The recently passed $26 state and public union bailout bill, which Pelosi called Congress back from recess to pass in an emergency session, sparked some deserved criticism on the House floor:

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Paul Ryan schools Chris Matthews on spending cuts:

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According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the black box health care bill comes with big tax increases on the middle class:

Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes — in 2019 alone — due to healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper.

The new law raises $15.2 billion over 10 years by limiting the medical expense deduction, a provision widely used by taxpayers who either have a serious illness or are older.

…Once the law is fully implemented in 2019, the JCT estimates the deduction limitation will affect 14.8 million taxpayers — 14.7 million of them will earn less than $200,000 a year. These taxpayers are single and joint filers, as well as heads of households.

Barack Obama from the campaign:

“Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

Honesty fail.  In fact, Mike Pence laughed at silly Democrat tax spin on the House floor:

Nor is the health care bill likely to be the last of the tax increases:

Leading voices in the Senate are considering a new tax on gasoline as part of an effort to win Republican and oil industry support for the energy and climate bill now idling in Congress.

…It is shaping up as a critical but controversial piece in the efforts by Graham, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to write a climate bill that moderate Republicans could support. Along those lines, the bill will also include an expansion of offshore oil drilling and major new incentives for nuclear power plant construction.

Environmental groups have long advocated gasoline taxes to reduce fossil fuel consumption; the oil industry has spent heavily in recent years to fight taxes, which it says would harm consumers.

Don’t get me wrong, if we’re dead set on doing harm to the economy in order to encourage less use of fossil fuels and more use of “alternatives,” then such a Pigovian tax is the least bad solution.  It will make investment in alternative fuels more attractive, but without getting the government too much into the business of picking specific winners and losers.

The problem is that much of the reasoning used to establish that there is a significant enough negative externality for fossil fuel use to justify such a tax (such as global warming) is flimsy or questionable.  Raising such a tax now, moreover, will have very negative consequences for an economy that is already struggling to recover from decades of government missteps.

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Writing in the Wall Street Journal today, Congressmen Mike Pence and Jeb Hensarling lay out how we can wrangle government and get it under control:

Fiscal storm clouds are upon us. In five years, federal spending has skyrocketed to 24.7% from 19.9% of our economy. That’s the highest level since World War II. Borrowing has ballooned the national debt to $11.9 trillion from $7.3 trillion, a five-year increase equal to the accumulation of debt between President George Washington and President Bill Clinton.

Unfortunately, the long-term fiscal picture is worse. As the Baby Boom generation retires and the cost of health care continues to escalate, entitlement programs will cause federal spending to rise to 40% of our economy, double its post-World War II average. This is assuming that spending does not increase even further, an assumption that the trillion-dollar “stimulus” bill and the 84% increase in nondefense discretionary spending President Obama signed into law argues against.

Their proposal:

Winston Churchill once said that “Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” We’ve exhausted the possibilities. Now it’s time to do the right thing.

That is why we are proposing a Spending Limit Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment would limit spending to one-fifth of the economy (our historical spending average since World War II). The limit could only be waived by a declaration of war or by a two-thirds congressional vote.

As with other constitutional amendments, Congress would be given the authority to enforce and implement it. But for the first time, the federal government would have a limit on its size and scope. The Spending Limit Amendment does not promise a particular spending plan about what programs to restrain and by how much. Rather, it puts a legal constraint on lawmakers present and future.

As ideas go this is a pretty good one.  Constitutional amendments are very difficult to pass, though.  Can the Tea Party movement rally around this idea and make November a referendum on it?  It’s possible, but I’m not sure how that could be enough.

Republicans would have to run the table just to get a Senate majority.  It’s not possible for them to win the 66 votes needs to pass a Constitutional amendment.  And no matter how scared they are, I just don’t see any Democrats voting for this.  It would mean the end of their tax and spend racket, and would force them to deal with the growing fiscal crises of Medicare and Social Security.

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Mike Pence unsurprisingly delivered a stellar speech Friday.  The morning’s lineup was good, but none had yet delivered a jolt to shake the crowd out of their grogginess following what was probably a late night for day one in most cases.

I’m posting the video below, so I won’t recount item by item.  Rather, I’ll reiterate things I’ve probably said about Pence before.  He’s the most polished speaker here.  Interestingly he has some of the mannerisms of George W. Bush, like an “oh shucks smirk” that probably drives the left wild.  But that’s where the similarities (in terms of communication ability) end.  Pence also has a Kennedy-esque quality to his oratory, and a proven ability to excite the crowd.  See for yourself:

Later in the afternoon, Pence stopped by the bloggers lounge:

Mike Pence to bloggers: 100% chance Republicans take back the House

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Another Democrat is bowing out from the 2010 races.  Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, one of the few less liberal members of the party, has been popular in a state typically more favorable toward Republicans.  This decision is a bit surprising, as the polls have not had him behind any of his possible Republican opponents.  Without an incumbent with a lot of cash, and given the fact that Bayh was unusually popular as a Democrat in Indiana, it’s quite likely that today’s announcement has shifted the state from the leans Democrat to the leans Republican category.

The Democratic leadership cannot be happy.

Update: Mike Pence is reconsidering his decision not to run for the seat.

Update II: Pence again declines to enter the race.

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Folks on the right are finally learning how to use this new media stuff.  Here’s three new videos with some juicy, political red meat.

From Rep. Pence:

From the Independence Institute:

And finally, from Rep. Boehner:

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Not everyone in the Republican party is too scared to stand up against the big government onslaught:

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Simple and to the point:

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Here’s Mike Pence from day 1 of CPAC.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

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