Today, in a letter in response to a request by Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stated that the Obama Administration’s July 2012 “memorandum” that allows States to waive work and activity requirements for welfare recipients would cost Federal taxpayers almost $60 million over the coming decade.   According to the CBO letter, the… Read more

Welcome to the first hearing of the Health Subcommittee for the 113th Congress.   Today we will review the outdated and confusing benefit design of the traditional Medicare program, the structure of which is essentially unchanged from its inception in 1965.  It maintains separate programs and benefits for hospital and physician services, and doesn’t coordinate care between… Read more

The push for comprehensive tax reform that makes the tax code simpler and fairer for families, while strengthening the economy so more jobs and higher wages are created, received a significant boost today.  Signifying the importance tax reform holds for House Republicans, it was confirmed today that Speaker Boehner is holding H.R. 1 for a comprehensive tax bill.  In separate… Read more

The fate of corporate tax reform — a goal shared by virtually everyone in Washington — is almost certainly linked to a far greater challenge: rewriting tax laws for individuals. That’s according to Elaine Kamarck, the Democratic co-chair of the RATE Coalition, a group of dozens of major companies that banded together in 2011 to press Congress and the White House to lower… Read more

The Wall Street Journal reported today that families depending on “spousal coverage” from their employer could very well be among the first groups to fall victim to President Obama’s oft-repeated and broken promise that “if you like the coverage you have you can keep it.” The newspaper reported that annual premium increases and costs associated with the law, including a $65 per… Read more

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, and Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, along with Congressmen Erik Paulsen (R-MN) and Tom Reed (R-NY), released a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report underscoring the… Read more

Tax reform, at least in American politics these days, is generally discussed at only the most abstract level. There is general agreement that it would be nice to lower tax rates while broadening the base by getting rid of loopholes. The latter, of course, are seldom specified in any detail, and are very much in the eye of the beholder. If real tax change is ever to be adopted, we are… Read more

Midland, MI – Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) issued the following statement responding to President Obama’s press conference in which he called for Congress to undo some of the spending cuts called for in his sequester plan. “There is a spending problem in Washington.  That is why nearly two years ago, in a rare showing of bipartisanship, Congress… Read more

February 17, 2013, will mark the fourth anniversary of Democrats’ failed 2009 stimulus plan – and yet another year in which Democrats’ economic policy promises turned out to be oversold and underperforming.  As displayed below, despite adding $1 trillion to the national debt, this 2009 legislation has been followed by 2.8 million fewer jobs and an unemployment rate 2.7 percentage… Read more

Washington, DC- Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) announced the Republican members of the subcommittees for the 113th Congress.  The announcement comes a day after the Republican Steering Committee named the Committee’s final Republican Member, Congressman Jim Renacci (R-OH). “I congratulate the new and returning Members of each of the… Read more