T-3 to Austerity

With the automatic budget cuts across the board to federal agencies coming three days from now, bills to address the issue are apparently the only real action taking place in Washington.

According to The Hill:

The Republican plan would maintain the level of spending reductions but give President Obama more flexibility to minimize their impact on military preparedness and other vital government services, such as air traffic control and airport security screening.

The Democratic package, meanwhile, would freeze the sequester through the end of the calendar year and offset the $110 billion cost with an even mix of spending cuts and tax increases.

Despite all the dire warnings of economic consequences for allowing the sequester cuts to take place as prescribed by law, neither bill will get the 60 votes needed to pass.  The Senate Dems would have the votes to pass their bill (favored by most Americans) if we actually allowed a majority to pass legislation (another good reason for Senate filibuster reform).

In the House, also according to The Hill, Republicans are addressing the cuts to the Pentagon:

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) is introducing a bill that would target the $500 billion in cuts — rather than letting them hit across-the-board— while legislation from Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) would do away with the defense side of sequestration altogether.

But there is at least one South Carolina GOP House member who will not vote to spare the military or any federal agency.

Representative Jeff Duncan says that all agencies should be able to absorb the cuts.  Mr. Duncan is a strong advocate for cutting federal spending and he’s putting his vote where his mouth is.  While you might not agree with him, he is willing to suffer any public backlash from the sequester cuts. 

Whether Mr. Duncan's voters will agree with his position that the nation needs a good shot of austerity remains to be seen after the cuts are made and the economy is hurt.  But he stands on his principles.  And that’s a lot better than many of his colleagues talking out of both sides of their mouths for the need for spending cuts as long as they don’t affect their pet projects.

God made them do it

Please call South Carolina Congressmen Jeff Duncan, Tim Scott and Mick Mulvaney and tell them that God did not tell them to oppose Speaker Boehner’s deficit reduction plan, Senator Reid’s plan or anything dealing with the fiscal integrity of our country. These gentlemen need to quit hiding behind God for their partisan decisions. I am quite confident that She doesn’t like it.

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Politico
July 29, 2011
South Carolina vs. the world in House

By: Marin Cogan and Jonathan Allen

The delegation that prays together stays together — just ask South Carolina’s House Republicans, a bloc of five lawmakers that have proved some of the toughest votes to crack as GOP leaders push to flip votes for their deficit reduction package.

Early Thursday evening, three of the South Carolina freshmen — Jeff Duncan, Tim Scott and Mick Mulvaney — convened in a small chapel adjacent to the Capitol Rotunda to talk and pray about the vote.

Rep. Joe Wilson, the only senior colleague in the group, entered the speakers office around 6 p.m., around the same time Republicans were supposed to bring their bill to the House floor. The South Carolina freshmen were in and out of Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s office throughout much of the night, as leaders tried to determine what, if anything, could be done to change their minds.

Scott emerged briefly before 10 p.m. to tell reporters he was still a no. Not long after, leadership canceled the vote for the night.

As freshmen members of Congress, the close ties among the South Carolina freshmen stand out. They regularly pray together and are in near constant communication with one another about their votes. They dine together on Capitol Hill and play basketball in the House gym. Two of them, Duncan and Scott, share an apartment.

Their bonds developed before they came to Washington. Duncan, Scott and Mulvaney served together in the state legislature and both Scott and Gowdy belonged to the South Carolina-based Liberty Fellowship before their election to Congress.

The freshmen are some of the most conservative members of their class—Mulvaney proposed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill two weeks ago to freeze defense spending at FY 2011 levels and was soundly defeated by members of his own party. Last month, he opened up to POLITICO about his delegation’s “South Carolina versus the world” mentality.

“I know it’s been frustrating to our leadership sometimes, because they look at South Carolina and say, ‘What are these crazy guys going to do now?’ But all we’re doing is being true to our state,” Mulvaney said.

Duncan said at that time that their leadership had “gotten the message very clearly early on from us. They know we’re going to talk; we’re going to try to be like-minded when it comes to representing South Carolina.”

The positions taken by Sen. Jim DeMint — a conservative powerhouse nationally and especially in the state — undoubtedly loom large over the House delegation. The House freshmen periodically put DeMint on conference call to seek his advice on votes. DeMint was a strong opponent of the Boehner plan, appearing at a Tea Party rally Wednesday to urge members of Congress to “hold the line” against any vote but the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan passed in the House. The four freshmen insisted they were “no” or “lean no” votes throughout the week.

Asked whether divine intervention might hit during prayer Thursday night, Scott said: “Divine inspiration already happened. I was a lean no, and now I’m a no.”

SC GOP House members attack small businesses

In case you missed Wednesday afternoon’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, all five of our Republican members cast a vote that would result in either small businesses losing health insurance tax credits or forcing them to change health insurance plans.  H.R. 3 passed largely along party lines.

All of these elected leaders—Joe Wilson, Tim Scott, Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy and Mick Mulvaney—were made aware of the potential negative impact of H.R. 3 on small businesses. A letter from The South Carolina Small Business Chamber opposing the bill was widely circulated.

Before the vote I participated in a press conference in front of the Capitol with Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Judy Chu (D-CA) calling on the House to stop the direct attack on small businesses. Rep. Schakowsky even read excerpts of my comments on the House floor during the debate.

Our Republican House members have some “splaining” to do. After you read my comments below, call their offices and let them know that you won’t forget how they put partisan politics above the interests of their small business constituents.

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Frank Knapp, President and CEO, South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce – Statement at Press Conference in Opposition to HR 3, 5/4/2011

A story yesterday in LifeSiteNews.Com said that H.R. 3 can have a historic impact on the future of the pro-life movement.

But what H.R. 3 really is – is an attempt to roll-back the historic small business health insurance tax credits created by the Affordable Care Act.

When the House voted to eliminate and defund the entire Affordable Care Act earlier this year, we could rationalize that this great benefit for small business was just collateral damage.

After all, everybody likes making health insurance more affordable for small businesses through tax credits.

Even my congressman, Joe Wilson, told me that he would support the small business health insurance tax credits in the Affordable Care Act replacement legislation.

But small businesses can no longer think of themselves as collateral damage in the efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act.

H.R. 3 is a direct attack on small business.

Even supporters of the bill have no response to our criticism that H.R. 3 is a “slap in the face to millions of small businesses now offering health insurance to employees and eligible for the new tax credits”.

Instead, as reported in the LifeSiteNews.Com story, they just change the subject and talk about H.R. 3 being tax neutral.

Not to small business it’s not. For many it will be a tax increase and for all small businesses wanting to receive the tax credits, H.R. 3 will increase their costs.

Should H.R. 3 become law, small business owners who want the health insurance tax credits will face a difficult situation:

1. Small businesses will have to take considerable time to learn medical terminology to try to determine if their health plans cover any service that could be considered an abortion service. I challenge members of Congress to try to do this.

2. If small business owners don’t choose to spend the tens of hours away from running their business, at great cost, they will turn to their insurance agent. Today, it is unlikely that these agents have the knowledge about every possible abortion service that might be in a policy. Once they ramp up, they will still have to sit down with the small business owner to review the policy.

3. And, if the conclusion is that a health plan does include some abortion service, the small business owner has another time consuming decision to make.

a. Take a tax increase because she wants to keep the health plan she has; or

b. Probably pay higher premiums under a new health plan because of new underwriting and new provisions that now might be required in policies.

Supporters of H.R. 3 are aware of the costs to small business. They know that H.R. 3 targets small businesses for punitive action while ignoring big businesses that also receive tax benefits from their health plans that might also include some abortion service.

So, let me make this very clear – A vote for H.R. 3 is a direct attack on small business.

Every Representative who loudly proclaims their love for small business because “we are the backbone of the economy,” now can put their vote where their mouth is – their true support for small business will be judged on their H.R. 3 vote.
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House Member Name- DC Office Phone Number

• Representative Tim Scott (R - 01) 202-225-3176

• Representative Joe Wilson (R - 02) 202-225-2452

• Representative Jeff Duncan (R - 03) 202-225-5301

• Representative Trey Gowdy (R - 04) 202-225-6030

• Representative Mick Mulvaney (R - 05) 202-225-5501

D.C. trip review



Frank Knapp with Danny Herrera, Media Matters



My trip to D.C. this week was very successful. I participated in a Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference panel discussion sponsored by the American Sustainable Business Council on small business and good jobs, met my friends at Media Matters, and talked about the threat of corporate money in campaigns with Common Cause folks.

 I also discussed the need to promote programs to help our country’s small manufacturers with staff from the offices of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and South Carolina Representatives Tim Scott, Jeff Duncan and Trey Gowdy.

Wednesday afternoon I joined numerous other members of the American Sustainable Business Council for an extended meeting at the U.S. Department of Labor with Secretary Hilda Solis.

 

Frank with Mary Boyle (L) and Eileen Toback (R) of Common Cause



My brief comments to Secretary Solis emphasized that need to invigorate our domestic manufacturing if we want to create the jobs we need. I pointed out that 90% of manufacturers in South Carolina have fewer than 100 employees and 84% have less than 50 workers making manufacturing a small business sector in our state as it probably is in the rest of the country. I stressed the need to stop giving tax incentives for offshoring jobs and for the creation of a national manufacturing policy that includes strengthening the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program and other efforts to jumpstart our manufacturing sector.

Below is a blog about this meeting from the co-founder of the American Sustainable Business Council and Seventh Generation, Jeffrey Hollender:

The Bright Side of Government

February 9, 2011

Today for close to one and a half hours the Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis sat patiently, deeply engaged as she listened to the challenges and opportunities small business faces in a country dominated by the influence of large multinational corporations. These small companies believe in livable wages, health care for all, and reversing the concentration of wealth that threatens to tear our society apart.

Almost 20 of us sat around the table representing the 65,000 companies that are part of the American Sustainable Business Council, businesses that are all committed to a just, equitable and sustainable economy. We joined by no fewer than six representatives of Secretary Solis’s senior staff. As the conversation circled around the table the Secretary made notes, asked questions, recommended opportunities for her staff to follow-up on an idea or seek more information.

The Secretary has personally surmounted many obstacles, perhaps more than anyone else in the room. A four-term congresswoman, she became the first Hispanic woman to serve as a cabinet member. Her mother worked in a toy factory, her father in a battery recycling plant, where he contracted lead poisoning.

The third of seven children, she grew up in a modest home near a giant landfill just east of Los Angeles.

Today’s dialogue helped renew my faith in government. I saw first hand deeply passionate and caring people trying desperately to do the right thing. Sometimes what’s missing from the process is us. Our voices of support embolden their conviction. In a political process dominated by money, lobbyists, and self-serving interest groups the door was open for people who perhaps hadn’t fully realized how essential that are to the process of governance.