Washington, DC – Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) today released a list of tax increases totaling $670.341 billion that have been enacted into law under President Obama.  The gross tax increases equate to more than $2,100 for every man, woman and child in the United States and include at least 14 violations of the President’s pledge not to raise taxes on Americans earning… Read more

Back at the turn of the 21st century, the big accounting scandal was that firms such as Enron were allowed by their accountants to use gimmicks to inflate their profits. There were demands that the accounting profession take a harder line with corporate clients, and federal legislation was adopted to ensure that balance sheets were more realistic. Now, according to Congressmen Henry… Read more

In response to the issuance of a final rule by the U.S. Department of Labor ending state autonomy to choose how best to staff and administer Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) services and instead requiring that only state “Employment Service” employees administer TAA-funded benefits and services under the expanded TAA for workers program, Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI)… Read more

President Obama launched his National Export Initiative last month. Objective: Double exports in five years. Sounds good. Too bad some of our trading partners missed the memo. Brazil, in the same week, announced a plan to impose new tariffs on 102 U.S. products. On some items, the tariffs will go as high as 100%. In all, it will affect about $1 billion a year in U.S. exports. Brazil… Read more

On Sunday April 4, 2010, in discussing the effects of the Democrats’ February 2009 economic stimulus package, Dr. Christina Romer, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said "I think it has done exactly what we would say it would do." Fortunately, a solid set of data exists to judge the accuracy of such claims. In January 2009, the Administration released a detailed… Read more

Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) today released data showing the “Obama Misery Index” – the combined change in unemployment and public debt since the President took office – has skyrocketed 57 percent through the first quarter of 2010.  Camp stated, “The Obama Misery Index highlights how the Democrats’ stimulus plan has been a costly failure.  Since the President took… Read more

In the April 5, 2010 New York Times, Dr. Larry Summers, “the president’s top economic adviser” said the U.S. economy is “running somewhat ahead of what the administration was forecasting.”  Unfortunately, as the chart below shows, the U.S. unemployment rate is also running “somewhat ahead of what the Administration was forecasting” if its 2009 stimulus bill passed.  In fact, the… Read more

   This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy added 162,000 jobs in March.  While positive job growth is welcome news, this still leaves the Administration 6.7 million short of its promise that its stimulus bill would create 3.7 million jobs by the end of 2010.  During the rest of this year, the economy will need to add more than 750,000 jobs per month --… Read more

While most of the purported benefits of health-care insurance reform are years away, it took only a few days for a serious, unintended consequence to emerge. Last week, telecommunications giant AT&T, which employs more than 280,000 people, announced it would take a $1 billion, non-cash, first-quarter loss because the bill ends an exemption on benefits for retirees. Likewise, the… Read more

Within hours of signing the Democrats’ health care bill into law, the New York Times reported that the President launched an aggressive public relations campaign to repackage the legislation’s over one-half trillion dollars in tax increases as “pro-jobs” and “pro-business.”  A day later, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) joined the fray and demanded testimony… Read more