For example, did you know that the ARRA provided $144,541 to study coke snorting monkeys? Ironic, don’t you think? The government would rather know how monkeys react to cocaine (which seems odd considering that it is illegal to possess/use cocaine legally in the United States), instead of addressing the $14 trillion plus deficit.

Test Monkey: Hmmm…I wonder how coke will affect my acrobatic talents

This act also gave money to some other wasteful projects:

• Restoring one of the nation’s least visited parks, located on a remote island…total $13.3 million
• Upgraded office space and indoor parking for Kansas politicians…total $39.7 million plus
• Constructing a power plant that will not open for two years…total $308 million
• Capturing ants (yup, only in San Francisco…must be all the flowers in the bureaucrat’s hair)…total $1.9 million
• Do you like to dance or get your groove on? ARRA funds interactive dance software development at a cost of $762,372

So far, with Democrats in control of Congress and President Obama, spending money on wasteful programs seems to be the solution to our economic woes. However, it is leading us into an even greater depression.

Violence in Mexico escalates:

Last week’s Mexico car bomb in the border town of Cuidad Juarez killed three. It is the first known use of a car bomb against authorities and marks a troubling new level of violence in the country’s brutal drug war.

The significance: Mexico is in complete free-fall, with violence spilling over to the U.S. side of the border. With U.S. law enforcement personnel (such as Sheriff Babeu of Pinal County, Arizona receiving death threats), when will this scene be reenacted in the U.S.?

Just days ago President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform met for the first time.  At that meeting Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke expressed extreme concern over the effect of out-of-control government spending on the future of our nation’s struggling economy.  Bernanke warned that “even after economic and financial conditions have returned to normal, in the absence of further policy actions, the federal budget appears set to remain on an unsustainable path.”  This same message was previously delivered by Peter Orszag, the President’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget.  When speaking to a group at New York University he said “deficits of this size are serious and ultimately unsustainable.”

The federal budget deficit is projected to exceed $1 trillion for the next two fiscal years and exceed $800 billion annually for at least the next decade.  While Chairman Bernanke and Director Orszag are right, their warning is not consistent with their actions.  They promoted the government purchase of private businesses and assets in the TARP legislation, wasteful spending in the so-called stimulus bill and a $1.6 trillion shortfall in the budget for next year.  We simply cannot continue down this fiscally irresponsible path. It is time Congress takes control of spending instead of letting it control the Congress.

Last week, with the support of an overwhelming majority of Republicans in the House, I introduced legislation aimed at saving taxpayer money and reducing the deficit by reforming the often abused earmark process.  In an effort to rein in government spending, the House Republican Conference recently adopted a party rule that instills a year-long moratorium on Members obtaining earmarks in the appropriations process. While this is a positive step, more must be done to actually save taxpayers’ money.  Earmarks are only a very small percentage, less than one percent, of government spending but irresponsible earmarks are emblematic of a larger problem and indicate the lack of scrutiny and tough decision making that Congress applies to the entire government budget and spending process. My legislation calls on House Democrats to join House Republicans in a one year moratorium on all earmarks and directs total discretionary spending to be reduced by the same amount saved by this earmark moratorium.

Additionally, I have introduced bipartisan legislation which forces Congress to enact fiscally responsible spending measures and reduce the deficit by requiring that total spending for any fiscal year not exceed total receipts. By requiring the federal government to balance the budget it ensures that Congress and the President are held accountable to the American taxpayers.

Working to reduce government spending is a significant undertaking and one to which I remain firmly dedicated even in a Congress where excessive spending runs rampant.  Congress must balance the budget and ultimately eliminating the debt by being good stewards of taxpayer money. I believe it is our duty as Members of Congress to exercise great care and responsibility in managing our spending priorities and I will continue working to make sure the hard-earned dollars of my constituents are handled responsibly in Congress and that wasteful government spending is stopped.

“To make sure our students don’t go broke just because they chose to go to college, we’re making it easier for graduates to afford their student loan payments,” Obama said.
“The average student ends up with more than $23,000 in debt. So when this change takes effect in 2014, we’ll cap a graduate’s annual student loan repayments at 10 percent of his or her income.”

Under the measure, private banks would no longer get fees for acting as middlemen in federal student loans. The government would use the savings to boost Pell Grants and make it easier for some workers to repay their student loans. In addition, some borrowers could see lower interest rates and higher approval rates on student loans. Savings are also meant to go toward reducing the deficit and helping to pay for expanded health care.

While this may seem like a noble idea, it does not come cheap for the taxpayers or for the student loan lenders. The Wall Street Journal mentioned in a recent op-ed that the subsidies included in this act will eventually drive up the costs of a college education and the taxpayers would eventually be stuck footing the bill.

If you think the taxpayers are going to be feeling the pinch, there will be many more joining the ranks of the unemployed, as it will cost the student loan industry to reduce their workforce significantly. Sallie Mae will be slashing 2,500 jobs due to the recent passage of this bill. This should have been aptly renamed to The Employment Vanishing Act. With unemployment numbers at an all-time high, 9.7%, this will only cause more turmoil for American families over time and continue to add to our economic woes.

So, will President Obama’s decision to help make higher education more affordable? The costs will likely appear to point to higher taxes, increased government control, and more people joining the unemployment lines.

So, go vote today! Stevens Miller…not even for dogcatcher!

Late last year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took the first steps toward a national energy tax by writing anti-growth regulations that make carbon dioxide – something that is necessary to sustain life on earth – a regulated pollutant under the Clean Air Act.  This backdoor attempt to institute a national energy tax will stifle economic growth and kill jobs, especially in the manufacturing, transportation, energy, and agricultural sectors.  Now more than ever, with the national unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent and 15 million Americans looking for work, these harmful rules must be stopped.

The EPA’s regulations represent a clear and present danger to our economy and to all of our efforts to provide the conditions for job growth and prosperity.  These new regulations will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to implement and would ultimately affect millions of small sources of emissions such as hotels, hospitals, churches, farms, office buildings, restaurants, and other small businesses.  These rules will inject uncertainty into the economy, delay or halt new construction, and deter investment.  Citing the negative impact to their states, these regulations are strongly opposed by several States’ Governors, Attorneys General, environmental agencies, and agricultural agencies.

The unelected bureaucrats at the EPA should not be creating national energy policy for our country and so I have joined with Republicans and Democrats in both the House and Senate in supporting legislation which would prevent the implementation of these job-killing regulations posed by the EPA.

Instead of passing regulations which will simply raise energy costs and ship jobs overseas, our nation needs an “all of the above” solution to cleaning up the environment, lowering energy costs, and creating more American jobs.  We need comprehensive energy legislation which reduces our dangerous dependence on foreign energy and puts millions of Americans to work.  We must encourage innovation within the energy market to create the renewable fuel options and energy careers of tomorrow, promote greater conservation and efficiency by providing incentives for easing energy demand and creating a cleaner, more sustainable environment and increase the production of American energy by responsibly utilizing all available resources and technologies and streamlining burdensome regulations.

America’s economy is intrinsically linked to the availability and affordability of energy.  During this economic slow-down we should be adopting policies that seek to rebuild our economy and create more jobs; we need reliable and affordable energy supplies.  Unfortunately, the new regulations the EPA is pushing would only further cripple our economy.  Instead of government mandates and bureaucracy we should focus on policies that support technological advances and consumer choices.  The bottom line is that we need policies which encourage investment in environmentally sound, cost-effective practices without stifling innovation and setting our economy further back.

To contact me about this or any other matter, please visit my website at www.goodlatte.house.gov.

ABC News also speculated on Ford’s management style as being one of the reasons that the auto maker has turned a profit.

Three years ago, Ford was considered in the worst shape of the Detroit Three after posting what was at the time the worst annual loss in its history. The big quarterly profit is the fruit of changes Ford has been making for several years.

At the end of 2005, then-CEO Bill Ford Jr. and two other Ford executives developed a plan to shut down factories, slash the work force and speed the development of cars and trucks.

A year later, Bill Ford left the CEO job and installed Alan Mulally, a former Boeing executive, who further honed the plan and made a key decision — mortgaging assets like its blue oval logo to raise $23.4 billion.

When the economy faltered last year and took auto sales down with it, Ford had the cash to weather the storm.

“GM and Chrysler still have quite a bit of restructuring to do and simply don’t have the product competitiveness across their lineup that Ford does,” said Mark Oline, auto industry analyst for Fitch Ratings.

Perhaps, it is the innovation that is causing Ford to turn a profit. The new vehicles coming off the manufacturing line are fuel efficient and modern looking. In fact, the new Festiva will be on dealer lots soon, and it offers not only good fuel mileage, but the look is also sharp and sporty.

Overall, it might be too soon to tell what impact the auto bailouts will have on Ford Motor Company in the end. In fact, many UAW executives are worried about the impact Ford’s continued economic growth will have on Chrysler. Many of the UAW retirees have their health care and pension plans through Chrysler. Right now, it will be a wait and see moment for Detroit.

Can we trust a leader who flip flops on issues that will help generate revenue for Virginia without raising taxes? Again, the answer is no. We need a strong leader, who will not stray from his positions on getting the economy in Virginia back on track.