Monday Morning Memo 2014

Click on any underlined Monday Morning Memo to listen to a weekly podcast from Congressman Kevin Brady. Click on the links to view reports and news articles he refers to.

12-1-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Congressman Kevin Brady says President Obama is pushing his executive powers under the Constitution to the limit and beyond with his Executive Amnesty plan. Congressional Republicans are looking at all possible options to rein in this over reach.

As activist environmentalists look to the President for more over reach on global warming, the House votes to take on the EPA – an organization that is using tax dollars to pay some of its bureaucrats not to work. Not surprisingly Americans have doubts about their personal freedoms according to a new global index. Finally, the congressman shares what he is thankful for.

11-24-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Congressman Kevin Brady says President Obama is pushing his executive powers under the Constitution to the limit and beyond with his Executive Amnesty plan. Congressional Republicans are looking at all possible options to rein in this over reach.

As activist environmentalists look to the President for more over reach on global warming, the House votes to take on the EPA – an organization that is using tax dollars to pay some of its bureaucrats not to work. Not surprisingly Americans have doubts about their personal freedoms according to a new global index. Finally, the congressman shares what he is thankful for.

11-17-14 --In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Congressman Brady says the Keystone XL pipeline is gaining support in Congress despite a President determined to study the project to death. Brady fights to repeal unfair Social Security formula that hurts teachers, police officers and firefighters.

The Health Subcommittee chairman says the truth about how the President’s health care law was sold to the people is coming out – just as a growing number of uninsured Americans refuse to be forced to buy coverage they can’t afford and the White House is slashing its 2015 ACA enrollment predictions. The President faces serious backlash over his global warming deal with China; and conservative leadership in the House.

11-10-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Congressman Kevin Brady shares how the new Congressional majority will govern after Americans overwhelming voted to change course from the President’s failed policies. Jobs & the economy will be front and center. After six years of pointless political delays, Congress now has a veto-proof majority to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Congress will also need to take a closer look at America’s military power to prevent China from surpassing the US in military technology and the Affordable Care Act which is about to start its second signup year with a still unfinished website. Finally, let’s celebrate Veterans Day every day, because we have our freedoms for a reason.

11-3-14 - In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Congressman Kevin Brady has some big news to break about the VA Clinic in Conroe. Brady calls for an end to prisoner transfers of Guantanamo detainees as dozens are suspected of joining Islamic State fighters in Syria. Defense Secretary Hagel is questioning the Syria strategy in a blunt memo.

Over 214,000 doctors are opting out of the President’s Health care law as HealthPocket, a non-partisan research company, reviews premium hikes. The hyper partisan Dodd-Frank Act continues to hurt local banks and businesses across America as the President prepares to go his own way on immigration.

Finally, the congressman had a busy weekend in the district and shares an important message about being a part of the political process this November. 

10-27-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo podcast, House Republicans are gearing up for a big 2015 and one of the key priorities is streamlining the bloated, dysfunctional federal government. The 2014 Waste Book is out as Americans express economic gloom and doctors bemoan the Affordable Care Act pushing people whose insurance the law took away into Medicaid.

The House Ways & Means Social Security Subcommittee moves to stop payments to Nazi war criminals. President Obama tries to hide the Attorney General’s Fast & Furious emails. Terrorists rake in millions selling stolen oil. The co-founder of The Weather Channel calls climate change a myth and says the science behind it isn’t valid.

10-20-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Congressman Kevin Brady calls for a travel ban for individuals trying to come into America from countries struggling with the Ebola virus, calls out the CDC over a shortage of disease detection centers amid an abundance of bonuses and the National Institutes of Health wasting millions that could be combatting Ebola texting addicts and teen moms.

Houston subpoenas pastors’ sermons, then backs off. Vice President Biden laments how "the middle class is getting killed," while just 22% of Americans say they are better off under President Obama and nearly 70% of mid-sized business owners are “very” or “extremely” concerned about the costs of health coverage and benefits under the President’s controversial Affordable Care Act. A human rights group monitoring the war in Syria says Iraqi pilots are training Islamic State terrorists to fly captured fighter jets. Finally, Happy 40^th birthday to The Woodlands!

10-13-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, the Pentagon’s assessment that Baghdad is at risk and the 39^th President shares some harsh criticism of the current President. Texas is one step closer to a drug testing program for unemployment compensation’ an Obama appointee to the federal bench goes after Texas’ Voter ID law and health care policies head for the chopping block in more than a dozen states.

The IMF says the Chinese economy is now bigger than the US economy as the World Bank warns of the economic crisis a spreading Ebola outbreak could bring.And, finally,  could a false choice be delaying the Keystone XL pipeline?

10-6-14 --In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, President Obama ignores his record while strangely criticizing “endless regulations” when his administration is responsible for four of America’s top five regulation years.

Meanwhile, the President’s Affordable Care Act is sending medical innovation overseas. America is number 32 (out of 34) nation’s when it comes to tax competitiveness. The Middle class is worse off than 25 years ago . The majority want the U.S. Supreme Court to fast-track major legal challenges to the health insurance law known as the Affordable Care Act. And, the House Judiciary Committee Chairman says the House will seek an injunction if the President tries to initiate amnesty by executive order.

Finally, the President’s former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the President was more focused on getting out of Iraq than preserving what American troops had fought for and believe it or not, but a Government IG Report says watching a Star Trek movie is not work.

9-29-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Democrats join Republicans in calling for the President to seek approvals from Congress. Americans begin to learn more about the terror cells fighting – and profiting -- in Syria.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says natural weather changes are behind the barely one degree of Pacific coastal temperature change from 1900 until now. Yet Global Warming has more of the President attention than securing the border where the situation with the unaccompanied minor children has been put on the President’s political back burner. The huge difference in productivity between the House and the Do Nothing Senate isn’t helping solve the problem.

Meanwhile, the number of enrollees in the President’s health care law appears to be dropping and no one can say how billions of our tax dollars were spent. But with all that in mind, liberals keep wrongly comparing President Obama to President Reagan.

9-22-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo podcast, Congress agrees on a 90 day authorization to combat a vicious, well equipped and financed terrorist threat, as the Joint Chiefs chairman confirms the Pentagon won't rule out U.S. ground troops to fight the so-called Islamic State. The House also voted to remove barriers to American innovation and energy independence. 

More bad news for Americans who bought their insurance coverage on an Affordable Care Act website as a Government Accountability Office report says the President’s health care law is using tax dollars to subsidize abortion and 46% of doctors now give the President’s signature law a 'D' or 'F'.

The House pushes through more bills to rein in the IRS and improve the lives of Veterans. If you’d like to talk to your Congressman, join him for a town hall in Spring on Wednesday evening.

9-15-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo podcast, after two years of warnings the President finally sees ISIS as a grave threat, but Homeland Security can’t find thousands of foreign students have overstayed their visas. Not surprisingly, 7 in 10 say America is on the wrong track in new NBC/WSJ Poll.

As the House does its work to fund the government, the head of the IRS had a jaw dropper in a subcommittee hearing telling Chairman Brady “Wherever we can, we follow the law” while his colleagues reveal further issues with the implementation of the President’s health care law. The House, however, has acted to protect families from broken promises in the law -- which has caused ER visits to spike in some parts of the country. Finally, Breitbart News says IRS targeted them for an audit as the legal case for a Marine jailed in Mexico took a positive turn.

9-8-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Congressman Kevin Brady remembers 9/11 which is a start reminder that losing the War on Terror is not an option.

As the U.S. Congress goes back into session, the VA will once again be a major issue as will America's still weak economy. Congressman Brady says America families deserve better than this anemic economic recovery. Judges are setting hearings for the Central American children – many of them years down the road as even liberal columnists express weariness at the President’s ‘unnerving happy talk.’

But what is the U.S. Senate doing instead of dealing with the current immigration problems or the economy? Apparently, they are still arguing over the name of a football team.

9-1-14 -- In this Labor Day Monday Morning Memo podcast, President Obama looks to skip over the Senate for new UN climate change deal and the GAO reveals the Pentagon broke two laws trading 5 high profile Taliban terrorists for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

On the good news front, an energy innovation boom is bringing lower costs and higher productivity. By contrast, another Affordable Care Act website suffers delays and glitches as families prepare to pay even higher premiums. And finally not only did the EPA made secret maps for new regulatory push to control that ditch in your backyard, the head of the EPA said something about global warming that will make you see red.

8-25-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo podcast, as people in the country illegally try to force the President to change the law again Americans overwhelmingly want immigration laws enforced. Russian leaders are calling out the US over internal problems – such as in Ferguson, Missouri. Americans, meanwhile, want to know what the President is going to do about an American journalist being murdered by the ISIS terror group.

The IRS can’t figure out how to fully collect a new controversial tax on medical devicesas the Obama administration refuses to release important information on the security of their healthcare.gov website. 

In town hall meetings, Congressman Brady is hearing from energy workers who want the US to go big on offshore drilling. The President is increasingly viewed as more interested in golf than governance at a time when 35.4% of Americans live in a household where someone is receiving welfare.And finally, Governor Perry may just benefit from a flimsy political prosecution.

8-18-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, Homeland Security’s own internal watchdog says the agency used the possibility of budget cuts as an excuse to release more than 600 illegal immigrants with criminal records. The Federal Reserve’s second in command warns of more disappointing economic growth as the US Conference of Mayors reveals that families earn less now than before the recession.

The terrorist leader of ISIS was released from a U.S. Detention Camp in Iraq during President Obama’s first term. This is revealed as America’s absence from world leadership has emboldened terrorists.

As the second year of the Affordable Care Act signup looms, we learn enrollment is sinking rapidly for some insurance companies and hundreds of thousands have been warned to provide their immigration or citizenship documents or forfeit all taxpayer subsidies.

The EPA wants to dramatically change existing law so they can regulate your pond or ditch while using decades old jobs data to justify new regulations. Finally, patent office telework abuses are revealed in a new watchdog report. 

8-11-14 -- In this week’s Monday Morning Memo, the American people give the President low marks on his handling of the border and the do nothing Senate returns briefly to Capitol Hill but only to block the House bill – without passing any legislation of their own. The Obama administration is no longer seeking temporary shelters for unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally. A new poll, meanwhile says Americans overwhelming worry that the American Dream is getting further out of their kids’ reach.

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs has proof the VA misled Congress. As a new report shows Medicare has spent more than it’s collected in revenue in all but two years of its half century in operation, Ways & Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Brady files a bill to protect Medicare from rampant fraud.

As it is revealed that $619 billion is missing from the White House’s federal transparency website, the IRS quietly abolishes mandatory expirations for tax numbers primarily used by illegal immigrants. Finally, just who is talking about impeachment in Congress? Hint: Follow the money.