In The News

            During my first nine months in office, two issues repeatedly have been raised by the constituents of the 4th Congressional District. First, they want us to hold Washington accountable and deal with its nearly $17 trillion debt so that we can guarantee that programs like Social Security and Medicare continue to exist for current and future generations. Second, after meeting with many doctors, hospital administrators, small businesses and citizens, almost no one has any idea what the implementation of Obamacare will look like. Dozens of small business owners tell me that they’ll have to stop hiring, cut hours and cancel raises because their insurance premiums are expected to skyrocket and they can’t even begin to understand the new regulations with which they’re forced to comply.

           The last thing I want to do is shutdown the federal government. The House has passed four bipartisan bills in the past 96 hours to avert a government shutdown and each one made additional concessions to President Obama and the Senate. Our most recent bill said we should postpone the Obamacare individual mandate for one year, giving hardworking citizens the same protection already granted to big business, and it clarified that all Congressional staff, the President, Vice President and political appointees must get their health care through the Obamacare exchanges, just like Congress and citizens are already mandated to do. Bottom line: all Elected Federal officials should be treated the same as the people they serve.

          The response from the Senate and the White House has been simple: we will not negotiate. President Kennedy once said, “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” When any of us have a disagreement in our home we sit down with our significant other and talk about how to address the issue. That’s exactly what we are asking from Harry Reid and the Senate. Why not sit down and negotiate for a common sense solution to our $17 trillion national debt.  The House continues to attempt to have an adult conversation to resolve this disagreement, but without a willing participant on the other side it is impossible to have a real negotiation.

          Each year, we keep adding an average of a trillion dollars to our debt. Obamacare adds to that problem. The Congressional Budget Office originally estimated that Obamacare would cost $940 billion over ten years. That estimate has now increased to $1.68 trillion - a 55 percent cost increase before the law even is fully implemented. Likewise, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service reports that the Obama Administration already has missed half of Obamacare’s legally imposed deadlines and the president already has signed seven bills repealing or defunding parts of the law. At a rally Friday, President Obama criticized Republicans for trying to delay Obamacare - just days after his administration announced it was delaying yet another part of Obamacare. We can’t keep spending money we don’t have.

         Rather than refusing to negotiate and comparing Republicans to suicide bombers, as one of President Obama’s senior advisors did last week, the President and Senate Democrats must work in good faith with the House to keep the government open and work together to control our spending and lay the groundwork for a healthy economy. As always, I’ll continue to work with anyone, regardless of party affiliation or ideology, to solve these critical issues.