In last night’s debate, you might have noticed a number of topics arise that are all variations on the same common theme: An out-of-control federal government, run by overreaching, out-of-control Washington, D.C., insiders.

Whether we’re talking about the EPA’s assault on my state, Texas, over pollution rules, or the National Labor Relations Board and Department of Justice’s meddling in South Carolina’s business affairs and election laws, or even Obamacare, the issue is the same. Under this administration, just like its predecessors, power has increasingly been centralized and hoarded in the nation’s capital, leaving government bigger, weightier, more cumbersome– and very, very far removed from the people it purports to serve.

It’s time for that to end.

As I said last night, when I am President of the United States, the states are going to have substantially more rights and the authority to take care of their own business. The federal government, and Washington insiders like several of those who stood on the debate stage with me last night, will have their powers—as well as their footprint—shrunk. Washington will become far less consequential in your life. It will be a vast improvement over the status quo.

But to accomplish this, we will need to take a number of radical steps.

We can start by overhauling the EPA so it takes account of economic concerns in its decision-making, and by eliminating entire agencies of the federal government.

Shrinking the powers and the footprint of the federal government and Washington insiders will also involve establishing a part-time Congress, cutting congressional sessions, and bringing staff numbers and salaries down by 50 percent. Congress will be more like everybody else, and less like the body that earns a stunning 84 percent disapproval number from those of us who, unlike them, must live under and with the laws they pass every day.

I will also give taxpayers the option of a simpler, flatter and fairer 20 percent personal tax rate, and institute that same rate for companies—both measures that will help bring an end to the IRS as we know it.

Bailouts and earmarks must stop, and as President, I will pursue a Balanced Budget Amendment so that we can finally draw a line under the out-of-control Washington spending that has put our nation more than $15 trillion in debt.

By putting a stop to out-of-control Washington, D.C., we will not only move power closer to the people and make sure their will is better reflected in decisions that impact them; we will reintroduce a measure of fiscal responsibility that has been lacking in our nation’s capital for a decade or more now. In addition, we will create an environment that inherently spurs job creation.

That’s something we know a little bit about in Texas, where over 11 years as governor of the world’s 13th largest economy, I have overseen the creation of a million jobs while the country as a whole has lost over 2 million. We have succeeded in that mission because we have created a climate where job creators know they can go out and risk their capital and see a return on their investment. And Americans from across the country continue to flock to our state, knowing they stand a better chance of getting a good job here than anywhere else.

It’s time to put a stop to out-of-control Washington, which begins with putting a stop to the out-of-control Obama administration by electing a real conservative with the ideas and determination to change the status quo. Let’s get that done in 2012.