Defender of the Faith

 

Not only is Mike Pence a strong defender of the Christian faith but also a strong defender of the conservative faith in limited government and traditional moral values. People can persecute him but he will always stand for Truth. God Bless Mike Pence!

Another Time For Choosing

 

Young American's Foundation hosted Mike Pence Monday to speak about big government spending in DC and what it means to be conserative. Here is Mike Pence's words as he addressed the young folks of DC.


I come today with a sense of privilege and gratitude. It’s a privilege to speak to men and women from which will likely come the future of our Party and our nation. And gratitude to the Young Americans Foundation, who hosts me today, and who welcomed me last month to the home of my hero. A home nestled in the Santa Inez Mountains of California, Rancho del Cielo, the Reagan Ranch.

Thanks to YAF, my wife and our three small children spent a quiet day at the ranch. As we walked the grounds, toured the small house and stables, surveyed the sea and the valley between which this mountaintop home rests, I thought of the man Ronald Reagan. I thought of his Midwestern simplicity, his commitment to the ideals of our founders, and his human kindness even toward those with whom he differed.

As I looked across the landscape of the Reagan Ranch I knew why the President so often quoted that verse to visitors, “I look to the hills from where my help comes from...my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121)

Ronald Reagan’s ideas inspired a nation and they inspire me still, and as I think of the example of President Reagan, and I think of the men and women with whom I serve in the 100-member House Republican Study Committee, I know that the baton has been passed to a new generation of conservative leaders.

Today in Congress, I am proud to report that a new generation of men and women aspire to do as those who went before, to do the work the American people have elected conservatives to do: to lead this country on behalf of limited government and traditional moral values.

But there is work to be done, with the national debt at nearly $8 trillion, over 26,000 for every American. In light of two consecutive sessions of Congress that saw a 52 percent increase in the Department of Education and the first new entitlement in 40 years, with record increases in federal spending in every branch of government.

Two years ago, I likened the conservative movement to a tall ship plying the open seas of a simpler time with a proud captain and a strong and accomplished crew, veering off course into the dangerous and uncharted waters of big government Republicanism.

For despite the enormous conservative achievements of the past four years, I saw troubling signs that the ship of conservative governance was off course.

As the next presidential election approaches and new Republican leaders emerge, I believe as a movement, as a party, as a nation, we have come to another time for choosing.

While Ronald Reagan said famously, "government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem" many Republicans see government increasingly as the solution to every social ill.

Our party and you, its rising generation of new leaders, face an age-old choice: A choice between the belief in limited government and tradition and the siren song of the central planner who says that “Big government is good government if it’s our government.”

Ronald Reagan spoke of this choice in his famed speech of October 1964: “You and I are told we must choose between a left or a right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream: the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.”

The 40th president summed up his generation’s choice and ours as follows: “Whether we believe in our capacity for self government, or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them for ourselves.”

Put another way, the conservative movement is at a crossroads in America. As the Republican Party did 40 years ago, today is another time for choosing whether we are committed to the ideals of limited government, fiscal discipline and traditional moral values or whether we will continue to sacrifice those principles on the altar of preserving our governing majority.

So how do we find our way forward as the new governing majority?

How do we ensure that a second Bush term and the 109th Congress reflect our party’s commitment to limited government?

The answer may well lie in a tale of maritime valor nearly a century ago:

On 19 January 1915, after five months at sea, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance was beset by an early ice pack in the seas north of Antarctica, ending abruptly their expedition to that frozen continent. After nine months wedged in the floating ice, the Endurance was crushed and sank in October of 1915, leaving the crew to winter five months on the ice flows until escaping to Elephant Island in April of 1916.

With supplies dwindling, Shackleton made the decision to take a single lifeboat in an attempt to cross 800 miles of the inhospitable ocean in the world, under hurricane conditions, in an attempt to reach South Georgia Island and help.

In the course of 16 tumultuous days, where celestial navigation was nearly impossible due to storm conditions, Shackleton and his skeleton crew chipped at 15 inches of ice forming on the boat and made the landfall using an ancient form of navigation known as “dead reckoning.”

In dead reckoning, the navigator finds his course by measuring the course and distance he has sailed from some fixed position. If the navigator has a fixed starting position, by tracking heading and speed he can calculate the exact location of the ship at any time but navigation depends on knowing the location of the known starting point.

Dead reckoning saved the crew of the Endurance and dead reckoning can save the course of Republican governance in the 21st century.

Conservatives must dead reckon off the starting point of what we know to be true about the nature of government and we won’t lose our way:

- Conservatives know that government that governs least governs best.

- Conservatives know that as government expands, freedom contracts.

- Conservatives know that government should never do for a man what he can and should do for himself.

- And Conservatives know that societies are judged by how they deal with the most vulnerable: the unborn, the aged, the infirm and the disabled.

As we navigate off of these fixed historical truths, the way forward is clear. We must rediscover the principles of limited government that brought our party to power in 1980 and 1994 and put them into practice.

This requires that conservatives have an agenda, built on the principles of limited government, an agenda which comprises what conservatives must do and what conservatives must undo in the 109th Congress.

What conservatives must do

First, House Conservatives must be prepared to rally support in the Congress and throughout the country for the President’s agenda where it conforms with the ideals of limited government.

The good news is that all of the “Big Three” agenda items outlined by the President in his State of the Union Address are worthy of vigorous conservative support:

- Modernizing Social Security by introducing the option of personal savings accounts for younger Americans

- Overhauling the Internal Revenue Code, without a tax increase, to achieve a system that is simpler and fairer for taxpaying Americans

- Reforming the legal system to end the hidden tax that frivolous lawsuits place on our manufacturing and health care economies

These are the priorities of President George W. Bush and they deserve to be the priorities of conservatives in Washington.

In addition to these “Big Three” goals, House conservatives should put on the green eyeshades to put our fiscal house in order, beginning with dealing with the aftermath of the worst natural catastrophe in American history.

Katrina breaks my heart, when I think of the storm and its tragic aftermath, I think of that story from Matthew: “And the rains descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:25)

For most Americans, when a tree falls on your house, first you tend to the wounded, then you start the clean up, then you sit down and figure out how you’re going to pay for it.

Thanks to swift and compassionate leadership by the President and our leaders in Congress, we are tending to the wounded and have begun the cleanup. But now is the time for Congress to begin to figure out how to pay for it.

Last week, dozens of House conservatives offered a broad range of suggested budget cuts to begin the debate over finding offsets in government spending to cover the incredible costs of this storm. The Washington Times called it a good start. The Washington Post called it stupid. We must be on the right track.

The debate has been difficult, but it will go forward, because we have a Republican President and a Republican Congress. The Democratic Party has made it clear how they would respond to this tragedy: tax and spend, tax and spend.

To that end, there are other priorities once we work past this crisis:

-Pass additional tax cuts (as the Republican Congress has done every year since 1994) to ensure continued economic growth.

-Pass fundamental budget process reform including a line-item veto

-Uphold any Presidential veto on a spending bill that exceeds the budget

-Take on wasteful government spending and actually eliminate outdated government programs

And as Reagan taught us, conservatives know that freedom means more than just actuarial perfection, it means gains in moral freedom. Congress must take action to free the American people from the cultural consequences of activist federal courts who would impose their view of morality, patriotism and our most cherished institutions on our communities and families. To do this, we must:

- Support the next conservative nominee to the Supreme Court

- Pass the Federal Marriage Amendment by a growing majority

- Pass additional legislative limitations on abortion, including parental notification and strengthening informed consent

- Pass the Incapacitated Persons Act to ensure that no disabled Americans have access to the federal courts when their unalienable right to life is threatened by government action

-Pass legislation limiting jurisdiction over our most cherished symbols and free expression of faith in the public square.

What Conservatives Must Undo

In addition to what we must do, there is legislation that conservatives must undo to advance the freedom agenda:

First, conservatives must undo the damage to the First Amendment by reforming the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.

BCRA violated the 1st Amendment directive that “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.”

The summer of 527’s has given the advocates of government restrictions on speech the excuse to try it again. We must seize the opportunity to reform our campaign finance laws in a manner that empowers political parties and restores the freedom of speech.

Second, conservatives must undo the Medicare Prescription Drug entitlement. In the prescription drug bill, a Republican Congress added an unfunded Medicare liability equal to the entire Social Security obligation.

Congress must repeal the entitlement elements of the prescription drug program that threaten to bankrupt our nation in the next century and drive millions of retirees into Medicare for prescription drug coverage.

Third, conservatives must undo the expansion of the federal government’s role in our local schools by reforming the No Child Left Behind Act to embrace the principle that education is a state and local function.

Congress must return education spending in Washington to the block grant strategy of welfare reform, promoting school choice and innovation through resources, not red tape.

These are difficult days in which we live: Threats at home and abroad, expansion of government and erosion of values. But I am not discouraged nor should you be.

For these are the times in which Americans have always been at their best. Like those that Abigail Adams celebrated in a letter to her young son:

“These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life or the repose of a pacific station that great characters are formed…the habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties…great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant wake into life, and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”
(Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 19 Jan 1780)

So we have come to another time for choosing. And I have faith as other Americans of other times have done before. We will choose liberty.

I believe that we will choose liberty because despite the occasional difference of opinion, I believe in the leadership of this Congress, men and women of integrity and principle who work every day to bring the ideals of our founders into the well of the People’s House.

I believe that we will choose liberty because I believe in the American people.

I believe that we will choose liberty because I believe in God.

I believe, as our founders did, as all of our greatest leaders did, that we are one nation under God, rich with a purpose yet to be fulfilled.

And I believe, with all my heart, that He who set this miracle of democracy on this, these wilderness shores, will give us the wisdom to know the right choice and the courage to make it as we choose the direction of our party and our nation in the 21st century.

For no matter how dark the day may seem, no matter how lost the cause of limited government and traditional moral values, we are confident knowing that the cause of freedom is not just our cause, but His: The author and finisher of our faith and the faith of our founders.

And so we say along with the poet:

“The woods are lovely dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

We have promises to keep for future generations of Americans in preserving, protecting and defending the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

Thank you for the honor of addressing you and for all you do to keep the cause of conservative values alive in this shining city on the hill, this last best hope of earth, these United States of America. God bless you and the United States of America.

Pence Leading "Operation Offset"

 

Taking charge and leading the way for fiscal responsibility in the Katrina disaster is Indiana Congressman Mike Pence. It's scary to see Republicans talking about government being the solution to our problems. The $200 Billion proposal is going to come out of the taxpayer's pocket and put a heavy burden on our generation to come. But Pence understands the role of the government and knows that this proposal could cause serious harm to America's future. That is why he has been one of the most outspoken conservatives saying that we need to make cut backs in other areas including the Medicare bill and Highway bill. Here is an article in the Weekly Standard talking about Pence and "Operation Offset."

LAST WEEK, ON THE terrace of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, a crowd of demonstrators from around the country held aloft catchy signs saying things like "Rescue Taxpayers from Floods of Red Ink" and "Deficit Spending is Disaster Pending." Members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, meanwhile, unveiled their assault on the spend-what-you-will attitude plaguing Congress.

The effort, titled "Operation Offset," was initiated by Indiana Republican Mike Pence, chairman of the group, with a twofold goal in mind: Find a way to fund Katrina recovery efforts, and find a way to get federal spending under control.

With damages from Hurricane Katrina estimated to exceed $200 billion (who knows what Hurricane Rita will add), and recognizing the pitfalls of raising taxes to cover the federal portion of this tab, members of the RSC have their work cut out for them. Though most conservatives are united in lambasting spending-gone-wild, they still debate what should be cut and for how long.

For example, Rep. Ron Lewis of Kentucky urged a moratorium on all nondefense earmarks for congressional districts--but only for a year. Lewis believes that these are the worst of times, requiring every constituency to sacrifice some cherished Paper Industry Hall of Fame or long-sought curriculum for the study of mariachi music (those are real examples). At the same time, he says, "there are certain projects that absolutely members need to work on behalf of their constituency."

Not Pence. He would be happy if the cuts lasted a little longer--say, forever. "It's almost like when a person is diagnosed with a very serious disease [such as] heart disease," Pence offers. "And the doctor says, 'Well, it would greatly help if you lost weight.' That event, that bad news, becomes the catalyst for the person to make hard choices that they had needed to make for a long time."


The Republican Study Committee's report, "RSC Budget Options 2005," proposes spending reductions under several headings. By far the largest savings to be had come under "Tough Options." Of these, the most controversial would delay for at least one year the Medicare prescription drug program, and repeal the highway earmarks dear to the hearts of legislators. The "Tough Options" could save $70 billion in 2006 alone. In total, the RSC report identifies potential savings of more than $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

Evil sneaks in with the Good

 

This week Pence introducted the child porn protection act cracking down on child pornographers. Unfortunately there was a hate crime piece added on to the child safty bill. While Pence is fighting hard to protect children and families, other folks are working hard to undermine these values that America has stood for since it's birth. This article by the Washington Times explains the situation.


By Ralph Z. Hallow
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 19, 2005
The chairman of the 100-member House Republican Study Committee says conservative lawmakers, already angry about what they see as out-of-control spending, are furious over passage last week of a bill that included an amendment expanding federal hate-crimes protections.
    
"House conservatives barraged me with their frustration and concern over this bill," said Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, the RSC chairman. "Our guys are starting to spoil for a fight after this bill."     

The bill, which passed 223-199, would federalize local crimes if the suspected motive is animosity toward homosexuals or "transgender" persons. Existing federal hate-crimes laws already cover women and minorities.
    
With the help of 30 mostly liberal Republicans, Democrats succeeded in making the measure part of a children's safety bill in a move that took conservatives by surprise.
    
"First, we have $50 billion in new spending for Hurricane Katrina relief, with no offsets in other spending," Mr. Pence said. "Next thing, our side lets this hate-crimes amendment get into a children's protection bill because we let it come to the floor on an open rule -- a vehicle made for liberals to use."     

North Carolina Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, another conservative Republican, says he doesn't know how or why the House Republican leadership allowed the children's safety bill to come to the floor under an open rule, meaning unlimited amendments could be proposed and voted on.
    
"We gave the far left a ripe opportunity for success," Mr. McHenry said. "As members of the majority party, we're asking: How could we allow this to happen? Why did we give the opposition an easy route to victory?"
    
Conservatives in Congress have fought hate-crimes measures, saying such legislation bestows on government the power to presume to know and to punish criminal motives, rather than the crimes themselves.
    
Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat, presented the hate-crimes legislation in the form of an amendment to House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.'s children's safety bill, which strengthens the monitoring of child sex offenders and increases penalties for molestation.
    
Co-sponsors of the hate-crimes amendment included Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank and Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin, both Democrats, and Connecticut Rep. Christopher Shays and Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Republicans.
    
Mr. Pence says House Republicans voted to pass the child-safety bill -- it sailed through on a 371-52 vote -- with the Conyers hate-crimes amendment attached because they wanted the children's protection portion and thought the Conyers amendment would not survive joint House-Senate conference reworking of the bill.
    
"I voted for [the measure] thinking it would be fixed in conference," Mr. Pence said. "I hope it will, but there are rumblings that the Senate may take the bill as is and pass it and send it to the president, which would be very frustrating to a lot of us."

"But I have enough confidence in Chairman Sensenbrenner that he will clean this bill up."

Hate-crime add-on to child safety bill irks House GOP

Child Porn Protection Act Introduced

Rebuild the City with Wisdom

 

After hearing the president speak about Hurricane Katrina and the government's role in reviving the disaster area, there is now talk of federal spending surpassing $200 Billion for the effort. Congress has already approved of more than $62 Billion to help in this devasting blow on America. With serious concern of how this is going to get paid for, we must now ask the question, "Where is the money going to come from?" Congressman Mike Pence has strongly suggested that we must offset the bill by cutting back on some other fiscally irresponsible bills like the socialized medicine Medicare Bill and the super pork Highway Bill. Pence gives his comments on the matter by stating these words.

“Katrina breaks my heart. When I consider its tragic aftermath, the ancient parable comes to mind: ‘and the rains descended, and the flood came, and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash.’

“For most American families, when a tree falls on your house you tend to the wounded, you rebuild and then you figure out how you are going to pay for it.

“Later today, Congress will continue the work of funding the relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina, and well we should, by speeding more than $50 billion to FEMA and other agencies.

“But as we tend to the wounded, as we begin to rebuild, let us also do what every other American family would do in like circumstances and expects this Congress to do: Let’s figure out how we are going to pay for it"




“Congress must ensure that a catastrophe of nature does not become a catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren.”

Conservatives must find a way to pay for Hurricane Relief

America is Winning the War!

 

Mike Pence just got back from leading a team of officials over to Iraq to assess the situation. Pence's fact-finding mission came to the conclusion that America is winning the war. After visiting and speaking with several U.S. military leaders, Pence understands what must be done to defeat the enemy. Here is an article by the Indianapolis Star.


WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mike Pence said that spending two days in Iraq convinced him the United States is winning the war there.

But Pence, R-Ind., also said troop levels must increase modestly in the next six weeks to prepare for expected violence related to the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum. And, he said, the U.S. can't withdraw its 140,000 troops until Iraq has trained at least twice as many of its own soldiers as it has to date.

Pence, a strong supporter of the war from the beginning, spent Sunday and Monday in Iraq with four other lawmakers. The group met with U.S. troops and commanders, including Gen. John Abizaid, who heads Central Command.

Pence said he shared concerns he heard during a recent visit to the American Legion hall in Selma, Ind.

"All they hear is that Americans are being killed. They don't feel like there's progress. They don't feel like there's a plan," Pence said he told Abizaid. "He was adamant about saying, 'There's a plan. We're working the plan. . . . We're defeating the enemy.' "

Pence said that plan includes continuing to train Iraqis to take over their own defense. About 100,000 Iraqis have been trained, and the U.S. military expects that to double by the end of 2006, he said.

The trip was Pence's third to Iraq since April 2003, and he said he saw progress. In Baghdad, once-deserted streets were filled with traffic.

The troops Pence visited included Hoosiers serving with the 138th Signal Battalion in Ramadi, such as Cpl. Ty Cotton, Anderson, who asked Pence to say hello to his mother.

Pence's First Hand Experiences in Iraq

Indianapolis Star

Calling Citizens to Help Families in Katrina

 

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence expressed support and sympathy today for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Pence’s statement follows:

"Like most Hoosiers, our family has been shocked to see the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina unfold in the national media.

“I know I speak for every citizen in Eastern Indiana when I say that our sympathy and prayers go to the families who have lost loved ones and to those still mired in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina.

“I urge my fellow citizens to direct any financial assistance through relief organizations and I pledge to support efforts in Congress to address this catastrophe with federal resources and coordination.”

For information on the web:

www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/hurricane

www.redcross.org

www.fema.gov

www.nvoad.org