Rep Tim Johnson (R) Votes Against Another Short-term Funding Measure, in Lieu of Real Budget Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Timothy V. Johnson today voted in opposition to a continuing resolution to again temporarily fund the operations of the federal government. Fifty-four Republicans joined in opposition to the three-week budget, which passed 271-158.

“I cannot in good conscience continue to go along with this charade, limping along week-to-week with stop-gap spending measures because the Congress lacks the will to make the difficult decisions to restore fiscal integrity,” Rep. Johnson said. “We have been forced into these short-term measures because Democrats failed to agree among themselves on how to craft a long-term spending plan when they had the chance.

“To date in this session of Congress, we have made only halting inroads in slowing the spending train, such as shutting down the Troubled Asset Relief Program bailout, which I enthusiastically agreed to defund. But that is a drop in the ocean of a $1.5 trillion deficit.

“Nowhere in this continuing resolution is there an attempt to retrieve the $105 billion appropriated for Obamacare slush funds – basically erecting more federal bureaucracies the people don’t want. Nowhere in this continuing resolution is there serious effort to restructure funding of the wars or of our over-inflated entitlement programs.

“In February alone, according to the Treasury Department, the federal government’s revenues were $110 billion while its outlays were $333 billion. That’s no reason to celebrate a paltry $6 billion in cuts in this continuing resolution.

“We can do better. The longer we put off making hard decisions about the way we spend taxpayer dollars, the more distrust and uncertainty we breed among the people we were elected to represent. Continuing resolutions are a cop-out and I will not be part of it.”

OPENING STATEMENT OF US HOUSE BUDGET CMTE CHAIR REP. PAUL RYAN (R) ON FEB 9, 2011

The purpose of today’s hearing is to discuss the fiscal and monetary policies that have led us here.

On the fiscal side, the CBO projects a $1.5 trillion deficit this year with publicly-held debt rising to 69 percent of GDP by the end of the year – up from 40 percent at the end of 2008.

In a few short years, the CBO projects government spending to drive our debt to crisis levels, overwhelming the entire economy and drowning the next generation in red ink.

Endless borrowing is not a strategy. We must restore the foundations of economic growth – low taxes, spending restraint, reasonable regulations, and sound money – to help restart the engines of economic growth and job creation.

We must not neglect the “sound money” part of the equation. The Federal Reserve has undertaken another round of quantitative easing – purchasing Treasury bonds in an attempt to lower borrowing costs and stimulate the economy.

My concern is that the costs of the Fed’s current monetary policy – the money creation and massive balance sheet expansion – will come to outweigh the perceived short-term benefits.

These costs may come in the form of asset bubbles and price pressures. We are already witnessing a sharp rise in a variety of key global commodity and basic material prices, and we know that some producers and manufacturers here in the United States are starting to feel cost pressures as a result.

According to the core price indexes that the Fed watches closely, these cost pressures have not yet been passed along to consumers – but the inflation dynamic can be quick to materialize and painful to eradicate once it takes hold. The steepening of the yield curve this week certainly adds to these worries.

I’m concerned that normalizing monetary policy when the time comes may be difficult – not only for the pure technical challenges of shrinking the Fed’s substantial balance sheet or correctly judging economic turning points, but also for political reasons.

It is hard to overstate the consequences of getting this wrong. The dollar is the world’s reserve currency and this has given us tremendous benefits.

For the sake of our economy in particular and the global recovery as a whole, it is vital that we focus on dollar stability if we are to prevent the kind of beggar-thy-neighbor currency conflicts that can destroy economic recoveries.

Our currency should provide a reliable store of value – it should be guided by the rule of law, not the rule of men.

There is nothing more insidious that a country can do to its citizens than debase its currency.

Chairman Bernanke: We know you know this. The Fed’s exit strategy and future policy – it will determine how this ends.

We know you are concerned about this nation’s fiscal trajectory. We have asked you to come here today because our fiscal policy is on a dangerous track. That is well established.

But, many of us fear our monetary policy is on a similar track as well.

I firmly believe that a course correction here in Washington is sorely needed to help get us back on the right track. While it won’t be easy, Americans have risen to greater challenges and prevailed in the past.

President Obama Reportedly Picks New Budget Director

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

President Barack Obama will nominate Jacob Lew, a Clinton budget hand and former hedge fund manager for Citibank, as the next director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, the White House announced.