Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin calls for expulsion of Rep. Louise Slaughter from Congress.

Let’s just say that this “progressive” group is aiding and abetting Congress in having the healthcare reform bill crammed down our throats, via reconciliation.

In an effort to show Americans he’s willing to make budget cuts, on February 1 President Obama eliminated the funding for the heralded Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program and its nationwide services.

Without this federal funding, over 4.4 million children and families will not receive free books or reading encouragement from RIF programs at nearly 17,000 locations throughout the U.S, according to the RIF CEO Carol Rasco.

“Unless Congress reinstates $25 million in funding for this program, RIF will not be able to distribute 15 million books annually to the nation’s children at greatest risk for academic failure,” said Rasco in a media release.

“RIF programs in schools, community centers, hospitals, military bases, and other locations serve children from low-income families, children with disabilities, homeless children, and children without adequate access to libraries,” she said. 

The Inexpensive Book Distribution program is authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation) and is not funded through earmarks. It has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975, according to RIF officials.

“Since its founding in 1966, RIF has played a critical role in improving literacy in this country by providing new, free books for children to keep and build home libraries. Access to books and the power of choice ignite children’s hunger for knowledge and a passion for learning,” Rasco said.

Research has shown that children who have more access to books not only perform better academically, but also become productive individuals whose contributions help create strong communities, say education experts. 

“On behalf of RIF and its network of over 400,000 volunteers nationwide, I urge all Americans to contact their congressional representatives and ask them to reinstate funding for this vital program,” Rasco urged.

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, motivates children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. RIF’s highest priority is reaching the low-income families’ children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provided 4.4 million children with 15 million new, free books and literacy resources last year.

“It boggles the mind how President Obama will cut a program that helps to actually educate kids, while increasing funds for a government-run education leviathan that is more intent on indoctrination of children in liberal-left orthodoxy,” said political strategist Mike Baker.

“What we have is a system that creates stupid children who have high self-esteem — conceited idiots, if you will,” he added.

It looks like there will be no more Kennedys to clog up Congress fairly soon.

According to a Democratic official, Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek reelection for his House seat, which represents the state of Rhode Island; as usual, the official asked for anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak out ahead of the official announcement.

Not surpringly, Kennedy’s decision came right after Scott Brown’s election to the U.S. Senate, taking over his late father, Ted Kennedy’s, seat. I’m pretty sure that other factors weighed in on his decision.

Nonetheless, with the decision by Kennedy, the soon-to-be-vacant seat will no doubt garner lots of interest.

Below is a statement from Rep. Paul Broun’s blog:

More spending, more taxing, and more debt has led us to more job losses.  But sometimes less is more.  The American people are demanding less spending, and that is why I have introduced a balanced budget amendment to the constitution.  It’s time for Congress to listen to hardworking Americans and start balancing its checkbook, just like families have to do. 

This morning, the Labor Department released revised numbers that show over 8 million jobs have been lost since the recession began.  Balancing the budget would leave more money in your pockets so you could help jump-start the economy instead of government bureaucrats.  And most importantly, it would enforce some must-needed fiscal discipline in Washington , D.C.

To listen to my interview on Washington Times Radio regarding the need for balanced budgets click here.

Nat sent this in:

(WASHINGTON)—Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) released the following statement after voting against a measure to raise the debt limit, this time by $1.9 trillion, to $14.3 trillion enabling the administration and Democrat-led Congress to continue the same reckless fiscal policies of excessive borrowing and spending:

“The national debt limit has increased more than $2.9 trillion since President Obama took office and since the last debt limit increase Democrats have not passed a single bill to reduce spending or lower the deficit.  This is also the largest one-time increase in our nation’s history.  Enough is enough.  We must not continue to borrow and spend our children’s future away.  Just over a week ago this president looked Congress in the eye and proclaimed we needed to take meaningful steps to rein in our debt or it would damage our markets and jeopardize our economic recovery.   This is the Democrat leadership’s response?”

“Let’s also be clear about the “Pay-as-you-go” (PAYGO) farce Democrats wrapped in to today’s debt limit increase.  The deficit has increased by $1.4 trillion in the little more than two years since the Democrats adopted the PAYGO rule.   What is going to be any different this time?  This is just cover for Democrats to feed their spending addiction through new tax increases and it does nothing to meaningfully increase fiscal accountability or reduce the deficit and debt.”  

President Barack Obama today sent to Congress a proposed defense budget of $708 billion for fiscal 2011. The budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) includes $549 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund base defense programs and $159 billion to support overseas contingency operations (OCO), primarily in Afghanistan and Iraq. This proposal continues the reform agenda established in last year’s DoD budget request and builds on the initiatives identified by the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and 2010 Ballistic Missile Defense Review (BMDR).