Texas Congresswoman Kay Granger: Republicans Will Take House & Senate in Mid-Term Elections
Texas Congresswoman Kay Granger Predicts that Republicans will take back the House and Senate in Mid-Term Elections.
Kicking off his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Truth for America Show” on WZAB-AM, Neal Asbury opened the show by describing the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a true tragedy in multiple ways. It starts with the obvious environmental damage it is doing to the area, followed closely behind by the economic damage it is doing to tourism and fishing. But the most egregious tragedy, according to Asbury, is the inaction of the Obama administration.
He asked: “Don’t these people look at history? Didn’t Katrina give some hard earned lessons of the misery that can ensue when the government sits on its hands during a disaster?” He proposed that the government’s response to any emergency is to put the solution in the hands of the people that created it. “Banks mess up…gives them more money to fix their mess. Car companies mess up…gives them money to fix their own mistakes. BP messes up, they give BP the responsibility of fixing their own mistake.” Asbury added.
Asbury was particularly incredulous that while BP was responsible for the largest oil spill in US history, President Obama was attending a $17,000 a plate fundraising event in California hosted by the Getty family, which of course, made their money in the oil business. He suggested that this was indicative of “the arrogance and tone set by the Obama administration when it comes to being in synch with the American public and entrepreneurs.”
He concluded his introduction by urging listeners to consider that “This oil spill disaster must spill over into the November mid-term elections so we can restore a government that listens to its citizens and makes good judgments.”
Neal’s first guest was Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-TX), who represents the 12th District of Texas. She is the only Republican woman from Texas to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was selected to serve as the Ranking Member of the appropriations subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations for the 111th Congress. Her selection makes her the highest ranking Republican on the subcommittee.
Congresswoman Granger maintained that while the Democrats are “on hold,” the Republicans are “moving forward on our agenda to listen to the American voter. We aren’t waiting for the mid-terms to take action. We’re moving to ensure that our troops are being funded and that we deal with addressing the soaring debt.”
She is offering an amendment that will prevent America from bailing out Europe with IMF funds.
Congresswoman Granger believes that the Republicans are “recruiting a great list of strong candidates with proven conservative values for the mid-term elections. We’re going after the seats we lost to the Democrats in the last election who put up conservative-leaning candidates, but wound up voting with Nancy Pelosi.”
Commenting on losing the seat of the late John Murtha to another Democrat, Congresswoman Granger said that the Republicans learned some lessons about special House races. She noted that they are different than regular elections, and that this one drew a huge base of liberals. She admitted that they miscalculated the turnout at the polls.
She predicted House wins for the Republicans in Colorado, Indiana and Wisconsin, and Senate wins in Illinois and Florida. She thinks that the Republicans will win back the House, and they have a good chance of winning back the Senate.
Immigration is going to be a big issue for the next election, and not just in Arizona. Texas, according to Congresswoman Granger. She knows the Immigration Bill will be divisive, but she wants to see the Bill protect America’s borders and enforce current immigration laws.
She was astounded that during Mexico President Calderon’s visit to the U.S. he had the audacity to criticize America’s immigration laws and dictate what the US policy should be for Mexican immigrants. Meanwhile, she noted that 23,000 of his own people are being killed at Mexico’s own border.
Congresswoman Granger suggests that the Democratic support of an amnesty Bill for illegal immigrants is all about the votes, with Democrats counting on the 12 million votes they would receive from illegal immigrants to help them win the 2012 election.
“One of the results of the influx of illegal immigrants is that only 50 percent of people pay income tax. Several years ago the government estimated that the US could accept 300,000 legal immigrants a year and be able to absorb them and crate economic support. Now we are seeing 1.5 million illegal immigrants a year,” said Congresswoman Granger.
One of the Congresswoman’s initiatives is working with Iraqi women to ensure that they are properly represented in the new Iraqi government. Today, by law, 1/3 of the government ruling body must be women.
Returning to “Truth for America” was Director of the Port of Miami, Bill Johnson, who was appointed Port Director in 2006. He oversees the top container port in the State of Florida and the 12th largest in the nation. Under his stewardship, the Port of Miami has maintained its leadership position as the busiest cruise port in the world with more than four million passengers traveling through its terminals each year. The Port of Miami has a total economic impact of more than $17 billion a year and generates more than 176,000 jobs. Port revenues last year totaled more than $101 million. As the Cargo Gateway of the Americas, the Port of Miami offers services to nearly two dozen of the world’s leading cargo lines, reaching some 250 ports in more than 100 countries
A discussion ensued about the shortage of shipping containers, which is raising prices and reducing the flow of outgoing US products. One of the reasons for the shortage is the consolidation of shipping companies.
Johnson sees a slow rebirth of the export business, but that there are no easy solutions. He is optimistic that the Port of Miami will be able to meet the projected growth spurt, but is also counting on more Federal support to shore up the Port’s infrastructure. This includes deepening the harbor depth to 50 feet by 2014.
The Port has already received $400 million in Federal support, but it is still insufficient for their needs. He reminded listeners that 90 percent of the goods that come into America come over water. He sees that the maritime industry will come back stronger than ever and will come through the challenges ahead.
Neal Asbury’s final guest was Stephen Spruiell, a reporter for the National Review magazine. Spruiell appeared on the show to discuss his recent piece about Senator Chris Dodd’s Financial Reform Bill, which has been characterized as a “permanent bailout bill” for troubled companies. This explains why Republicans have threatened to filibuster it. They want to close loopholes for proposed bailouts.
“The Republicans don’t like the proposed Bill because it will bring back the sentiment that some companies are too big to fail. The Resolution Fund is poorly designed because it lets the government bail out creditors when big companies fail. It allows creditors to receive more money if a company files for bankruptcy,” said Spruiell.
He added that labor unions like the Bill because it gives them special provisions. Wall Street also likes the Bill, which is a reflection of the huge gains Democrats have made over the last 10 years cozying up to money people. This explains why the provisions of the Bill are so generous to financial companies and large banks, according to Spruiell.
The Neal Asbury Truth for America show tackles free trade and enterprise issues every Friday from 5:00 PM until 6:00 PM on WZAB-AM 880. The show is streamed live on line at WWW.880THEBIZ.COM, which is affiliated with Bloomberg Radio and CNBC, and can be heard on 920-WGKA (Atlanta); KSEV (Houston); 1500 AM (Washington D.C.); 1220-KDOW (San Francisco); and 1300-KKOL (Seattle).
Read more about Texas Congresswoman Kay Granger.
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