Today, our national debt stands at $15.5 trillion.  That’s a record.

Today, there are 88 million Americans not in the labor force.  That’s a record.

And for more than three years, the unemployment rate has stayed above 8%.  That’s a record not seen since the Great Depression.

What does the Obama administration say about this record of bad economic numbers? Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the administration’s economic policies have been “remarkably successful.”

Yes, they’ve been successful in keeping people from finding work and they’ve been successful in driving up our national debt.

This November, we get this chance to vote for real change.  We need a new president, a new approach and a new economic policy that empowers small businesses rather than big government.  Barack Obama hasn’t been able to help Americans find jobs.  It’s time he start looking for a new job as well.

National Journal

April 26, 2012 | 9:30 p.m.

Ironically, he did this just a few days after his own budget was rejected 0-414 in the House of Representatives.  That’s right: not even one Democrat would vote for the Obama budget. Why should they?  His budget is more of the same: it’s the same high taxes-increased spending-big government policy that goes in trouble in the first place.  In fact, he has now added more debt to the cumulative national debt than any president in history.

But the issue is bigger than the budget.  It’s about leadership, not numbers.

For three and a half years, President Obama has refused to lead.   He had the chance to reform entitlements.  He refused.

He had the chance to pass market-based health reform.  He passed Obamacare instead.

He had the chance to cut spending.  He spent more than any president before him.

Barack Obama is not a leader.  And that’s why we need a new president and a new direction for our country.

Fort Worth’s Rep. Kay Granger is a power on foreign affairs

Posted Sunday, Mar. 11, 2012

By MARIA RECIO

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The two powerful women sat across from each other in the ornate, gold-curtained congressional hearing room: U.S. Rep. Kay Granger was at the center of the dais and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the witness seat as the Fort Worth Republican grilled her on world affairs.

From Egypt and Iran to China and Japan, Granger has emerged as a power broker in Congress on foreign policy as she finishes her first year as chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Agencies.

Since the Republican Party regained control of the House in 2011, whenever Clinton and other heavyweights in Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration face funding issues, it’s Granger they go to as they try to win congressional backing.

That’s why Clinton went before Granger earlier this month. The subcommittee sets funding for the State Department and foreign aid, a role that gives the former Fort Worth mayor major sway over the expenditure of over $53 billion for the next fiscal year.

Granger met Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – with whom she is on a first-name basis – as part of a select group of U.S. House members, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during a private Capitol Hill luncheon to learn about the Iranian nuclear threat.

A few days earlier, Granger played a critical behind-the-scenes role in a diplomatic coup for the U.S. – the release of U.S. citizens involved with pro-democracy groups who had been forced to stay in Egypt.

The eight-term congresswoman is nonetheless self-effacing, one year after becoming a “cardinal,” as the chairs of the 12 House Appropriations Committee subcommittees are known, about becoming a player on the world stage.

“It’s really something that happened” over time, said Granger, 69, in an interview. “I always set out to be on defense,” on the Appropriations Committee because of the military manufacturers in Tarrant County, including Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. and Bell Helicopter Textron.

“I never saw it taking me into this international role,” she said. Since joining the subcommittee in 2009, Granger has been to 17 countries, making multiple visits to places including Israel, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to being chair of her subcommittee, Granger serves on the panel’s defense subcommittee, as well as one on the Labor Dept. and other domestic agencies.

She has certainly proven to be comfortable in the role of foreign funding gatekeeper.

She spoke easily at the hearing with the formidable Clinton, a former first lady and former U.S. senator, who explained her agency’s budget and the reasons for U.S. policy in hotspots around the world, announcing a deal with North Korea to suspend nuclear testing in exchange for food.

Granger questioned Clinton about the U.S. citizens from non-profit pro-democracy groups being forced to stay in Egypt, whom the secretary hinted would soon be released. International Republican Institute President Lorne Craner said Granger, as well as Clinton, should get credit for that.

“She (Granger) has built relationships over the years and as good a friend as she is of Egypt, she was able to get across to them that this was making it very difficult, that any money for Egypt was under threat,” said Craner, who had five employees released, including Sam LaHood, the son of the U.S. Transportation secretary. “She played a very important role here.”

Granger’s tenacity was on display for the more than the two-hour exchange between the lawmakers and the secretary of state. It was Granger who controlled the board – and the gavel – showing, along with Clinton, a deep knowledge and familiarity with the issues. But it was Clinton who deferred to Granger, the keeper of the purse.

It’s a long way from East Fort Worth, where Granger, a former teacher and insurance business owner, got her political start.

Granger, Fort Worth mayor from 1991 to 1995, always had an interest in international relations, and her new job gives her all she could hope for.

Over the past year, Granger has had personal contact with many world figures, from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to rock star Bono, who has made humanitarian aid to Africa a personal crusade. In January, Granger and other lawmakers joined Bono in Ghana for the opening of a school that his One Campaign had promoted.

Granger arranged for Bono to meet lawmakers last June on Capitol Hill. The U2 frontman,

who referred to the lawmaker as “Kay,” told the Star-Telegram, “She’s a very elegant woman” who dishes a lot of “tough love.”

“We have to prove to her that these programs are saving lives,” Bono said.

Granger said she challenges advocates of aid, as well as herself, to answer basic questions about the justification for foreign spending: “What do we get for it? Is it in our national security interests? What is a measure of success?”

“We have put enormous restrictions on foreign assistance, program by program,” she said.

At the Clinton hearing this month, Granger said: “Our constituents demand that our foreign aid is aligned with our national security interests and American values. For that reason, the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill contained conditions on funding to many countries so that we would have time to see how events on the ground unfold before funds are disbursed.”

That common-sense approach to the U.S. role on the international stage has won Granger a following – especially in the Middle East where she has made many trips and has extensive contacts.

“It is a pleasure working with my friend Kay Granger because she understands the importance of diplomacy and development to our national security,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee. “I think it is not a coincidence that the only committee in Congress led by two women is among the most productive and collegial.”

Lowey was chairwoman when the Democrats were in power and Granger was the ranking Republican who accompanied the New Yorker in 2009 as part of a Congressional delegation trip to Israel and Egypt, and a Latin American trip to Peru, Mexico and Colombia.

American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Norm Ornstein said that Granger is “an internationalist” and that her position as an appropriations leader is “significant.”

“She doesn’t use it on her own for ideological crusades,” he said. “She’s serious about policy making.”

Pete Geren, a former U.S. Army secretary under President George W. Bush and a former Democratic congressman who held Granger’s 12th district seat, (and who succeeded former Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright,) before retiring in 1996, said that being an Appropriations “cardinal” means the congresswoman is a major player beyond Capitol Hill.

“She is a significant international player,” said Geren, “the most senior person in the House dealing with the foreign aid budget.”

“I think she’s got great leadership skills for that kind of position,” he said.

“The members of her subcommittee are international figures and she’s the chair. World leaders look to that subcommittee. It makes her an influential figure internationally. I don’t think people in the U.S. appreciate the reach of that committee,” said Geren, who now heads Fort Worth’s Sid W. Richardson Foundation.

Former Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief sees Granger’s approach to domestic issues working to her advantage internationally.

“The voice of common sense and sound reasoning has always been a part of her DNA,” said Moncrief. “Her congressional responsibilities have carried her from one end of the planet to another; she’s extremely well-traveled and knowledgeable about cultures and countries.”

Don’t take my word for it.  Check out this graph below:

This election is about whether we can afford another four years of lower economic growth and higher unemployment.   I don’t think we can.  Let’s worth together to make sure that one American does lose his job in 2012: Barack Obama.

Texas lawmakers: ‘Few solutions’ offered in Obama speech

WASHINGTON — North Texas Republicans in Congress were split when it came to sitting with a Democrat, but they were united in criticizing President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech.

“Tonight’s speech highlighted the massive disconnect between the president’s priorities and the nation’s most pressing challenges,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who chose not to have a “date” with a Democrat. “Rather than seriously address those challenges, the president went through a familiar wish list that both Congress and the American people have already rejected,” Cornyn said.

Republican Reps. Joe Barton of Ennis and Kay Granger of Fort Worth, along with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, all sat with Democrats. Barton sat with Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, Granger with Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, and Hutchison with Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland.

In an experiment begun last year, Republicans and Democrats sat together in a show of bipartisanship and civility after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell, who did not sit with a Democrat, said the president failed to offer real solutions while “the American people are hurting and want jobs.” Granger agreed, saying she heard “a lot of familiar themes but very few solutions” from Obama.

Hutchison, who is retiring this year, attended her last State of the Union address as senator. She, too, blasted the president for “three years of national economic turmoil.” But she also had some praise, commending him for his work on free trade, capital formation and domestic drilling. On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, said he hopes that the speech will help build cooperation and not divisions in Congress.

November 30, 2011

Contact: Sara Rafferty (469) 223-9141

CONGRESSWOMAN KAY GRANGER FILES FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 12

Fort Worth, TX. – Today, Congresswoman Kay Granger filed as a candidate for election in Congressional District 12.

“Serving the constituents of the 12^th District is one of the great privileges of my life,” Granger said.  “I am proud to stand up in Congress for the conservative values of lower taxes, less spending, secure borders and strong national security.  I look forward to earning the support of voters in this district, and continuing my work in Washington to represent the values of my constituents.”

As drawn by the federal court in San Antonio, the new Congressional District 12 will include Parker County and a portion of Tarrant County, areas that Granger has traditionally represented.

Congresswoman Granger currently serves as the Chairwoman of the State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee.  She also serves on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.  With her subcommittee assignments, Granger is a recognized leader on national security and foreign policy, and well positioned to advocate for the needs of the people and industries in the 12^th District.

Prior to her tenure in Congress, Granger served as Mayor of Fort Worth from 1991-1995.  Granger is also a former high school teacher, and owned and operated a successful insurance agency for over 20 years in Fort Worth.  She has three grown children, and five grandchildren.

###

 LA Times

 Supreme Court to review Obama healthcare law ahead of election

 Reporting from Washington—

The Supreme Court agreed today to decide the fate of President Obama’s healthcare law and its requirement that all Americans have basic health insurance by 2014.

 The justices said they would rule on constitutional challenges to the entire law brought by top Republican officials from 26 states, who contend the Democratic-controlled Congress overstepped its authority in passing the measure.

 The high court is likely to rule on the issue by late June as the presidential campaign moves into high gear.

 In agreeing to hear the cases, the court said it will decide four questions that have arisen: Is it constitutional for Congress to require all persons to have health insurance by 2014? If this provision is struck down, can it be “severed” from the law or must the entire statute fall? Is it unfair to the states to force them to pay the extra cost of expanding the Medicaid program? Finally, should a decision be put off until 2015 when the first taxpayers would pay a penalty for not having health insurance?

The latter question gives the court a way to put off a decision if the justices opt to do so. A long-standing tax law says judges should not decide on “tax” cases until someone has paid the tax, and the penalty for not having health insurance would be collected by the Internal Revenue Service.

 The justices expect to hear arguments in the cases in March.

 No Republican in the House or Senate voted in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010, but the law would need the vote of at least one Republican appointee on the Supreme Court to survive the constitutional challenge in 2012. Five of the nine justices were named by Republican presidents, while four were named by Democrats.

 The Constitution says Congress may “regulate commerce,” and Democrats say national regulation of the health insurance market was needed to control costs, spread the risk and make sure all persons could buy insurance, even if they had a preexisting medical condition.

 The Republican governors and state attorneys who challenged the law argued that the power to regulate commerce does not extend to requiring unwilling buyers to purchase insurance. They also allege that the law’s expansion of Medicaid will force the states to take on extra burdens.

 Sponsors of the law estimate that it will extend health coverage to 16 million more children and low-income adults through expanding Medicaid, and the federal government will pay more 90% of the added cost. The Republican-led states object nonetheless and say they are being forced to accept an unfair deal.

 Former Solicitor Gen. Paul Clement, a George W. Bush administration veteran, will represent the Republican-led states, while the Obama administration’s solicitor general, Donald Verrilli Jr., will defend the law.

 In his appeal, Clement said the law is “unprecedented” in its scope and “raises constitutional issues that go to the heart of our system of limited government.”

 Verrilli said the mandate for all to have health insurance is needed to deal with freeloaders.

 Each year, individuals without insurance “shift billions of dollars of health care costs to others,” including the taxpayers, he said. In 2008, the uninsured cost hospitals, insurers and taxpayers $43 billion, he said.

 The White House quickly released a statement in support of the court’s action.

 ”Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, one million more young Americans have health insurance, women are getting mammograms and preventive services without paying an extra penny out of their own pocket and insurance companies have to spend more of your premiums on health care instead of advertising and bonuses,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree.”

One of the success stories I discussed last week was news from GE that they will add another 130 new jobs in Fort Worth.  GE is building a 236,000-square-foot facility as a part of a $95 million overall investment.  GE has already found Fort Worth an easy place to do business – the city worked closely with the company to make sure the expansion would be as seamless as possible.

This comes after the recent announcement  they made in May that the company would begin building locomotives here starting in 2012, creating 500 high-tech manufacturing jobs with the possibility of 275 more jobs down the road.

The other great news I delivered last week is that two of the bridges planned for the Trinity Uptown area have now been fully funded and will be completed on schedule as part of the Trinity River Vision project.  The North Central Texas Council of Governments was able to add $15 million to the $23 million in federal funding I have secured for the bridge construction.

When the Trinity River Vision project is complete, it will create 16,000 permanent jobs and will add $1.6 billion to the Fort Worth economy.  This project continues to move forward because of the partnership between community, local, state, and the federal leaders. 

These are the kinds of opportunities that allow North Texas to grow in spite of a down national economy.  We have the workforce, the infrastructure, and the business climate to compete with anyone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-silverstein/the-future-of-funding-dev_b_877065.html

The Future of Funding: Development Aid as an Investment

There is an intriguing dynamic developing in our nation’s capital among the three major influences that could end up changing the future of American aid to developing countries.

One is Congresswoman Kay Granger from Ft. Worth, TX. Another is Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). And then there is the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that has assumed the role of arbiter of the quality of the U.S. government’s leadership in global agricultural development. Each of them has the power to exert enormous influence over the gristmill through which government funding is pulverized into short and long term support.

Congresswoman Granger set the table recently at a luncheon when she praised Bill Gates and his foundation as a model for serving the world’s poorest. “Foreign aid must be viewed as an investment, not an expense,” she said. “Where money is wasted, it should be stopped. Where funding is ineffective, it should be redirected.

“But when foreign aid is carefully guided and targeted at a specific issue, it can and must be effective. Bill Gates has shown us that investments overseas can produce a strong return.”

What made the Congresswoman’s words so resonant is her position as Chairwoman of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee. By recognizing that well managed programs are an answer to critics who consider foreign assistance to be throwing good money after bad she opened a portal through which her colleagues in the Republican Party will be able to navigate the tricky world of development aid.

If it becomes widely recognized that it is in the self-interest of the United States government to underwrite productive investments in emerging economies it is likely that others in Congress will look to her for leadership in creating a template that builds “political will” strong enough to fuel robust funding for results-driven programming like the administration’s marquee agricultural initiative called Feed The Future.

Shah, a rising star in Washington, DC, is a once-in-a-generation visionary who is driving innovation at the Agency for International Development, which has the manpower, the know-how and a professional staff that is tough and smart. What they’ve needed is a show runner and now they’ve got one. But, the funding is drying up, so every dollar is being revisited.

Indeed, as he left the stage at a major symposium on agricultural development last year Shah tossed off a line imploring the audience to demand that his agency perform with efficiencies that would merit distinction within the federal bureaucracy. He did so with an earnestness that underscored his determination to lead his team into a new era of productivity.

“Hold our feet to the fire,” he said, and Marshall Bouton took him up on it. Bouton, President of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, was already working on a follow-up to its 2009 seminal report on renewing American leadership in agricultural development. Shah’s feet/fire remark wrapped that analysis in a bow.

In May 2011 the Chicago Council published its report card on the first two years of the Obama administration’s effectiveness in addressing 21 key issues identified by the Council that it considers essential for rebuilding U.S. support of agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It gave the federal government an overall grade of B- for securing food availability in those two regions.

The report had a decidedly positive tone, despite criticism that the scope of work was too narrow, that USAID has not tapped into the enormous intellectual property represented by land-grant universities that have excellent agricultural colleges, and made the point that there should be greater involvement by the private sector. Other shortcomings were attributed in large measure to a lack of adequate funding. But, it marked progress for the first time in decades.

Granger’s investment remarks, Shah’s feet to the fire challenge, and Bouton’s report card sound a lot like the rhetoric clamoring up from town squares since an energized voting public took a renewed interest in how its government has been spending money. This tri-partite movement is being driven from the top of each organization at the same time that the philosophy behind it is being embedded in grassroots organizations throughout the political system. It’s hard to see how it is going to be ignored.

Certainly, not every dollar of aid will be used productively, nor is it expected to be. There has to be experimentation and, as every farmer knows, nothing is harder to fathom than Mother Nature. But, Marshall Bouton knows what progress looks like. He’ll bump a grade point for more effective leadership and better communications. He’ll give extra credit for trickling down to smaller U. S. businesses the government’s efforts to help access foreign markets. USAID will earn a better grade from the Chicago Council if it demonstrates a tendency to engage new participants instead of continually procuring services from the same cadre of NGOs and private sector members that they continually engage.

Congresswoman Granger and her colleagues know what effective management looks like. Sitting in hearings with bureaucrats making excuses for poor oversight must sound like screeching inside their heads as testimony drags on. On the other hand, reviewing systems that produce results oriented outcomes like those proposed for Feed The Future may neutralize the instinct to throttle mission directors at USAID who are not vigilant about how the peoples’ money is spent.

Ultimately, it will be the private sector in collaboration with government agencies that have learned how to emulate the kind of return for which Congresswoman Granger complimented the Gates Foundation that will drive the success of foreign aid of all kinds. Collaboration being the key concept. The private sector can’t do it alone and the bureaucracy doesn’t know how to do it without guidance. Private capital needs a well-heeled partner to share the risk, open doors, front run confounding cultural barriers. So, synergies and partnerships can feed off each other to produce much more cost effective results.

Government agencies need innovative managers who can solve practical problems quickly, and who can build systems from the ground up. They need people who know how to answer phones and return phone messages, who understand how the private sector thinks and can get a job done. They need to embrace the ingenuity of American enterprise, not alienate it.

It is all quite simple actually. Advocates of global development aid have the best chance of building a base of sustainable support if they can convince the vast federal bureaucracy to become familiar with two old expressions that are likely to dictate its future funding:

“To get something you never had you have to do something you’ve never done.”
But, “If you keep doing what you’re doing you’re going to keep getting what you’ve got.”