Lee Holds Constitution Bowl for Local Students

Sep 18, 2012

Senator Mike Lee and the Utah League of Cities and Towns hosted the first annual "Constitution Bowl" on Friday, September 14, testing the knowledge of teams from four local high schools on topics related to the U.S. Constitution and government. The event was held in honor of the 225th Anniversary of the U.S. Constitution and to get students talking about the country’s founding document.

Happy Constitution Day!

Sep 17, 2012

Today, Americans celebrate the 225th Anniversary of the signing of the Constitution – that enduring document that guarantees the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that our Founders envisioned at the birth of our nation.

Evaluating Our Presence in Libya

Sep 13, 2012

First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with the families and colleagues of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans killed in Libya.  The events and tragedies over the last 48 hours in Egypt and Libya remind us that the values we hold dear in America are constant targets in the most dangerous parts of the world.

The Administration’s response has been a mixed message to the world.  At a time when Americans are outraged at the killing of four American citizens, including our chief diplomat in Libya, as well as the destruction of our consulate there, the President appears more concerned with offending the protesters.  His statements have scantly mentioned the need to bring the perpetrators to justice.  And he has not yet given any indication that he is using what leverage he has to demand the full cooperation of Libyan officials to investigate the killings.

More broadly, we must also evaluate the value of our presence in Libya.  After the fall of Qadafi, Americans were right to assume we would have a friend in the newly liberated country.  But progress has been difficult.  There is not yet a fully functional government in Libya.  On July 7, 2012, Libyan voters chose 200 members of a General National Congress (GNC) in the country’s first nationwide election in 30 years. The GNC is now charged with overseeing national government affairs, appointing a new cabinet, and determining the method for drafting a new constitution.  But as we are now painfully aware, whatever form this new government takes, it is not yet capable of protecting our embassy and consulates.  

We should close the consulate in Benghazi and vacate the premises.  America has a clear history on this front. The U.S.withdrew its last Ambassador to Libya in 1972;  a few years later, all remaining U.S. government personnel were withdrawn and the consulate was shut down after a mob attacked and set fire to it on December 2, 1979.  In that incident no one was killed, yet the American response was swift and firm.  A diplomatic presence in Libya was not restored until 2004.Only after the Libyan government has demonstrated the ability to ensure the safety of American diplomats should we reopen a U.S. consulate.  

We also have significant leverage through the funding Libya now receives from the U.S. As of August 2012, the United States government has provided more than $200 million in assistance to Libya since the beginning of the uprising in 2011. If Libya is unwilling to lend its full cooperation to finding the criminals who took American lives, we should cut some or all of the funding Libya receives.

Finally, it is important to remember that a consulate is a diplomatic and policy center, not a military base.  Apart from protecting and removing American citizens, there is no reason to put Marines there.  Absent a defined purpose, time period, and desired result, the United States should not engage in military operations in Libya.   

Libya has the potential to be a great American ally and an advocate of democracy and freedom in the region.  The United States will stand ready to support Libya if these are its aims, but not until it has shown this is the path it will pursue.

Lee To Testify at Hearing on Obama’s Abuse of Power

Sep 12, 2012

Today, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) will testify at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on the “Obama Administration’s Abuse of Power.”  

Senator Lee will discuss the essential duty of the legislature to ensure that the executive branch does not exceed its rightful authority, a duty that has become even more important with President Obama in office.

“In recent decades we have witnessed the executive branch claim for itself more and more government power.  But this trend has reached new, disturbing levels under the current administration.  President Obama has treated the Constitution’s separation of powers as if it were a matter of convenience that may be ignored when it gets in his way.  Rather than cooperating with Congress or respecting the Constitution’s separation of powers, he has in many instances chosen to go it alone and in the process has exceeded the proper bounds of executive power.”  

Senator Lee will discuss President Obama’s unconstitutional recess appointments; his action to obstruct legislative oversight of his administration, including his abusive assertion of executive privilege with respect to Operation Fast & Furious documents; and his unilateral decision to issue an executive order contravening Congress’s immigration policy.

Senator Lee’s written testimony states, “As these examples demonstrate, when faced with opposition from Congress, President Obama has repeatedly sought to go it alone.  It is thus all the more necessary and important that Congress continue to exercise its constitutional role and check this President’s abuse of power.”  

The hearing will stream live from here at 10am ET, and full text of Senator Lee’s testimony is attached.

Lee Statement on Attack in Libya

Sep 12, 2012

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other embassy staff members who were killed in the outrageous attacks on the U.S. facility in Libya. Ambassador Stevens served his country faithfully and bravely in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. I strongly condemn the violence that led to the unnecessary deaths of these American Foreign Service officers and pray that the remaining staff members will be safe.

Remembering September 11 -- Day Lee Briefing 9/11/2012

Sep 11, 2012

Today's Agenda

Today, Senator Lee will meet with representatives of the American Psychological Association, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American College of Cardiology, and the Dixie Regional Medical Center. He will also participate in the congressional ceremony marking the 11th anniversary of 9/11.

 

From the Senator's Desk

On Twitter

Around the Water Cooler

How the nation and the world are commemorating 9/11

At Israel's Sept. 11 memorial - a 30-foot bronze sculpture of a waving American flag that morphs into a memorial flame - the father of one victim endorsed the crackdown on terrorism. Dov Shefi, the father of Hagay Shefi, who was attending a conference that day in the twin towers, said, "Let us hope that the free world will continue to fight against leaders of terrorist organizations and their supporters; let all the souls of the thousands of victims whose names are marked on this great living memorial in Jerusalem be remembered from here to eternity."

 

Germany says "great uncertainty" about US debt

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble questioned on Tuesday how the United States could deal with its high levels of government debt after November's presidential election.

 

Looking Ahead

Tomorrow, Senator Lee will meet with representatives of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the National Farmers Union, the New Car Dealers of Utah, and the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. He will also host a Jell-O bar for office visitors at 3:30 PM EDT (1:30 MDT).

 

Lee to Host Inaugural Constitution Bowl

Sep 11, 2012

On Friday, September 14, in celebration of the 225th Anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, Senator Mike Lee will host the first annual “Constitution Bowl.”

Saying No to UN Small Arms Treaty -- Day Lee Briefing 9/10/2012

Sep 10, 2012

Today’s Agenda

Today, Senator Lee is flying to Washington.

 

From the Senator’s Desk

 

On Twitter

Around the Water Cooler

US watchdog questions spending for Afghan army

The watchdog for U.S. spending in Afghanistan says lax accountability in a $1.1 billion program supplying fuel to the Afghan National Army needs "immediate attention" before control of the program is turned over to the Kabul government in less than four months.

 

GM’s Volt: The ugly math of low sales, high costs

General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line.

Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts.

 

Looking Ahead

 

Tomorrow, Senator Lee will meet with representatives of the American Psychological Association, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American College of Cardiology, and the Dixie Regional Medical Center. He will also participate in the congressional ceremony marking the 11th anniversary of 9/11.

Global Competitiveness Dropping -- Day Lee Briefing 9/06/2012

Sep 6, 2012

From the Senator’s Desk

Courtesy of the Senate Republican Conference:

 

U.S. Global Competitiveness Ranking

Drops for Fourth Straight Year

  • According to a report issued today by the World Economic Forum, the United States dropped from fifth to seventh place in global competitiveness.
  • America ranked first in global competitiveness when President Obama took office in 2009.
  • The report also ranked the United States at a staggering 136th place in terms of the federal government’s massive debt-to-GDP ratio.  
  •  Over 100 countries have more competitive tax rates than the United States. 

  

President Obama’s policies are making it more difficult to do business in the United States:

  • Government red tape, high tax rates, and burdensome regulations are the highest hurdles for doing business in the United States, according to the report.  
  • While U.S. businesses remain competitive in terms of innovation and technology, the U.S. received some its worst rankings in the areas of high debt, deficits, and taxes.

 

The president should work with Congress to make it less expensive and easier to do business in the United States:

  • By extending all tax rates for at least one year, reforming the tax code, reducing the deficit, and eliminating unnecessary red tape and regulations, we can give job creators the certainty they need to expand and hire more American workers.
  • With over 23 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, the president should get serious about restoring America’s global economic competitiveness.

 

On Twitter

Around the Water Cooler

Recession ‘taking hold’ in Eurozone, OECD says

Europe’s debt crisis is pushing the 17-country eurozone toward recession and dragging down the global economy, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Thursday.

 

Greek unemployment surges to 24.4% in June

Greece's unemployment rate surged to 24.4 percent in June, according to official figures Thursday, as protests continued against a massive new austerity package, with police blocking their colleagues from starting work.

 

Looking Ahead

Tomorrow, Senator Lee will attend the dedication ceremony for the new Jeffrey R. Holland Centennial Commons building at Dixie State College.

Patients vs. Providers: Controlling Costs of Healthcare -- Day Lee Briefing 9/05/2012

Sep 5, 2012

Today’s Agenda

Today, Senator Lee is attending the Uintah Energy Summit.

 

From the Senator’s Desk

Courtesy of the Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee:

In his weekly Bloomberg column today, former Obama Administration budget director Peter Orszag once again attempts to defend Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), the group of 15 unelected bureaucrats who will be empowered to make binding rulings on how to reduce Medicare spending.  His arguments are based on two premises – each of which contains flaws.  The first premise is that providers, not patients, should affect most health care spending:

Focusing on providers is key because health-care expenses are so concentrated: High-cost cases account for the vast majority of the total.  In those cases, the care provided is, as it should be, mainly the services and tests recommended by the provider.  So if you do not influence provider recommendations in those cases, you cannot do all that much to improve the system.

This premise is valid – to a point.  Obviously, heart attack patients rushed to the emergency room will have little substantive opportunity to influence their health care spending decisions.  But the statement lands on shakier ground in other cases; Orszag’s statement that care “should be” directed by the provider also implies that, for instance, knee replacement patients will not, and should not, be able to influence their course of treatment.  In some cases, our health system currently lacks the proper tools to allow such patients to make fully informed choices – but enhanced price and quality transparency data can remedy this defect.

Orszag makes an even less compelling case when he argues that only Medicare can influence provider behavior:  “For better or worse, only Medicare is large enough to lead the health-care system toward a new structure of payment for providers.”  The problem with this argument is that Orszag and his fellow liberals only want to follow the logic one way.  Because if liberals want to argue that only Medicare has the market clout to change the health care system, that also means Medicare’s size was large enough to cause the system’s current problems.  And, nearly 50 years after Medicare’s creation, liberals haven’t explained how “This Time Is Different” – how a Medicare system can help solve a problem of exploding health costs that it helped to create.  In fact, the Congressional Budget Office noted earlier this year that most Medicare demonstration programs over the past several decades have NOT saved money – suggesting Obamacare’s efforts to control costs by micro-managing Medicare in  different fashion won’t work either.

The bottom line is that the philosophy Orszag approvingly recommends in which “direct modification of the behaviors of providers (versus consumers or payers)” by a board of government bureaucrats isn’t likely to be successful, in two respects.  First, as noted above, CBO has taken a dim view towards the notion that better bureaucratic tinkering will change the dire direction of health spending, and the Medicare program.  Second, and more fundamentally, the American people won’t take kindly to the idea of government bureaucrats engaging in “direct modification” of providers – while ignoring patients entirely.  That smacks of everything Democrats said Obamacare was not – namely, a government takeover of health care.  And it might explain why President Obama, despite blowing full speed ahead on virtually every other aspect of Obamacare implementation, has yet to appoint a single individual to IPAB – because he doesn’t want to reveal the board’s true design until after the November election.

 

On Twitter

Around the Water Cooler

Survey finds U.S. competitive ranking down again

The United States’ ability to compete on the global stage has fallen for the fourth year running as confidence in the country’s politicians continues to decline, an annual survey from the World Economic Forum found Wednesday.

 

$16,015,769,788,215.80

The United States Treasury reports that the total public outstanding debt is: $16,015,769,788,215.80. This is the first time in American history debt has eclipsed the $16 trillion mark.

 

Looking Ahead

Tomorrow, Senator Lee will fly to Seattle to tour Microsoft’s Future Technology Lab and meet with business and technology leaders working there.