where is their solution?
Posted by
Press Office
on
January 23, 2012
House Republicans are hosting a digital fact check and social Q&A GOP.gov/SOTU in response to President Obama’s State of the Union (SOTU) message tomorrow night. Here’s what we have in store and how you can participate:
Republicans will be talking about House-passed bills that would create a better environment for private-sector job growth, and highlighting how the president’s policies have only made our economy worse. Click here to add tomorrow’s event to your calendar, and if you haven’t already, check out our promo video for GOP.gov/SOTU and share it with your friends. We look forward to hearing from you!
Posted by
Press Office
on
October 13, 2011
In an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News last night, Congressman Boehner highlighted the Republican jobs plan – the Plan for America’s Job Creators – and said the American people expect both parties in Washington to work together and find common ground on removing barriers to job growth. Boehner also said President Obama is “out campaigning” while the House is focused on jobs, and pressed the Obama Administration to use the tools provided by Congress to hold Iran accountable. Watch the full interview here and find key excerpts below: BOEHNER HIGHLIGHTS GOP’S PLAN FOR AMERICA’S JOB CREATORS: “House Republicans had our plan for America’s job creators that we outlined back in May. We’ve been working on it all year… [I]n our ‘Pledge to America’ that we outlined almost a year ago, on the eve of the last election, one of the commitments we made was to listen to the American people and to follow the lead of the American people. And trust me, we’re continuing to listen to the American people. And the American people are telling us, ‘here’s what you need to do: Stop the regulatory onslaught coming out of Washington. Fix this tax code so that American companies can be more competitive in a worldwide economy. And then thirdly, stop the overspending that’s serving as a wet blanket over our economy.’” BOEHNER SAYS PRESIDENT OBAMA IS CAMPAIGNING, NOT LEGISLATING: “So we’re working on the main planks of our plan to help job creators begin to create jobs. We’re looking for common ground with the president. We’re up here legislating. We’re working. The president is out campaigning. Maybe he ought to sit down with Congress, members of both parties, to see if we can’t find more common ground in which -- to achieve the goals that the American people sent us here to achieve.” BOEHNER HIGHLIGHTS GOP EFFORT TO FIND COMMON GROUND ON JOB CREATION: “We sent the president a letter nearly a month ago outlining a half a dozen areas of common agreement. We also outlined some areas where we thought we’d have a difficult time coming to an agreement. So why don’t we focus first on those things that we do, in fact, agree on to see if we can’t work together to get those done? ... This is about -- this is about doing the right thing for the American people. They know we have disagreements between Democrats and Republicans, but they do expect us to work together to find areas where we can at least agree, take a step in the right direction, and then begin to look for another place that we can agree, find common ground, and move.” BOEHNER PRESSES OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO HOLD IRAN ACCOUNTABLE: “Last year, the Congress passed the Iran Sanctions Act, which gave the administration a toolbox of potential tools they could use to increase sanctions against the Iranians. And the administration has these tools. They’re available. And I would believe that they need to use these tools. ... They are not using all the tools that were given to them by the Congress. ... I think the sanctions that we have in place from the United States, the European Union and others have had an effect on the Iranians, but I believe that more needs to be done.”
Posted by
Press Office
on
October 05, 2011
This morning, Congressman Boehner welcomed Ryan Crocker, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, to Capitol Hill. Boehner expressed appreciation to Ambassador Crocker and his team for their efforts to help ensure stability in Afghanistan, and reiterated that success is critical to the safety and security of our country. Boehner led a bipartisan delegation to Afghanistan in April, shortly before Crocker was nominated ambassador to Kabul.
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