Conversations with Conservatives is a group of free market and liberty-minded members of Congress that meets monthly with traditional press and bloggers to discuss the most important issues of the day. Chaired by Representatives Tim Huelskamp (KS-01), Raúl Labrador (ID-01), and Jim Jordan (OH-04), each meeting features different conservative members of Congress who share their ideas and field questions from the media.
Participating Members at the February 2014 session of Conversations with Conservatives include: Rep. Tim Huelskamp (KS-01), Rep. Raúl Labrador (ID-01), Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-04), Rep. Joe Barton (TX- 06), Rep. Jeff Duncan (SC-03), Rep. Vicky Hartzler (MO-04), and Rep. Cynthia Lummis (WY-AL).
Viewers may also participate in the conversation on Twitter (tweet to @conversations using #CWC113).
The event will be moderated by Genevieve Wood of The Heritage Foundation.
(AP) — A 16-year-old Kansas boy’s interest in 3-D printers led to a new hand for a 9-year-old family friend.
Mason Wilde of Louisburg recently used a 3-D printer at the Johnson County Library to make a prosthetic hand for a friend named Matthew, who was born without fingers on one hand. Matthew’s mother did not want his last name or hometown publicized.
The device, called a Robohand, is driven by the motion of the wrist. The hand opens when the wrist moves up and closes when it moves down.
Matthew says he’s grateful to Wilde. He and Wilde have become fast friends, and Wilde says he plans to stay in touch to keep improving and “tweaking” Matthew’s Robohand.
Following the release of a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found that Obamacare will result in a loss of over two million full-time workers from the economy by 2017, Congressman Sam Graves (MO-06), Chairman of the House Small Business Committee, issued the following statement:
“Today’s CBO report confirms what so many of us have been saying for years: Obamacare is a job killer. The problems and frustrations around an unreliable, unsecure website and an unprepared bureaucracy are just the tip of the Obamacare iceberg. It’s bad enough that millions of Americans have already lost their coverage, and that the president’s line ‘if you like your plan you can keep it’ was named the 2013 lie of the year. Now, millions of Americans face the possibility of losing hours at work, shifting from full-time to part-time, or simply having their job eliminated entirely, directly because of a law that the president said would help them.
“The threat to the economy runs much deeper and the consequences for jobs are much graver. The nation’s economic recovery has a long way to go and this law is a heavy burden on small businesses that offer our best hope for more growth and jobs. The closer we get to full implementation of the law, the clearer the peril of Obamacare is to our nation’s job creators and families.”
The percentage of the American workforce that has a job or is looking for one, known as the labor force participation rate, stands at only 62.8 percent, the lowest in 36 years. There are still over 10 million Americans unemployed, and 8 million more who have part-time jobs but would prefer full-time ones.
Today’s CBO report predicts that the labor force participation rate will continue to drop while the debt and deficits are likely to rise overall during the next ten years. An additional report from the agency found that “employment at the end of 2013 was about 6 million jobs short of where it would be if the unemployment rate had returned to its prerecession level and if the participation rate had risen to the level it would have attained without the current cyclical weakness.”
“These reports should be yet another wake-up call that big-government Washington policies are having, and will continue to have, negative effects on small-town American families,” Graves added. “Our current path is unsustainable. It’s time we replace Obamacare, enact tax and regulatory reform, and help Americans get back to work so that we can grow our economy and revive opportunity for all Americans.”
(AP) CVS Caremark is kicking the habit of selling tobacco products at its more than 7,600 drugstores nationwide.
The nation’s second-largest drugstore chain says it will phase out cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco by Oct. 1 as it continues to focus more on health care.
CVS Caremark Corp. and other major drugstore chains have been adding clinics to their stores for several years. Their pharmacists deliver flu shots and other immunizations, and their clinics also have been expanding the care they deliver.
CVS CEO Larry Merlo says the company decided it can no longer sell cigarettes at places where it also provides health care.
The move will cost the Woonsocket, R.I., company about $2 billion in annual revenue. But CVS executives expect it to also help the health care business grow.
(AP) – A Missouri House committee is considering legislation that would create a commission to study the state’s official flag.
The House Veterans Committee held a public hearing Tuesday on the measure. Sponsoring Rep. Jeff Roorda, of Barnhart, says it would give Missouri the opportunity to adopt a new flag, if officials decide a change is needed.
The nine-person commission would hold public hearings around the state, then submit a report to the governor, secretary of state and lawmakers on whether the flag should be altered.
The state’s official flag was adopted in 1913, nearly 100 years after Missouri became a state.
The committee did not vote on the measure.
(AP) Missouri lawmakers moved forward Tuesday with a constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to block spending cuts enacted by the governor.
The proposal comes amid frustration in the Republican-controlled Legislature over cuts enacted by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, including his freezing of several hundred million dollars while campaigning this fall to sustain the veto of a tax cut.
Sponsoring Rep. Todd Richardson said decisions about how money should be spent is the Legislature’s responsibility and that allowing one branch of government to claim duties of another upsets the balance of powers.
“What we tried to get to was a product that would still give the governor some flexibility to withhold (funding) when there is a reason for doing so, but to say that should not be an unchecked power,” said Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff.
The House General Laws Committee endorsed the proposal after a hearing Tuesday. If approved by the Legislature, the measure would need statewide voter approval to be enacted.
The Missouri Constitution says the governor “may control the rate at which any appropriation is expended during the period of the appropriation by allotment or other means, and may reduce the expenditures of the state or any of its agencies below their appropriations whenever the actual revenues are less than the revenue estimates upon which the appropriations were based.”
Under the proposed constitutional amendment, the Legislature could override cuts with a two-thirds vote. The governor would issue a proclamation to the Legislature whenever the rate of spending would not come in equal quarterly payments adding up to the full appropriation or when the amount of an appropriation is reduced because revenues fall short. In addition, the governor would be barred from cutting funding to pay debt.
Nixon said in a written statement the constitution requires a balanced budget and that Democratic and Republican governors have fulfilled the obligation to control spending and balance the budget.
“This effort to amend the Constitution would weaken time-tested budget safeguards, allow for unrestrained Washington, DC-style spending and threaten Missouri’s spotless AAA credit rating,” Nixon said.
The most recent budget dispute between Nixon and the Legislature arose this fall. The governor froze $400 million for education, building projects and other government services when the current year’s spending plan took effect July 1, while citing concerns lawmakers might override his veto of a tax cut. Nixon argued the tax cut would have punched a hole in the state’s budget.
Missouri started the fiscal year with a cash balance of $450 million, and Republican lawmakers criticized the spending freeze as unjustified.
Nixon released $215 million after the veto override attempt was unsuccessful and has since made additional funds available. Still restricted is $134 million for capital improvements.
Republican Sen. Ryan Silvey also has proposed a constitutional amendment focused on the budget. It seeks to curb the governor’s budget power over education spending.
(AP) – A committee that advises the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies on Missouri River recovery efforts is meeting next week in Kansas City.
The corps says the committee will gather Feb. 11-13 at the Westin Crown Center hotel, with most sessions open to the public. The committee’s members include representatives of eight states, several American Indian tribes and interests such as navigation, irrigation and recreation.
The committee will hear from scientists and discuss efforts to help the pallid sturgeon and two other federal protected species.
(AP) – Snow, bitter cold and high winds are not enough for a snow day at the Missouri Capitol.
Some committee hearings were canceled Tuesday as several inches of snow blanketed Jefferson City. But the House and Senate both planned to be in session Wednesday.
Lawmakers planned a full slate of hearings and testimony about legislation, at least from witnesses able to reach the capital city amid the high winds and falling temperatures expected to follow Tuesday’s snowfall.
(AP) Missouri’s attorney general is asking a federal judge to strike down a California law regulating the living conditions of chickens.
The lawsuit takes aim at a California law barring the sale of eggs produced by hens kept in cages that don’t meet California’s size and space requirements. The California egg law is to take effect in 2015.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster contends the California law violates the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution by effectively imposing new requirements on out-of-state farmers.
Koster says Missouri farmers sell about 540 million eggs annually in California and would have to spend about $120 million to remodel their chicken cages if they want to remain competitive.
