McClintock Enews
February 2011

          Congressman Tom McClintock returned to Washington in January as a member of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.  He was sworn into the 112th Congress on January 5th by Speaker of the House John Boehner.  Now in his second term, Congressman McClintock is serving as chairman of the House Water and Power Subcommittee and is a member of the Budget Committee and the Natural Resources Committee.

 
 Full Faith and Credit Act

          On January 26th Congressman McClintock introduced legislation in Congress to ensure that the nation's debt service payments are made in the event that the debt ceiling is reached.  The legislation will ensure that the good credit of the United States is maintained.

          "The 'full faith and credit' of the United States should not hang in the balance on every adjustment to the national debt limit," said Congressman McClintock upon introducing the legislation. "States protect their credit by pledging first call on revenues to their debts and so should the federal government.  After all, before you can 'provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty,' you have to be able to finance them."  Link to bill text.

 Obamacare

          The House Budget Committee held a hearing January 26th to examine the fiscal consequences of the new health care law.  Testimony was offered at the hearing by Richard Foster, Chief Actuary for Medicare and Medicaid.  During testimony at the hearing Congressman McClintock asked the actuary if Obamacare will bring costs down, and if people who like their current plans can keep them.  The exchange went as follows:  

McClintock: "True or false: The two principal promises that were made in support of Obamacare were one, that it would hold costs down. True or false"?

Foster: "I would say false, more so than true." 

McClintock: "The other promise... was the promise that if you like your plan, you can keep it. True or false"?

Foster: "Not true in all cases."

          The exchange was covered widely in the media as part of the debate about healthcare and Congressman McClintock discussed the hearing that evening on the Great Van Susteren Show.  This week the Budget Committee will hold a hearing on the state of the United States economy and will hear testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Click link above to watch the January 26th interview with Greta Van Susteren.
 

           On January 18th Congressman McClintock made remarks on the House floor noting that the central promises of Obamacare were that it would bend health costs down and wouldn't threaten existing plans, and that both claims have proven to be false.

          Repealing Obamacare
          House Chamber, Washington, D.C.

          M. Speaker:  The central promises of Obamacare were that it would bend health costs down and wouldn't threaten existing plans.

          We now know that both these claims were false.

          The CBO warns that this law will increase average private premiums by $2,100 within five years above what they otherwise would have been without Obamacare.  The administration's own actuary admits that the law bends the cost curve up – not down – by $311 billion over the next ten years.
 
          And we now know that many existing plans are indeed jeopardized and that scores of companies that offered their employees basic plans have either dropped them or continue them only with waivers left to the whims of Administration officials.

          But the most dangerous provision of this law is the federal government's assertion that it has the power to force every American to purchase products the government believes they should purchase, whether or not they want them, need them, or can afford them.  Watch or read full remarks.

The Royal Forests

          On January 7th Congressman McClintock spoke on the House floor about policies of the U.S. Forest Service, and he discussed complaints he has received from constituents about vehicle restrictions in the Plumas National Forest. 
 
          The Royal Forests
          House Chamber, Washington, D.C. 

          M. Speaker:  Much of my district comprises forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service.  Over the last two years, I have received a growing volume of complaints protesting the increasingly exclusionary and elitist policies of this agency.

These complaints charge the Forest Service, among other things, with:
 
• Imposing inflated fees that are forcing the abandonment of family cabins held for generations;
• Charging exorbitant new fees that are closing down long-established community events upon which many small and struggling mountain towns depend for tourism;
• Expelling long-standing grazing operations on specious grounds – causing damage both to the local economy and the federal government's revenues; and
• Obstructing the sound management of our forests through a policy that can only be described as benign neglect, creating both severe fire dangers and massive unemployment.

          Practiced in the marketplace, we would renounce these tactics as predatory and abusive.  In the public service sector, they are intolerable.
 
          Combined, these actions evince an ideologically driven hostility to the public's enjoyment of the public's land – and a clear intention to deny the public the responsible and sustainable use of that land.  Watch or read full remarks.

 
The Prosperity Congress

          On January 6th, shortly after the 112th Congress convened, Congressman McClintock delivered remarks on the House floor about the upcoming Congress, job creation, prosperity and freedom. 

          The Prosperity Congress
          House Chamber, Washington, D.C.  

          M. Speaker:  I rise to express the hope that historians will look back on the 112th Congress as the session that restored American prosperity – and to express my strong agreement with the new leaders of this House who have declared that every action of this body must be measured against this goal.

          We speak of "jobs, jobs, jobs," but jobs are a product of prosperity.  And prosperity is the product of freedom.

          Government does not create jobs or wealth – it merely redistributes them.  Jobs and wealth can only be created through the free exchange of goods and services in a free market.  Government's role is to create and protect the conditions which promote prosperity.  Watch or read full remarks.

 
District Events

On January 31st Congressman McClintock held an open house at his new district office in Granite Bay.

 Open house at Congressman McClintock's office in Granite Bay.

Town hall meetings were held in Roseville on February 1st and in Grass Valley on February 4th.

Left, town hall meeting in Roseville at Woodcreek High School.  Right, town hall meeting at Hennessy Elementary School in Grass Valley.
 

Congressman McClintock was the keynote speaker at a dinner meeting of the Placer County Contractors Association held on January 21st in Auburn.
 
On February 1st in El Dorado Hills Congressman McClintock received the local NAM (National Association of Manufactures) Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence, and took part in a roundtable discussion with local group members.
 
On a February 2nd visit to Nevada County Congressman McClintock participated in an Economic Resource Council of Nevada County roundtable discussion about jobs and the economy, and he spoke to an agriculture-government class at Nevada Union High School about government and natural resources.  Later in the day he met with the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County to discuss wildfire prevention and forestry issues, and he spoke at the Nevada City Rotary Club luncheon about issues currently pending before Congress.

Congressman McClintock with students at Nevada Union High School in Grass Valley, left, and speaking to an agriculture-government class at the school, right.   

Congressman McClintock was the keynote speaker at the "We the People" luncheon in Sacramento on February 4th.  The program promotes civic competence and responsibility among the nation's elementary and secondary students.  It enhances students' understanding of the institutions of American constitutional democracy and the contemporary relevance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Congressman McClintock's office staff delivered donated books from the Library of Congress to Hennessy Elementary School in Grass Valley on January 26.  On February 2nd staff delivered books to Del Oro High School in Loomis and to Placer High School in Auburn.  On February 4th books were delivered to Gold Run Elementary School in Nevada City and to Downieville School in Sierra County.