President Obama's Weekly Address 10/19/13: Working Together on Behalf of the American People

In this week's address, President Obama said that now that the Federal government is reopened and the threat of default is lifted from the economy, there are three places Washington can take action to serve the American people. First, it's time for a balanced, responsible approach to the budget that grows the economy and shrinks our long term deficits. Second, we must fix our broken immigration system. And finally, Congress should pass a farm bill to give rural communities the opportunity to grow. The President said it's time to put aside politics and work on behalf of the American people and the country we love.

President Obama's Weekly Address 10/12/13: Let’s Get Back to the Work of the American People

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama discussed his meetings with members of Congress of both parties and the ongoing effort to reopen the government and remove the danger of default from our economy. The President urged Congress to pass a budget, put people back to work, and end this shutdown. In his message, the President also called for paying our bills, and preventing an economic shutdown.

Reckless and Undemocratic

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter:

Today, outrageously, our government is closed. Here’s the most important fact about this shutdown: It is not really about funding the government.

Democrats and Republicans have agreed on a short-term funding level for the federal government. That level is painful for Democrats, as it requires severe cuts in government services – to levels lower even than Paul Ryan first proposed. But I, along with almost all Congressional Democrats, am willing to accept this outcome temporarily to keep our country running.

Yet the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party in the House insists they will block any funding bill unless it includes the de facto repeal of health reform.

Perhaps you support health reform; perhaps you do not. But this much is certain: It was duly enacted, and the Tea Party lacks the votes to repeal it by ordinary, democratic means.

So they are trying a reckless, undemocratic alternative. By shutting down the government and threatening to default on America’s debts, they hope to cause so much pain that Congress and the President will be forced to bend to their will.

But if one faction of one party can overturn any duly passed law at will, what will their next demand be? The privatization of Medicare? Tax cuts for millionaires? The abolition of the minimum wage or the Department of Education? Perhaps, if you are a conservative Republican, these policy changes appeal to you, but bear in mind that an insurgent liberal faction could use the same leverage to demand policies you would despise.

If this strategy succeeds and is legitimated, then the U.S. will become essentially ungovernable. Our public policy will be determined, not by the consent of the people, but by the willingness of minority factions to inflict pain to achieve their ends.

That must not happen. And this outrageous behavior is why we should not say that “Congress” has caused this shutdown, for to do so allows the blameworthy to escape blame. We should hold accountable the reckless few who are trying to break our democracy.

Understanding the Health Reform Law

Despite the government shutdown, the health reform law continues to move forward. On Tuesday, the new federal health insurance Marketplace opened at HealthCare.gov, enabling New Jerseyans to compare and purchase comprehensive insurance options and even qualify for subsidies to help cover the costs of their insurance plans.

I have added a new section of my website dedicated to health reform, including answers to frequently asked questions about the law: What is the Marketplace? What are the differences between bronze, silver, gold, and platinum plans available in the Marketplace? Do you need to take any action if you already have insurance through your employer or Medicare?

The answers to these and many other questions are available online. Of course, if you find that your question is not answered, please do not hesitate to contact me at 1-87-RUSH-HOLT or by sending an e-mail through my website.

A Parable (With Thanks to Rep. Mike Doyle)

As the Affordable Care Act rolls out, I expect we will see some changes that should be made in the law to make it work better. That is true with any major law. And that is something everyone – including the President and the Democrats in Congress – agree on. There should be and can be discussions – civil, constructive discussions – within accepted legislative procedures. So too on the budget. Those who have shut the government wrongly say the Democrats won’t negotiate.

A gang corners a man and says, “We are going to burn your house down.” “No, you’re not,” says the man.

The gang says, “OK, then, we are going to burn the second floor of your house.” “No, you’re not,” says the man.

The gang says, “OK, then, we are going to burn several rooms of your house.” “No, you’re not,” says the man.

The gang leader says, “What’s wrong with you? You won’t negotiate.”

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

President Obama's Weekly Address 9/21/12: Congress Must Act Now to Pass a Budget and Raise the Debt Ceiling

WASHINGTON, DC— In his weekly address, President Obama said that the economy is making progress five years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, but to avoid another crisis, Congress must meet two deadlines in the coming weeks: pass a budget by the end of the month to keep the government open, and raise the debt ceiling so America can pay its bills. Congress should vote to do these now, so that we can keep creating new jobs and expanding opportunity for the middle class.

President Obama's Weekly Address 7/30/11: Acting Responsibly on Behalf of the American People

WASHINGTON—In this week’s address, President Obama urged both Republicans and Democrats to take action to avoid defaulting for the first time in our nation’s history. While the two parties are not far apart in their goals, they must resolve their differences quickly so that the United States can continue paying its Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits, and contracts with thousands of American businesses. The time has come to stop endangering the Triple A bond rating of the United States, put aside partisan politics, and behave responsibly to ensure a balanced approach to reducing our nation’s deficit.

Cut, Cap and Balance: The Wrong Approach to Deficit Reduction

The following was posted this morning at the White House blog by Jason Furman, Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council.

The blog post in response to all the rhetoric being thrown around by the ultra conservative right-wingers and TEA praters, who have taken control of the Republican Party and are risking our country's economic future and well being over the debate about raising the national debt limit.

These people are pushing for a proposal called "Cut, Cap and Balance" which is legislation that would cut $111 billion out of the budget immediately, cap spending to a percent of the Gross Domestic Product, and send a Balanced Budget Amendment to the states in return for increasing the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling.

On so many levels this proposal is wrong and could lead to a worsening of the economy and handicap future Congresses and Presidents ability to deal with a fiscal and economic crisis.

"Cut, Cap and Balance" is not the answer to our current troubles in this country, fixing the economy and putting people back to work is with sound fiscal policy that has proven in the past to work.

Democrats and Republicans agree that getting our fiscal house in order is one of the critical challenges facing America. To address it we are going to have to make tough choices, bringing to the table a commitment to examine every area of the budget and every loophole in the tax code without presumptively taking any of the options off the table. But it is critical that we not bring down our deficits and debt at the expense of economic growth, innovation and job creation, or place the greatest burden on older Americans and the most vulnerable. That is precisely what the House’s Cut, Cap and Balance plan would do – a proposal that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney described as “duck, dodge and dismantle.”

The House plan fails to achieve a balanced plan to reduce the deficit, which is precisely the approach that has worked successfully in America in the past and has recently been recommended by a number of different fiscal commissions.

Let’s start with the “cut” and “cap” portions of the bill. These sections require spending cuts in 2012 and caps over the next decade identical to those in the House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s plan., By House Republicans’ own design, achieving those spending levels would require cuts that would be harmful to the economic recovery in the short-term while also damaging our long-term competitiveness and placing a higher burden on seniors and the most vulnerable. To give a few examples:

• The bill would abruptly cut more than $100 billion in spending in the first year alone, a step that Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf stated would “affect our projections for GDP growth over the next two years.”
• The House Budget Resolution plan would cut clean energy investments by 70 percent, infrastructure investments by a third, and education and training by 25 percent – cutting 320,000 children from Head Start and reducing aid for families trying to put their kids through college by hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.
• It would cut Medicaid by one-third over the decade, and by nearly 50% by 2030. This could, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, result in 36 million people losing Medicaid coverage, including people with disabilities and seniors in nursing homes. And that comes on top of the 17 million who would lose coverage due to repealing subsidies in the Affordable Care Act.
• And it would cut programs for the most vulnerable – for example, by food stamp benefits for a family of four by $1,760 per year or cut 8 million households from the program.
• Finally, the House Budget Resolution proposed to convert Medicare to a voucher program, increasing costs for Medicare beneficiaries by $6,400 a year beginning in 2021 – with those higher costs increasing over time.

But “Cut, Cap and Balance” doesn’t stop there. It also includes a requirement that to secure an increase in the debt limit necessary to avoid default – and a devastating impact on families and businesses – Congress must pass a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. Moreover, it is an extreme version of a constitutional amendment that would cap government spending and require a two-thirds supermajority to cut tax loopholes or take other steps on revenue. The President has frequently made clear why he thinks a Balanced Budget Amendment is a misguided effort to absolve leaders in Washington of their responsibility for making tough choices. But it is important to understand what this requirement means when added on top of the cuts in the House Budget Resolution.

To start with, consider that at the end of the next decade, the House plan would still be $400 billion a year short of achieving a balanced budget. Unless Republicans are willing to entertain $3 to $4 trillion in additional revenues over the next decade, that means $400 billion a year would need to be cut beyond the House Budget Resolution.

And when you’ve already made such deep cuts to discretionary spending, Medicaid and other programs, it becomes difficult to imagine any credible ways to achieve those spending levels without including Social Security in the reductions and making substantially deeper reductions in Medicare.

So if the required spending cut were across the board, it would mean all programs, including Social Security and Medicare, would be cut by 10 percent by the end of the decade on top of the House Budget Resolution.If defense spending alone were exempted, it would mean that all other programs (again including Social Security and Medicare) would be cut by about 12 percent by the end of the decade on top of the House Budget Resolution. It would be possible to avoid cuts of this magnitude, but that would require dramatically deeper reductions than the one-third cut in Medicaid and infrastructure currently proposed in the House Budget Resolution.

We obviously don’t agree with this approach. The President has proposed a comprehensive approach that ensures we live within our means and reduces the deficit by $4 trillion, while supporting economic growth and long-term job creation, protecting critical investments, and meeting the commitments made to provide economic security to Americans no matter their circumstances. We want to make significant cuts to government spending, including additional savings that come from further strengthening critical programs like Medicare, while protecting the recovery, strengthening the middle class and making the investments that will promote economic growth so folks feel confident in their futures and their children’s futures.

Representatives from both parties will continue to talk about reaching the largest deal possible. The President is pushing everyone to come to the table, put politics aside, work through our differences and prove to the American people that we can still do big and difficult, but necessary things.