John Yarmuth: “President Bush is out of new ideas. Instead, all he has left is blatant fear-mongering, a strategy that his…”

“President Bush is out of new ideas. Instead, all he has left is blatant fear-mongering, a strategy that his administration has elevated to an art form. This time, it's the expiration of his Protect America Act that has the President warning of dire consequences, even though his own administration admits that our intelligence community continues to have every tool it needs. Fortunately, the American people are not buying into the administration's latest scare tactics. It's pretty difficult for the President to now decry the act's expiration when he threatened to veto a 21-day extension earlier this month. If the law was so critical to national security, you would think that the President and congressional Republicans would have done everything in their power to ensure that it didn't expire. If Washington Republicans were seriously concerned about the future of the FISA program, you would think they would want a seat at the table as important negotiations continue. Instead, both the administration and Republican leaders have refused to negotiate. Mr. Speaker, no wonder the scare tactics aren't working.”