Under current law, if a budget impasse prevents Congress and the White House from funding the government, and a government shutdown occurs, our men and women in uniform would not be assured of being paid. They would continue to perform their patriotic duties and, in many cases, put their lives on the line for our country. But their paychecks would be in limbo until Congress and the president could agree on how to fund the government. This is unacceptable. The last thing our military families sho...
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On June 6, 1944, the long awaited efforts to establish a beachhead in northern Europe finally came to fruition. Many have seen actual film footage of the carnage. Many watched the Longest Day or Saving Private Ryan and think they know all about the anguish of those who gave the orders for that day. Most do not know the full depth of concern for the commander-in-chief and the top Allied commanders. Often it is only when people have no other hope, no other place to turn, they turn to prayer. The n...
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For fiscal year 2007, the last year for which the Republican majority was responsible for the budget, Republicans were properly berated by Democrats for being so irresponsible as to run up a $160 billion deficit. After President Obama took office, those very same beraters found it perfectly acceptable to spend upwards of $1 trillion more than we took in. Last year, in fact, they ran up a breathtaking $1.5 trillion deficit in just one year. On the other hand, House Republicans in the Pledge to Am...
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Later today, the House is expected to vote on HR 4853 -- the “Tax-Cut-and-Stimulus” package that President Obama recently negotiated with the Senate. Since this so-called compromise bill that would extend the current tax rates for two years first came out, I have had very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, keeping the current tax rates the same will help avoid a potentially disastrous downturn in the struggling economy. On the other hand, the tax rate extensions have been combined with an add...
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David Guinn, my Constitutional Law Professor at Baylor Law School, used to say, “The Supreme Court is the only federal court in the country that does not owe its existence and jurisdiction to the United States Congress.” The U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 8 says that the Congress shall have the Power “to constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court.” Article III, Section 1 says, “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Co...
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The current level of spending and growth in health care cost will soon bankrupt our nation, with the latest full year numbers showing that tax dollars spent in 2007 on Medicare grew to more than $430 billion, and almost $330 billion for Medicaid. That year, these programs cost the federal government an average of $9,200 in tax dollars for every household in America, and that number increases daily. This is unsustainable. Any reform must guarantee that patients have access to the treatment they n...
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The new Federal Hate Crimes bill, which is about to pass the House, intrudes on First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion. It’s another great leap forward on the “gay rights” agenda. We’ve been sliding down this slope for too long. When I joined the American Bar Association, I understood it was about making better laws and lawyers. It wasn’t supposed to have a social agenda, left or right. For example, the ABA offered model codes regarding appropriate objectivity and fairness from judges ...
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Congressional liberals are once again trying to pass legislation to give Washington, D.C. a voting representative in the House. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s D.C. Voting Rights Act of 2009 is a bad bill, which would extinguish the Constitutional difference between the District of Columbia and the 50 states. In a recent hearing on the bill, George Washington Law School professor Jonathan Turley has said that the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act is the "the most premeditatedly unconstit...
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