Over the next few days, Congress will be considering both the budget for next year and the so-called emergency war supplemental. Both of these bills need to be carefully considered. All indications are that the Democrats in charge of the Budget Committee will be using procedural gimmicks and half truths to increase spending and raise your taxes next year. As a member of the Budget Committee, I will be writing more on this tomorrow and later in the week when the specifics of the bill are released.

The "emergency" war supplemental will probably be voted on this Thursday or Friday. As I mentioned last week, the Democratic leadership has tacked on over $20 billion in completely unrelated spending to the bill in order to buy votes from reluctant members. They have also inserted a minimum wage increase into the bill after they failed to generate the support needed for passage under the normal process.

The RSC has released a very good report titled "Perspectives from the Right," which reveals the extent to which the Democrats have dirtied this bill with special interest handouts. Brian Reidl in the Baltimore-Sun and James Antle in the American Spectator have also written two good articles about the irresponsible practices employed by the Democrats.

Right now, it remains unclear whether the Democrats will be able to muster the votes to pass this turkey...I mean bill. Be sure and check back as the week goes along. The Democrats will be trying to spend a lot of your money this week.

Here are some more links to sites talking about the American Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

Front Burner:
http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2007/03/14/a-new-contract-with-america/
Free Republic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1801418/posts
Residual Forces:
http://www.residualforces.com/2007/03/14/the-american-taxpayer-bill-of-rights/
M-Rebman:
http://mrebman.info-blogs.com/?p=3280
Republican News Blog:
http://republicannews.info/63-republican-news-march-14-2007-1232-am
Save the GOP:
http://www.savethegop.com/2007/03/13/rsc-unveils-american-taxpayer-bill-of-rights-to-bloggers/
Fausta's Blog:
http://faustasblog.com/2007/03/bloggers-call-on-proposed-american.html
Amidst the Crowd:
http://amidstthecrowd.com/?p=68
Reason Magazine:
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/119118.html
Jason Pye:
http://www.jasonpye.com/blog/2007/03/rsc_unveils_new_fiscal_strateg.html

Here is a little more feedback on what is being said about the American Taxpayer Bill of Rights:

Club for Growth President Pat Toomey:
"We are proud of the work RSC members are doing to protect taxpayers, promote economic growth, and curtail government spending…American taxpayers would be better off if more congressional members followed in their lead." More

Patrick O’Connor from the Politico in an entertaining write up about our press conference yesterday: 
"Rep. Tom Feeney, the always eloquent Florida Republican, followed up that zinger by quoting the 18th Century French philosopher and satirist Voltaire in his own mini-discourse on the fundamental injustice of the Democrats’ fiscal policy."

Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia) and I both made posts about the proposal on the Hill’s Blog:

Rep. Tom Price of Georgia:
"I think it’s important for us to appreciate that it is time for us to stop finding ways to fund larger government."

My Post
"Known as the 'American Taxpayer Bill of Rights' this proposal will lay the foundation for resolving the fiscal nightmare that is our current budgetary and spending process."

Now, its time to discuss one of those major issues of the week (well at least if you are a sports fan).  I am ready to announce my Final Four picks. And just so that you know I am objective, I have to confess I left off my two alma matters UCLA (Bachelors in Economics) and USC (Masters in Taxation). I would love to see them make it all the way, but I just don't think they will. Just a warning, my knowledge of college hoops is not at the level of my knowledge of fiscal matters. Anyway here are my picks:

Kansas
Georgetown
Florida
Memphis

Last night, I wrote a post showing how the Democrats have thrown over $20 billion in unrelated spending and special handouts to the upcoming war supplemental. Today, I found some more striking information within this 172 page bill that the mainstream media is largely choosing to ignore, but needs to see the light of day.

As you may recall, last January during the Democrats "100 Hour Agenda" they passed a minimum wage increase. Since that time, they have been unable to work with the Senate to get a bill to the President, and it has stalled. So, facing the prospects that this legislation may not go anywhere the Democrats have up and decided to add it to the supplemental. This is nuts. Basically, since the Dems can't get their policy to pass on its face they have resorted to forcing it through in this must-pass legislation. Nevermind the fact that the supplemental is only supposed to be for emergency war spending.

Nancy Pelosi vowed following last fall's election to make "this the most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history." After seeing repeated examples of stuff like this, I would have to disagree. Normal expenditures or policy debates should not be arbitrarily designated as emergencies.

I was pleased to see in the papers this morning that Rob Portman, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, has expressed his opposition to the extra spending included in the war supplemental. He was quoted in Congessional Quarterly as saying "the war supplemental should be focused on combating terrorism and supporting our troops, and not held hostage to unrelated, domestic spending that can be addressed through the normal appropriations process." I hope he carries on this message to the President, and urges a veto if the bill is not clean.

Here’s a collection of what’s being said about the American Taxpayer Bill of Rights:

Stephen Spruiell on National Review:
The Party of Limited Government Returns? House conservatives go grassroots and online.

A Web Memo from the Heritage Foundation:
The Republican Study Committee’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights:  Making Federal Budget Accountability a Reality

Robert Bluey of Robertbluey.com and RedState:
Introducing the American Taxpayer Bill of Rights

Brendan Steinhauser of FreedomWorks:
RSC to announce American Taxpayer Bill of Rights

Fausta:
Bloggers call on the proposed American Taxpayer Bill of Rights (A recap of yesterday’s call with bloggers)

And last but not least….here is an editorial I penned in today’s edition of the OC Register:

I got back a few minutes ago from the RSC's unveiling of the "American Taxpayer Bill of Rights." This fiscal reform agenda will do much to resolve the systemic budget and spending problems in Congress. Click here for the full proposal.

• Taxpayers have a right to have a federal government that does not grow beyond their ability to pay for it.
• Taxpayers have a right to receive back each dollar they entrust to the government for their retirement.
• Taxpayers have a right to expect the government to balance the budget without having their taxes raised.
• Taxpayers have a right to a simple, fair tax code that they can understand.

Recently, there has been a lot discussion surrounding the upcoming FY07 War Supplemental. This legislation is supposed to simply provide our troops with the needed funding to carry on their mission in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unsurprisingly, the Democrats have seized upon this opportunity to spend, spend, spend. It has been stuffed with over $20 billion in unrelated add-ons and special handouts. Here are some examples of this irresponsible practice:

• $74 million for a peanut storage program that pays storage fees as farmers market their crop.
• $750 million to cover shortfalls in the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
• $400 million to subsidize rural northwest counties who have been suffering from declining timber sales since the mid-1990s.
• $3.7 billion to compensate farmers and ranchers for losses suffered during the last 3 crop years.
• $25 million for spinach growers effected by the e-coli health advisory.
• $60 million for Indian tribes and fisherman affected by declining salmon runs in the Northwest.
• $50 million for asbestos abatement at the Capitol Hill Power Plant.
• $140 million for livestock owners, citrus growers affected by the '05 hurricanes.
• $120 million for the shrimp and menhaden industries.
• $2.5 billion for homeland security projects such as additional cargo screening at ports and airports.
• $283 million for extending the small dairy farm income loss contract program.
• $1.3 billion more for the Army Corps of Engineers to work on the New Orleans levees.
• $910 million to waive local matching requirements for the FEMA disaster aid program.
• $1 billion for pandemic flu preparedness.
• $16 million for maintenance and security improvements to the Capitol Hill office buildings.
• $25 million for the Small Business Administration disaster-loan program.

The war supplemental is about emergency funding for our military operations, not gravy train spending projects. Peanut farmers and salmon runs have absolutely nothing to do with the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I just got off of a conference call with RSC Chairman Jeb Hensarling and Rep. Marsha Blackburn. We were talking to more than a dozen fellow bloggers about an RSC plan called the American Tax Payer Bill of Rights.

Jeb, Marsha, and I will be unveiling the details of this plan at a press conference tomorrow morning. Check back here in the afternoon to get a recap of the press conference and find out what is included in our reform agenda.

Yesterday, OMB came out with their "initial phase" of the earmark disclosure database on their website; there is also a definition of what they consider an earmark to be. The database covers 2005 earmarks - it is very weak and does not show much of anything. By their own description: 

This database is not designed, and cannot accurately be used, to identify the individual sponsors of  congressional earmarks. However, this site will bring greater transparency to these spending provisions. This greater transparency is consistent with a recent change in the House Rules and Senate legislation which requires more disclosure for future earmarks.

There is no list of specific itemized earmarks, who requested them, where they went, etc. If there was that might actually bring “transparency” to the process. The biggest problem with the earmark process is the secrecy associated with who requested which project…and the corruption has occurred because of this secrecy. Unfortunately, in its current form this new database won’t shed light on anything or do much to change the earmark process.

Basically, it just lists every Department and agency of government, and how many total earmarks in both number and amount they were appropriated.

Example - for 2005, the Dept of Energy received 302 earmarks totaling nearly $473 million. You click on the DOE section and it breaks it down into 4 bureaus under DOE, one of which is "Energy Programs" which received 242 earmarks totaling over $347 million. You click on Energy Programs and it breaks it down into 5 accounts or programs, one of which is "Energy Supply and Conservation" which received 114 earmarks totaling a little over $219 million. That is the end of the database.

Welcome to the Green Eyeshade Blog. I'm John Campbell, Congressman from the 48th District in California. I am also a Certified Public Accountant. Hence the title of this blog. For those of you who don't know, green eyeshades were the headwear of choice for accountants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But this blog is not for fashion conscious bean counters. It is for anyone who thinks that federal taxes and spending are too high, the federal government is too big and the deficit needs to go away.

I am the chairman of the budget and spending task force for the Republican Study Committee. The Republican Study Committee is a caucus of about 100 of the most fiscal responsible members of the House of Representatives. We are tired of watching both parties spend away our money and our future.

This blog will keep you informed of what's happening in Washington with both those trying to save you money and those trying to spend it. The mainstream media (MSM) rarely reports the proposed solutions that will fix things. And they rarely report all the tax and spend proposals that move through congress to get us in this fix to begin with.

So, put on your green eyeshade and get ready to join us as we open the books of the federal government.