With congressional disapproval ratings wallowing between 65%-75%, it’s clear that Americans have lost faith in the bond between themselves and their elected leaders. As a conservative, I sense that Americans no longer trust Washington to promote solutions to our nation’s challenges that do not mortgage our children’s futures. What’s most frustrating is the reality that Washington refuses to have a real conversation with the American people about the direction of our nation. Many Americans believe that leaders in Washington have lost touch with those who sent them there – the people. If you believe, as I do, that it is past time to put ‘We the People’ back in our nation’s driver’s seat, I invite you to join America Speaking Out.

America Speaking Out allows you to be at the genesis of a discussion that will lead to a new congressional governing agenda. Through America Speaking Out, ‘We the People’ have the opportunity to offer positive solutions to our challenges. After all, the best ideas come from Americans who work hard and pay the taxes.

America Speaking Out is a state-of-the-art platform that allows you to share your priorities and ideas for a national policy agenda. You can suggest your own solutions and provide feedback on the ideas of others. Everyone can see the solutions that are on the table, make comments on them, and register their approval or disapproval. It brings the halls of Congress into American homes and uses the best of social media to allow America’s many voices to be heard.

As the former Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, I am excited that Republicans have created www.AmericaSpeakingOut.com in recognition that the American people are in charge. We serve in “The People’s House,” and the people deserve to have a say in the way it is run and the policies it passes. It’s critical for any new agenda to begin with the people.

We want to have a conversation with the American people about a new direction, but we don’t come without our own ideas. The new governing agenda will fit within a principled, conservative framework based on limited, more accountable government; economic freedom; lower taxes; fiscal responsibility; protecting life, American values, and the Constitution; and providing for strong national security.

Clearly our nation is on an unsustainable path of too much spending, too much taxation and too much Washington in our everyday lives. So many of us are frustrated that we are living in an America that looks much different than the America that promised unlimited opportunity as a birthright. Now is your chance to be part of the discussion about how we should go about solving these problems.

I encourage you to join America Speaking Out and to attend one of the America Speaking Out town hall meetings in the weeks and months to come. It’s time to give power back to the American people and restore these broken bonds of trust.

www.AmericaSpeakingOut.com