About Steve Chabot

Summertime is festival time in the First Congressional District.  Every weekend there are three to six of them – most of them Catholic Church/School connected – all of them fun.  There are also German festivals like Schutzenfest, Donauschwaben, and Germania, to name a few.  They’re great too.  The festivals generally are held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and are especially crowded during the evening when the temperatures start to cool down. 

I’ve been attending festivals since my City Council days.  I first ran in 1979, so we’re going back 30 plus years.  And if you consider my student days at Holy Family school in Price Hill, and then St. Catharine’s in Westwood, we’re going back 50 plus years.  That’s a long time.

As a candidate running for public office, I particularly like attending festivals, because it gives me the opportunity to talk with lots of people about anything on their minds.  Most people are very friendly, but are not shy about telling me what they really think.  Here’s what I’m hearing this year. 

People are very worried about the direction of the country.  They think spending in Washington is completely out of control.  The rising debt is of particular concern.  Right now they principally blame President Obama and the Democrats controlling Congress for the wasteful spending, but they also think President Bush and Republican Congresses should have been more restrained in spending when they were in charge – and they’re right.  (Fortunately, most people will say something along the lines of “We know you were one of the guys fighting against the spending when you were there, but we hope if Republicans take control again, you guys will get it right next time.”) 

People also think the Stimulus Package was just a big waste of money.  They say the economy is still lousy, and if they haven’t lost their own job, they have family members or close friends who have. 

People still hate the health care bill – or Obamacare, as many of them refer to it.  They are particularly negative about Steve Driehaus on this issue.  Not just that he voted for it, but that he led us to believe he’d vote against it, then voted for it anyway.  And I haven’t come across a person yet who buys that President Obama’s Executive Order does anything to stop their tax dollars from going to pay for abortions.  And that particularly incenses people.

I’ll occasionally get comments or questions about Afghanistan, legalizing marijuana, the Over-the-Rhine streetcar plan, and just about anything else that might be on peoples’ minds.  But mostly, it’s the out-of-control spending, the lousy economy, the huge government debt, and Obamacare. 

And maybe it’s just because they’re talking to me, but the overwhelming majority of people say they were terribly disappointed when I lost last time, and can’t wait to get rid of Steve Driehaus this upcoming election.  Maybe he’s hearing the same thing, but I doubt it. 

The feedback I’m getting at the festivals this year reinforces my belief that this election year is likely to be a really big deal.  People don’t like what’s going on in Washington, and they’re likely to vote for change – big time.  They can’t vote directly for or against President Obama this year, but they sure can vote up or down on this Administration’s, and especially on this Congress’s policies.  And the people more likely to turn out this year, for the most part, don’t like these policies. 

In conclusion, festivals can be a lot of fun.  And you can learn a lot there too. 

There are many facets to a winning campaign.  One obvious aspect – the candidates themselves.  We are particularly well positioned there, when you consider the differences Steve Driehaus and I have on the issues.

He believes the best way to grow the economy is through more government spending (the Stimulus).  I believe allowing people to keep more of what they earn (cutting taxes) and letting people spend their own money the way they want to, will grow the economy and create jobs.  He thinks government takeovers of health care and government bailouts are just fine, and I believe, like Ronald Reagan, that government IS the problem, not the solution.  And he votes with Nancy Pelosi virtually every opportunity he gets – I think she’s a disaster.

Another important facet of a winning campaign are its people – volunteers.  We have been blessed with some of the finest, hardest-working volunteers that you can imagine.  Countless hours spent cheerfully walking in parades, handing out cups at festivals, making phone calls, stuffing envelopes, and so many other campaign related activities – our volunteers are the best!  To each and every one of you – thank you for your commitment. 

And finally, it’s important to raise sufficient campaign funds to get our message out, and defend against the misleading attacks we all know will be coming.  After all, it’s been said that “money is the mother’s milk of politics.” 

The results of second quarter fundraising by all Congressional candidates were just released on July 15th.  Great news for us – very disappointing news for the Driehaus campaign.  Despite the fact that incumbents almost always out-raise their challenger opponents, we out-raised the Driehaus campaign last quarter: $306,312 for us, $230,321 for them.  And of even greater significance, we now have more cash-on-hand than the Driehaus campaign: a little over $1 million for us, and $973,266 for them. 

The Cincinnati Enquirer in their coverage of the fundraising results made the following observation:

You are that individual local support.  And let me take this opportunity to once again thank you for taking the time to read this blog, and stay informed on this race.  If you have signed up to volunteer, or for a yard sign, or made a contribution, I want to especially thank you. 

Although we clearly have the momentum in this race, we know that it’s only a matter of time before the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Big Union money will come pouring in with big TV buys, in an attempt to completely distort my record.  If you’re able to help us to continue to prepare for this inevitable onslaught, you can click here to help. 

As elections go, they don’t get much bigger than the one coming this November.  I believe we have a real opportunity to take the gavel out of Nancy Pelosi’s hands, and begin to put our country back on the right track.  Don’t sit on the sidelines.  Please join with me, and thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens, and be part of something that will truly make a difference. 

Once again, a lot happened over the last week that I’d like to touch on; so here it goes.

FIRST, the head of America’s space program, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, informs us that the number one priority of NASA is now – drumroll please – making sure that people in predominantly Muslim countries have high self esteem. Not getting to the moon, or to mars, or advancing our scientific knowledge, or creating more space-connected jobs or products on earth (remember Tang), but making sure Muslims around the world feel better about themselves. I’m not making this up.

Referring to President Obama’s instructions to him, Bolden stated as follows: “Foremost, he (Obama) wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, and math, and engineering.” As usual, the mainstream press all but ignored this gaffe, so you may well not have heard about this new, ridiculous policy, by an Administration that seems to be losing more and more credibility every week.

SECOND, President Obama decided to skip the normal Senate confirmation process and just appoint Donald Berwick to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Why? Well, this is the government agency that will oversee “Obamacare,” which was rammed through Congress by Obama/Pelosi/Reid back in March. And some of the radical quotes this guy has made about health care over the years are the polar opposite of what Obama promised.

Remember the Democrats’ promise that there would be no rationing of health care? Here’s Berwick: “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care – the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.” And remember the assurance that our new health care would be nothing like Britain’s socialized health care system? Once again here’s Berwick: “I am a romantic about the British National Health Service. I love it because it is generous, hopeful, confident, joyous, and just.” No wonder the Obama Administration wanted to avoid any tough questions that might have been asked as a result of such inconsistencies.

And listen to this quote by Berwick, “Any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must – must – redistribute wealthfrom the richer among us to the poorer and less fortunate.” This sounds a lot like candidate Obama’s off-the-cuff remarks that got him into trouble when he told Joe the Plumber that we need to “spread the wealth around.” No wonder a recent poll done by Democracy Corps (a polling outfit run by Democrats James Carville and Stan Greenberg) found that 55% of likely voters say they believe the term “socialist” describes the Obama Administration “well” or “very well.”

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Administration for trying to “Sneak him through without public scrutiny.” And even Democratic Senator Max Baucus said he was troubled by the recess appointment since “Senate confirmation of Presidential appointees is an essential process prescribed by the Constitution that serves as a check on Executive power.”

THIRD, Politico reports that the Obama White House is trying to fight the perception that they are anti-business. How could anyone possibly have that impression? (Cap and Trade, health care, higher taxes, more regulations…) And oh by the way, virtually all Obama’s Cabinet choices have little or no business experience – they overwhelmingly come from a community organizer, academic, or government background. No wonder they can’t get the economy moving again, or start creating jobs in the private sector.

FOURTH, pollster Frank Luntz now says that the Democrats in Congress are in more trouble today than they were back in 1994, when they lost 53 seats in the House of Representatives, and thus lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years. (I was one of the 53. And this time we only need to pick up 39 to take Nancy Pelosi’s gavel away.) Luntz’s exact quote is as follows: “On every statistical measurement, the Democrats are in more trouble today than they were in July 1994 when they lost control of the House and Senate.”

FIFTH, the latest Washington Post – ABC News Poll indicates that the American people by 51% to 43% would prefer to see Republicans in control of Congress rather than Democrats. This eight point Republican edge shows a huge turnaround from the fifteen point Democrat edge before the last election. But, as I always say, not a single vote has been cast in the election yet, and we must continue to work hard, and not get overconfident or cocky.

SIXTH, there are rumors filtering out of Washington that the Democrats realize they are going to take a shellacking this Fall, and intend to try to push through the remaining parts of their un-passed liberal agenda in a lame duck session of Congress (the time between election day November 2nd,and the new Congress being sworn in two months later in the first week of January.) This liberal laundry list of unfinished business could include an immigration amnesty bill, Cap and Trade, even more stimulus spending, even higher taxes, and God knows what else. Frank Luntz, the pollster I previously mentioned, says that if the Democrats did this, and thus in effect ignored the will of the American people as expressed in the November election, they would take a pounding in the next election, the Presidential election of 2012. He noted that Americans polled on this issue oppose such action three to one, and even a plurality of Democrats oppose it.

And on a final note, congratulations to the National League, especially Scott Rolen, Brandon Phillips, Arthur Rhodes and Joey Votto, for their big win in the All-Star Game last night! 

In this week’s blog, I’ll touch on a number of stories that caught my attention, and I think are worth commenting on.

First, two headlines in the Cincinnati Enquirer were of particular concern: “Recovery Is Fizzling, Reports Suggest,” and “U.S. Loses 125,000 Jobs In June.”  Despite Congress throwing hundreds of billions of our tax dollars into a so-called economic stimulus package, the American economy continues to limp along, and unemployment remains at unacceptable levels.  Fiscal conservatives warned that this was likely to happen, but were shunted aside by the Obama Administration and by Pelosi’s followers in Congress, and the American people are paying the price.

In an attempt to try to convince the public that the economy is just swell, and getting sweller, Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are on their much heralded “Recovery Tour” traveling across the country this summer trying to convince the American people that everything’s great.  The American people aren’t buying it.  President Obama had the nerve to say at a town hall meeting in Wisconsin last week that “every economist who’s looked at it has said that the Recovery Act (the $787 billion stimulus bill) did its job.”  Now that’s just ridiculous.  Economists are at best split on whether the Stimulus has been a marginal success or a total failure – but it’s clear that they don’t all think “it did its job.” 

So where was the mainstream press coverage of this whopper.  Virtually absent.  FOX News mentioned it.  But the rest of the mainstream press ignored it altogether.  Let’s face it, there’s a double standard when Republicans and Democrats say dumb or controversial things.  Look at the glee shown by the mainstream press in covering Republicans Joe Barton, Rand Paul, John Boehner, and Michael Steele. 

But just as there was virtually no coverage of President Obama claiming that all economists agree the so-called economic stimulus package is working, where was the coverage of Bill Clinton at Democratic Senator Robert Byrd’s funeral just a couple days ago in essence justifying Byrd’s membership in the KKK, saying he was just “a country boy in the hills of West Virginia just trying to get elected.”  He also said Byrd’s association with the clan was “fleeting” when in fact Byrd had worked his way up to being what they call a Kleagle (a recruiter) for this despicable organization.  He also failed to mention that Byrd voted against not only the Civil Rights Act, but also against the Voting Rights Act, and that Byrd used the “N word” in an interview (for which he later apologized) a few years back.  Where was the coverage of this?  Virtually absent.

And perhaps most outrageously, where was the mainstream press coverage of Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, just a few weeks back, when discussing more government assistance money, claimed that it wouldn’t just go to “minorities and defective people, it would go to average, good American people.”  FOX News covered the racist comments, but the rest of the media ignored it.  What if he’d been a Republican?  I wonder. 

Another headline which caught my attention in the Cincinnati Enquirer, on July 3rd, read, “Expect ER Wait Times to Lengthen.”  Remember the health care legislation that Obama/Pelosi/Reid rammed down our throats a few months back?  They claimed it would improve health care delivery, reduce the deficit, basically improve our lives.  Well, let me quote from the article: “Emergency rooms, the only choice for patients who can’t find care elsewhere, may grow even more crowded with longer wait times under the nation’s new health law.”  This is just one more bad thing we’ve learned about the health care legislation since it’s been passed into law.  Remember when we were promised it would cost less than $1 trillion, and then after passage the cost estimates were revised up by $115 billion, putting the cost well over $1 trillion?  And remember when we were promised that people who had health care plans they liked could keep them and wouldn’t be affected, and it was later revealed that it’s now estimated that over one-half of the people currently covered and satisfied with their plans will have to change?  No wonder most Americans remain opposed to the federal health care takeover. 

And no wonder so many Americans are skeptical of giving the federal government more power, and more control over our lives, and over our money.  A July 3rd Enquirer headline read “Federal Program Bilked Out of More Than $100 Million.”  Here’s the first paragraph of the story: “A federal program designed to help impoverished families heat and cool their homes wasted more than $100 million paying the electric bills of thousands of applicants who were dead, in prison or living in million dollar mansions, according to a government investigation.” 

And finally a July 2nd Enquirer headline read “Millions of Doses of Flu Vaccine to be Burned.”  Once again, I’ll just quote from the article:

Now the article begs the question, should the federal government have ramped up and prepared the nation for the possible swine flu onslaught? In my view, yes.  But can we trust the federal government to be reasonably efficient with our tax dollars when it spends them?  And to that I would argue, emphatically – NO. 

There is way too much waste at the federal level, in fact at all levels of government.  Millions, in fact billions of our tax dollars are wasted every year.  And as our government has been allowed, in fact encouraged to grow since this Administration and this Congress took over approximately one-and-a-half years ago, it has grown from bad to worse.  We’ll have the opportunity to reverse that trend in a little less than four months.  Remember in November. 

P.S. on an unrelated note, I’d like to encourage you to join me in helping Cincinnati Red, Joey Votto make it to the All-Star Game, by voting for him here.  Good luck Joey!

Well, we’re only 4 months away from what could be the most significant election in recent American history.  Do the American people want more of the same – bigger government, more power in Washington, red ink as far as the eye can see, more government takeovers and bailouts, and more power for Nancy “we have to pass the bill to see what’s in it” Pelosi?  Or are the American people more than ready for change from The Change?  I’m betting on the latter.

A few interesting things happened over the last week which demonstrate how truly arrogant and out of touch with the American people this Administration and this Congress are.

First, Vice President Joe Biden, while doing a PR tour in Glendale, Wisconsin, angrily called the manager of Kopp’s Frozen Custard a “smartass” when the poor guy had the audacity to ask Biden to “lower his taxes.”  (To Biden this is apparently one of the “small people” that that arrogant BP executive was referring to.)

Then Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (the guy who didn’t pay his own taxes, but expects the rest of us “small people” to do so) says that the world “cannot depend on the United States as it did in the past.”  So much for American Exceptionalism.  Geithner’s downgrading of the U.S. role in today’s world reminds me a lot of what President Obama said when he was asked whether he believed in American Exceptionalism (the belief that America is uniquely qualified to lead the world.)  Obama’s response: “I believe in American Exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British Exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek Exceptionalism.”  (Translation: no, he does not believe in American Exceptionalism.  We’re just one more country – no better or worse than any other.)  Thank God Woodrow Wilson, and FDR, and Ronald Reagan didn’t see it that way.

At the G-20 meeting in Toronto, it became very clear, very quickly, that President Obama is to the left of what we used to think of as leftist “Old Europe.”  Most of the European leaders, as well as Canada, and even China, are worried about out-of-control government spending and the resulting debt burden on countries around the world.  They see Greece as a warning sign of what will happen if they don’t get their fiscal houses in order.  President Obama says nothing to worry about here, just keep spending like there’s no tomorrow.  They’re right – he’s wrong.

And finally, Nancy Pelosi, the most liberal, big-spending Speaker of the House in our nation’s history, was in town Saturday to raise money in Indian Hill for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).  The DCCC spent $1.6 million on Steve Driehaus’s campaign last time, and will spend a ton this time too.  Why not, he votes with Nancy Pelosi virtually every time.  (94.8% to be exact.)  However, she’s so unpopular with the American people due to her leftist policies, that they wanted to slide her into town below the radar screen, raise their cash, and slide back out of town without anyone realizing she was ever here. 

No doubt they raised a lot of money which will go towards the effort to keep the liberals’ stranglehold on all levers of power in Washington after November 2nd.  If you would like to counter the benefit Steve Driehaus will get from Pelosi’s visit, you can make a contribution to my campaign by clicking here.  Coincidentally, today, Wednesday, June 30th, is the last day of the second quarter of this year, and we have to report what we’ve raised by midnight today.  So a contribution today is particularly helpful to my campaign.

As I’ve mentioned before, we are well positioned to win this race.  There have been three polls done so far: one shows us up by 14 points, one by 17 points, and the third poll was done by the Driehaus Campaign, and they won’t release the results of it (you can draw your own conclusions why!)

But we’re taking nothing for granted.  We’re not going to rest on our laurels, or get overconfident.  We are going to continue to work very hard, fight the good fight, and win.  It’s critical that conservatives like myself do, if we are to have any chance of changing the dangerous course that Pelosi, Reid, and Obama have set for this nation.

Please, act now.  And, Remember in November!

Nancy Pelosi, the most liberal, biggest spending, most fiscally irresponsible Speaker of the House in our nation’s history is coming to town – this Saturday, June 26th; to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – the DCCC.

The DCCC spent well over $1.6 million in the last election on behalf of Steve Driehaus. The DCCC gave thousands directly to the Driehaus Campaign – and spent more than a million dollars on TV ads alone.

Why would they have spent so much in the campaign last time? Because they knew, despite what Driehaus was telling the people here at home, that he would be a reliable vote for their liberal policies: big spending, big government, a government takeover of our health care, and all the rest. In fact, he has voted with Pelosi almost 95% of the time.

Why is Nancy Pelosi coming to Cincinnati to raise money for the DCCC which will benefit Driehaus again? Because if they can get him re-elected, he’ll continue to be what National Journal called “A reliable backer of party leadership.”

It’s ironic that Pelosi is coming to Cincinnati to raise campaign cash, because this week the Democrats finally announced officially, that they’re giving up on even trying to pass a budget for this year – no limits on what they spend at all. So while they’re raising big bucks from their political allies here in Cincinnati, they’ll be spending your money like there’s no tomorrow in Washington.

If you’re as outraged as I am about this, there’s a way you can weigh in. Please help us to offset, at least in part, the big bucks Pelosi will be raising to benefit Driehaus. You can make a contribution to my campaign by clicking here, or you can volunteer to help, or get a yard sign, by signing up on my homepage.

I’m sure you know where I stand on the liberal, out-of-control spending spree going on in Washington right now, and this is a way to join with me in doing something about it. Defeating Driehaus and Pelosi in this Congressional District, this Fall, will result in us being one seat closer to the 39 seats we need to pick up in the House this year to topple Pelosi as Speaker. And as I’ve mentioned before, we picked up 53 seats when I was first elected to Congress back in 1994 (Newt Gingrich, the Contract with America, etc.) so it is well within our reach, if we all work together.

I know people often say “this is the most important election ever.” It’s almost become a cliché. But this time I think it’s true.

Our nation is at a crossroads. We can continue down the road Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are leading us to bigger government, bigger debt, higher taxes, a stagnant economy and high unemployment. Or we can change the way we’re going, and put us on the path of Freedom, personal responsibility, lower taxes, a re-energized economy and job creation.

The choice is yours. The stakes couldn’t be higher. The time for action is now.

Well it’s official – the Congress will pass no budget this year. Congressman Steny Hoyer, the Democratic Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, second in line behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi, made it official yesterday, the Democrats who control Congress aren’t even going to try to pass a budget.

This is the first time since the law requiring a budget was passed back in 1974 that this has happened – the first time in 37 years!

So what does it really mean? It means that there are no limits at all as to how much of our money they can spend. And it’s been a spending orgy in Washington since the Democrats took control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Congress and the White House.

We’ve had deficits and red ink as far as the eye can see. Their own Congressional Budget Office projects over $1 trillion in deficit spending every year for the next 10 years (that’s as far out as they go in their projections).

Democratic Congressman John Spratt had once criticized Republicans who were struggling to pass a budget, (Republicans did pass one), saying “If you can’t budget, you can’t govern.” Now those words are coming back to bite him, because John Spratt is now the Democratic Chairman of the Budget Committee!

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who made the announcement that there would be no budget, once said that “Passing a budget is the most basic responsibility of governing.” And he was right. But now they’ve given up any semblance of fiscal responsibility and sound governing.

The American people deserve better than this. They deserve leadership in Washington that will be careful with their hard-earned tax dollars. And they’re sure not getting that right now.

That’s why so many people are demanding that Washington change its ways, that it change the failed big-spending policies which are leading us down the road towards financial ruin. It’s not too late, but it’s getting awfully close.

A little over four months from now, Americans will be going to the polls. And they will be mad. There will be a price to be paid for the utter failure of this Congress to meet even the minimal responsibility of passing a budget. There will be an accounting. It’s only a matter of time.