Press Releases

President Obama just delivered his final State of the Union address. It was his last opportunity to convince the American people that his agenda of an expanded federal government and use of unilateral executive action is working. I remain unconvinced.

We’ve heard President Obama deliver speeches before, but Americans know that someone has to pay the bill. We’re $18 trillion in debt and can’t keep spending money we don’t have. The old, outdated, top-down approach from the federal government might help to grow Washington’s jobs, but not ones here in the 4th District. The people I serve are sick and tired of “business as usual” and are convinced that our government no longer works for them.

If we’re serious about getting the country back on track, the U.S. House must take aggressive steps to restore America’s confidence by advancing solutions that shrink the power in Washington and put it back in the hands of each citizen to succeed based on their own abilities. The best way to do that is to reform the top-down system of governing in Washington, so Members – and the people they represent - can actually have a say in affecting policy outcomes. This means no more back-room deals that produce 2,000-page bills with less than 48 hours for Members to review. This means developing policy the way our Founders intended: through a bottom-up, collaborative process, with all Members, Republican and Democrat, contributing to the effort. I joined the House Freedom Caucus to fight for such changes. 

One would expect the President to work with Congress – a coequal branch – to go through the lawmaking process outlined in the Constitution. All too often over the past 7 years, he's ignored the notion of coequal branches whenever it doesn’t fit his political agenda.

The President has policy priorities he'd like to see enacted. Likewise, Congress has policy priorities it'd like enacted. The Constitution wasn't designed to allow either to work unilaterally. Believe me, I’d love to work around the President to reduce our crushing debt and build an opportunity economy where every American can pursue their dreams regardless of who they know. But the Constitution mandates that we find common ground, justifiably.  The President is welcome to join that process – but Congress should be focused on bold ideas to get our country back on the right track.