Opening Statement of Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) Hearing on Health Reform in the 21st Century: Expanding Coverage, Improving Quality and Controlling Costs March 11, 2009 (Remarks as Prepared) Mr. Chairman, this is an important hearing following a historic meeting at the White House last week.  And, first, let me thank you for so readily turning over the microphone this… Read more

Editorial In tough times, there is a strong temptation to turn inward. With so many Americans already out of work, why shouldn’t the country raise trade barriers to protect its workers from foreign competition? The answer is clear: Trade will play an important role in the world’s eventual recovery, transmitting economic growth from one country to the next. Protectionism leads to… Read more

The Congressional Caucus for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation will kick off the 111th Congress with a news conference on Wednesday. Ways & Means Members Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Wally Herger (R-CA), the current and former Trade Subcommittee Ranking Members respectively, will participate in the news conference.  The APEC Caucus will be working with APEC officials and… Read more

Washington D.C. - The Ways & Means Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member, U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX), comments on USTR-Designate Kirk’s Testimony to the Senate Finance Committee: “I applaud many of the key aspects of Mayor Kirk’s testimony and the President’s Trade Agenda, in particular, the acknowledgment that continued trade is essential to our economic recovery and that… Read more

Editorial Cap and trade is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are hoping in particular that no one notices who would pay for their climate ambitions. With President Obama depending on vast new carbon revenues in his budget and Congress promising a bill by May, perhaps Americans would like to know the deeply unequal ways that climate costs would be distributed across… Read more

Washington, DC -- Today, Ways & Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) and Oversight Subcommittee Ranking Member Charles Boustany (R-LA) issued the following statement on the IRS’ decision to end the use of private debt collection agencies in tracking down acknowledged tax debt that has not been paid. “Cutting programs that don’t work makes sense, but this program does work,” Camp… Read more

In the aftermath of the approval of an $800-billion spending bill masquerading as economic stimulus, many of us in Congress concerned about the exponential growth of the national debt are wondering if U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has even slightly considered common-sense policy alternatives before squandering precious taxpayer dollars.  President Barack Obama’s recent… Read more

AP: Unemployed “dumbfounded” by Democrat plan to tax benefits Republican stimulus eliminated taxes on unemployment   By Dave Carpenter CHICAGO - Some Americans are learning a jarring lesson about unemployment as they prepare their tax returns. At a time when the newly laid-off are swelling unemployment rolls to record numbers, the painful surprise for many is that jobless… Read more

(REMARKS AS PREPARED) Thank you for yielding, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Director, as I noted yesterday with Secretary Geithner, your budget places a new $646 billion energy tax on the American people.  Or at least that is the most your budget admitted to in the plain type. Upon closer inspection, I found that footnote 3 to table S-2 in the President’s budget states that there are… Read more

Many families forced to pay more than $1,300 in higher energy costs      FACT:             Peter Orszag , former CBO Director and current OMB Director, has verified that energy taxes designed to decrease carbon emission, like those in the President’s budget, will be passed on to American… Read more