We'll only win by being us

 

Here is an article by the American Spectator explaining the faulty logic of Republicans thinking that pandering to liberal policies and big government will win them votes and retain their majority. We need to follow Mike Pence's lead and come back to the roots of the Republican Party and fight for limited government and fiscal discipline so we can continue to be that "shining city on a hill."

If a successful steakhouse stopped selling beef and substituted stale vegan sandwiches as part of a strategy to increase its customer base, the restaurant wouldn't remain in business very long. Yet for some reason, the Republican Party has adopted precisely this strategy for governing.

Instead of rewarding its loyal voters with the limited government they were promised, the Republican Party has decided to increase its voter base by offering the stale ideas of big government liberalism. This tactic is difficult to understand given that in modern midterm elections, voter turnout has hovered around 40 percent, meaning that winning is about having an energized base that will show up on Election Day. Nothing would energize that base more than if Republicans used their power to reduce the size and scope of government, so why doesn't the party give its voters what they want?

"It's what I call Republican Disease," former House Majority Leader Dick Armey told me recently. "They want to be loved by the beautiful people. They want the editorial pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post to say nice things about them."

At a breakfast hosted by TAS last week, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), one of the few remaining small government warriors in the Republican Party, described the logic behind the Republican leadership's embrace of big government. As they pushed for a massive expansion of federal control over education in the form of the No Child Left Behind Act, Pence recalled Republican leaders justifying it by arguing, "Democrats have a huge advantage on education." A similar attitude took hold as Republicans added the prescription drug benefit to Medicare, marking the largest expansion of entitlements since the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.

Expanding entitlements and federalizing education clearly runs contrary to conservative principles, but the programs' defenders on the right would argue that they were politically necessary in order to win elections. However, it's difficult to see any evidence that Republicans won over moderates or Democrats as a result of betraying small government conservatives. If anything, the evidence supports the exact opposite conclusion.

According to the exit polls from the 2000 election, those voters who identified education as the issue that "mattered most," favored Al Gore over George W. Bush by a spread of 52 percent to 44 percent. The No Child Left Behind Act had passed by the time the 2004 election rolled around, and yet, according to exit polls, John Kerry trounced President Bush among voters who thought education was most important, by a margin of 73 percent to 26 percent. The numbers are similar with voters who thought health care was the most important issue. In 2000, Gore had a 64-33 advantage among these voters; in 2004, despite the passage of the Medicare prescription drug law (or perhaps even because of it), Kerry was favored by a margin of 77-23.

Defenders of the policy of triangulation may stress that Republicans maintained their majority in 2002 and 2004, but this was largely the result of national security and values issues, not because of any pandering they did on health care or education. Those Republican leaders who see expanding government as the means to maintain power overlook the fact that they have power in the first place because 1994's "Contract With America" promised to get government off of people's backs. They forget that a generation of conservatives was inspired by Ronald Reagan's eloquent defense of limited government, not by statist gobbledygook.

But there is a much simpler reason why Republicans should once-again embrace limited government: it works. If Republicans believe that conservative ideas are right, the best way to prove that to other people is to institute them.

When we spoke, Dick Armey pointed to welfare reform as evidence that if Republicans persevere and actually achieve something, it will be looked back on as a success. Though conservatives might argue that the reform didn't go far enough, it was clearly a vast improvement over the system that existed before it.

If Republicans showed the political courage to implement such policies as school vouchers, market reforms in healthcare, and Social Security personal accounts, at a minimum, they would thrill their base, and would likely win over moderates as liberal scare tactics are proven baseless.

Were they to govern this way, Republicans would be a lot more confident going into Election Day, and they'd be able to run a campaign based on more than simply calling Democrats "fraidy cats." Just as a great steakhouse wouldn't last long were it to start dabbling in vegan cuisine, the Republican Party will not survive as the party of big government.

As Mike Pence put it: "We will never win by being them, we will only win by being us."

Republican Disease

Freedom of religion, not freedom from religion

 

Mike Pence stood boldly yesterday on the House Floor to defend the right to public religious expression by giving this speech in support of the Public Expression of Religion Act. Our freedoms are constantly being challenged by liberals who want to see our nation become secular so they will never be confronted by God. But Pence knows that our founding fathers never envisioned a secular society and that's why the very first sentence of the 1st amendment speaks to our "freedom of religion" so that no government can deny us our liberty to speak about Jesus Christ. Here is Pence's speech.


"I rise in strong support of the Public Expression of Religion Act, and I do so with particular gratitude to my Hoosier colleague John Hostettler, who during the course of his career in the United States House of Representatives has stood for the freedom of religion as perhaps no other American.

"In 1976, a statute was passed in this Congress called the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act. Very simply and plainly, this statute was intended to protect the constitutional rights of citizens and level the legal playing field. Under this act, a citizen who felt that his or her constitutional rights had been violated could sue a government official or entity and receive attorney's fees if they win.

"The availability of massive amounts of attorney's fees have caused many municipalities, even some in Indiana, to relent in their fight to preserve the public display of the Ten Commandments or references to God in the public square because of the local government's inability to access federal funds to pay their attorney's fees.

"So in a very real sense, the unintended consequence of the 1976 law was to take a playing field that was imbalanced to one side and make it imbalanced to the other.

"Today we are leveling the playing field once again. We are saying to every American who believes in their heart that 'In God We Trust' should not appear in the well of this Congress as it does behind me; to every American who thinks there should be no reference to religion in the public square whatsoever; it says to every American whose view of the Constitution is that the establishment clause is somehow an antiseptic to remove any reference to our religious heritage in this county; it says our courts are open to you, but the treasury is not.

"As we say in Indiana, where I was born, raised and live, 'I may fight to the death for your right to hold the views that you do, but that doesn't mean I have to pay for it.'

"And because of Congressman Hostettler's leadership on the Public Expression of Religion Act, we say the courthouse doors are open to anyone who would challenge the public expression by local governments or government officials, the acknowledgement of the deep and rich heritage of over hundreds of years by the American people; we would say 'in this instance, in these cases, the public treasury is not open, raise your money, bring your challenges, and let the court work its will."

Mike Pence on Jay Sekulow

 

The freedom fighter Jay Sekulow had Mike Pence come on his weekly TV show to talk about the late Ronald Reagan and his legacy. Reagan deeply impacted Mike Pence and influenced him to become the conservative hero he is today. You can watch the footage here by clicking on the link and then clicking on the "Watch Now" button of the 9/22 episode. Please enjoy!

ACLJ on Television

Pence interview on Redstate

 

Redstate.com interviewed Congressman Mike Pence about the upcoming elections and the recent legislation Pence led on immigration and earmark reform. Pence was also asked about a possible presidential run for 2008 (this question continues to come up around the country) which he responded that his life is not his own and if he is called into a higher position then he and his wife will pray about it. There is no question that Pence is being called into a higher position because the American people need him to lead our country back to the principles our founding fathers brought to our shores and Ronald Reagan brought to our nation's capital.

Here is what Redstate had to say about Mike Pence. You can listen to Pence's entire interview by clicking on the link below. Please enjoy!


Make no mistake about it, Mike Pence is Mr. Conservative in the U.S. House. While John Shadegg (R-AZ) ran for Majority Leader as the conservative in the race, Mike Pence has led the Republican Study Committee, which is the organization in the U.S. House wherein you find the conservatives and conservative legislation (Mike Pence succeeded Rep. Shadegg as Chairman of the RSC).

In recent months, Rep. Pence has drawn a lot of attention and some criticism for his immigration plan -- a plan that combines free market approaches to immigration and a demand to seal the border and keep it sealed (for the record, I support the Pence Plan).

Congressman Pence, a true friend of RedState, was very gracious with his time. We talked about his immigration plan, earmarks reform, legislation he submitted after the jailing of two reporters in the Barry Bonds case, and his possible Presidential run in 2008.

RedState Radio: Rep. Mike Pence, Conservative

Pence is a real value voter

 

Mike Pence recently spoke at the Family Research Council "Value Voters Conference" this weekend along with other presidential hopefuls. Mike Pence has constantly stood up for our American values and is always 100% conservative even if that means going against his party. He is the perfect persona of what a value voter really is.

Pence says no more inflation tax

 

Here is a great article laying out the details of the "Inflation tax" that government imposes on us. Mike Pence understands the great harm that this has on all American families and that is why he has introduced legislation to repeal this tax forever. This article is by Phil Kerpen of National Review Online.


The capital-gains tax can be thought of as two different taxes: a tax on real increases in asset values and a tax on nominal, inflationary increases in asset values. That inflation tax, levied on the phantom gains in asset values due to inflation, is one of the most unfair and economically destructive taxes the federal government levies. With inflation having nudged upward of late, there is a renewed urgency to repeal the tax.

Let’s say that in 1970 you bought an asset for $1,000 and you sold it today for $4,000. Under current law, you would owe the government tax on a $3,000 capital gain. But in reality you would owe that tax on an investment that had lost value in real terms — in other words, your $1,000 in 1970 would have had greater purchasing power than $4,000 does today. It’s in this way that you can lose real money on an investment and still owe capital-gains taxes. In this example the tax is not really a capital gains tax at all, but an inflation tax.

A 1995 study by Arthur Hall at the Tax Foundation measured the impact of the inflation tax on an average stock (based on the S&P 500) bought in the forty years before 1994 and sold that year. For many of these time periods, Hall found that inflationary gains well outpaced real gains, creating effective tax rates on real capital gains that were consistently higher than the then-statutory rate of 28 percent, and often higher than 100 percent, which is to say the tax liability was greater than the real capital gain.

I reproduced Hall’s methodology to look at the inflation tax on stocks purchased over the past fifty years and sold today. The results were not as striking as those reached in Hall’s analysis, due to the large real stock gains and relatively low inflation of the past decade. Even so, a significant portion of the stock market capital gains over the past decade have been due to inflation. For instance, inflation accounts for fully 48 percent of the increase in value of an average stock purchased at the end of August 1997 and sold today. Inflation accounts for 56 percent of the gain from August 1998 to present. For just the past year, inflation accounts for about half of the price increase of an average stock. Thus, even for assets purchased during the relatively low-inflation 2000s, the real effective capital-gains tax rate is as much as double the statutory rate of 15 percent.

Stock markets were essentially flat in real terms for decades prior to the Reagan economic program of sound money and tax-rate reductions that triggered the long boom. One reason for the poor stock market performance of the 1960s and 1970s was the bite of the inflation tax, which imposed a major tax penalty on investors who generally did no better than break even in real terms.

In 1993, Federal Reserve Board governor Wayne Angell put it best: “If we are to reduce the damaging effects that we know are caused by all capital taxation, it makes sense to eliminate the worst aspect of the most damaging tax on capital — the tax on phantom gains.”

Fortunately, new legislation sponsored by Reps. Mike Pence (R., Ind.) and Eric Cantor (R., Va.), H.R. 6057, would repeal the inflation tax. The bill would index the tax basis for an asset to inflation, taxing only real gains, not inflation. With the burgeoning investor class making up more than half of voters, this basic fairness issue is sound politics as well as policy. Pence-Cantor is a bill that should become a law.

If Congress fails to act, then the president should instruct the Treasury Department to use its rulemaking authority to index the capital-gains tax. The Internal Revenue Code specifies that the tax is levied on the value of an asset at the time it is sold less its cost, which current regulations interpret as its nominal purchase price. But the code does not define the word “cost,” and interpreting it in real economic terms is certainly reasonable; this is the standard courts use to review the department’s discretion. In 1992, Charles Cooper, a former Reagan assistant attorney general, urged the first President Bush to do precisely this in a well-reasoned Wall Street Journal op-ed. Fourteen years later it is high time the second President Bush end this unfair inflation tax.

Repeal the “Inflation Tax”

Fiscal issues are at the root moral issues

 

Here is a great article by Adam Graham discussing the importance of moral issues and how they tie into fiscal issues. He did a great job identifying those that are the most fiscal conservative leaders are also the most socially conservative leaders in Congress. We need leaders who understand completely that fiscal issues are moral issues and to lead based on those convicts.


My friend seems to believe that economics and foreign policy are more important than who we are as a people. I will disagree vociferously.

I believe all the issues are connected. We are told by the left that acts of homosexuality, promiscuity, and divorce are victimless matters that are none of our business, shouldn't not be condemned, and certainly should not be viewed as a moral question.

Yet, if illegitimacy rates had been half what they were over the past 40 years, our national debt would be much lower. We spend billions paying for the cost of social liberalism. If we were to categorize it, I'd suppose liberalism would be the biggest line item in our budget.

Indeed, the Messiah State is liberalism's great gift to us. It is one of the foundational beliefs of the religion of American liberalism that man, through the state is god.

It is why we mustn't speak of religious heritage, we mustn't speak the name of a God beyond government at all, for in so doing we become heretics to the new faith.

Liberalism has sought to destroy the value of work, punish achievement, and remove the ability of our society to make moral judgments on any mater.

Liberalism's mix of big government, social libertinism, and the refusal to make value judgments are all the key points of this culture war. We've not taken it far enough in many areas including absurd no-fault divorce laws that make a marriage more easily dissolved than a month-to-month lease.

Sadly, I think there are people who will not rise to the challenge because they fear obliteration or are obliterated in the primary by GOP voters who are too addicted to government or are afflicted by guilt and their own compromises with the liberal Church of Statism.

You will not achieve anything on economic policy, as long as you have a culture that believes that you have a right to be irresponsible and cannot be accountable for it.

I'll agree that the presence of fiscally irresponsible Republicans is a concern. In many elections, we face a choice between a Republican who gets some things but not others and a Democrat who is utterly clueless. Democrats believe all we need to do is raise taxes and expand government. The Republican who is pro-life may be logically inconsistent, but we'll be more useful than a clueless liberal who believes in growing the government even more. In my home state, we are blessed to have someone in Idaho this fall who will go to Washington and work to reduce spending. He'll join people like Senator Tom Coburn (R-Ok.) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-In.) (funny how you don't find hardly any Democrats or social liberals who are trying to fix these problems.)

I believe Social Conservatism and Economic Conservatism are linked. You can't effectively have one without another. It is the ideas of family, respect and value for marriage, human life, responsibility, and honesty that makes a society worth living in, and makes limited government possible.

Other nations on Earth have balanced budgets, but no freedom and opportunity and big government in control of all areas of life. I'd rather live in America than Western Europe, Australia. Canada, or any other place on the planet that liberals so believe. Because, it's here where people of decency have a shot, where madness has not fallen like a curtain on the play of economic freedom and moral conscience. It's why I'm here and why I spend so much time writing about vital issues of time.

We are more than our checkbooks, because prosperity will always wax and wane. What will be remembered for is the type of people we are. Today, your average person knows little about the economy of the early 20th Century or the late 19th Century but we remember slavery and segregation. I believe our economic successes and failures as a nation will be little remembered by children and grandchildren, but rather they remember how we dealt with the great issues of our day. Did we respect human life and destroy it? Did we strengthen traditional family or offer it as a sacrifice to the god of liberalism, the god of the state.

These are the questions that matter. Our respect for family, faith, and human life will determine our economic policy, it will determine our foreign policy, and will make us either revered or a by-word for this generation and generations to come.

More than our checkbooks

Pence will defeat terrorism

 

Mike Pence has continually been the biggest advocate on the War on Terror, even outside of election season. Pence knows from first hand experience that we are winning the war and we must continue to defeat the enemy abroad so we don't have to face them at home. Here is an article about Mike Pence and his strong pro-American stance to defeat terrorism.


Two archconservative Indiana congressmen, one question:

What about Iraq?

When we asked Rep. John Hostettler on his recent election-season trip to The Star, the first thing he uttered was a reminder that they still haven't found those WMDs.

When we asked Rep. Mike Pence on his visit, about the first thing he said was that he asked a general and was told "We're winning."

For certain, somebody's not in lockstep here. My nod goes to Hostettler, the Southern Indiana firebrand who parted company with Democrats and his fellow Republicans alike in 2002 by voting against the resolution authorizing President Bush to invade Iraq without a formal declaration of war by Congress.

Three years, 3,000 American lives and scores of thousands of Iraqi lives later, Hostettler can comfortably stand by his original objection: no proof for the casus belli, no carte blanche for Bush.

Polls show most Americans are unhappy with the war, so Hostettler hasn't had to do any course-correcting for electoral purposes. He still faces a tough fight from challenger Brad Ellsworth, and he's hardly offering an easy way out of the bloody mess that haunts his party this fall.

Nor is Pence, who predicts "more carnage" from what he describes as a ruthless and sophisticated enemy. At the same time, he harkens back to the purple fingers and the transfers of chores from U.S. to Iraqi forces, along with America's superior firepower, and pretty much echoes the president's Churchill impression. He says he's told the president personally that he's a braver man than his critics (many of whom actually have been shot at, even wounded, in war).

Conjuring, no doubt unintentionally, the ghosts of Vietnam, Pence proclaims that the resistance in Iraq hasn't won a single full-face engagement with American troops. The Viet Cong didn't win the Tet offensive, either, but they eventually proved that winning battles isn't enough for a foreign occupier. We wore down and bogged down in Vietnam; and what would we have "won," anyway, but a perpetually propped-up puppet government?

Back to Hostettler, who shares the worries of many that a civil war may be the ironic legacy of a despot's removal from Iraq. "It is not America's obligation to stay there in perpetuity," he ominously adds. Perhaps the best we can do, he suggests, is witness a government elected by 51 percent of the voters, and leave it be.

Pence's view: "We cannot abandon those people."

Not now, most would agree. Their peril, after all, is our making. And we mustn't forget, a fortune is being conveyed to influential American business interests in this venture. But can we win? Do we care that most of the world does not believe there should be a "we" in that faraway land, or that national sovereignty is something that can be secured by military occupation? Horrible as the many guerrilla atrocities have been, they ensued from the heaviest bombing in all history; "the enemy" is a simplistic term in many eyes, including those of many Americans.

Global perspective is no more a hallmark of Hostettler's repertoire than it is of Pence's. Both are unabashed Israeli triumphalists when it comes to the Middle East. Where they differ, as devout conservatives, may come down to when to declare victory in Iraq. One thing seems certain: If they keep winning elections, their brave president will be out of there long before they will.

Warring right angles

At it again...

 

Mike Pence continues the fight to limit government by cutting unnecessary taxes to save the American people money. Here is an excerpt about Mike Pence introducing legislation to eliminate capital-gains tax on inflation.


CAPITAL GAINS -- Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, joined Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence last week in introducing a bill to eliminate the capital-gains tax on inflation.

The bill would index for inflation the cost basis used in calculating the capital-gains tax. The indexing, the bill sponsors said, would have the effect of reducing taxes for millions of people because it would eliminate the tax on inflation built into the capital-gains tax.

No cost estimate was available last week, a Cantor aide said.

CAPITOL UPDATE

Conservatives pass earmark reform

 

Mike Pence and his band of brothers led the charge to successfully pass earmark reform in the House by a vote of 245-171. Mike Pence has continually fought to put our fiscal house in order. Here is his speech given on the floor yesterday on this very important legislation.


"Under Article One of the Constitution of the United States, the power of the purse is the power of the House of Representatives, and today we will not yield that power in any way.

"The Constitution gives this body the ability to spend the money of the American people in ways large and small. House Resolution 1000 simply requires that we earmark the earmarks.

"We actually had a cow farm when I was growing up, and I know what an earmark is. It's the tag in the ear of a cow that will tell you whose cow it is.

"The reality is that under the rules that have developed over generations here in the House, we can add provisions to legislation authorizing bills and appropriations bills without adding names.

"Today by adopting H. Res. 1000, we will simply require that we earmark the earmarks.

"Transparency promotes accountability, and this institution would do well to embrace this modest but meaningful step toward greater transparency.

"As Jeff Flake, a great leader on this issue, said earlier, it saddens me to see evidence of the low regard that millions of Americans hold the institution of Congress."

"It is a historic institution filled with men and women of both parties of goodwill and integrity.

"By adopting this modest but meaningful earmarking reform today, we will take an important step toward restoring public confidence in the fundamental integrity of our legislative process at the national level.

"I urge my colleagues in both parties to say 'yes' to transparency and greater accountability. Say 'yes' to earmarking reform."

Ending earmarks

 

Mike Pence has been fighting all year long to put an end to earmarks and pass serious reform on this deterimental process that takes our hard earned money and gets spent on pet projects that usually are unnecessary and sometimes unimaginable (ie The Brigde to Nowhere). Mike Pence spoke at the "Ending Earmarks Express" rally on Capital Hill to gather the troops to pass real legislation to ensure that voters will always know where their money is going and how it is being spent.

Conservatives to lead the GOP?

 

This next month and a half will determine whether the GOP will keep it's majority in the House or allow the Democrats to take control. Many speculations have risen to say that leadership will have a hard time keeping their position after the midterm elections, win or lose. People have already begun to call Mike Pence the "Minority Leader" suggesting that conservatives would take charge next session due to the base's dissatisfaction with the moderate leadership. Here is an excerpt of another article talking about Pence rising in leadership for '07.


Pence has always generated favorable media coverage through an active RSC press shop. The outspoken conservative stirred so much speculation during the race for majority leader earlier this year that his office issued a release stating he would not cast a bid for the post.

Pence stayed in the spotlight over the August recess with his proposal to revive comprehensive immigration reform, and he has taken a much less combative public stance toward the leadership since last fall’s showdown over federal spending to fund repair efforts in the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast. As evidence, the RSC has not gone on attack this month to force leaders to bring a bill creating a so-called “Sunset Commission” to the floor, despite promises Boehner made to give them the vote in exchange for support on the budget.

Pence’s naysayers criticize him for catering to the media instead of the party, and some congressional staffers jokingly call him “the minority leader” for threatening the conservative base with his push to cut federal spending despite objections from leaders and the centrist Republicans whose vulnerable seats are so valuable to keeping the majority.

Subtle GOP maneuvers

Pence to speak at Americans For Prosperity rally today

 

Contact: Ed Frank or Annie Patnaude, 202-349-5880, both of Americans for Prosperity

News Advisory:

The free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity, which has held grassroots events at 41 pork-barrel earmarks in 33 states since April with its Ending Earmarks Express bus tour, will hold an earmark-reform rally and news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Sept. 13. The House is expected to vote on earmark reform rules changes late next week.

The Ending Earmarks Express will be joined by sign-waving grassroots supporters, allies from other pro-taxpayer organizations and members of Congress who support earmark reform, including Rep. Jeff Flake, who has led the charge for reform in the House, and Republican Study Committee Chairman Mike Pence.

WHAT: Americans for Prosperity's "Ending Earmarks Express" Rally and News Conference

WHEN: Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 2:15 p.m.

WHERE: Cannon Terrace, Cannon House Office Building, Southeast Corner of Independence and New Jersey Avenues, SE; Rain Location: Rayburn 2255

WHO:

-- Tim Phillips, president, Americans for Prosperity

-- Rep. Jeff Flake (6th Dist. –- Ariz.)

-- Rep. Mike Pence (6th Dist. -- Ind.)

-- Rep. Scott Garrett (5th Dist. -- N.J.)

-- Rep. Jeb Hensarling (5th Dist. -- Texas)

-- Tom Schatz, president, Citizens Against Government Waste

-- John Berthoud, president, National Taxpayers Union

-- J. William Lauderback, executive vice president, American Conservative Union

-- Alison Fraser, director, Heritage Foundation's Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies

-- Steve Ellis, vice president, Taxpayers for Common Sense

-- Bill Allison, senior fellow, Sunlight Foundation

-- Dan Clifton, executive director, American Shareholders Association

-----

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit http://www.americansforprosperity.org

We need more conservatives

 

Although Mike Pence has been touted by many political analysts and other D.C. insiders as the "next Minority Leader," Pence writes a letter in Human Events on how conservatives need to lead Congress. Mike Pence understands the importance of conservative leadership and demands that Americans support conservatives to help reinforce Pence and his heroic efforts to limit government, defeat the War on Terror and defend traditional moral values. Here is Pence's letter laying out his and the Republican Study Committee's accomplishments during the 109th Congress



The 109th Congress will be remembered as a time of tremendous challenge and great change for the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Buffeted by internal conflict, scandal and external crises, House Republicans were tested again and again by an American public losing confidence in our federal government.

The American people should know that House conservatives never lost confidence in our agenda and the Republican Study Committee stood firm in the winds of change.

As the nation prepares to render judgment on this Congress, it is a good time make an account of the battles fought by House conservatives to enable voters to assess the modest, but meaningful, progress which conservatives have attained during these troubled times.

From the outset of the 109th Congress, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) embraced the principles of limited government, entitlement and spending reforms, and traditional values. The fight for these principles will always be with us, however, now is the time to review some of the meaningful battles RSC has waged during this Congress.

Fiscal Discipline and Budget Reform

At a time of rising deficits and national debt, House conservatives were determined to pass disciplined federal budgets and the reforms necessary to make them work. In this area, RSC has advanced meaningful reforms that represent an important first step toward restoring fiscal integrity to our national budget.

From the very outset of the 109th Congress, RSC took the fight for fiscal discipline and reform to the floor. In January 2005, the RSC offered six amendments to the House Rules Package for the 109th Congress, including: automatic roll call votes on expensive legislation, point of order protection, a rainy day fund, a cap on entitlements, repeal of the Gephardt rule, and the creation of “budget protection accounts” to lock-in savings for deficit reduction during the spending process. This was the first time since Republicans took control that there was a comprehensive attempt to improve the Rules Package.

While each of these amendments failed, it sent an important message to our colleagues that RSC was ready to fight for reform from day one. And it made a difference.

Budget Battle, Round One

Just two months later, RSC members took a stand for reforming the budget process and prevailed. Because of the stand taken by dozens of RSC members, we negotiated a change in the House Rules that gave members of the majority the power to enforce the budget of the majority on the House floor for the first time ever.

In exchange for RSC support of the budget, in March 2005, the RSC secured a form of “point of order protection” to ensure that Members have the procedural tools to enforce the budget during the appropriations process. It was passed in conjunction with the FY06 budget resolution.

As the drama of this internal confrontation faded away, little did House conservatives imagine that our greatest battle for fiscal discipline lay ahead in the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in American history.

Hurricane Katrina and Operation Offset

When Hurricane Katrina came ashore, it not only leveled thousands of square miles of our Gulf Coast, it also leveled plans for a deficit reduction bill that had been in the works for months. While virtually all RSC members supported the emergency spending necessary to begin the rebuilding effort, House conservatives fought to salvage deficit reduction as well.

Following Katrina, the Democrats in Congress were talking about a tax increase to pay the cost of recovery and many Republicans were talking about more deficit spending.

Into this debate, dozens of House conservatives went to the microphones at a press conference supporting “Operation Offset”. In September 2005, the RSC offered a menu of roughly $500 billion in savings to pay for hurricane relief in the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. According to many observers, “Operation Offset” put deficit reduction back on the table and led to the enactment of the Deficit Reduction Act (P.L. 109- 171), the first reconciliation bill to reduce spending since 1997.

House conservatives also fought for fiscal discipline in the use of recovery resources. In September 2005, the RSC sent a letter to President Bush encouraging him to suspend Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements in the hurricane disaster areas—which the Administration did for a period of time.

In the wake of the worst disaster in American history, House conservatives stood firm showing that it is possible to confront the ravages of nature with fiscal responsibility.

Congressional Leadership Elections

With the resignation of the House Majority Leader in January, 2006, RSC moved quickly to impact the content and tone of the debate over new Republican leaders. RSC made issue resources available to members as they interviewed perspective leaders. In late January 2006, at the annual conservative members’ retreat, the candidates for elected leadership posts within the GOP Conference spoke before nearly 80 members. Many observers considered this among the most important forums during the campaign. From having a former RSC chairman in the race to promoting an environment where issues drove the campaign for Majority Leader, RSC made a difference in the conference elections in 2006.

Budget Battle, Round Two

Seizing on the opportunity with new leaders to set a new fiscal direction for the House, RSC members threw themselves headlong into the next battle for fiscal restraint, the Budget for FY07.

In March 2006, under the leadership of our Budget Action leader Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R.-Tex.), the RSC unveiled The Contract with America Renewed, its alternative budget for FY07. The Contract with America Renewed was an updated version of the budget that passed the House soon after the Republicans took control of Congress in 1995. This RSC budget achieved balance through budget cuts in five years, funded the Global War on Terror, and protected the Bush tax cuts.

In addition to proposing a conservative budget, RSC members stood firm for a disciplined federal budget and insisted on real and meaningful budget process reform.

While many in the House were calling for more spending and less reform, in March 2006, the RSC secured a commitment from the new House Leadership to pass comprehensive earmark reform, the Legislative Line Item Veto, a rainy day fund to budget for emergencies, and a sunset commission. The rainy day fund is in effect under the House-passed budget, and both earmark reform and Line Item Veto have passed the House. Passage of the sunset commission bill is still pending.

Even in the midst of changes in leadership, RSC stood firm for fiscal discipline and reform.

Other Taxpayer Savings

Apart from high profile battles, RSC members were also responsible for saving taxpayers billions of dollars by defending the budget and opposing new government spending.

In October 2005, the RSC ensured that a sizable fund to provide affordable housing within Federal Housing Finance Reform Act (GSE reform) could not be used to fund nongovernmental, liberal advocacy groups that promote expanding the size and scope of the federal government.

In May 2006, the RSC took to the House floor to ensure that Congress did not raid a $50 billion reserve fund for the Global War on Terror in order to fund roughly $507 million in unrequested pork projects.

In June 2006, the RSC ensured that Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act (the OCS drilling bill) did not violate the budget, ensuring that the House passed both sound energy policy and budget policy. This saved roughly $12 billion over ten years.

Using Rule 28 of the Conference Rules, which prohibits legislation creating new federal programs from being added to the expedited Suspensions Calendar, RSC quietly succeeded in stopping nearly 15 new government programs saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

In a word, through natural disaster and political upheaval within the Congress, RSC stood firm for budget discipline and reform.

Battling for Our Values

In partnership with the Values Action Team, under the leadership of Congressman Joe Pitts, the RSC stood in the gap during the 109th Congress to defend the right to life, the sanctity of marriage, the innocence of our children, and many other critical moral values.

Terry Schiavo

The 109th Congress was not just a battleground on budget issues. The halls of this Congress echoed with debates over the value of embryonic human life and the life of a brain damaged woman in Florida. And it all started around Palm Sunday, 2005.

In March of 2005, the world was enthralled with the story of a brain damaged woman named Terry Schiavo and the effort to deny her food and water by the state courts in Florida.

With RSC support, Congress took decisive action give the family of Terry Schiavo access to the federal courts. State courts in Florida had repeatedly denied appeals of a judges order that her feeding tube be removed and House conservatives felt compelled to act.

The Palm Sunday Compromise, more properly known as the Act for the relief of the parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo, was passed on March 21, 2005, to allow the case of Terri Schiavo to be moved into a federal court. Despite intervention by the other branches, the courts continued to hold that Schiavo was in a Persistent Vegetative State. Her feeding tube was removed for the final time on March 18, 2005. She died thirteen days later on March 31, 2005 at the age of 41.

The Schiavo case showed the nation that House conservatives were willing to withstand the withering assault of the national media to defend the unalienable right to life and due process of a single, vulnerable American. RSC stood firm for life in the midst of our changing cultural times.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Funding

House conservatives would have about a one month reprieve from the cultural debate before House leaders cleared the Castle-DeGette bill for floor consideration. Castle-DeGette was designed to overturn the president’s policy which prohibited the use of federal tax dollars to fund destructive embryonic stem cell research. House conservatives sprang into action.

RSC issued numerous briefings for members and the media regarding the realities of destructive embryonic stem cell research and the potential of adult stem cell research. RSC member led the effort to move ethical adult stem cell research funding. When the legislation came to the floor, RSC members led the debate.

While the bill passed the House of Representatives, RSC members considered passage a ‘successful failure’ since there was more than enough ‘no’ votes to sustain the expected presidential veto. That vote came on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810) in July 2006 when the House sustained the President’s veto of the embryonic stem cell research bill by a vote of 235-193. Again, the RSC stood firm and led the successful effort to prevent to use of taxpayer dollars to fund research that destroys nascent human life.

Other Values Victories

In addition to these titanic battles over the sanctity of life, RSC was engaged in the battle over traditional moral values in a whole range of issues. RSC led the way toward expanded House support of the Marriage Protection Amendment. RSC fought to reauthorize funding for abstinence education which many observers credit with a reduction in teen pregnancy and birth rates. RSC successfully fended off efforts to provide taxpayer funding for abortions overseas and at U.S. Military bases in the DoD Authorization bill (H.R. 5122). RSC helped lead the effort to pass historic legislation protecting children in the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act (H.R. 4472). RSC was also instrumental in passage of an internet gambling ban that had failed in previous sessions and moved legislation protecting the pledge and the flag.

In sum, House conservatives stood firm for life, for the unborn, for the vulnerable, for marriage and for our kids. RSC led the effort in the 109th Congress to advance the cause of traditional moral values in the law of the land.

Social Security Reform

It was the RSC that made up the bulk of support for President Bush’s vision to reform and modernize Social Security. RSC stood firm on reform that included big personal retirement accounts, no tax increase and no net increase in entitlement spending. RSC members led the effort in the Republican conference to promote reform in public forums and floor speeches during 2005. President Bush acknowledged the central role RSC was playing in the debate by inviting the senior members of RSC to the White House to discuss Social Security reform in the summer of 2005, a first for the conservative caucus in the House.

Despite the fact that reform faltered, the American people should know that House conservatives stood firm with the President. We remain dedicated to making this New Deal program a ‘better deal’ for younger Americans by introducing personal retirement accounts in the future. A reform Democrats adamantly oppose.

Other Battles

Beyond the RSC’s long-standing goals of limited government, entitlement and spending reform, and support for traditional values, there were countless other skirmishes, small and large, where RSC stood in the gap.

House conservatives have been the bulwark of support for the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. House conservatives championed the reauthorization of the Patriot Act as a centerpiece of our Homeland Security, while guarding the civil liberties of American citizens. House conservatives led the effort to pass border security legislation and reject the Senate amnesty bill in the debate over immigration reform.

The Conclusion: We Need More Conservative Republicans

The only conclusion one can reach from reading this abbreviated history of the RSC in the 109th Congress is clear: conservatives have been at work but we need more conservative Republicans in Congress.

The progress of House conservatives in the 109th Congress has been meaningful but modest. On issue after issue, spending discipline, entitlement reform and values, the men and women of the RSC have made a difference but, too often, fall short of real change.

Government is still too big and it still spends too much. Our taxes and entitlements cry out for reform. Abortion is still legal and euthanasia is gaining acceptance. There is much work to be done.

For Americans frustrated with the expansion of government and the erosion of values, even under Republican control, House conservatives have one suggestion: send us reinforcements!

While a few conservative voters think the answer lies in handing the reigns of Congress over to the other side, we must fight that message of defeatism and state with conviction; not more of them, more of us!

House conservatives have stood firm in the winds of change that have buffeted our Congress these past two years but we need more honest men and women, willing to do freedom’s work on the front lines of the Republican revolution.

We don’t need more liberal Democrats. We need more conservative Republicans.

We Need More Conservatives in Congress

Pence's address on 9/11 anniversary

 

Mike Pence gave an amazing speech today at Camp Atterbury in Pence's home district. September 11th forever changed America and it forever changed Mike Pence as he leads us into the future in the War on Terror.

Thank you for that warm welcome. I am deeply honored and profoundly humbled to be with you.

As I thought about what I might say today, what words of inspiration and hope I might share on this solemn anniversary, I couldn’t help but be struck by how incongruous it is that I should be speaking to you. Our roles today are backwards. It is I and all of Congress who should be sitting in your seats, and you before the microphone.

It is one thing to speak of courage; it is quite another to be courageous.

Whatever inspirational that exists in me is but faint reflection of what already abounds in you.

The fact is, it is YOU who inspire ME. It is you who bring me courage.

It is you who teach me—and the entire nation—about bravery, sacrifice, commitment, and honor. What it means to be an American. And like all great teachers, you teach not through words, but by example.

But I thank you for your kindness. I can think of no place I would rather be on this fifth anniversary of 9-11. It is significant on so many levels.

Camp Atterbury has played a major role in our nation’s response to the vicious attacks on our soil—a key reason why, despite the enemy’s plans, there has been no repeat of those horrible events. The men and women who train here see to that.

America has more than 30,000 reasons to be grateful to Camp Atterbury.

That’s the number of service personnel from each branch of the armed services, as well as agents with Homeland Security and the FBI, who have trained here for deployment in the War on Terror.

By taking the fight to the enemy’s soil, and executing it with precision, determination, and bravery, you have secured for all Americans the ability to do what President Bush urged nine days after the attacks: “Live your lives. Hug your children.”

For five years Americans have been living their lives and hugging their children…not huddled in the shadow of fear, but openly, exuberantly, in the light of liberty, the way our Founding Fathers—and our Heavenly Father—intended. America’s service men and women preserve not only our lives, but also our spirit.

************************************

Each of us remembers where we were at 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time on this day five years ago. Some of you were in class, maybe even cutting class. Some of you were at work, others just getting up, or hitting the sack after pulling third shift.

I was at work when I learned we were under attack. I was in the Capitol Building when the Trade Towers were hit. Then I was told the Pentagon had been hit, and another plane was headed straight for us. My first thought was for my family and my staff. Where do we go? What do we do? My next thought was, “Where do I report for duty?”

I waited for instructions. Tense, anxious minutes passed. Finally, the official word came down. And it was, in fact, just one word:

“Disperse.”

Disperse?

What’s that supposed to mean?!

It dawned on me: that coolly detached directive meant….

“Run for your lives!”

It was a helpless feeling. I wanted to do something…anything…. But there was no duty roster. No one to report to, no plan to follow. Congress, like most of America, was not prepared for such an emergency.

Thankfully, our military was. Our service men and women did not disperse. They reported for duty. Ready, confident, determined. They knew their jobs and did them.

The airspace secured, I stood with my congressional colleagues on the steps of the evacuated Capitol Building that evening. The sky was eerily silent, save for the whine of F-16s. We still didn’t know exactly what we would do, should do. But we knew with a certainty what we would NOT do. Neither we, nor America, would simply…disperse.

In that moment, there rose a swell of resolve and pride. It swept through us like a wave, and someone began the first notes of God Bless America. We instantly joined in. It was a spontaneous moment.

Unorchestrated, unstaged…and decidedly off-key. But it was the most purely authentic moment I have ever experienced in Congress. No politics, no agendas, no grandstanding. We simply stood shoulder to shoulder and asked God to bless America.

Five years later I can say with certainty…He has.

And He still does. Some of the blessings are obvious, others come in….camouflage….

You, our Citizen Soldiers.

Our nation’s security and defense were founded on that concept ---everyday people setting aside a piece of their lives to serve and defend their country. It is a concept that is alive, well and flourishing yet today.

Our nation does not today compel its citizens to service. Yet our military has never been stronger, more effective, or more professional. I believe that’s true not in spite of the dissolution of the draft, but because of it.

There may have been a time when a slick brochure or smooth recruiting officer could fill a quota, swaying the reluctant with promises of tuition reimbursement or “glamorous” world travel a la “Private Benjamin.” That ended on 9-11.

Each of you knew what enlistment could mean. Yet freely chose your path; moved not by grudging obligation, but by honor and desire. It is part of who you are, and why this nation is so great.

The people boarding United Flight 93 in Newark on the morning of September 11, 2001 began the day as ordinary citizens. They ended their morning—and their lives—as Citizen Soldiers in a Pennsylvania field.

It was the first battle in our nation’s War on Terror. The soldiers were untrained and unarmed. The enemy had trained for two years; the Citizen Soldiers had mere minutes to hatch their plan. They had never even met.

It was a conscription they neither sought nor planned. Yet these citizen soldiers--armed only with a refreshment cart and their bare hands--instinctively answered the call to duty.

One of them, Todd Beamer, summed it up while on a cell phone with a GTE Customer service rep. He told her that he and other passengers were going to rush the cockpit.

“Are you sure that’s what you want to do?’ she asked.

The Citizen Soldier answered. “It’s what we have to do.”

You, more than most, have a depth of appreciation for those words. I suspect they pretty much sum up why you’re here, why you each made the decision you did to serve your country. It’s what you have to do. … not because someone requires it, but because it’s who you are. Like the passengers of United Flight 93, it is not in you to just stand by.

The words of another passenger aboard that flight seem to echo throughout this camp. Knowing what the hijackers had planned, Tom Burnett told his wife simply: “Some of us are going to do something about it.”

In the five years since, one by one, tens of thousands of everyday people made the same life-altering decision. To do something about it. They streamed into recruiting offices or re-enlisted. Soon, many of you will be in the theaters of Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. You go knowing what it means.

With hearts aching to hug your own children, you bear your longing so that others may hug their children.

In bearing loneliness for a time, you spare untold millions from permanent sorrow.

In postponing your lives for a time, you give millions the freedom to pursue theirs.

In bearing temporary hardship and fatigue, you prevent countless and unknowable horrors.

And because you have seized your own fear by the throat and wrestled it into submission, you have wrested the heel of oppression off millions of innocent men, women, and children, and opened their hearts and minds to democracy.

But you do not go alone. You take with you the prayers and heartfelt wishes of a grateful America.

For each Citizen Soldier, there are scores of friends and family who also bear the burden of sacrifice. Many are here today. I know it isn’t easy. The price you pay is dear. On behalf of all America, I thank you. Our thoughts are with you.

****************

Before I close, I want to share with you a certainty I hold in my heart: We are winning this war.

Last year, I sat in a meeting with President Bush in the Roosevelt Room . At the end of the meeting, it came my time to speak. He was sitting next to me, so I turned to him and said, “Mr. President, thank you for being more determined than our enemy.”

He sort of reared back in his chair and looked at me. Then he broke into a smile. “I like how you put that.”

I said it not to please him, but because it was true. I was honored when I heard that he’d subsequently adopted the sentiment for use in his own remarks—but not before improving upon it.

He says something like, “Our enemy is determined but America is more determined.”

Mr. President, I like how you put that.

He’s right. A president can only be as determined as the nation he leads, and a Commander in Chief only as good as his troops. Being here today confirms for me the truth of my belief that yes, we will prevail.

For as Ronald Reagan wisely said, “America is great because America is good.”

The dark and evil hearts that spawned carnage and destruction upon our people five years ago succeeded only to increase our might, because they awakened what is good in us.

How utterly maddening that must be to the enemy! Not only did they NOT cripple us with fear or elicit cowering submission, they actually managed to awaken in us a greater measure of those things they so despise in us.

Instead of crushing our spirit, they renewed it.

They unleashed an army of Todd Beamers, Mark Binghams, Jeremy Glicks, and Tom Burnetts. Only this time they have guns, tanks, and planes. They’re trained, armed, and ready.

The enemy intended that the events of 9-11-2001 would never be forgotten….and so it shall be. But not for the reasons they intended.

It is the enemy, not America, that has dispersed.

And though we shall never forget the victims and the heroes of 9-11, 2001, neither shall we forget the heroes of each day that followed, and the ones yet to come.

God bless you, and God bless America.

Pence to give address on 9/11 anniversary

 

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence will address the global war on terror and commemorate the fifth anniversary of 9-11 at the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center's September 11th Memorial Ceremony on Monday. The ceremony will take place from 11:30 AM to 12:00 PM at the Camp Atterbury Veterans' Memorial located just west of the main entrance of the camp. The public is encouraged to attend, and the ceremony will take place rain or shine.

WHO: U.S. Congressman Mike Pence

WHAT: Speech at Camp Atterbury September 11th Memorial Ceremony

WHEN: Monday, September, 11, 2006, 11:30 a.m. EDT

Justice will not sleep

 

We must win the War on Terror and with Mike Pence standing strong behind our President I'm sure we will accomplish the goal. Here is Pence's statement after Bush's speech yesterday.


"With the news that key figures in the attack on our country on September 11th will be brought to the United States to face prosecution, President Bush has shown the world that justice will not sleep for those who harm our people. I commend the President and all in our military and intelligence communities who have brought us to this moment. Justice demands that these terrorists be held to account. Justice will now be served."

Oklahoma loves Pence

 

Here is a very good post by the Oklahoma based The McCarville Report Online. This shows how Mike Pence resonates with most conservative leaders nationwide and is starting to gain the necessary attention to mount his presidential run for 2008.


Mike Pence has only been in Congress for six years, but the Indiana Republican from the 6th District has established himself as a conservative force and a possible dark horse contender for the GOP nomination for president in 2008. "Dark horse" aptly describes Pence, whose name won't resonate with most Oklahoma Republicans and, probably, with few insiders.

Why is attention being focused on Pence? The Washington Post recently described him as "a new face on conservatism," and that piece certainly kicked his prominence up several notches, putting his name on the watch list for national columnists, publications and, most likely, the television networks. Syndicated columnist George Will described his brand of conservatism as the "wave of the future." US News & World Report described him as "a powerful force." Pence also has become fairly high profile to some insiders and politician-watchers through his work as chairman of the House Republican Study Committee and as a member of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. The attention prompted Pence's supporters to launch a website, Mike Pence For President 2008.

Pence has a Tom Coburn-like approach to pork barrel spending; he's working with other conservatives in the House to cut spending everywhere he finds it and some say he brings a religious fervor to the subject. Editorial cartoonists have him holding a "REPENT!" sign outside an "Overspender's Bar." His zeal has earned him the total support of the powerful and influential group, Club For Growth, that helped fuel Coburn's successful run for the U. S. Senate and whose supporters across the country donated thousands of dollars to help Coburn. For his efforts to cut spending, Pence was honored by Human Events as its "Man of the Year" last December.

Pence's story is an interesting one. He's the grandson of an immigrant Irish bus driver whose father was a Republican, mother a Democrat. He, too, was a Democrat and in 1975, was Youth Democratic Party Coordinator in his county. Inspired, he writes, by the policies and personality of Ronald Reagan, he switched to the Republican Party. He ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress in 1988 and again in 1990 and then spent time as head of a conservative think tank, the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. He then turned to talk radio, where he enjoyed huge success as the host of his own show. Within a short time, the show was syndicated across the entire state of Indiana and he became the darling of conservatives there. That popularity helped as he launched his campaign for Congress in 2000, and he won. He was reelected in 2002 and 2004 (67 percent of the vote) and is on the ballot again this year.

Pence, 47, is known as an excellent networker; he is a remarkable conversationalist and communicator, most say, and comes across as the guy next door you'd like to have coffee with. Like some smart members of Congress, Pence keeps his family (wife Karen, three children) close to him. When Congress is not in session, they reside in Indiana and when Congress is in session, they live in Arlington, Virginia.

Pence has an Oklahoma connection in pollster and consultant Chris Wilson of Wilson Research Strategies of Oklahoma City, who counts Pence as one of his prominent clients.

Keep your eye on Pence as the run-up to the Republican race for president begins in earnest after this fall's elections.

Who Is Mike Pence And Why Should We Be Watching This Indiana Congressman?

Novak on 2006 Elections

 

Political strategist Bob Novak understands the political reality coming this 2006 elections. Many voters are tired of their elected officials not governing like conservatives and not being able to accomplish something that they care about like immigration. Majority of wishy washy Republicans will lose their seat but principled leaders will remain in office. Mike Pence is to be praised for trying to bring a solution to the table on a tough issue that will secure America and further the conservative movement.


WASHINGTON -- Both the Senate Republican leadership's unofficial agenda for the last pre-election session of the 109th Congress beginning this week and a privately circulated White House wish list are extraordinarily heavy. That means the planned adjournment date of Sept. 29 surely cannot be met, and even Oct. 6 may be too early. Yet, immigration is not mentioned on either expansive list.

This is remarkable because Republican members of Congress who talked to constituents during the August recess found the mood of the party's base remains as sour as it has been all year: unhappiness over too much government spending and unchecked illegal immigration under a Republican Congress and administration.

Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, a moderate conservative who is a hard-liner on immigration, was quoted last week reflecting the consensus of his colleagues. Congress will do nothing about immigration until its lame-duck session after an election in which Republicans may well have lost congressional majorities. Isakson stated these reasons for inactivity: Congressional field hearings on immigration will not be concluded until mid-September, and intraparty GOP differences on the issue remain unsettled. The failure of Republican leadership on the issue of the year is palpable.

In the House at least, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is trying to address immigration. He plans to bring together chairmen of the House field hearings later this week to see what can be done before the election. But House GOP sources say there is no chance of the party accepting a guest worker program that is integral to any compromise reform. The resolute House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, during the recess labeled as a "staggering burden on American taxpayers" the Senate-passed bill (approved by President Bush) because it contains the guest worker program.

Immigration is the most melancholy element of a depressing Republican year. The Iraq intervention and its aftermath have hurt, and Republican inattention to runaway government spending has been deplorable. But immigration is the issue most likely to cause rank-and-file Republican voters to stay home on election day, and it may cost the party its congressional majorities.

When Republican Rep. Mike Pence went home to his east central Indiana district in August, he found constituents upset -- as they had been all year -- about spending and immigration. Chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, Pence has courageously taken the position that a border security bill should not omit a guest worker program (that does not include a path to citizenship).

Pence, a rising star in the conservative movement, has faced a torrent of right-wing abuse for advocating a guest worker program that is condemned as amnesty for illegal aliens. Rep. Tom Tancredo, leader of the congressional hard-liners on immigration, has viciously branded Pence as an apostate. But Pence told me last week that Hoosier voters, when he explains it to them, will accept his three-part formula on immigration: protect the border, no amnesty for illegals and access for foreign workers needed by the U.S. economy.

Although no more than 25 House Republicans follow Tancredo's rigid line, that is enough to obstruct a coherent Republican posture. But many more conservative lawmakers write off any guest worker program as just amnesty. In trouble on Iraq and federal spending, Republicans are being lured into a nativist posture that is political fool's gold.

George W. Bush, John McCain and Mike Pence dread a Republican descent into nativism. In my half century of political reporting, I never have seen a candidate or party succeed in playing the economic nationalist card. Even worse, a divided party promises to go into the hazardous 2006 election after doing nothing about an issue its constituents think is most important.

"You get it!" Bush earlier this year told Pence after he agreed with the president that permitting new immigration is compatible with protected borders. "I not only get it, I lived it," the congressman replied, telling him of his grandfather, Mike, who emigrated from Ireland in 1923 and became a Chicago bus driver. Pence told me last week from Indiana he will try to make something happen in the September session. It is an uphill climb, but the grim alternative is a divided Republican Party going into this election campaign with a blank slate on immigration.

The GOP leadership failure

New York Times piece examined

 

Of course we can never count on the major media to present an unbiased article, although this New York Time piece is pretty fair to the conservative hero Mike Pence. Therefore, I have decided to mark up the spots where this article needed corrected so people will not get confused or misinformed. The corrected commentary is in bold.


MUNCIE, Ind. — He supports tax cuts and the war in Iraq. He opposes stem cell research and the Medicare drug plan. He is a master of his movement’s medium, talk radio. Jesus Christ is his personal savior and Ronald Reagan his political idol.

Conjure what might be called the perfect conservative, and chances are he would look a lot like Representative Mike Pence, the Indiana Republican who in just three terms has turned 100 House allies into a vanguard and himself into one of his party’s rising stars.

Or that was the case until this spring when he sought compromise in the rancorous immigration debate. His complicated plan would strengthen border security and send illegal immigrants home, but let most of them quickly return. Since then, Mr. Pence — named last year’s Man of the Year by the conservative weekly Human Events — has looked to some conservatives like this year’s Benedict Arnold. They say he has lent his conservative prestige to a form of liberal amnesty.

Mike Pence’s Immigration reform plan is not complicated but rather simple. It puts securing our borders first, implements tough employer sanctions and sends all 12 million illegals home to get right under the color of law. Mike Pence put forth a common sense solution that would break the code of politics as usual and secure our borders once and for all. If Pat Buchanan thought Mike Pence was in his camp this whole time, then yes, Pence would look like a Benedict Arnold. But Pence was never in the Buchanan camp but had his feet firmly planted in Ronald Reagan’s camp of conservatism that includes securing our borders yet extending opportunity for anyone with the courage to come to our shores under the color of law.

Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum called his plan “a sick joke.” Richard A. Viguerie, the direct-mail pioneer, threatened to punish politicians who supported it. Pat Buchanan, editor of The American Conservative, likened the betrayal to a scene from “The Godfather.”

Once again, these leaders are in the minute paleo-conservative wing of our Party that feels threatened by immigration of any form. Mike Pence is a Reagan conservative and is not threatened by immigration but is welcoming to those who have the courage, strength and convictions to live here under the law to work hard and raise a family. Pence is about putting forth a solution that will secure our borders and secure our freedoms for the future rather than partisan rhetoric that will only line the coffers of his particular interest group.

Perpetually genial, prematurely gray, Mr. Pence, 47, said, “I was taken aback by the level of invective.” “It’s a test of the character of the conservative movement in the 21st century,” he said. “We are either going to prove that we believe in the ideas enshrined on the Statue of Liberty or the American people will go looking elsewhere.”

Mike Pence’s plan offered everything that conservatives have been claiming they wanted in an immigration bill: a secured border and a limited guest worker program if they all had to go home first. Reagan conservatives have soon realized that these few paleo-conservatives do not want a common sense solution but rather a stalemate in Congress so that they can keep the immigration issue alive. And they have been willing to all but crucify the leader of the conservative movement to do so.

Mr. Pence — who bills himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order” — pushed the plan on a recent trip across his district. He quoted the Bible. He quoted Ronald Reagan. He stood sweating in a tomato field beside Mexican workers. And when asked why an Indiana congressman was focused on the border, he responded with a ready phrase: “April 11, 1923.”

That is when his Irish grandfather, Richard Michael Cawley, a Chicago bus driver, arrived on Ellis Island. “We were especially close,” said Mr. Pence, who added that he sees his grandfather’s thrift and hard work in today’s immigrant generation.
Some members of the Muncie Chamber of Commerce had doubts. Some worried about cost. Some worried about compliance. But several complimented him for tackling a tough cause. “It is the greatest privilege of my life to represent you,” he said.

Americans overwhelmingly support the Pence plan: A security first bill that allows a limited guest worker program for those who wish to live and embrace the American dream. Mike Pence always puts serving his constituents and serving his principles first before his career. That’s why when Pence saw an opportunity to end the immigration debate and put forth a solution that would secure our borders and our freedoms for generations to come, he did not contemplate the implications it may have on his career or his future. He merely put his conservative principles in action giving the American people what they wanted: tough action for a tough issue.

Though he comes from a family of Irish Catholic Democrats — his father ran a string of gas stations — Mr. Pence joined an evangelical fellowship group at Hanover College, drawn less by theological issues than by its more personal style of worship. His religion pulled him to the right. “I had a hard way of reconciling my commitment to biblical truth with the national Democratic Party’s commitment to abortion on demand,” he said.

His wife, Karen, teaches at a religious school, and sends out e-mail messages asking for the prayers of his supporters. “Please pray for the Holy Spirit to speak through him at the bbq,” a recent message read.

Mr. Pence, two years out of law school, made his first Congressional run in 1988 and lost narrowly to a longtime Democratic incumbent, Phil Sharp. He tried again two years later, in a negative campaign that won him just 42 percent of the vote. Mr. Pence was devastated.

“What was most painful to me was the bile in my throat over how I had responded,” he said. “My faith says if someone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other. My response, after being attacked by my opponent, was to empty the silos on this guy.”

Mr. Pence delivered an unusual self-rebuke in an article called “Confessions of a Negative Campaigner.” Then he ran a conservative research group, the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, and was host of a talk radio show in Indianapolis. The seat opened up again in 2000 and Mr. Pence squeaked in — with civility, he said.

“I’m a conservative, but I’m not mad about it,” he often says.

Arriving in Washington, he was dismayed at conservatives’ support for government expansion. In 2001, he was one of 34 Republicans to oppose the No Child Left Behind Act, which expanded federal involvement in education. In 2003, he was one of 25 who opposed the Medicare drug benefit. “I was voting against big conservative government before it was cool,” he said.

Congressional leaders hinted at reprisals, but the base applauded, especially after a 2004 speech in which he warned that the movement was drifting into “the dangerous and uncharted waters of big government.”

Among those won over was Paul Weyrich, a fixture of movement conservatism. He said Mr. Pence had strong appeal among supporters of four major conservative causes: limited government, free enterprise, strong defense and traditional values.
“Nobody is perfect, but he comes pretty close,” Mr. Weyrich said. “He is what I’ve been waiting for in terms of leadership.”

Last year, Mr. Pence became head of the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus. He quickly expanded its profile, and, rivals note, his own. Mr. Pence, unlike many conservatives, courts the news media.

His influence was apparent last fall after Hurricane Katrina, when Washington was suddenly filled with talk of new aid for the needy. Concerned about the cost, Mr. Pence’s group replied with Operation Offset, a plan to cut $500 billion over 10 years in programs that included Medicaid, tax credits for the poor, and care for people with AIDS.

It outraged the leadership, which accused him of showboating, and failed to pass.

The House Leadership was upset because Pence would not go along with their “politics as usual” approach that continued to spend more of American’s hard earned tax dollars. Mike Pence does not take principled stands to lift himself up, but rather he stands on conservative principles to lift up the ideas and demands from the American people of responsible government. Tom Delay, after the budget reconciliation was passed, admitted that Pence stepped in and provided much needed conservative leadership.

But it quickly changed the political dynamics, from starting programs to cutting them. Five months later, with Mr. Pence nearby, President Bush signed a bill that cut $39 billion over five years. “I think Operation Offset had something to do with that, though I would never boast of that,” Mr. Pence said.

Edwin J. Feulner Jr., president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington group, said Mr. Pence “has really been central to the revival of principled conservatism in the House.” Admirers have already begun a “Mike Pence for President” Web site.

But some colleagues grumble about what they call his self-promotion, and critics on the left see harshness behind the geniality.

People are upset not because they perceive Pence as being a self-promoter. Anyone who took the time to know or follow Mike Pence would immediately see that although he is principled, he is a humble servant who serves the American people and Jesus Christ only. They are upset because, while they cannot explain it (Christians know it is the Hand of God and Pence’s commitment to honor and serve Him), they know that Pence is going places. Jealousy, envy and even fear has set in and has motivated people to work against Pence. All of Pence’s policy and political stands have been to further freedom for the American people and further the Kingdom of Christ.

Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal group, said that while the Republican effort was billed as deficit reduction, it in fact made the deficit larger. That is because the reductions were paired with $70 billion of tax cuts, mostly for the very well-to-do. “This is Robin Hood in reverse,” Mr. Greenstein said.

Barry Welsh, a Democrat challenging Mr. Pence this fall, is a Methodist minister who said, “I find it hypocritical that he claims such Christianity” while “cutting the benefits of those who need them.”

Mr. Pence argued that tax cuts help the poor by revving the economy. That may eventually prove true, but despite large tax cuts the poverty rate has risen in each of the last four years.

“That’s anecdotal,” Mr. Pence said in an interview last fall. Then he offered an anecdote — a story President Reagan told about a pipe fitter pleased to see the rich prosper, “because I’ve never been hired by a poor man.”

With Republicans worried about losing control of Congress in the midterm elections this fall, some moderates say Mr. Pence’s wing of the party has pushed it too far to the right; conservatives like Mr. Pence say that in accepting what they call big government, the party has not hewed to its conservative principles enough.

When Mr. Pence weighed in on immigration this spring, the issue, like much of the Republican agenda, was stalled and Republicans were deeply split. The House had passed a tough bill focusing on border security alone. The Senate had passed a broader measure that included a guest worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here.

Mr. Pence tried to offer something to everyone. He included provisions to bolster the borders. After two years, if the government certified that those changes were in place, a guest worker program would begin. Those here unlawfully would have to leave the country and apply at job-placement centers. By requiring re-entry, Mr. Pence argues, the plan avoids amnesty and respects the rule of law. The guest worker visas could be renewed, with a chance of citizenship after 17 years.

Mr. Bush sent an approving signal by inviting Mr. Pence to an Oval Office meeting. And the proposal won a Senate co-sponsor in Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.

The idea, at best, faces an uphill fight when Congress reconvenes next week. But Tamar Jacoby, a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute who sees promise in Mr. Pence’s approach, said that without him, “the issue would be dead.”

What Mike Pence has really done is keep the hope of a conservative solution alive to end illegal immigration once and for all.

So his critics fear. Team America, a conservative political action committee, now has a feature on its Web site called “Pence Watch.” Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, said the plan would encourage more illegal immigration and undermine cultural cohesion.

Tom Tancredo is one of those conservative members of Congress who does not want the issue of immigration to go away. Tancredo, himself, has offered various guest worker programs in the past, but now once there is a real opportunity to pass conservative legislation regarding immigration Tancredo is willing to bash his colleague rather than support the outright leader of the conservative movement and the new face for securing our borders and freedom.

But David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, credits Mr. Pence’s “courage to think outside the box.”

Does he worry his conservative image has been tarnished?

“I’m not completely immune to that thought,” Mr. Pence said, en route to a photo op in an Orestes, Ind., tomato field. Then he quoted from Micah in the Old Testament: “Do justice and love kindness.”

Pence makes surprise visit to Christian school in home district

 

Mike Pence made a key visit Friday to students at a Christian school in Bluffton, Indiana. Pence shared with the students what it means to be a Christian and how to build a Christ-like character. Here are some excerpts from the article on the wisdom that Pence imparted on the youth of America. This is a very solid article other than the mistake that the Pence for President website is ran by Club for Growth. Please enjoy


Congressmen Mike Pence paid a low key visit to the Parlor City yesterday to chat with students and Community Christian School and offer some thoughts on leadership.
Pence was enroute to Fort Wayne for a television interview at WISE-TV Channel 33, but spent about an hour speaking with students at the school...

...Pence told the students he gets about 500 letters each week and reads every one. When one student remarked, “you look like a President,” a beaming Pence replied, “I do look like a President, don’t I. I work at that.”

Pence has been named as a potential Republican candidate in 2008 and a website organized by the conservative organization Club for Growth has been established at www.pence08.com to further that issue...

...Pence told the younger students he loves his work in the house. “I enjoy all of my job,” Pence said. “I love being home in Indiana, I love going to schools.” “It’s sort of hard work, sure, but you can have fun when you are working hard,” Pence said.

His message for the school’s high school students was more focused on leadership and faith. Pence apologized for getting the students out of class and received a rousing chorus of, “that’s OK,” and “no problems,” in response.

Pence told the students that as young people and Christians, “the ambition of your teachers and your parents is that every one of you will be a leader for Christ.”

Pence dispelled the old adage that adversity is what builds strength. “People often say whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” Pence said. “The idea is if I go through tough times, face hard moral choices, that builds internal strength,” Pence said.

“That’s kind of a lie,” Pence said. “Adversity reveals character. Character as I understand it, integrity, personal strength, is something that you develop on every quiet day before something bad happens.”

“If you wait until that moment to develop character you will be sorely disappointed,” Pence said.

Pence spoke about George Washington noting that as early as age 14 our first President started writing on the subject of character and morality. Pence told the students if Washington waited until Valley Forge, or when the British climbed the Palisades on the Hudson River, we would all likely be speaking with a British accent and the subjects of a King.

Pence said Washington, “saw his faith not as something he did on Sunday but something he did everyday.”

Pence said, “a lot of people come to Washington D.C. because they want to change the world.”

“The key to me as a student of leadership is be different,” Pence said. “If you want to change the world, change your heart and change yourself.”

Pence was jovial and humorous. When asked what congress does for a living he offered the simplest explanation. “We vote for a living, bottom line. When the bell goes off in the House of Representatives I vote.”

“There’s a lot of other things we do to allow us to vote in an informed way,” Pence added.

Pence told the students he has been a lover of our constitution since he was 14 and entered an essay contest sponsored by the American Legion in Columbus.

Pence told of some of his career highlights such as meeting President Bush, consulting with him on Pence’s proposed immigration reform plan, and visits to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pence said he hasn’t always agreed with the President on every issue, “and he has always noticed.”

Pence said he is a “limited government conservative,” and did not agree with the Bush Administration on the No Child Left behind Act...

...Pence offered some solid parting advice to the students. “Life is going to throw you some surprises, don’t wait until then to develop character,” Pence said.

Pence impressed many of the students. Beth Beard a Bluffton resident and senior at the school said she isn’t usually impressed by politics but was impressed by Pence.

“He is truly sold out for God and dedicated to the country,” Beard said. “I didn’t expect that.”

School Administrator Vicki Bell said Pence’s visit gave the students a good idea what a member of congress actually does. “I think it was awesome that he took the time to visit our student body,” Bell said. “It’s always nice when a political figure comes and visits with us...”

Rep. Pence in Surprise Bluffton Stop; Visits, Shares Wisdom With Community Christian School Students