Despite their failures, the politicians in Washington, DC seem to think they have the solutions, too. Unfortunately, those solutions are familiar: If only they could spend more, tax more, regulate more, and control more of the economy, our problems will be solved.
Well, government is bigger, more intrusive and more controlling than it has ever been.

How has that worked so far?

I don’t buy it. Our nation works best when people are given more freedom, not less. We don’t need more regulations and we certainly don’t need new taxes to fix this problem.

What we need is responsibility.

Bad business decisions should not be bailed out by the taxpayers. And politicians who make bad decisions should not turn to taxpayers to bail them out, either.

Washington, DC and big corporations need to assume the kind of responsibility that small business people have always had to practice.

That’s not just good economic policy. It is good values and good common sense.

There are thousands of small business owners across the First District of Kansas who do not get bailed out if they make a poor decision. They know they own the consequences of their actions. Sure, it’s not always easy, but here in Kansas we wouldn’t have it any other way. We don’t ask for much, except to be left alone, allowed to keep our hard-earned profits, and to run our businesses as we see fit.

That should not be too much to ask.

So, as the politicians in Washington, DC debate how best to fix our banking industry, I have one piece of advice for them: Whatever “fix” you come up with, please leave our Kansas community bankers out of it. I’ve met dozens of community bankers across the First District so far in this campaign, and I have yet to meet one who made a sub-prime loan.

My fear is the “fix” coming out of Washington will be just another layer of red tape, telling our bankers how to do what they have already been doing, and doing well, for years. Extra layers of regulation increase the cost of doing business and takes away time that could be spent with their bank patrons. Community bankers in Kansas know how to do their jobs — we need to let them do it. They didn’t get us into this mess; they should not be held accountable for the mistakes of others.

There are complicated and technical aspects to the banking crisis, but basic principles of freedom and responsibility still matter. If those in Washington will remember these principles when they’re passing laws, it will be a step in the right direction. If they do not remember these principles, they’ll be back again, passing our bucks to bail them out of their own bad decisions.

Next year, the voters of the First District of Kansas will decide who will succeed Jerry Moran to represent them in Congress. I believe I am the right person for the job. I have worked for the people of Kansas for almost 15 years – in both Kansas and the nation’s capital – I believe I am uniquely qualified to do the job, and do it well from day one.

We are all products of our upbringing, so let me tell you about who I am and how I got here. I was born in Hays, Kansas, to parents who believe in the traditional values of hard work, honor, and answering the call to service. I tried to live by those values and was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to go to Harvard. I took advantage of that opportunity. And when I finished college, I came home to Kansas.

When I returned, I went to work for the people of Kansas – first, for Governor Bill Graves, then for Jerry Moran, who then was state senate majority leader, and finally for Senator Sam Brownback. I was Sam’s legislative director and ultimately his chief of staff.

This, as you might imagine, has given me tremendous experience working on both Kansas and national issues. Along the way, I gained a reputation as an effective expert on budget and life issues, and I have an abiding interest in rural health care and economic development. From education to Social Security and a dozen issues in between, I know the impact the federal government can have on all our lives, for good and ill, and especially how Washington affects our rural Kansas communities.

But do you know the most important thing I learned along the way? That knowledge, experience, and values are not enough. They are just the starting point. If you cannot maintain and defend what you know and believe, all of the knowledge, experience, and values in the world will become shifting sand in Washington, DC.

Our nation’s capital needs reform right now, precisely because too many of our elected officials have been unable to maintain and defend our values. I have seen first-hand how Washington works, and I have seen why it fails. The sands have shifted for many of the people in Washington, DC. It sometimes seems we have more convictions than conviction. Our country is paying the price for that.

We need conservative leaders who have values and conviction. But we also need vision.
I have a vision of how conservative values and policies will help our country, and especially aid rural and small town America. I believe in a set of policies aimed at breaking down the barriers to prosperity for rural America, unleashing the ingenuity and productivity of the American worker, and rejecting the old, failed policies of high taxes and burdensome regulation. We cannot prosper when the government demands more and more of our money to sustain Washington, DC.

We have two simple choices. We can choose prosperity for Washington, DC or we can choose prosperity for the rest of America. I will always choose Kansas and America.

Prosperity for rural America is the right choice. As the late Paul Weyrich said, “Agriculture has always been a conservative culture.”

That is who I am and why I am here. I hope you will give me the chance to prove my values, my conviction and my vision as the Representative from Kansas. I hope you will join me in the fight we have ahead.

For more information, to donate, or to sign up as a supporter, please visit my website.