It is that time of year when Congress begins to debate the annual appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year. As colleagues of mine go on the House floor to debate various bills, I am reminded of my priorities since coming into Congress and reflect on the battle to rein in Washington’s overspending and get America headed back in the right direction.

When I travel in the district, many of you voice frustrations with Washington—a frustration I shared before coming to Washington and now more than ever. Spending has been out-of-control for some time now, and both parties are guilty of spending too much. Spending programs are uncontrollable and need to be addressed as they make up the bulk as one of the biggest debt drivers. I know there will be some who disagree on certain spending cuts, but I believe our long-term fiscal well-being depends on Congress to make those hard choices. America is at a crossroads: do we continue on the path of excessive spending and accumulating debt or do we make the tough choices to avert more damage to the economy?

We have seen very little leadership from the president on the issue of spending. Under the president’s budget we would increase federal spending by nearly 30 percent while he has already increased the debt by almost 50 percent. In fact, in his last two attempts, the president has not received a single vote in favor of his budgets. That may be because under the president’s plan, the federal budget would never balance again. Meanwhile, in the House, we have passed budgets that consistently cut spending in an attempt to get our fiscal house in order. These plans, including the most recent, received support from some minority members, and have been crafted with your desire to reduce our country’s debt by $15 trillion relative to the president’s plan and put the budget on the path to balance. Unfortunately, the Senate last passed a budget in 2009 when the national debt was at $11.15 trillion while today the total national debt is at an astounding $15.7 trillion.

Despite these obstacles, I refuse to waiver from your directive to me: “Stop spending our money recklessly and get the debt under control.”

In the last two years, I have been joined by my colleagues in the House to get the debt under control by reducing spending. We have been successful in banning earmarks from the federal budget in order to keep your taxpayer dollars from being spent frivolously and far from the public eye. Congress capped spending in the debt limit bill. We have cut tens of billions of dollars out of the domestic budget, passed budget reforms to Medicare to save it for future generations and sough to make Medicaid more sustainable. The House even held a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution for the first time in almost a generation. And believe it or not, in 2011 and 2012, the House cut our office operating budgets by 11.4 percent while maintaining a salary freeze for members of Congress. 

These are serious times and we need serious leaders who care about future generations. It has always been important to me to bring Missouri common-sense to Washington and I will continue to keep thoughts and concerns of folks in the 9th District in mind. It seems to me that President Ronald Reagan put it best when he said: “We don’t have a trillion dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion dollar debt because we spend too much.”

As Congress continues to debate and vote on appropriating funds for Fiscal Year 2013, I will back cuts that help restore the economy by creating jobs while maintaining a fiscally responsible approach to spending. As we continue to watch the fiscal troubles in Greece and the Eurozone that at this very moment seem poised to have serious effects on the world economy, it puts in perspective what could potentially happen here in the United States if action is not taken and we continue on the path that we have been on the past four years.