Mexican tomato exporters are conducting unfair trade practices and dumping tomatoes into the U.S. market, despite the 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement. This is forcing American tomato farmers out of business and destroying the domestic tomato industry. U.S....
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) office will host in-person and virtual Mobile Office Hours next week to assist constituents with federal casework issues in their respective local communities. These office hours offer constituents who do not live close to one of...
El senador estadounidense Marco Rubio (R-FL) habló con Nio Encendio de Maxima 92.5 de Tampa Bay, sobre cómo la inflación ha impactado a las familias, sobre las olas de migración ilegal, sobre el juicio político de Biden vs. el de Trump, sobre el canje de prisioneros...
This year alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered an estimated 40,000 Chinese nationals along the U.S. northern and southern border. The Biden Administration has left the border wide open, allowing potential spies from the Chinese Communist...
Gotion, Inc., a Chinese company and U.S. subsidiary of Guoxuan High-Tech, announced a lithium battery plant in Illinois that is expected to open next year. This CCP-tied battery company is expected to benefit from green-energy tax breaks under the Democrats’ Inflation...
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined National Public Radio’s All Things Considered to discuss his plan to expand the child tax credit for working families. See below for the full transcript and listen to the edited interview here. On the connection between the child...
More than they have in decades, states are turning down federal money because of the burdens that go with it (see below). Yet the feds then turn around and give the money to other states, which makes little sense with a deficit this year of $1.65 trillion.
So we’re happy to report that Congressman Denny Rehberg of Montana and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida have introduced legislation requiring the federal government to dedicate all unspent grant money from states to federal debt retirement. The Refund Act would give states greater incentive to return dollars to Washington, assuring state taxpayers that returned funds wouldn’t merely be shipped to less frugal states.
The perversity of the current incentives was highlighted by a political spat this year in Montana between the Republican legislature and Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer. The legislature voted to return $120 million in federal funds for such programs as food stamps, home energy assistance and collecting patient medical care records under ObamaCare. The lawmakers worried that federal “maintenance of effort” rules would make it harder to cut spending in the future.
Mr. Schweitzer refused to return the money. The Helena Independent Record reported: “The governor said it makes no sense for Montana to turn away the federal money because it will just be reallocated to other states and won’t reduce the federal deficit at all. ‘We get less, and they get more,’ Schweitzer said.”
That incentive would be reversed under the Rehberg-Rubio bill. “It’s really very simple,” says Mr. Rehberg. “If a responsible state like Montana tightens its belt to save tax dollars, we shouldn’t be rewarding irresponsible states like California by adding those savings to their take.”
Montana never did return that money to the Treasury and now we’re all $120 million greater in debt. Congress has long rigged the budget rules to encourage more taxing and spending. It’s time to change those incentives.