No NASA Cuts: Stockman urges Obama to adopt Smartquester

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Stockman Thursday once again urged Obama to drop his plans for across-the-board sequestration cuts and instead adopt the “Stockman Smartquester.

“Obama is threatening to move ahead with his sequestration cuts if Republicans don’t give in to his demands for higher taxes,” said Stockman. “Republicans already gave Obama tax hikes without spending cuts. Obama needs to stop bullying people, drop his own sequester and reduce spending with smart cuts.”

“I’m working to avoid needless cuts to critical programs like NASA and permitting for oil, gas and timber,” said Stockman. “Obama wants to use his sequester to spread fear and panic.”

While Obama’s sequester seeks $83.4 billion in spending cuts, the Stockman Smartquester saves even more money, $84 billion from just five programs, without touching essential services.

“Not only does the Stockman Smartquester save even more money than Obama’s blunt sequester cuts, it cuts spending without touching critical programs like police, schools and NASA,” said Stockman.

The plan, five simple spending cuts which meet Obama’s sequester reduction targets without cuts to essential programs, is outlined below:

Eliminate the government’s “free cell phone” plan that has ballooned into the ObamaPhone giveaway, 41 percent of which goes to people not even eligible:
$2.2 billion in savings

Eliminate ObamaCare’s “Public Health Slush Fund,” which even Democrats want to eliminate:
$10 billion in savings

Require food stamp recipients, the numbers of which have exploded under Obama, to actually be eligible for food stamps:
$26 billion in savings

Eliminate overpayments for ObamaCare exchange subsidies:
$44 billion in savings

Eliminate Obama’s “renewable energy” fund in the Energy Department
$1.8 billion in savings

TOTAL SAVINGS
$84 billion

Stockman requests White House records after weak, suspicious response to Obama anti-gun campaign

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Stockman (R-Texas 36) Tuesday sent certified letters to The White House and Organizing for America requesting all documentation on President Barack Obama’s anti-gun campaign to determine what, if any, fraudulent or deceptive tactics are being used.

The request comes after Obama issued a national call for Americans to contact their member of Congress using Twitter to demand anti-gun laws.  Despite the national call by Obama himself, only 16 members of Congress were contacted. Stockman received only 16 messages, ten of which resemble “spam” messages from computer-generated accounts.  Only one could be verified as coming from an actual constituent.

“Not only was the response to President Obama’s anti-gun call for action embarrassingly pathetic, it appears to be generated mostly by spammers.  Congress deserves to know what, if any, fraudulent or deceptive tactics to influence policy were carried out with White House knowledge.  We hope the President will live up to his word on transparency and tell the truth about his deceptive anti-gun campaign,” said Stockman.

“For the President himself to issue a call to action and only get 16 responses, only one of which can be verified as an actual constituent, is a massive failure.  Not only is he doing as bad job as President, he can’t even do a good job community organizing,” said Stockman “We get hundreds of real emails, phone calls and letters every day from real constituents who have composed their own messages supporting the civil right to keep and bear arms.  I deeply appreciate everyone who takes the time to contact me regardless of their opinion.”

“The President exudes weakness.  The incumbent President spent $1 billion dollars on his re-election campaign and managed just 51 percent of the vote. Under Obama Democrats have lost four Senate seats and 55 House seats. It’s no surprise he got only 16 responses to a national call to action,” said Stockman.  “He is leading his party into oblivion.”

“I’m signed up on Obama’s email through three different accounts to three different names.  Had I responded to that email I could have posed as three different people,” said Senior Communications Adviser Donny Ferguson. “People use the telephone and postcards when they want to communicate with Congress.  People use Twitter to troll, scam and sell fake real estate.  The choice by Obama to use Twitter instead of methods that can be verified screams desperation and deception.”
 
The letters, which are attached, were sent to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Organizing for Action Executive Director Jon Carson.

Stockman slams Obama’s ‘scarequester’ scheme to release criminals

WASHINGTON -- Congressman Steve Stockman (R-Texas 36) demanded the White House stop releasing illegal aliens from federal custody as part of an administration effort to build public fear of Obama’s own sequestration plan and give him leverage to demand tax hikes.

“Obama is releasing illegals into the streets before his sequester in hopes of using fear as negotiating tactic for higher taxes. He’s literally placing American lives in danger for partisan gain,” said Stockman.

“Rather than cut spending for the free ObamaPhone giveaway Obama is releasing criminals from federal custody.  He proposed sequester, demanded it as a condition of a debt increase and signed it into law.  He’s using his sequester to needlessly threaten public safety if he doesn’t get his tax hikes,” said Stockman.

“It’s childish, reckless and beneath the dignity of the office,” said Stockman.  “Even Bob Woodward accuses Obama of ‘madness.’”

Arizona officials tell Fox News that Immigrations and Customs enforcement officials plan to release 10,000 illegal aliens from federal custody to meet the terms of Obama’s sequester.
House Republicans have passed two bills to replace Obama’s sequester with targeted spending cuts.  Obama refuses to negotiate and is now demanding tax hikes in exchange for an agreement to end his sequester.

Congressman Stockman's Weekly Column

You’ll be hearing a lot about “sequester” this week.

And you deserve to know the truth, how it will affect Southeast Texas and how my proposed alternative, the Stockman Smartquester, reduces more spending than Obama’s sequester without touching vital services.

Under an agreement proposed and demanded by President Obama to raise the debt ceiling in 2011, unless the White House and Congress agree on a plan to reduce federal spending by March 1, 2013, a series of small across-the-board spending cuts will take place. These broad, very shallow, cuts amount to $83.4 billion, which is just two percent of the total current budget. Even with sequester federal spending will be higher than it ever was under President Bush.

The plan was proposed by President Obama. He demanded it be part of the deal to temporarily increase the debt ceiling. He signed it into law. He once vowed he would veto Republican efforts to replace it with spending cuts targeted at waste.

And now, like Dr. Frankenstein, he’s running from his own creation, claiming a two percent cut will create “devastation” and demanding Congress agree to his terms before he’ll agree to any changes to federal spending. He is using his March 1 deadline like a time bomb.

It’s how Obama has governed since he took office. He constructs bad policy, gives it a deadline and refuses to negotiate or compromise. When the deadline is near, then he claims his opponents are pushing the country into a crisis and they must agree to his terms to stop the
crisis (which he created.) He is helped every step of the way by a compliant national media.

Not happy with just creating bad policy, Obama is also falsely claiming the tiny cuts will force the government to lay off local police officers and firefighters.

That’s flat-out untrue. Not only are the cuts so tiny they can be taken entirely out of wasteful programs, what gets cut will be decided by Executive Branch officials, of which Obama himself is the Chief Executive. He can tell officials what to cut to meet his own sequester terms.

Former White House adviser Peggy Noonan calls it "government-by-freakout." It’s irresponsible and childish from a White House that once accused Republicans of “hostage taking.” And it
must stop.

Even The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, a reliably liberal voice who exposed Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, is fed up with Obama claiming Republicans proposed sequester and refuse to compromise. In a Sunday column Woodward writes:

“My extensive reporting for my book ‘The Price of Politics’ shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House and were the brainchild of [White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew] and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors…Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).”

Republicans only agreed to include Obama’s sequester because he made it clear he would not compromise or agree to a deal, allowing the country to “go over the fiscal cliff” and max out its
borrowing unless Congress agreed to automatic spending cuts – with the intention of using the panic that would create to give him leverage in agitating for higher taxes.

Republicans have passed two different bills replacing Obama’s sequester cuts to vital services with cuts to wasteful programs. But Senate Democrats refuse to hold a vote on passing them and are working with Obama to push the nation into sequester so they can exploit the panic.

Woodward calls out Obama for falsely claiming Republicans won’t compromise, and for exploiting the crisis he created for political gain:

“..the final deal reached between Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2011 included an agreement that there would be no tax increases in the sequester in exchange for what the president was insisting on: an agreement that the nation’s
debt ceiling would be increased for 18 months, so Obama would not have to go through another such negotiation in 2012, when he was running for reelection. So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts.”

Under Obama’s sequester, programs vital to Southeast Texas could bear the brunt of spending cuts, even though there is plenty of waste that should be eliminated instead.

Obama could again seek cuts to NASA, along with denying funds for port security and dredging and holding up federal permits for logging and gas and oil exploration.

The Obama administration has also announced they are willing to shut down Beaumont’s regional airport to meet the spending cuts, rather than take the cuts out of bloated federal payrolls or idle “stimulus” programs.

Obama wants sequester because he can make spending reform traumatic by cutting vital services and first responders, instead of waste and welfare, to make the issue toxic to voters.

Obama also wants sequester so he can focus his cuts on his political opponents, while rewarding his political cronies by shielding them from spending reform.

That’s reckless, irresponsible and no way for an adult to govern.

Instead, I proposed Friday the “Stockman Smartquester” alternative.

The Stockman Smartquester saves even more money, $84 billion from just five programs, without touching essential services. Not only does the Stockman Smartquester save even more money than Obama’s blunt sequester cuts, it cuts spending without touching critical programs
like police, schools and NASA.

First, we eliminate the government’s “free cell phone” plan that has ballooned into the ObamaPhone giveaway, 41 percent of which goes to people not even eligible. That’s $2.2 billion in savings

Then, we eliminate ObamaCare’s “Public Health Slush Fund,” which even Democrats agree needs to be done. That’s $10 billion in savings

Then, we require food stamp recipients, the numbers of which have exploded under Obama, to actually be eligible for food stamps, saving $26 billion.

We also eliminate, and require repayment of, overpayments for ObamaCare exchange subsidies. That’s $44 billion in savings

Finally, we eliminate Obama’s “renewable energy” fund in the Energy Department, notorious for financing failed projects connected to Obama campaign donors. That saves you $1.8 billion.

That’s $84 billion in savings, meeting the terms of Obama’s $83.4 billion in sequester cuts without touching vital services or harming Southeast Texas.

Clearly you don’t need to target police officers and airports to find just two percent to cut. President Obama’s hysterical press conferences are intended to mislead you and create fear.

Will President Obama agree to the Stockman Smartquester? Or will he continue to push bad policies on timelines and use the ensuing panic to engage in destructive and childish theatrics?

It’s time for the President to lead.

Stockman statement on 2-23 Day of Resistance

I whole heartedly endorse the February 23rd “2-23 Day of Resistance” and urge every gun owner, and everyone concerned about civil rights and peace, to call their member of Congress and urge him or her to oppose all anti-gun legislation.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms in an unalienable civil and human right.  An armed populace is the reason the United States are the world’s oldest and most stable democracy.

The purpose of the Second Amendment is clear.  Every peaceful person should be able to possess arms without restrictions, reporting or permission to serve as an unorganized civilian military force to resist violence, oppression or invasion.

And that is why I have introduced several pieces of legislation to not just fight gun control, but restore the Second Amendment’s full constitutional protections.

The Safe Schools Act would repeal the federal government’s failed, deadly experiment with so-called “gun free school zones.” Since their introduction in 1990, the number of mass shooting on college and school campuses has increased 500%.  So-called “gun free school zones” have made our schools more dangerous.

Senator Rand Paul and I are working together to pass the Restore The Constitution Act.  This bill would repeal any past, present or future Executive Order that violates the Second Amendment or assumes the legislative power of Congress.  It would stop Obama’s anti-gun power grabs before they can even be signed.

I have also introduced the Veterans Second Amendment Protection Act, which would stop the gun grabbers’ plan to strip peaceful veterans of their right to keep and bear arms just because they once sought counseling.  Under this bill, no veteran can be denied a gun without going through the courts and under due process of law.  Gun grabbers plan to use a broad, vague definition of mental illness to strip millions of mentally healthy people of their gun rights, and they’re specifically targeting veterans.

And that’s just my first few weeks back in Congress.  There will be much more.

But I need you standing with me.  Please support my efforts to protect – and restore – the Second Amendment.

The statistics are clear.  More guns and more gun capacity in the hands of civilians leads to less crime and more peace.  Women especially need to be armed, even if the official and repeated position of the Democrat Party now seems to be that woman are mentally incapable of figuring out how to use a gun.  I suggest they come to Texas and speak to our intelligent, empowered women.

We can and will win this fight because more and more Americans understand the right to keep and bear arms is a basic human and civil right that makes society more peaceful.  But we won’t win the legislative battle unless all of you begin contacting your congressmen and making it clear any vote for any anti-gun legislation will put them out of a job.

God bless each and every gun owner, and God bless Texas.