There’s an inverse relationship between the size and scope of government and the health of our free-market economy. That’s why House Republicans made deregulation a cornerstone of our American Jobs Plan.

Every new rule, mandate, and regulatory edict is one more obstacle that small business owners, entrepreneurs, and job creators have to swallow. That holds especially true for our dynamic and competitive tech industry, which I have worked hard to protect from Big Government intrusion. Unfortunately, the tech industry is not immune to Obama’s regulatory capture, and it looks like America’s iconic innovators might be next on Obama’s hit list.

Most people don’t realize that the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) reach extends to one-sixth of our economy. Most people don’t know that in the last 50 years the FCC’s rules – measured in pages – have grown 800 percent. And now the FCC’s sister agency – the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – has its tentacles deep into the privacy debate, data security, and control over advertising practices.

As in all sectors, excessive regulation kills — regardless who your regulator is.

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Bureaucrats at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are pursuing a heavy-handed regulatory approach to address vague concerns about consumers’ online privacy. They claim that privacy is threatened by a shadowy group of advertisers who are harvesting your data from behind the screen to sell you more stuff. While I don’t discount the agency’s good intentions to protect consumers, FTC activists have supported regulations that would threaten the lifeblood of the Internet: data.

I support safeguarding users’ personally identifiable information and sensitive data like health or financial records. I also believe the government has a responsibility to punish deceptive and unfair practices that defy reasonable expectations about consumers’ privacy. The real problem is that the FTC has grossly exaggerated the true harm to consumers, and they are stubbornly unwilling to accommodate any free-market solutions.

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I was having a cup of coffee and reading through the local paper when I came across an article discussing remarks that President Obama recently made at one of his many campaign/fundraising stops. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that the President had told the audience “things could be worse.” It seems especially odd coming from the same man who 2 years ago ran for President with a campaign slogan of “change you can believe in.”

President Obama continues to blame our Republican Party for all economic woes facing our country. The problem with that argument is that the Democrats have now controlled the White House, the Senate and the House for nearly 2 years. They have rammed through every policy they’ve wanted and are now faced with dealing with the failure of those policies.

Instead of owning up to their mistakes and working to repair the damage they have done, now the President is saying “it could be worse.”

Try telling that to the unemployed people struggling to provide for their families. 14.6 million Americans are out of work. To them things can’t get any worse. They recognize that the Obama Administration’s economic policies have failed. They know that billions of dollars have been spent with a guarantee that unemployment would not rise above 8 percent, and yet it sits at 9.5 percent and hasn’t moved significantly lower for many months.

People look at a federal government that has become so bloated that it is now involved in virtually every facet of our lives and wonder can it be worse? They look at record deficits and out of control spending and wonder can it be worse? They look at hundreds of thousands of small businesses closing their doors and wonder can it be worse?

No matter how the President and his advisors attempt to spin the economic crisis, the American people will hold him and his Party accountable in November.

Cross posted at Vote Marsha.com

Great Britain has long been one of our strongest friends in the free world. But lately it seems like our two countries are moving in opposite directions. David Cameron, the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has announced drastic spending cuts for many of the government programs and has indicated that more cuts are coming, unlike the Obama Administration, which continues to engage in deficit spending, and is looking for additional stimulus money to help a tottering economy.

Cameron has also indicated a far different approach on their health care program. The United Kingdom has for years had a form of socialized health care, one that our new director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says he “loves”. According to Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) they are going to make some “changes” in their health care system. They recognize that government-run health care leads to increased cost, less quality care, and yes, rationing of health care. Faced with a budget/deficit crisis, the United Kingdom, in trying to deal with a national health system that has become so cumbersome and difficult to administer, has decided to decentralize its national health care system.

According to the New York Times, “practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England’s $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level.”

Britain’s Sunday Telegraph reports that the NHS is planning widespread cuts, including restrictions on some of the most basic and common operations, including hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and orthodontic procedures.

The British health care system is a blueprint for the failure of Obamacare, as it is structured. We need to work to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the kind of health care choices that the American people want. That doesn’t include government run health care. Nor does it include rationing of health care for one of our most respected groups – our seniors. Hopefully, we will learn from the failures of the NHS.

Cross Posted at Vote Marsha.com

Last Friday, Vice President Biden delivered his speech to the Tennessee Democratic Party’s annual Jackson Day dinner. For some strange reason the Vice-President chose to rally party activists by defending what most Americans agree are enormous failings of their first 18 months in office – the Obama Administration’s economic and foreign policies. He would have been better off keeping the focus of his talking points on politics.

His inaccurate assertions and his continuing to blame our current problems on President Bush are simply getting old and tired with the people of Tennessee.

Let’s see now. The Vice President says the setbacks in Afghanistan are the fault of President Bush. Did I miss something here? This from the “statesman” who thinks it is a good idea to give the enemy in Afghanistan the time table for our withdrawal – a position even President Obama is running from.

The Vice President also continued with the tired old theme of blaming President Bush for the size of the deficit and for not paying for many of the programs enacted during his administration. While all Republicans acknowledge that there were mistakes made during the Bush Administration, again the continuous pointing a finger at President Bush has gotten tiresome. It’s time for the Obama Administration to level with the people of Tennessee.

When President Obama took office the debt stood at $10.6 trillion. It now is over $13 trillion. Although deficit spending is never a good idea, it seems to me if the Obama Administration wants to continue to blame President Bush for the deficit, they should remember that it has only taken President Obama 544 days to increase our deficit by $2.4 trillion. It took President Bush four years to incur a deficit of $2 trillion.

Its time for President Obama to act responsibly and become the leader the country needs. Stop the blame game!!

Cross Posted at Vote Marsha.com

Vice-President Joe Biden is in Nashville today to keynote the Tennessee Democratic Party’s annual Jackson Day event. Tennesseans are known for their good manners and graciousness and so we welcome the Vice-President to our state. I can’t help but think, however, that it would have been better if he had come to visit immediately after the catastrophic floods that devastated Nashville and the surrounding areas, instead of waiting until today, when there’s a fundraiser and checks to be picked up. Funny that he scheduled this keynote speech 44 days before the Tennessee floods, but is now billing his trip as a “flood damage tour.”

Nevertheless, we welcome the Vice President today. Tennessee is a great place for the Vice President to see that the failed economic policies of the Obama Administration are not the way to solve the problems of the economy. Here in Tennessee, instead of the big spending, big government, job killing agenda of the Obama Administration, Tennesseans have tightened their belts, and are struggling to find jobs that will enable them to support their families.

The Obama Administration continues to talk about the “policies of the past” and insist that a return to those policies will lead to disaster. This kind of argument just shows how far out of touch the Vice President and his liberal Democratic friends are with reality. We in Tennessee know that low taxes, less government, and less spending are the ways to grow our economy. We know that working with small businesses to create jobs will do more to help our economy than anything the Obama Administration has tried to do.

Tennesseans are facing an unemployment rate of 10.4%. We know we have a long way to go to recover economically. We also know that the policies advocated by the Vice President and the Obama Administration are not the way to do it.

Tennesseans can show the Vice President what policies WILL work. We have done it in the past and will do it in the future.

Cross Posted at Vote Marsha.com

One of the most important tasks of the United States House of Representatives is to pass a budget resolution.  The Budget Act of 1974 established a timetable for the annual budget process.  Under Title III of the Act, Congress is to complete action on the concurrent resolution on the budget by April 15.  While the budget resolution is a nonbinding blueprint, it is, nevertheless, an important guideline for Congress.  Once the President’s proposed budget is received by Congress on the first Monday of February, Congress generally goes to work on appropriating the funds required.

Congress of course is not bound to accept the President’s budget figures, but the House has the sole power to appropriate funds for spending, and it is a duty that should not be ignored.  Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress have made the decision to skip the annual task of crafting a budget for the U.S. government.

Why?  It’s pretty simple.  The Democratic members of Congress are unwilling, in an election year, to approve a measure sure to include huge deficits.  With the midterm elections just around the corner, and voters increasingly concerned over out of control spending, Democrat leaders are now saying that it is likely that Congress will forgo passing a tax and spending plan.

In today’s environment of ever increasing deficits, it is especially important that Congress return to fiscal responsibility.  A starting point would be passing a Budget Resolution.  With the American people voicing their displeasure with the antics of Democrats in Congress this is not a way to restore voter confidence.

In fact, Democrats are shirking a basic congressional responsibility.  Democrats in Congress are refusing to make the hard choices American families and small businesses must make every day – adopting a budget and sticking to it.  With spending deficits and debt continuing to spiral out of control the refusal by Democrats to pass a Budget Resolution sends a clear signal to the people that Democrats are not serious about controlling or cutting spending.

Cross Posted at Vote Marsha.com

Politicians like to confuse congressional spending with earmarks. There is a difference. The Constitution of the United States (Article I, Section 7) vests the power to raise and spend federal revenue solely to the House of Representatives.

I firmly believe that the most important feature of spending the people’s money is complete transparency. Any spending should be debated openly on the floor of the House and voted on in open session, with the American people having a chance to watch and listen.

That is why in 2008 I took the position that I would oppose all earmarks. Earmarks, unlike Article I, Section 7, require no transparency. In fact, it undermines the transparency and debate necessary by allowing individual members of Congress to obligate funds to their districts without giving the body as a whole the chance to weigh them against national priorities.

Earmarks are almost always inserted by a member of Congress without any notice to other members, and without a chance for Congress as a whole to debate a particular earmark as they relate to national priorities. This year the Republican caucus in the House voted to abstain from all earmarks.

I am hopeful that this process will lead to the transparency that the American people want. More importantly, it is my hope that it will lead to a vigorous public discussion of national priorities before appropriating taxpayer funds.

The Tennessean recently published an Op-Ed I wrote that you might find of interest.

Cross Posted at Vote Marsha.com

Do we need some financial reform? Absolutely. Do we need or want what Democratic leadership is insisting on? NO! Every month the Obama Administration seems to come up with something else that will grow government and increase the power of bureaucrats.

The American people have made it abundantly clear that they want less government, not more. They want problems solved in a bipartisan manner, not the creation of new problems.

The financial services reform bill that is presently being debated in the Senate, simply adds huge new federal powers without taking any steps to reopen lending to small businesses. The Dodd Bill does very little to reduce financial risks. What it will do is make Wall Street even more the servant of bureaucrats in Washington and the political party in power. That is not in the best interests of the American people.

Neither is it in the best interests of the people to ignore the excesses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But yet, Washington politicians are reluctant to include these out of control agencies in any reform package.

To get our economy back on track and keep it functioning properly without the problems of our financial institutions, we need reasonable regulations that will protect Main Street, while at the same time allow Wall Street to do what it does best – make money for American investors.

What we do not need are more bailouts for financial giants. People are justifiably angry about the government bailouts of the last year. We can’t replace the cycle of boom and bust with fraud and bailout. Republicans are willing to support and vote for realistic, meaningful financial reform.

Cross Posted at Vote Marsha.com

When the President was pushing so hard for the government to take over our health care he made several promises. On September 9, before a joint session of Congress the President said his health care bill “will slow the growth of health-care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.”

Unfortunately, that isn’t quite true. In fact, Medicare’s Office of the Actuary issued an independent, 38 page analysis on April 22 in which Chief Actuary Richard Foster wrote “the growth rate reduction from productivity adjustments are unlikely to be sustainable on a permanent annual basis…”

Now experts are predicting that Obamacare will boost U.S. health spending by $311 billion through 2019, while federal medical outlays will grow by a net total of $251 billion.

The President also promised “If you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep it. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.” Now thousands of employers are likely to terminate their existing coverage. That is because the penalties imposed by the plan will not be a substantial deterrent for a business to drop or forego coverage. Experts again predict that the number of people with employer sponsored health coverage will be reduced by about 14 million.

Then of course the President made this famous promise:”under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” Another promise that can’t be kept. Over the first 10 years of operations Obamacare will cost $2.5 trillion. Perhaps that is why Democrats in Washington are eying a national sales tax.

Don’t forget that Obamacare already contains $569 billion in new taxes on such things as prescription drugs, medical devices, health insurance plans and even tanning salons.

Oh, and by the way, Chief Actuary Richard Foster flatly says that “an estimated 23 million people would remain uninsured in 2019.”

It’s time to start working on how to repeal this catastrophe of a health care bill.

Cross posted at Vote Marsha.com