Welcome to my Blog
posted by Denny Hastert @ 10:09am (10/27/05)

This is Denny Hastert and welcome to my blog. This is new to me. I can’t say I’m much of a techie. I guess you could say my office is teaching the old guy new tricks. But I’m excited. This is the future. And it is a new way for us to get our message out.

Most of you know me as a coach by nature so I hope this gives you some inside access to the Republican playbook.

The internet is changing the way we share information. My office has been talking a lot about some of the conversations going on in blogosphere. So I thought, hey, I should start one and give you unfiltered updates on Capitol Hill.

Let me start by first saying that we need to keep our thoughts and prayers with the victims of Hurricane Wilma. There has been a lot of damage. It’s in the billions of dollars I’m told. But we were better prepared this time so the loss of life and property damage was not as bad as it could have been.

You know, we’ve had a rough hurricane season. All of our hurricanes have dealt a serious economic blow to the U.S. And that means we’re going to have to do some belt-tightening – throughout the federal government.

There have been reports that paying for Hurricane Katrina may cost upwards of $250 billion. I can assure you that we're not going to spend $250 billion - it's not going to cost that much. Congress has already passed legislation that provided $62.5 billion worth of immediate relief to help the Gulf Coast get back on its feet. Part of that money to made sure that kids have a school to go to, they're fed, they have power and clean water to drink -- basic necessities that we all take for granted. What we don't need to do is to spend more money now and worry about how to pay for it later. In the House, we're working on a plan that will include off-sets to pay for any additional spending, eliminate wasteful and inefficient government programs and cuts mandatory spending. But it will keep tax relief in place so that we can create jobs and continue to grow the economy.

Speaking of the Hurricane season, renewed attention has been brought to the way we refine gasoline in this country. Today, energy companies started reporting their 3rd quarter earnings, and while Americans paying were record prices at the pump, energy companies were making record profits.

This is America. And Republicans don’t believe in punishing success. But what are these oil companies doing to bring down the cost of oil and natural gas? They haven't built a refinery here in America since the 1970's. They've built refineries overseas, but nothing here at home.

We want some answers and you folks out there in the blogosphere do too. When are new refineries going to be built here in America? When is the Alaska pipeline deal going to be signed so we can get natural gas to consumers quicker? Conoco Phillips has reached an agreement with the state of Alaska on the pipeline. Exxon Mobil and BP need to do the same. These companies need to invest in America’s energy infrastructure and resources. Until they do, we're going to be asking some tough questions.

Well, there you have it folks. I’ve outlined some of our priorities: fiscal responsibility and energy. I’m going to keep updating this from time to time. It’s not that bad.

Looks like this old guy can still learn a thing or two. Until next time . .