In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV Friday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Barack Obama’s decision not to fully enforce the Defense of Marriage law is a direct violation of his constitutional duties.

Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the administration will not defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, which has banned recognition of same-sex marriage for 15 years.  President Clinton signed the act into law in 1996.

While NewsMax reported that a Gingrich spokesman stressed after the interview that we are not currently in a constitutional crisis, nor was Gingrich calling for the direct impeachment of the president.  His statements were meant to illustrate the hypocrisy of the left and the mainstream media.

Gingrich slammed Obama for his decision, telling Newsmax that he is not a “one-person Supreme Court” and his decision sets a “very dangerous precedent” that must not be allowed to stand.

“Imagine that Governor Palin had become president. Imagine that she had announced that Roe versus Wade in her view was unconstitutional and therefore the United States government would no longer protect anyone’s right to have an abortion because she personally had decided it should be changed. The news media would have gone crazy. The New York Times would have demanded her impeachment.

“First of all, he campaigned in favor of [the law]. He is breaking his word to the American people,” Gingrich says.

“Second, he swore an oath on the Bible to become president that he would uphold the Constitution and enforce the laws of the United States. He is not a one-person Supreme Court. The idea that we now have the rule of Obama instead of the rule of law should frighten everybody.

“The fact that the left likes the policy is allowing them to ignore the fact that this is a very unconstitutional act,” Gingrich said.

To read the entire story and see a video extract, click here.  The full Newsmax.TV interview with Newt Gingrich will air this Sunday.

Congressman James Lankford (R-OK), member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, held a field hearing Thursday at Oklahoma City Community College to discuss “Improving and Reforming our Nation’s Surface Transportation Programs.” Congressman Lankford was joined by Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL) and Congressman John Duncan (R-TN). Witnesses included Governor Mary Fallin; Secretary of Transportation Gary Ridley; Neal McCaleb, Chairman, TRUST; Jim Duit, Duit Construction; Larry Lemon, Haskell Lemon Construction; and Jerry Hietpas, Action Safety.

In welcoming the Chairman, his fellow Congressman, and Committee staff, Congressman Lankford praised the host city and cited the momentum Oklahoma City is experiencing.  “Oklahoma City has seen a resurgence over the past fifteen years,” Lankford said.  “We’ve seen a revitalization of the city itself as well as of the state in many ways. I love telling the story and getting a chance to say ‘Come see what’s going on in Oklahoma City and the resurgence we’re experiencing here.’”

In reference to the transportation infrastructure in Oklahoma and the nation, Lankford said, “Oklahoma is in the crossroads of our nation, and most goods pass through our great state.

“Today’s hearing showed that the solutions to improving our state’s highways and roads lies not in Washington, but right here in Oklahoma. We don’t need the federal government taking an even larger role by dictating to the states how they should build their highways and roads. We have plenty of highly skilled and capable officials and workers right here that know the best way forward. The best ideas come from individuals who see and breathe the issues not just from Washington.”

Today’s witnesses offered many significant insights into our nation’s transportation challenges, including:

“Building our roads and bridges is essential to the economic wellbeing of our nation and it represents an important investment in the future of our country. There is a bipartisan interest in insuring that goods can be moved quickly and efficiently across state lines and throughout our country on safe roads and bridges with a minimum of congestion," said Governor Fallin.

Secretary of Transportation Gary Ridley said, “Knowing we cannot increase the budget, we have to take bureaucracy out of the way. Government can do great things if government gets out of the way.”

“I thank all of today’s witnesses for offering their time and their insight to this hearing and I thank Chairman Mica for including Oklahoma City on his hearing schedule,” said Congressman Lankford. “I think Oklahomans offered valuable insight into the challenges facing those charged with keeping America moving.”

This week I had the opportunity to listen to the new director of Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, lay out the framework for President Obama’s budget. Much of the deficit cutting rhetoric in the days leading up to the budget release built a tenor of expectation which was quickly dashed as I heard the President’s budget spokesman utter the phrases, “sustainable deficit” and “primary balance.”

A new nomenclature has again been invented by the president.  The goal of the president’s budget is a “primary balance” and not an actual balance.  The goal of the budget is not debt reduction, but reaching an invented “sustainable deficit” defined as deficit spending each year equal to 3% of GDP.

I do not recall hearing anyone in my district asking me to help get the nation to “primary balance” or to work toward “sustainable deficit” spending. This nation wants to get back to an actual balance and debt elimination. 

 The president’s spokesman assured the House Budget Committee that the first step of the plan was to attain a sustainable deficit of 3% of GDP, then at some future date, balance the budget and begin paying down the debt. But there is one major problem; the president’s ten year plan never creates a single year where deficits are less than $600 billion. Every year in the President’s budget has a larger deficit than any year during the George W. Bush administration. The president’s budget also assumes near non-existent inflation for ten years and significantly higher GDP than the Congressional Budget Office estimates while also ignoring entitlements.

We also learned that clean energy job creation means traditional energy jobs are taxed out of existence so the federal government can create green energy jobs which might someday create green energy. Punishing the fuel that powers America and American jobs today is no way to create domestic energy independence and price stability tomorrow. In the 1970’s, President Jimmy Carter declared that 20% of all electricity would be produced by solar power by the year 2000. Now, eleven years past Carter’s target date, America still produces less than one percent of its electricity through solar power. When will we learn as a nation that a President cannot wave their budget wand and create energy?

Republicans and Democrats can certainly agree that a projected debt of more than $26 trillion by the end of the decade is more than we should have as a nation. The problem is determining the solution to the problem. In the President’s “sustainable deficit” plan, ten years from now the interest on our debt alone approaches $1 trillion dollars a year. Debt that exceeds 77% of GDP will not be solved by new nomenclature and budget gimmicks.

While the president speaks of tough choices, this is the first generation of American leaders that in the middle of tough times have looked to make it harder on our children to make it easier on us and that is not right. It is apparent that there is a great need to begin work on a serious budget in the days to come that will truly address our fiscal mess. Our kids and the future of our nation are counting on our tough choices.

About the author: Congressman Lankford serves on the House Budget, Oversight & Government Reform, and Transportation & Infrastructure Committees.  This column was originally published in The Hill newspaper on February 17, 2011.

Updated: U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a leading Senate conservative, Monday responded to the release of President Obama’s FY2012 budget with the following statement:  “The release of this budget represents the continued failure of President Obama to take the nation’s fiscal crisis seriously. 

"Submitting $3.73 trillion in spending of which $1.1 trillion is deficit spending lacks leadership and a true understanding of the problems we face.  The proposed $1.6 trillion in tax increases are a detriment to our economic growth.   Instead of using budget gimmicks and tax increases to shield the nation from the true fiscal problems, we need real spending cuts to reduce federal spending from the 24 percent increase enacted by Obama and the Democrats since 2008," Inhofe said.

“Instead of the five year freeze of non-security discretionary spending at the currently inflated levels as the President proposes, we must actually reduce spending.  That is why I will re-introduce the Honest Expenditure Limitation Program (HELP) Act.  The HELP Act cuts non-security discretionary spending back to the 2008 levels and freezes them there for ten years.  While it will not solve all of our spending problems, it will use actual spending cuts to help address our deficits.  

“Looking at this budget, it is clear that the president is committed to his big government social agenda.  His $8.7 trillion in new spending is paid for in-part on the backs of our military through $80 billion in cuts at the Defense Department.

“On energy, his budget, with its $43.6 billion tax increase on fossil fuels, would raise the price at the pump for consumers already struggling to pay for gasoline while having a devastating impact on the oil and gas sector of Oklahoma’s economy.  This is a key part of his cap-and-trade energy agenda, designed to tax the energy that consumers actually use in order to redirect federal funds to green energy," Inhofe added.

Following President Obama’s budget proposal, Inhofe re-introduced S. 360, the Honest Expenditures Limitation Program (HELP) Act of 2011. This legislation would cut non-security discretionary spending to 2008 levels and freeze them there for five years.  It would result in nearly $1 trillion in savings over a 10 year period.

“The current spending trend under President Obama is irresponsible and unsustainable,” said Inhofe. “It is inconceivable that the budget he proposed this week would include another year of deficit spending at $1.65 trillion.  Obviously, the White House lacks leadership on addressing our spending problems. ”

Inhofe continued, “My new HELP Act will offer a fiscally responsible step towards addressing our nation’s deficit spending and growing debt problems.  With the support of many Congressional Democrats, President Obama has proposed a freeze of non-security discretionary spending at their current levels – after he has increased those amounts by more than twenty percent over the last two years.  In order to save money, everyone knows you have to cut spending, not freeze in the higher spending levels.  That is why the HELP Act cuts non-security discretionary spending back to 2008 levels and freezes it there.  This would save roughly $1 trillion over a ten year period.”

FACTS ABOUT THE HELP ACT

• The proposal would cut discretionary spending at FY08 levels for all non-security appropriations, which excludes Defense, Homeland Security, State, Veterans Administration, and national security functions of the Energy Department.
• The spending freeze at the 2008 level would last for 5 years.  Afterward, spending increases would be tied to the Consumer Price Index between 2017 and 2021.
• A 67-vote Point of Order in the Senate would be triggered by any appropriations bill that causes the total non-security discretionary cap to be breached. It would also be triggered by a provision in any legislation, amendment, or conference report that attempted to legislatively exempt new spending from sequestration.
• Spending for overseas military operations would be exempt from the cap.

Clashes are being reported between Iranian police and tens of thousands of protesters in central Tehran Monday, killing one person, gunshots injuring three with dozens beaten and an unidentified number arrested.

The opposition called for Monday’s demonstration in solidarity with Egypt’s popular revolt that a few days earlier forced president Hosni Mubarak to resign after nearly 30 years in office. The rally was the first major show of strength for Iran’s cowed opposition in more than a year.

Police used tear gas against the protesters in central Tehran’s Enghelab, or Revolution, square and in Imam Hossein square, as well as in other nearby main streets. Demonstrators responded by setting garbage bins on fire to protect themselves from the stinging white clouds.

The pro-government Fars News Agency reported that a bystander was shot dead at the hands of protesters.

Eyewitnesses reported at least three protesters were injured by bullets while dozens of others were hospitalized with severe wounds as a result of being beaten.

"An Iranian dies but doesn’t accept humiliation," demonstrators chanted. "Death to the dictator," they said, in a chant directed at hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Security forces on motorcycles could also be seen chasing protesters through the streets, according to eyewitness reports.

Fars, which is linked to the Revolutionary Guard called protesters "hypocrites, monarchists, ruffians and seditionists," and ridiculed them for not chanting any slogans about Egypt as they had originally promised.

The agency added that an unspecified number of protesters were arrested and handed over to police and security officials.

Opposition website kaleme.com reported that similar rallies took place in the central city of Isfahan and Shiraz in the south. Security forces used force to disperse them as well.

Foreign media are banned from covering street protests in Iran.

Following the announcements by the opposition that they would attempt to hold a new rally in solidarity with the Egypt uprising, Iran’s security forces cut phone lines and blockaded the home of an opposition leader in attempts to stop him from attending the rally.

The security clampdown is reminiscent of the backlash that crushed a wave of massive protests after Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June 2009.  But opposition supporters revived a tactic from the unrest, shouting "Allahu Akbar," or God is Great, from rooftops and balconies into the early hours Monday in a sign of defiance toward Iran’s leadership.

The reformist website kaleme.com said police stationed several cars in front of the home of Mir Hossein Mousavi ahead of the demonstration. Mousavi and fellow opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi have been under house arrest since last week after they asked the government for permission to hold a rally on Feb. 14 in support of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

On Sunday, the opposition renewed its call to supporters to rally, and accused the government of hypocrisy by voicing support for the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings while refusing to allow Iranian political activists to stage a peaceful demonstration.

Across central Tehran, riot police, many on motorbikes, fanned out to prevent any demonstration, witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears of reprisals from authorities.

Ahmadinejad claimed the Egyptians who toppled President Hosni Mubarak took inspiration from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought down a Western-backed monarchy. Iran’s opposition movement used the comments to push the government into a corner and request permission to march in support of Egypt’s protesters.

Iranian officials quickly backpedaled and said no pro-Egypt rallies were allowed — bringing sharp criticism from the White House and others.

Karroubi and Mousavi have compared the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia with their own postelection protest movement. Mousavi said Iran’s demonstrations were the starting point.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who is on a visit to Iran, urged governments in the Middle East to listen to the demands of their people.  "When leaders and heads of countries do not pay attention to the demands of their nations, the people themselves take action to achieve their demands," IRNA quoted Gul as saying Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians peacefully took to the streets in support of Mousavi after the June 2009 vote, claiming Ahmadinejad was re-elected through massive vote fraud.

A heavy government crackdown suppressed the protests. The opposition has not been able to hold a major protest since December 2009.

The opposition says more than 80 demonstrators were killed in the turmoil. The government, which puts the number of confirmed deaths at 30, accuses opposition leaders of being "stooges of the West" and of seeking to topple the ruling system through street protests.