Families and small businesses all across our country are making sacrifices, yet our government continues to spend like a drunken sailor. In the 9th Congressional District, people understand the importance of living within their means and want to know if Washington understands the concept.

 

Beginning in January, the majority in Congress has been on an unprecedented spending binge. This binge started with the $789 billion so-called stimulus bill and continued when Congress passed the more than $400 billion omnibus spending bill to fund government operations through September of this year, an eight percent increase in spending from the previous year.  

 

Things didn’t get any better for taxpayers when the President submitted his budget proposal to Congress for the next fiscal year. Instead of listening to your call for fiscal sanity in our nation’s spending decisions, his budget calls for $3.5 trillion more in government spending that would increase our national debt by $3 trillion over the next five years -- an amount unprecedented in our nation’s history.

 

When I hear the majority talk about the so-called investments contained in the new budget currently being debated, what they are really talking about is spending even more of your hard-earned taxpayer dollars. And Washington wants to pay for all of this with tax increases on our hard-working families and small businesses. The tax increases on small businesses will stifle job creation and economic growth at the very moment our country needs a strong and robust small business sector to help us get back on solid ground.

 

You have told me time and again that you want Congress to stop this reckless spending binge in its tracks and return to the concept of fiscal restraint. In the weeks and months ahead, I plan to fight for a responsible budget that puts our families first and makes tough fiscal decisions now, instead of pawning off the ever-increasing deficit to future generations.

 

Hard-working families and small business owners all across our District and country are angry, and they have a right to be. The one question I get most often when it comes to spending is: “Do those folks in Washington have a clue?”

 

I know that we have to stop the out-of-control wasteful spending spree in our nation’s capital that is being financed on the back of taxpayers like you. My goal is to fight for these families and small business owners with alternatives that will emerge over the next few weeks. I plan to take a thoughtful approach to improving your quality of life through tax cuts, responsible spending and other thoughtful measures. That’s what you expect, that’s what you deserve.