by Jack Lee
Congressman Wally Herger (shown left) was in rare form last night as he delivered a no punches pulled message about the state of our economy and the threat posed by a massive and growing nation debt. Herger (a member of the Congressional Tea Party caucus) was unusually passionate and candid as he spoke to a full house at Scrambles diner in Chico.
His message about federal spending was made crystal clear with facts and charts. “We can’t afford to be spending what we’re spending in Washington or we’re headed for disaster. 42 cents of every dollar spent now spent by Washington is with borrowed money! What business could last long spending like that?” ( Note: All spending after July 27th of this year will be with borrowed money.)
Again and again, Herger pounded on the message that this nation is on course for an economic collapse. I’ve never seen Mr. Herger more emphatic and more passionate about one subject in his long career and I’ve known him for most of the last 20 years. His sincere candor was alarming as he drove home his message that the United States is facing the greatest test of survival in our history and we better start doing something about it or we’re toast!
Herger is the most senior House Republican representing the 2nd District in California and he serves on the House Ways and Means Committee. Everything in terms of funding that must pass though his committee, so if anyone in Washington knows more about our financial health than Wally Herger I have yet to meet them. Most recently Herger has become the GOP leadership’s go-to person on health care. He was the lead sponsor of a Republican bill seeking to repeal the measure passed by House Democrats in March 2010.
When Herger says we’re spending way, way over our heads and the borrowing is out of control. . . and the country is headed for a financial disaster that could destroy our grand children’s future. . . you really need to pay close attention!
“We have a debt crisis because Washington spends too much, not because Washington taxes too little”, Herger said. The National debt now stands at $14 trillion which amounts to $120,000 in debt for every household in America!
The Congressman had several charts he put up on a big screen showing our growing debt and who owns it. China is the big stake holder and it’s starting to influence our national policies and then he explained, “If our Navy wants to move into a particular area that China doesn’t like, they’re sure to remind us who owns our debt.”
The Chinese government currently owns about $1.15 trillion or 29.2%, followed by Japan that owners over $884B or 19.9%, followed by the UK $275B or 6.1% and then OPEC which owns $214B. Source, click here.
The evening meeting went long and then Herger was off to yet another meeting an hour away where he would repeat his message.
America has a spending problem and it’s acute. We need to make massive cuts, it’s way beyond merely cutting foreign aid or stopping pork. We’re talking about the desperate need to eliminate of hundreds of billions from the federal budget and we must do this repeatedly for years in order to save this nation from collapse.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t Mr. Herger just join House Speaker John Boehner in folding on de-funding Obama care?
Don’t get me wrong, I like and respect Wally Herger, but if the answer to the above question is yes, isn’t all this just more Republican lip service?
I sincerely hope Mr. Herger is truly keen on delivering legislation that can begin to turn this enormous problem around. Otherwise we are headed for an economic disaster far worse than what we have already experienced.
Pie, I believe you are right, I’m pretty sure he did fold. He also voted for the new GE jet engine project that the military said they didn’t need or want. But, I do think he’s right about the economic situation as strange as that may seem. The facts are there, this is not some partisan rhetoric designed to scare voters, we’re in serious debt trouble. Over 40% of our budget is financed with borrowed money, our days of spending like that are numbered before we devalue the dollar and go into depression.
Remember what Einstein said was the most powerful force in the universe? Compounded interest.
I agree with Mr. Herger, however, the question needs to be asked….Wally Herger has a lifetime record of voting on the side of republicans 94% of the time. During the 8 years of George Bush, with the help of the republican congress, the national debt went from 4 trillion to 10 trillion. I don’t know Mr. Hergers voting record but it would seem to me that he was right in the middle of the republican spending spree that took place during that time. He’s talking the talk but has he walked the walk?
I heard nothing in the way of solutions.
As the most senior Republican in the house, why doesn’t he chair any committees?
WHY can’t he get anymore than 72 cents back for every dollar we send to Washington?
In fairness to Mr. Herger he was there to inform us about the spending problem, the solutions part comes later. Just too much to fit into one 45 minute meeting. We hope to hear from him on what areas he would cut and how much.
Observer he just this year got a Committe chair of Ways and means I believe that is the committee as he sat on it for a long time.
It is my ubderstanding that he voted with Boehner in the belief that the three weeks is the last time, I still need to call his office, now that they are home will do it, also Tom McClintock voted with Herger surprised methat happened as McClintock is very fiscally conservative.
In all fairness to Mr. Herger, it would have taken 45 seconds to suggest even one realistic solution. He did say that our voting yes on 1A would the mess in Washington, but he didn’t say how.
Mr. Herger by himself is not the resolve to this spending problem. We all need to stay focused on what issues concern us here at home on a daily basis and hold ALL of Congress’s feet to the fire.
Right now the media, both Liberal and the Conservative newscast are focusing our attention on world matters and ignoring the home front issues for the most part.
Obama-care, the foundation and poster child for poor governmental representation should still be the paramount concern of all of us. Obama-care by itself has spearheaded and sustained our current lack of job’s, caused division in the country, and helped fuel and forcing increased borrowing. Also embedded in Obama-care are new rules that will bite many business’s and citizens come tax time. One poorly conceived stimulus program for first time home buyers already is causing the IRS to hold up many return refunds due to poor legislative work as well. Also there will be more problems filling this year as well because of the lack of required work the prior congress did not do for this tax year. Blame Herger if you need a scapegoat, however look to yourself and do something about it, and that could be as simple as starting too remove congressional dead wood, and lobbyist candy from both sides of the isle and get some real people in there to work and accomplish programs that benefit all of America. I would also apply those ideas to our City Council in Chico as well. The Elected of today have long ago ignored our needs over their desires
What would be the point in voting to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act if it doesn’t have a chance of getting through the Senate? The Republicans should be focusing on getting things done, not on wasting the people’s time by attacking political targets like Planned Parenthood, NPR and the PPACA.
Harold Ey–“Obama-care by itself has spearheaded and sustained our current lack of job’s”
Do you have any evidence for this claim? I’d be curious to know how the PPACA could have possibly “spearheaded” an unemployment crisis that began years before the bill was even on the table. And almost all reputable analyses, including the one from the CBO, have concluded that the PPACA will not cause a significant lack of jobs. The CBO actually concluded that some people would CHOOSE to work less:
“The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the legislation, on net, will reduce the amount of labor used in the economy by a small amountroughly half a percentprimarily by reducing the amount of labor that workers choose to supply. That net effect reflects changes in incentives in the labor market that operate in both directions: Some provisions of the legislation will discourage people from working more hours or entering the workforce, and other provisions will encourage them to work more. Moreover, many people will be unaffected by those provisions and will face the same incentives regarding work as they do under current law.”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/jan/20/eric-cantor/health-care-law-job-killer-evidence-falls-short/
Republicans later distorted this finding to claim that the projected half-percent, voluntary drop in the labor supply was actually a half-percent reduction of available jobs.
Chris, I read your link regarding the effect of PPACA or better known as Obamacare and your links posted opinion of the CBO. Because the CBO is describing reduced hours rather than lost jobs, and it never uses the 650,000 number that the Republican document cites, your kidding me right? Now that is a good spin, less hours is not lost jobs.And if the GOP did extrapolate the truth from this statement then more power to them and less to the highly regulated Liberal mindset that implies we the people can not think for ourselves.
If you would, consider this one as a possible rebuttal:
http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/da_kings_men/2011/02/11/cbo-says-obamacare-will-kill-800000-jobs/
Maybe it boiled down to not so much what we want to believe of what is written, but how much of it is spin and what is the living reality of the issue. I say that 9.8% unemployment during a spending spree that could not generate a few jobs at less then 225K per job created (or saved)leads me to realize employer will not take a chance on a poorly written law that could eventually cost them hundreds of dollars more then a employee produces, so they simply do not hire. And that is just the tip of the arrow, or spear. I hope your working and glad that Obama is doing right by you. Sadly I know of to many qualified people who just gave up looking, but on the bright side that did start bringing down Obama and his carefully spun unemployment numbers.
Harold–“Chris, I read your link regarding the effect of PPACA or better known as Obamacare”
Can I ask you something? What is with this obsession on the right with refusing to call the law by it’s actual name? “Obamacare” has been used so often that I sometimes suspect the people talking about it don’t actually know the real name of the law. Given the general ignorance of those who usually refer to it as “Obamacare,” this would not surprise me.
“Because the CBO is describing reduced hours rather than lost jobs, and it never uses the 650,000 number that the Republican document cites, your kidding me right? Now that is a good spin, less hours is not lost jobs”
As was explained in the link, the CBO specifically says that the reduced hours are a result of people CHOOSING to work less, due mostly to having guaranteed better insurance. People choosing to work less does not equal “lost” jobs. From the CBO:
“The expansion of Medicaid and the availability of subsidies through the exchanges will effectively increase beneficiaries financial resources. Those additional resources will encourage some people to work fewer hours or to withdraw from the labor market. In addition, the phaseout of the subsidies as income rises will effectively increase marginal tax rates, which will also discourage work. But because most workers who are offered insurance through their jobs will be ineligible for the exchanges subsidies and because most people will have income that is too high to be eligible for Medicaid, those effects on financial resources and marginal tax rates will apply only to a small segment of the population.
Other provisions in the legislation are also likely to diminish peoples incentives to work. Changes to the insurance market, including provisions that prohibit insurers from denying coverage to people because of preexisting conditions and that restrict how much prices can vary with an individuals age or health status, will increase the appeal of health insurance plans offered outside the workplace for older workers. As a result, some older workers will choose to retire earlier than they otherwise would.”
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/117xx/doc11705/08-18-Update.pdf
I read the article you posted–as well as the comments section, in which King was proven wrong by several commenters.
“employer will not take a chance on a poorly written law that could eventually cost them hundreds of dollars more then a employee produces, so they simply do not hire.”
Most employers in this country have 50 employees are less, and are thus exempt from the employer mandate. Other businesses can get a one-year exemption if they can prove that the mandate will provide a significant hardship on the business. Many businesses have already done this, and they aren’t just “Obama’s union buddies,” as many on the right like to claim. The Restaurant Association, which includes large fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, opposed the PPACA. They have also been approved for a one-year exemption. There are also numerous tax credits available to businesses in the PPACA, especially small businesses. The PPACA is definitely a complicated law, and I can see why business owners would be skeptical of it. But the campaign of deliberate misinformation spread by the right wing in response to the law is not going to help that situation.
My reason I choose to use the name Obamacare, probably the same as the left for calling Bush a COWBOY and many other names, to bring attention to something. However the more I think about it you are right. Currently the media is, at the request of Obama, now referred to this poorly written law as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or PPACP. However as we all know it wasn’t written or even contributed to by Obama, all he did was sign on 3/10/2010 the worst piece of legislation that has come along in decades.Lets go back to the last major recession, Roosevelt recognized the need for employment during a recession, not a job hindering political toy to bolster the ego of it’s namesake. Why doesn’t Obama follow suit, if its so wanted by the majority of voters he should have no problem, provided it written properly and will not need to be read and reread to understand. Actually when Reid and Pelosi and staff authored this travesty, Obama was probably away somewhere berating America’s greatness to the rest of the world.(at least thats a first he can legally lay title too) Maybe we should call it Obama-care-lessness, as the only thing he managed with this bill was to sign it (I heard he didn’t even read it,how funny is that) and then on take credit for it. Now with 2012 coming and the increasing dislike for this law, and the damage to our economy it is causing the Democrats are trying to distance Obama from this for the all important second term. You asked so this would be my reasons.
As to the rest of your reply, I think I’ll be proven right as soon as the left sided spin stops. People are not as dumb as you think, Even one of Obama-care, opps care-lessness staunchest defenders, Anthony Weiner exposed its ultimate folly by pushing for a special cost-saving regulatory exemption for New York City and is using the WAIVER clause and running away from Obamacare because it isn’t helping or good for New Yorkers.
Well, I guess I can’t argue with that Harold…mostly because I can’t even figure out what your argument is from that rant.
Hi Chris, sorry for the confusion, I stated Obama AND Obamacare was a spear head for job loss, you disagree and used a CBO report that spun the facts by using ‘voluntary Reduced Hours’ (Yeah Sure!) to explain a position you are taking. So here is my spin, with out rant I hope, Some 2 million Americans lost their jobs shortly before Barack Obama took office, but make no mistake: they lost them precisely because he was about to take office. And to argue against that is to demonstrate colossal disregard as to what a business owner’s first job is, which is to see around the corner and position his business for what is coming.
Business owners saw Obama coming. They saw Pelosi’s and Reid’s increased power coming, too. They feared that trifecta (unwanted socialistic style laws) so much that they went ahead and fired about 2 million people between Election Day 2008 and the inauguration. They were too unsure to wait until Obama was actually sworn in.
For all they knew, it might become illegal to fire someone.
Hope this simplifies my position it a bit.
Um…wow. That’s quite an incredible claim, Harold. Do you have any evidence for it? Something like a poll would be nice. Maybe Rasmussen did a survey and found that when employers were asked why they had let go of a substantial amount of employees, 89% replied “Because of that black Muslim Marxist about to take office!”
Something like that would be nice.
Absent of that, your opinion sounds really hard to swallow, which is a diplomatic way of saying it’s an ignorant pile of horse sh!t.
Not to mention that earlier you pointed to the CBO to claim that jobs would be lost, and now you are saying the CBO report itself is guilty of spinning the facts.
Simple, indeed.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/how-obamacare-hits-industry-and-threatens-jobs
Consider the different medical devices this tax will hit. Everything from catheters to wheel chairs, walkers and finger splints will be hit with this tax. And this is just one manufacturer. Not all of them will be able to move to another country.
Harold is right. This bill is a piece of trash and businesses know it.
Heres a report produced by two republican physicians in the Senate:
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=0d0b33ae-292e-42ba-ba94-43ff234961a2
http://www.savingourhealthcare.org/dailyDose/happy-birthday-obamacare/
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-01/news/ct-oped-0402-business-20100401_1_drug-benefits-drug-program-tax-change
“‘Because of that black Muslim Marxist about to take office!'”
Nice.
Oh My Chris , and up until now you were being civil.
Maybe that Horse crap you’re referring to is actually the accumulation of stuff in your own stalls.
I like you, gather my information from published articles, and realistically they all need to be read and thought about before accepting them as fact. If you want to continue a debate about this, take a time out and lets stop the potty mouth and deal with our perspective views.
You and i are in complete disagreement on this, but I am not alone in my opinions and they are supported by over 9.5% of the USA work force still unemployed, about 30 million people would tend to agree with me and dismiss that CBO report as spin as well. Also a side thought to that 9.5% unemployment which is a decline from the 9.8% plague Obama still has no clue about how to cure. There are numerous, probably .03% of the people who just gave up looking for work, and that by itself would explain the decline in unemployment, and not anything Obama has done to help Americans get back to work.
Tina, you left out an important part of the Washington Examiner editorial:
“For Zoll, that’s the worst-case scenario. Things will be a bit better if the Senate approves the reconciliation bill passed on Sunday by the House. One of the “fixes” in the reconciliation bill would impose a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices, going into effect in 2013. Even though it would cost the company about the same amount of money, Zoll executives prefer that scenario, if only because the delayed onset would give them time to prepare.”
The reconciliation bill is the one that passed.
Of course, I am not saying that some businesses won’t take a hit because of the PPACA. There are costs here, as there always are. Overall, I think they are outweighed by the benefits.
The Coburn report contains a lot more honesty than many Republican statements on health care, but I don’t see how he’s getting to the conclusion that it will cause us to “lose more jobs.” When people voluntarily choose not to work because they don’t have to, that creates more opportunities for the people who do. According to many analyses, the majority of people who will decide not to work will be senior citizens. Is Coburn really saying we should oppose the PPACA so that old people won’t have the opportunity to retire earlier than they otherwise would have?
“Nice.”
Hey, I was just aping Toby’s shtick.
Chris cites the editorial: “Even though it would cost the company about the same amount of money, Zoll executives prefer that scenario, if only because the delayed onset would give them time to prepare.”
First of all in reality it won’t cost “the company” it will cost consumers, either in actual prices for devices or in higher insurance premiums over time.
Second Zoll “prefers” this scenario because they have time to prepare…big whoop!
“Overall, I think they are outweighed by the benefits.”
How could you possibly know? Really, Chris, what expertise or experience do you have that causes you to so casually dismiss the warning bells being put out by business people, doctors, states and individuals. Reports coming in are not positive. Premiums are going up. Insurance companies have dropped certain policies that cover kids. Others have gone out of business entirely. States are saying they cant afford the thousands that will be shoved on to Medicaid. Doctors are refusing to see Medicare and Medicaid patients because those government plans dont pay enough to allow them to keep their doors open. They see that getting worse. Doctors are retiring early. Businesses are already incurring higher costs for insuring their people which has caused them to seek waivers. This offers little incentive to expand or hire more people.
“I don’t see how he’s getting to the conclusion that it will cause us to “lose more jobs.”
Thats because you dont see how another BIG government program will COST more. To you its all just a bunch a positive sounding changes. You dont have to deal with the real world consequences so they don’t loom large for you.
CBO – 788,470 employees and the other independent estimate – 120,000 to 700,000 jobs by 2019
As the editorial concludes, we already have 14 million people unemployed. If things dont change Chris you will get to compete for a job with a lot of those out of work people. This is not a rosy scenario for you personally.
There are things that need to change so health care will be more affordable, so that medical costs will come down, so that health care providers are encouraged to take patients and so that people will want to pursue a medical career, and so that the medical community can get health care to those in need who are without means. This isnt it.