Congress Needs To Be Calm and Focus On The Right Priority

[As published in the Springfield News-Leader, Sunday, September 27,2009]

A USA-Gallup Poll taken after the President's speech to Congress on September 9 found that more than seven out of ten Americans believe their costs and their care will either stay the same or get worse if the health care reform legislation pending before Congress is passed. Janene Sholes of Tampa, Florida, says "It'll definitely get worse because they are going to have to find the money to pay for all this stuff. And where are they going to get it from? Us." [USA Today, as reprinted in the Springfield News-Leader, Wednesday, September 23, 2009, p. 1A].

The American people understand that we face many challenges, but they also know we must keep our heads and use common sense to resolve those challenges. Instead, the President and Congress are running around wildly, with money gushing out everywhere as the solution to all of our problems- whether it is the economy, health care or protecting the environment. This is totally irresponsible and will ultimately lead us to financial ruin.

It is time for Congress to remain calm, focus and prioritize. We must focus on getting our financial house in order before tackling other issues. For example, health care reform is needed (not as currently proposed by the President and Democratic leadership), but that is premature until we reign in federal spending and what the Congress should be doing right now is establishing a fiscally realistic, balanced and sustainable budget that keeps revenues and expenditures in line and which eventually retires federal debt. That process requires the examination of all federal programs to determine the purpose of each program, whether that purpose is proper for the federal government to pursue and if it is producing the desired result.

Congress should be focusing primarily on proposals that would get the budget in order, as described above. The bills we should be hearing and reading about in the daily news are ones such as Congressman Paul Ryan's "The Roadmap for America's Future" as proposed in 2008. Or, the "SOS: Stop Over-Spending Act"(s) of 2006, 2007 and 2008 as proposed by Senators Judd Gregg and Mitch McConnell and up to twenty-two other Republican senators. These types of bills are more important now than health care reform, climate caps or so called stimulus plans. The American people understand the concept that we should get our finances in order before taking on new, ambitious projects.

Americans will have greater confidence in and actually experience a long term economic recovery if the budget is brought under control. Instead, Americans now feel growing anxiety over increasing joblessness, continuing economic uncertainty and a more intrusive government in spite of "stimulus" money and government takeovers of industries. It is time for the President and Congress to understand and follow this concept of getting the federal budget under control instead of running around trying to change everything in sight without having a solid financial footing in place first.