Tag Archives: Senator John Barrasso

Asking A Really Good Question

Posted on by

On Thursday, The Federalist posted an article about a really good question Wyoming Senator John Barrasso asked Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

The article reports:

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra refused to explain Thursday why “hardworking Americans should pay” for foreign lawbreakers’ healthcare when grilled by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso.

Barrasso detailed how cities are being overwhelmed by illegal immigrants draining their resources and putting a massive strain on health funds and infrastructure, noting Denver Health saw more than 20,000 illegally present foreigners seeking medical care in 2023. Denver Health is “at a critical, critical point” as costs pile up, CEO Donna Lynne said, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.

“Can you please explain why it is the responsibility of hard-working American taxpayers to foot the bill for all of this care for people, nine million now, from all across the world who have flooded their way into the United States?”

“What I could tell you is that we have extended the resources and authorities that we have at HHS to try to be there to help any healthcare facility when there is a way that we can go in to be supportive. I don’t know of a particular case that you might want to mention, but I know that we are prepared to be supportive of any facility where the authorities that you have given us allow us to go in and support,” Becerra responded.

“The federal government doesn’t pay for the health care of every legal U.S. citizen,” Barrasso shot back. “It seems like it’s in the position now of having to do it all for these illegal immigrants. Why should the American citizen be forced to pay for illegal migrants to receive this same care for free? Because that’s what’s happening.”

At some point our government needs to realize that money does not grow on trees. Our first responsibility should be to Americans. Unless we can afford to give all Americans free health care, we should not be giving it to people who broke the law to get here.

Making A Bad Situation Worse

Posted on by

During the 2020 presidential campaign, former President Obama warned us about the ability of former Vice-President Biden’s ability to mess things up. I am not posting the actual quote because this blog is family friendly, but you can find it in a search engine if you want to read it. It begins, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability…” On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted an article that illustrates that point.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden’s budget proposes to scrap more than $45 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, his administration’s latest attack on the beleaguered industry.

The White House budget will remove more than a dozen fossil fuel industry tax credits, increasing the federal government’s revenue by an estimated $45.2 billion between 2023-2032, according to the proposal published Monday. The administration explained that the proposal was written to prevent further fossil fuel investment.

“These oil, gas, and coal tax preferences distort markets by encouraging more investment in the fossil fuel sector than would occur under a neutral system,” the Department of the Treasury wrote in its general budget explanation.

“This market distortion is detrimental to long-term energy security and is also inconsistent with the Administration’s policy of supporting a clean energy economy, reducing our reliance on oil, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” the department added.

…“This budget is basically a $45 billion tax increase on the oil and gas industry,” Mike Palicz, the federal affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is more targeting oil and gas for provisions that are just good tax policy that any industry should be able to take advantage of.”

“This is a clear effort to continue to try and paint (the oil and gas industry) as the villain,” he continued.

The article concludes:

Republicans, who have doubled down on calls for the Biden administration to incentivize domestic energy production in recent months, slammed his tax proposal Monday.

“President Biden wants to spend more taxpayer dollars on his green energy schemes instead of increasing American energy production to solve the energy crisis he created,” Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. “The president’s priorities could not be more out of touch with families in Wyoming and across the country.”

“This budget is dead on arrival. Republicans will focus on what Americans care about most: national security, energy security, and economic security,” he continued. “That means tackling inflation, unleashing American energy production, and keeping Americans safe.”

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

If by some horrible miracle this budget passes, every Congressman who votes for it should be voted out of office in the midterms. The average middle-class American cannot afford what will happen to gas prices if this passes. The average middle-class American cannot afford to buy an electric car–regardless of the government rebate. This is an attack on the average American.

A Very Good Question

Posted on by

Zero Hedge posted an article today about President Biden’s recent trip to the climate summit.

The article notes:

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso has called for detailed information on the carbon footprint of Joe Biden’s trip to the COP climate Summit in Scotland, labelling it “bloated” and “counterproductive”.

Considering that the climate summit was a mass meeting of private jets, I think that is a valid question. There is also the matter of diesel generators being brought in to power the Teslas (article here). I really think that if those who attended the summit were actually as concerned about global warming and everyone’s carbon footprint, they might make other travel arrangements than they actually did (I know there is such a thing as car-pooling, is there plane-pooling?). The article notes that it would have made sense to hold the summit virtually.

It seems that the attendees to the climate summit decry the carbon footprint of ‘the common man’ while jetting around in private planes and charging Teslas with diesel generators. Seems a little off balance.