Trey has been appointed to serve on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over judicial proceedings, bankruptcy, immigration policy, patents and copyrights, and restraints against trade and commerce.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the investigative arm of the House, and it oversees congressional investigations into federal programs or matters that impact federal policy.

So Tea Party … what questions would you want asked of who/whom if you had the opportunity? You can put them in comments, or email them to me at info@spartanburgteaparty.org, I’ll make sure Trey gets them in entirety. I told him he has a standing invite to speak at our meetings anytime he’s in town. A few more things he mentioned:

He’s signed on to both Balanced Budget efforts currently circulating.

One of the things they are definitely going after soon is waste in Medicaid/Medicare.

He’d like to hear from doctors and dentists about their experience and perspective on “crazy regulations”

They’ll be going back to look at the decision to kill the DC School Voucher program.

OKAY. Questions Please!

Rep. Dennis Cardoza, who represents the Blue Dogs in leadership meetings and also co-chairs the PAC, voted against Pelosi in last week’s Speaker tally on the House floor. He said his vote against his fellow Californian was for the “60 ghosts that are no longer here.” Democrats lost the majority Nov. 2, and many of the losses came from the moderate ranks.

“I sat for three and a half years in the Democratic leadership advocating for positions that were more moderate and didn’t get listened to, and then saw this happen to our party,” Cardoza said. “Frankly, I was depressed about losing those guys. And the fact that our party doesn’t get that that’s profoundly a problem indicated to me that I had to send a very strong message yesterday when I got on the floor.”

Hmmmphphphhh. I remember faxing, emailing, and calling some of these blue dogs during the health care debates. I say … “use” them, but don’t trust them. And NO DEALS! Are you listening Boehner?

Congratulations guys, we are very proud of both of you!

One of the things I’ve found about federal bureaucrats is [that] a lot of them are very smart . . . but they don’t like working in the spotlight,” DeMint, a leading conservative and Tea Party champion, said recently. “If they thought they were going to have to come over to testify in front of a bunch of congressmen and senators, they’d be a lot more careful about what they’re writing.”

With the Republicans poised to take control of the House and exert more influence in the Democratic-controlled Senate beginning next week, DeMint and other GOP players plan to wage war on government rule-making and attempt to roll back or block implementation of key elements of the major health care and financial reform measures.

and this …

* Incoming Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus of Alabama says he will review the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation with an eye to relieving banks and Wall Street financial institutions of undue regulatory burdens.
* Republicans want to challenge numerous “job-killing” Environmental Protection Agency rules and initiatives including efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and impose national air quality standards for ozone and toxic industrial boiler emissions.
* GOP lawmakers are exploring ways to block the implementation of President Obama’s health care reform law by denying the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies the funding necessary to phase in key programs.
* Finally, they will attempt to put more teeth into the Congressional Review Act — with the changes marketed as the REINS Act, short for “Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny.

Read the article, print it out, and use it when you chat with your representative. These are the things that should be happening … WITH TEETH … right away.

The FCC’s brazen power grab is already producing a welcome backlash on Capitol Hill. GOP Representative Marsha Blackburn says she’ll introduce legislation to prohibit the FCC from enforcing net neutrality rules. And Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison plans to introduce a “resolution of disapproval” under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn regulatory agency orders with a simple majority in the House and Senate.

The Congressional Review Act could get a workout over the next two years if President Obama tries to use regulatory agencies—the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—to achieve the policies he can’t get through Congress.

I will re-introduce the End the Lame Duck Act to prevent power grabs as we’ve seen at the end of this session.

Congress … make it happen.

Pilgrim notes:

An egregious violation of the “one man, one vote” principle is the inequality between Rhode Island’s two congressional districts, with 528,000 voters each, and Montana’s lone district, with 994,000. So great is that disparity, observes Scott Scharpen, the founder of an organization called Apportionment.US, that it takes 188 voters in Montana to equal 100 voters in Rhode Island.

Pilgrim includes a list of nine advantages of a larger U.S. House of Representatives (which is taken from Scott Scharpen’s work):

# INCREASED accountability – as district sizes become smaller, each voter’s influence on their representative increases.
# DECREASED government spending – this seems counter-intuitive, but the data strongly support significant reductions in aggregate spending as the House grows in membership.
# INCREASED competition – the principles of free markets tell us that when competition is present, we get increased quality at a lower cost. With more House seats, races will be more competitive. The best illustrative example is comparing small New Hampshire (400 state house members with a high turnover rate of over 30%), to California, with its embarrassing lack of competition (state house of only 80 members with NO turnover – a 100% incumbent success rate for the past 4 election cycles).

Take a full read of the article. It may initially sound HORRIFYING to actually send MORE people to DC, but a larger House actually seems more in line with the Founders’ vision of representation, and both Pilgrim and Scharpen make that clear.

I would like more Spartanburg Tea Party members, and tea party members in general to participate in the ICaucus process next election.

In addition to the vetting and interviews, once a candidate is endorsed for a race, ICaucus supports that candidate at events, and by hosting “Meet and Greets” in homes so you can introduce the candidate to your friends/family/neighbors. ICaucus has a mission of selecting and endorsing candidates, most tea parties do not, so this is a different, more directed way you can be involved in candidate support.

To that end, please read this email from the Director of Independence Caucus in SC, my very good friend Wayne Middleton. Wayne will be speaking to the Spartanburg Tea Party at our January 12 meeting, but please make plans to be involved in this conference call to get a good grounding in what ICaucus is all about.
+++++++++++++++

Beginning on Jan 6th, we are scheduling a 30 minute teleconference at 7:30 PM for all members of Independence Caucus in South Carolina.

The purpose of the call during the first months (as we head toward the 2012 election) will be:
1. to get organized so we can be more effective in selecting candidates to endorse
2. to answer your questions
3. to discuss our mission and the principles we promote for candidates
4. to discuss the vetting process for assurance that everyone has a good understanding of the vetting process
5. to conduct training on the the vetting process as needed
6. to grow our membership and promote coalitions and consensus on candidates with other conservative organizations with similar principles
7. to get to know one another a little better – perhaps schedule face to face meetings statewide or in areas (such as congressional districts) around the state
8. to discuss plans for determination of a 7th US Congressional District in South Carolina (the U S Census report indicates one should be added and talk around the state is already going on as to how it will be done). The State Attorney General is a key office in this process and we may want to help out in the process.
9. to begin discussions on the national and state elections
10. to talk about candidates and determine who we want to pursue for endorsement
11. etc.
Put this teleconference information on your calendar and be ready to join in.
Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Call ID: 91968

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/91968

This is a “TALKSHOE” teleconference – a free teleconference tool available at http://www.talkshoe.com/

I have already set up the meeting for January. You will be getting other notifications.
Please plan to attend. We need you and know that you need conservative candidates.
Wayne Middleton, Director
Independence Caucus – SC

One of the biggest changes would call for all proposed bills to be accompanied by a “Constitutional Authority Statement” that would note the specific section of the Constitution that empowers Congress to enact the legislation.

Another would demand that all bills to be posted online for at least three days before they’re put up for vote. Also, spending increases would have to be offset by cuts of an equal or greater amount elsewhere and could not be paid for by tax increases.