FroshUpdate: Griffin's Conditions for Raising the Debt Ceiling

Written by Tim Mak on Monday May 9, 2011

What does it take to get Tim Griffin's (AR-02) vote on the debt ceiling? And FrumForum's Rachel Ryan writes a negative review of Alan Nunnelee's energy policy speech at Johns Hopkins last week. This is FroshUpdate for May 9th, 2011.

NUNNELEE AT JOHNS HOPKINS: FrumForum’s Rachel Ryan offers a negative review of Alan Nunnelee’s (MS-01) energy policy speech at Johns Hopkins. And, she says, their post-speech interview left her with a lot of unanswered questions... about nuclear power, energy independence. “Lots of valid criticisms, even more laudable goals, but only hazy plans for action,” Ryan writes. http://bit.ly/jS5Br4

BALANCING DEMANDS: POLITICO’s Marin Cogan writes about the tension that exists for those who are both fiscal and defense hawks. “…as members of the freshman class push their leaders to pursue deeper spending cuts on entitlements, they’ve proved to be much more cautious when it comes to defense spending cuts.” http://politi.co/kC0NZb

ENVIROS PICKET GARDNER: Environmental protesters picketed the district office of Rep. Cory Gardner (CO-08) on Friday, driven by his leadership in the House campaign to check the EPA's jurisdiction over carbon dioxide emissions. Gardner responded in a press release that he is a supporter of local solar and wind power projects. http://bit.ly/ilTXNw

FroshUpdate is a regular look at how the freshman class is making news. Add us on twitter strong>@freshmenFF<, or tell others to join our mailing list by emailing strong>frosh@frumforum.com< with ’subscribe’ in the subject line.

GUINTA SMALL BUSINESS SURVEY DRAWS FIRE – Frank Guinta’s(NH-01) new survey of small business owners in his district show 60% showing caution amidst fiscal uncertainty, 50% not planning on hiring new employees any time soon, 63% said federal government can do nothing to create jobs.The incumbent that Guinta beat in 2010, Carol Shea-Porter, countered that Guinta voted for the Paul Ryan budget, which strips $100 million from the Small Business Administration. http://bit.ly/lEjnZW

GRIFFIN’S CONDITIONS: Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) on raising the debt ceiling: “I’m a no right now [on raising the debt ceiling]… I want to get some structural, substantive changes agree to by the President and the Senate… Whether that comes in the form of a spending cap, balanced budget amendment… I haven’t decided specifically yet, and the reasons for that is I don’t want to agree on something that’s easily undone. Whatever I agree to needs to have teeth so that we know the President isn’t going to just ignore it… a year or two down the road.” (VIDEO) http://youtu.be/jO7pGJTBblI

NO MORE $$ FOR PAKISTAN: Perennial media presence Rep. Allen West (FL-22) went on Fox News on Friday to talk to Greta Van Susteren about the United States government's relationship with Pakistan. West, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, advised breaking off America's multi-billion dollar funding of the Pakistani government, saying that "we can take out their nukes" should the country descend into chaos or the control of militant Islamists. (VIDEO)  http://bit.ly/mHVrP8

FLOODING IN THE SOUTH- Rep. Rick Crawford (AR-01) told a meeting of the congressional Delta Caucus on Friday that every county in his district had been flooded in the storms that recently devastated the southern U.S., saying that "we're talking about some pretty devastating flood waters all over this district." Crawford will be meeting with local leaders on Monday to coordinate the cleanup efforts. http://bit.ly/iHgJ6q

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Category: Freshmen Blog