House

Barack Obama has said that raising taxes in a struggling economy is “the last thing you want to do,” but for some Democrats on Capitol Hill raising taxes is a top priority. A proposal from Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD favors raising top marginal income tax rates to nearly 50 percent.

Dakota Wood, a retired Marine with 20 years of service, announced last Friday that he's running for Congress in Oklahoma as a Republican in the Second Congressional District. 

According to the Budget Control Act, the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the so-called supercommittee, must be formed within 14 days of the bill becoming law. Since President Obama just signed the law, Congress has until August 16, two weeks from today, to fill the slots. The next question Democrats and Republicans will need to answer is, which of their members will they select for the supercommittee? 

I’m glad for the long-suffering John Boehner. I respect those who stood with him and their attempt to do the right thing as they saw it. I hope the deal—for as long as it lasts—turns out to benefit the country and advance conservative principles. I will curb my annoyance at those who triumphantly want to claim it represents “a fundamental change in governance.” I hope the deal proves to be a step in the right direction.

I understand the debt ceiling deal is probably going to pass. I’m not even comfortable unequivocally urging members to vote against it, given all the real loyalties and future relationships and competing responsibilities actual members have to deal with. And I’m not sure I’d urge anyone to vote against it if he were the 51st or 218th vote, because I don’t know that one could adequately manage, either in the real world or the political one, the consequences of “default.”

O tempora, o mores! O Cicero, if thou couldst be with us now! The corruption of our age is approaching that of your own! But who speaks for the ancient Roman—and modern American!—virtues of civic duty and personal responsibility?

Mitch McConnell’s plan, as Eric Cantor and Jim DeMint said tonight, is “going nowhere.” Which is where it deserved to go. It was too clever by half, transparently cynical, probably unconstitutional, and Rube Goldberg-like in its incomprehensibility.

The following open letter has officially been released, arguing strongly that the House of Representatives should not act to cut off funds for military operations in Libya. The letter makes the case for continued efforts to remove Muammar Qaddafi from power.

Paul Ryan was interviewed on Fox News’s Special Report last night. Watch the segment for an impressive, and unapologetic, defense of the House Republican budget—and (what Republicans too rarely stress) an explanation that the status quo is "collapsing." His plan, Ryan says, "saves Medicare from going bankrupt. Senator Reid seems to be content with the fact that Medicare is going bankrupt because they're offering no plan or solution to solve the problem."

Much has been made of the Paul Ryan-authored House budget’s proposal to make Medicare more solvent through increased competition and choice — and rightly so. But that proposal is hardly the sole difference between the respective budgets authored by Ryan and President Obama.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the House of Representatives voted yesterday to repeal mandatory federal funding to states to establish Obamacare exchanges. The Inquirer writes:

While all of the attention has understandably focused on Rep. Paul Ryan's budget versus the President's "framework" -- that's not really a budget but wants to be taken as such -- there are actually a number of budgets floating around Capitol Hill. Democrats have the "People's Budget" from the Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus has put forward a budget and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.,  has put forth a budget as well.