As our nation ages, more Americans are depending on Social Security’s benefits and services that they paid for through their hard earned wages.  These days, Social Security increasingly relies on technology to deliver the services that Americans deserve and expect.   As you all know, I take the technology needs of Social Security very seriously.  At times it seems like… Read more

Those of us who view import tariffs as distortive taxes on consumption and production tend to find merit in any effort to reduce them. That’s why Senator Jim DeMint’s opposition to the perennial import duty suspension process known as the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) seems a bit misplaced. DeMint has – according to Cato’s Congressional Trade Votes database – a glowing record of… Read more

Welcome to this morning’s joint Subcommittee on Oversight and Subcommittee on Social Security hearing on identity theft and tax fraud.  I am pleased to join Chairman Johnson again as our Subcommittees focus on fraud, waste, and abuse, and how the federal government might better protect taxpayer dollars.  The subject of today’s hearing is not a new one, but evidence suggests it… Read more

Chairman Boustany, I want to thank you for holding this hearing regarding identity theft and its role in the growing crime of tax fraud.   Earlier this year, the Subcommittee on Social Security held a hearing on Social Security’s death records, including the so-called Death Master File, a publically available listing of the personal information of those who have died, including… Read more

This week, the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions highlighted an analysis conducted by the group last fall which found that up to 65 million Americans could lose their employer-sponsored health insurance because of ObamaCare's employer mandate requirement.  The analysis noted that while employers of every size are affected, small- and mid-sized companies are the most likely to… Read more

As noted below, the invisible unemployed reflect adults who dropped out of the labor force and adults expected to join the labor force but who did not in the wake of Democrats' trillion-dollar 2009 stimulus plan.  If these individuals were in the official labor force, they would be counted as officially unemployed and raise the current 8.1 percent unemployment rate to 11… Read more

http://blog.american.com/2012/05/new-study-high-u-s-debt-levels-could-mean-a-quarter-century-of-weak-growth/ Economists Carmen Reinhart, Vincent R. Reinhart, and Kenneth Rogoff (from here on out referred to as R3) have a new study out looking at the economic impact of high debt levels: – We identify 26 episodes of public debt… Read more

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Washington, DC – Today, in a new report prepared for Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), data from America’s Fortune 100 companies show they could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year under the new health care law by simply terminating health insurance for their workers and dumping these employees into… Read more

Barack Obama campaigned four years ago assailing President George W. Bush for wage losses suffered by the middle class. More than three years into Obama’s own presidency, those declines have only deepened. The rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s has generated relatively few of the moderately skilled jobs that once supported the middle class, tightening the financial… Read more

We are meeting today to examine proposals to reform Medicare through Premium Support and the bipartisan support for such proposals. First, I think we should make it abundantly clear, that despite what some on the other side might say, Republicans support the Medicare program.  The program serves a critical function in our society, ensuring that America’s seniors and people with… Read more