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PAGE 5A
ForsythOpinion
Wednesday, February 16,2011
$100 billion,
for the cut
Now is the time for the
House Republicans to
challenge President
Obama to cut spending
by voting to slash non- ,
defense discretionary
spending by the full $100
billion they promised in
their 2010 campaign.
The Republican leader¬
ship needs to make a
bold statement and send
Obama a bill that sticks
in his big-spending
throat. If the Senate
won’t pass it or the presi¬
dent threatens a veto,
even better. Obama’s
approval ratings —
recently rising to 51 per¬
cent from 41 percent in
the past two months,
according to the Fox
News poll — will fall
back down again, and
lower, if he gets into a
fight against cutting gov¬
ernment spending. The
Republicans in the House
will have called his bluff
about moving to the cen¬
ter and will force the
kind of fiscal belt-tight¬
ening they heralded dur¬
ing the campaign.
And if the government
has to operate in a state
of crisis, with continuing
resolutions keeping it
funded day after day, so
much the better. It will
call attention to how
intractable the
Democrats are in resist¬
ing any cut in spending.
On March 4, the feder¬
al government runs out
of money. The commut¬
ing resolutions under
which the government
has been operating expire
then. Since no budget
was adopted by the
Democratic Congress
last year (so nobody
would add up the num¬
bers), when the resolu¬
tion ends, so does all
funding.
Republicans should
seize this opportunity to
demand major cuts in
spending. House
Republicans, led by Rep.
Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chair¬
man of the House Budget
Committee, proposed a
cut that, on an annualized
basis, would reduce the
budget by $100 billion
below what Obama
requested for 2012 .
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Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Bjtx 210 Gumming, GA 30028; fox it to (770) 889-6017; or e-mail it to editor@forsythnews.com.
DICK MORRIS
Columnist
But, since Obama
never got his budget
passed and there is
only half a fiscal year
left — the actual amount
of Ryan’s cuts come to a
paltry $35 billion below
what was actually spent
for half a year under the
ancien regime.
That’s not enough.
Ryan, recognizing this,
has repeatedly said that
his initial pass at budget
cutting is just a first step
and that he will come
back again and again and
again with more cuts.
But Ryan, despite his
sincerity and good inten¬
tions, misses the point:
In this first go-round
with Obama, the
Republican House
should reach for the sky.
By low-balling their
budget proposal, they
create the illusion that
they are just tinkering
with the budget, rather
than really cutting it.
Conservatives, tea party
activists and GOP voters
will be disappointed, and
a rift may develop within
the party.
Ryan and House
Appropriations
Committee Chairman
Hal Rogers, R-Ky., need
to come in with a set of
budget cuts that give the
impression of real
reductions. Rogers
announced that he will
try to find an extra $26
billion of cuts, bringing
the total to $61 billion.
But $61 billion is still
short of the $100 billion
the GOP promised. Sure,
on an annualized basis,
it comes to $100 billion,
but so what?
One hundred billion
dollars should mean
$100 billion. Not $35
billion or $61 billion.
But $100 billion of cuts.
This is the OOP’s
moment. Don’t blow it.
Dick Morris is a nationally
syndicated columnist.
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Jim Powell for the Forsyth County News
Legislature slowing down
In all the years I’ve reported on
the activities of the General
Assembly, a criticism I have
heard many times is that
Georgia’s legislators introduce
too many bills and pass too many
laws.
Back when Democrats held
control of the Senate and the
House of Representatives, their
Republican counterparts often
made the point that someday,
when their party was in power,
they would stop introducing so
much legislation. That was in
keeping with the quote that’s usu¬
ally attributed to Thomas
Jefferson: “That government is
best which governs least.”
When Republicans assumed
control of the House and Senate
after the 2004 elections, they were
finally in a position to deliver on
that promise.
“1 don’t have any predisposed
agenda, other than less is more,”
said the first Republican House
speaker, Glenn Richardson, as his
party took over. “It’s OK with me
if we do very little. 1 believe we
have enough laws for our citi¬
zens.”
“Legislation should be a last
resort, not a first reaction,” said
Rep. James Mills, R-Gainesville.
As it turned out, once they
grabbed the levers of political
power, Republicans introduced
and passed just as many measures
as their Democratic colleagues
once had, if not more.
In 2001, which was the starting
year for the last session where
Democrats controlled both cham¬
bers, a total of 1,290 bills were
introduced by lawmakers and 396
of those bills were passed by the
House and Senate.
In 2005, the first year in which
Republicans controlled both the
House and Senate, there were a
total of 1,304 bills introduced,
with 408 of them being passed by
the two chambers.
What that shows is simply this:
whether they are Democrats or
Republicans, legislators are going
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This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
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TOM CRAWFORD
Columnist
'The lack of budget
money could be one
reason for the thinner
ranks of lobbyists.
Another factor could
be the $320 registra¬
tion fee they are now
required to pay when
they register for the
session.'
to introduce legislation. That’s
what they are elected to do. It’s
part of their political DNA.
To ask a legislator not to intro¬
duce bills is as futile as asking a
rooster not to crow when the sun
comes up.
In this year’s General Assembly
session, however, the advocates of
smaller government and less leg¬
islation are finally having their
day. For the first time in a long
time, there are actually fewer bills
being drafted and introduced by
the members of the House and
Senate.
As of Feb. 10, there had been
240 bills introduced and formally
assigned to a committee in the
House. There were just 68 bills
introduced and sent to committee
in the Senate.
That’s a big reduction from the
activity of past sessions. In 2007,
by contrast, 376 House bills and
143 Senate bills had been intro¬
duced as of the Feb. 10 date. In
2005, the number was 419 House
bills and 167 Senate bills.
As the numbers show, lawmak¬
ers are introducing a little more
than half as many bills as they nor¬
mally would have dropped by this
point in past sessions.
Two factors could account for
this slowdown. For one, there’s lit¬
tle money in the budget for legisla¬
tors to divide among themselves.
In fact, they will have to cut $1
billion or so from the state budget
for the next fiscal year. Without an
influx of money to fund new pro¬
grams, there’s no use in introduc¬
ing bills to create them.
There are also fewer lobbyists
showing up at the Capitol for this
session. On most days, you can
walk through the third (loot: hall¬
ways without having to elbow
them out of your way.
The lack of budget money could
be one reason for the thinner ranks
of lobbyists. Another factor could
be the $320 registration fee they
are required to pay when they reg¬
ister for the session. For whatever
reason, you’ve got fewer lobbyists
urging legislators to introduce bills
for them.
Lawmakers also have been slow
to vote on the bills that they do
introduce. The legislative session
formally convened Jan. 10, but the
House didn’t get around to passing
its first bill a measure renaming
the technical college board —*
until Feb. 8 . The Senate did not
pass its first bill, a measure requir¬
ing municipal court judges to be
attorneys, until Feb. 10.
1 never thought I’d see the day
\yhen Georgia legislators actually
slowed down and introduced a
smaller number of bills, but it’s
happening. Maybe with less legis¬
lation, they’ll be involved in less
mischief.
Tom Crawford is the editor of The
Georgia Report, an Internetnews
service at gareport.com that covers
government and politics in Georgia.
He can be reached at
tcrawford@gareport.com.