Lou on the Issues
Spending
There is no way to sugarcoat it – Congress and the President are spending our country into servitude, piling up a debt we may never be able to repay.
In February, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to raise its self-imposed federal debt ceiling by almost $2 trillion – to $14.3 trillion. That works out to more than $45,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States.
And as the nation and world slipped into recession and tax revenue leveled off, Congress and the President didn’t stop spending. In fact, they’ve spent more and more – increasing that debt ceiling by almost 40 percent since 2007 and by another 15 percent this year.
To pay for it, foreign countries buy up treasury securities. They’re investing in our federal overspending. As of November 2009, China has invested almost $800 billion in American treasury securities – almost the exact same amount as the so-called stimulus bill Congress passed earlier in the year. All told, foreign countries own more than $3.5 trillion of our debt.
Our financial weakness is impacting our foreign policy. How can we negotiate with China, for instance, regarding Taiwan or Tibet when China continues to finance our debt? Now, if we anger the Chinese government and China stops buying U.S. treasury securities, we risk our financial recovery. There may come a day when the bedrock principles of the United States may have to take a back seat to the financial realities of our foreign debt.
Sadly, our elected officials in Washington just don’t get it. They’re addicted to spending. They’re hooked on it.
When members of the House and Senate went to the Copenhagen Climate Summit late last year, they did it in style. More than 100 elected Democrats and Republicans, staffers, and family members – yes, family members – racked up a bill totaling more than $1.1 million.
One of the major proposals outlined in the President’s State of the Union speech was a freeze on spending increases in certain areas of the federal budget. A spending freeze sounds like a good idea in a speech, but the reality is that freezing discretionary spending would affect only one eighth of the $3.5 trillion federal budget. The proposed freeze would save less than $15 billion a year while the politicians in Washington continue to rack up deficits of more than $1 trillion a year. And the freeze would not halt the reckless spending of the so-called stimulus package, nor any other future stimulus bills this Congress may write, nor the $900 billion health care bill.
I’m tired of this blank-check attitude of Washington politicians.
We need to send people to Washington who will add real checks to our nation’s bank balance.
We need to send people to Washington with the courage to say no – no to overpriced and ineffective boondoggles, no to politician’s pet projects, and no to the expensive perks, the dinners, travel, and benefits that members of Congress lavish on themselves.
It’s not too late to take control of our future. Like you, the federal government must tighten its belt and live within its means.
With a real plan and restraint we can restore America’s fiscal stability and stature in the world’s economy. It starts with real, meaningful spending cuts.
Social Security
It's time we had someone in Washington with the courage to stand up and call the $4.5 trillion that is missing from the Social Security Trust Fund a national disgrace.
Hard-working families and businesses paid that money into the fund with their Social Security tax payments. They believed that the money went into the fund and was safely held there to pay for future hard-earned retirement benefits. But Congress looted the fund to pay for their extravagant spending bills – the tune of an astonishing $4.5 trillion so far. And it’s continuing everyday.
For the first time in more than three decades, senior citizens received no cost-of-living-adjustment increase in their Social Security payments in 2010. But Congress and the President continued to rack up record deficits through reckless spending – and members of Congress took their pay raises.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
It's time to protect Social Security funds. It’s time that members of Congress stop spending Social Security money as their own checkbook.
A lockbox law to stop the looting is a good first start. But it's a little like closing the barn door after the horses ran away. The money also needs to be put back starting now. I find it hard to believe that with a $ 3.8 trillion budget plan Congress couldn't find an immediate $1 billion payback as a start.
Members of Congress should make an honest start. While families are hurting to make ends meet, Congress should roll back and give back some of the pay raises they've taken over the years and the free mail privileges. And I think we can hopefully look forward to a successful completion of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and as those expenditures decrease that money should be earmarked to go directly back into the Social Security Trust Fund.
I will stand up on my first day in Washington and introduce a bill to make sure this money goes back to the hard-working seniors who are depending on it.
National Security
Just one year into this administration’s term, a terrorist act was committed on U.S. soil for the first time in almost 10 years.
What is our response to this bold attempted attack on Christmas Day? We’re treating a terrorist who tried to blow a plane full of Americans out of the sky the same way we treat someone who tries to rob a convenience store.
Those who want to destroy our way of life are testing our resolve. The foreign threats stacked against the United States seem more dangerous than they have been in a decade.
All the X-rays, liquid screening, and pat-downs at airports won’t do a thing to discourage the truly motivated.
First, our intelligence agencies need to work together. The government report on the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks showed gaping holes in the coordination between our national, foreign, and military intelligence agencies. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent to increase inter-agency cooperation, but the Christmas Day bombing showed that massive systemic flaws still exist. It’s time we truly tear down the walls between our intelligence agencies so they start sharing vital information to protect our citizens and our guests.
But we need to go beyond that to secure our airports and our airlines. We need employ the psychological profiling that has been so successful in other parts of the world. We need to deny airspace access to foreign carriers who don’t meet our security standards. We need to expand our air marshal network.
In short, the government must make sure that those who would do us harm don’t get on airplanes, whether they board one in the United States or abroad.
Of course, national security must go beyond airports. We must also be vigilant in protecting our ports, our borders, our roads and bridges, our electricity generating stations and our oil refineries, our pipelines and power lines, our passenger and cargo trains, and other potential targets.
Our national security apparatus and intelligence community needs to be right all the time, but a terrorist or terrorist group only has to be right once in order to do significant damage to the country and our economy.
Sharing intelligence is an excellent first step, but more must be done to protect the homeland.
And any terrorist or would-be terrorist caught by U.S. authorities should be treated as enemy combatants. We’re still at war, and we need to prosecute the war in a way that protects our citizens and our infrastructure.
Health Care
The United States has the greatest doctors and hospitals in the world. Just look at the number of people who come from around the world to receive medical treatment here. In fact, in February, a high-ranking official from Canada – where they have a national health care system – came to the United States for heart surgery. That should give any proponent of nationalized health care a reason to take a second look at the flaws of a national system.
But our health care system is broken. Runaway cost increases, the medical malpractice insurance crisis, and the failure of politicians in Washington to enact meaningful health care reform have driven insurance premiums and the cost of prescription drugs through the roof.
Everyone should have access to affordable, quality health care.
But one thing for sure – The idea of government run health care scares me to death. Nationalized health care is not the answer. We don’t need to give the government control over one-sixth of our economy, and putting life-affecting health decisions in the hands of bureaucrats is not the answer. Cutting half a billion dollars in funding for Medicare to pay for a national health care program is a terrible mistake that would hurt senior citizens who have earned those benefits. And I will never stand for the rationing of health care services to anyone.
It's time for our government to take a leadership role in helping private-practice doctors and hospitals develop wellness programs before patients get sick. Create incentives for small businesses to offer health care to all of their employees. Allow insurance companies to sell health care policies across state lines because increasing competition will help contain costs. Make sure big companies don't exclude employees whose positions have been created at just below full-time hours from heath benefits offered to full time employees.
The United States does have the best health care system on the planet, but it has flaws. Turning it over to the government will only make it worse.
Right to Life
Simply stated, I am Pro-Life. I believe that innocent life should be protected at every stage of development. I support the restoration of legal protection for innocent human life. I will oppose the efforts of some to increase or expand the protection or establishment of legal euthanasia, abortion, and human cloning. As Congress begins to tackle the issues of Medicare and health care reform, I will never support a program that results in rationing of life-saving procedures to those covered under those programs.
Second Amendment
As a gun owner, recreational shooter, and an NRA member, I understand the meaning and significance of the Second Amendment. I believe in an individual right to keep, own, and use firearms.
This is incredibly important issue to me. It is my belief that our forefathers were very clear in their intentions when they framed the Second Amendment. They declared that each individual has a constitutionally protected absolute right to firearms, which is obviously extended to ammunition and firearm accessories.
Gun control advocates believe that the best way to stop crime is to limit your rights. I could not disagree more.
As your Congressman, I will fight to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens on every front. I will always vote to protect and support your right to own and use firearms, including the protection of gun shows, hunting, and other conservation efforts; reciprocity for concealed-carry permit holders; range protection; and the ability to defend yourself, your family, and your property.
I will always be vigilant in the defense of the Second Amendment.
“As a gun owner and as an American I believe today is a great day for the Second Amendment and a great for all of America. This was the proper decision.”
-- Statement from Mayor Lou Barletta on the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the Washington, D.C., gun ban. June 26, 2008
Illegal Immigration
Ours is a great and generous nation. No one can match the help America has brought to countries around the world. And no one can match America's willingness to embrace people from all over the world who want to join our great democratic society.
But where do we draw the line? What's reasonable when illegal activity threatens our national security or overwhelms our small cities and towns?
Speaking from years of experience, I can say that illegal immigration and the problems caused by it hurt small cities and towns. Illegal aliens use services provided by communities but they do not pay their fair share in taxes.
We need to stop the flow of illegal aliens across our borders and through our airports and seaports.
We need to crack down on fraudulent documents and the criminals who make them.
I think it's reasonable that people show proof of citizenship before getting a driver's license. I think employers should be penalized for hiring illegal aliens. I think that if a person is in this country illegally and further breaks our laws, after that person serves his or her time here, he or she should be sent back to his or her own country.
Americans are reasonable people looking for reasonable guidelines to protect our country and communities.
As your congressman, I will lead the charge to take reasonable steps to secure our borders, secure our documents, and secure jobs for legal American citizens.
Veterans
From the minutemen at Lexington and Concord in 1775 through the battles raging today in Afghanistan, men and women have worn the uniforms of this nation and stood up against tyranny, against oppression, and for liberty.
This is a legacy our veterans can be proud of. Veterans served our great nation with dignity and pride.
For some that service was in the jungles of Southeast Asia, the mountains of Tora Bora, the shifting sands of Iraq and Kuwait, the tranquil fields of modern Europe, the cold desolation of Korea, or the beaches of Normandy or Guadalcanal.
Others served here at home, on American soil.
No matter where they put their boots at night, this nation owes all veterans a debt of gratitude.
We owe our veterans the best benefits we can provide.
