Exclusive Interview: Rep McCarthy – Blue Dogs are not reliable, not serious

Posted by Clyde Middleton on Oct 22 2009 Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

On the call were Deputy Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).

Here’s the full audio:

Some highlights:

Since Obama’s Stimulus passed, 49 of 50 states have lost jobs. Despite concerns of deficits under the Bush Administration, they have skyrocketed during the Obama Administration. A visual for $1 trillion: While a stack of $1,000 bills that amount to $1 million would be four inches high. In order to reach $1 trillion – the amount being spent multiple times on health-care, cap & trade, and stimulus – that stack would be 63 miles high.

As an example of money being wasted under the Obama stimulus, a $50 million project in Virginia to upgrade an existing building to “green standards” is costing more than to raze the existing site and build a similarly “green” building from the ground up – yet the Administration ignored requests for a justification, and issued the contracts anyway.

NJ is a great model for seeing the impact on the economy – jobs and quality of life – by raising taxes. It doesn’t work. Perhaps we can project, as well, the impact on the country if the federal government takes the same path. Rosy projections do not become reality. Housing market is floundering – prices down, foreclosures up. Stimulus dollars are creating jobs in WDC – and that’s it.

Steny Hoyer’s promises of jobs to be created immediately – Obama has never defined “create or save.” The 3 million jobs were not saved – or saved or created – they were simply lost as seen in increased unemployment.

Any bipartisanship was lost long ago. The Republican Conference invited President Obama, and they all met. Obama then asked for a plan to be drawn up and submitted to him. Speaker Pelosi instead shut off every Republican and submitted a bill purely of her design. Further, the Republicans went forward with writing and scoring their own bill. They presented it to Obama who promised to work with it. Nothing further happened.

Where has it lead us? In 3 to 4 years, our debt service will be $1 billion a day.

I asked about pushing Stimulus v2.0 towards the SBA. That would be similar to what the UK did when initially crafting their own stimulus this past Spring. Their unemployment is at just 7.9% and rising more slowly than at any rate in a year. What that as background, will we now work with small businesses as a stimulus? Yes, they said, that was the Republican plan since the beginning. Perhaps we can also grab some of the 3/4s of the Stimulus One money that has not been spent. However, Charrman Frank in committee is looking to tighten credit that will have the effect of shutting off small business investment.

Bill asked about the 2010 election and if the Blue Dogs will stop supporting Pelosi in order to focus on their re-election chances. The response was surprising – the Blue Dogs are not serious anymore, except for perhaps two. The rest fold over the smallest things. They talk about debt, but Obama’s debt exceeds the cumulative debt of every previous administration. We need open government – open bills within a day of committee passage, open votes on line within two days, and posting all legislation at least three days before voting.

Blue Dogs are not serious, and we know it because they allow votes to shut off Republican amendments even though it also kills their own chances for amendments that they wanted and in some cases have told their constituents they are pushing.

Finally on open government – they need a Rules Committee camera for hearings – only committee without it. The health-care conference committee needs to be open to the public and media.

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