His testimony came on the same day the Treasury Department announced that the Obama administration had run up the largest monthly deficit in history.  In February, the federal deficit totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record set in February of 2009 and there is no sign of slowing down.  According to the Associated Press, “The Obama administration is projecting that the deficit for the 2010 budget year will hit an all-time high of $1.56 trillion, surpassing last year’s $1.4 trillion total.”

Against this backdrop, the Obama administration is proposing another massive new entitlement program under the guise of health care reform.  The fact is our country cannot afford a new entitlement program.  Medicare is currently broke, Social Security is going broke and Medicaid is bankrupting not only the federal government, but also the states.  I believe we need to reform health care, but we can do it without bankrupting our country in the process. To learn more about Conservative health care proposals, please click here.

The American people are tired of out-of-control government spending, taxing, and borrowing.  To show that House conservatives are serious about the urgent fiscal crisis our nation is facing, I have joined my colleagues in calling for an immediate moratorium on all earmarks.  Congress has to start living within its means or we will end up like Argentina – fiscally insolvent.  By taking these small steps, we can put our country back on a path to fiscal stability.

Last month the president said he did not want to get “too bogged down” in the numbers associated with health care costs. I would argue that we have no choice:  Medicare is currently broke, Social Security is going broke and Medicaid is bankrupting not only the federal government, but also the states. The president’s plan does not fix these problems. Instead, it burdens the taxpayers with yet another entitlement program at a time when we can’t afford the entitlements we currently have.

After a year of debate, I appreciate the president’s adoption of a few, select Republican ideas. If this new proposal truly represents commonality, as the president claims, than surely there is no need to pass this bill under reconciliation. It should be able to garner bipartisan support like other major pieces of legislation that have passed Congress. I look forward to working with President Obama and my colleagues on common sense health care reforms that will lower costs for families and small businesses and expand access to affordable, high-quality care.

Today, the House will vote on a $15 billion “jobs bill.”  Although it is scheduled to be voted on in a few hours, Members of Congress and, more importantly, the American taxpayers have not had a chance to read the bill and debate its implications.   

Of course, this sort of behavior is not new. Several record spending bills were passed by the House last year without a chance for Members of Congress and the American people to read them.  Last June, Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) and I introduced H.Res. 554, a resolution requiring the House of Representatives to make bills and conference reports available online for 72 hours before they are considered by the House.  This resolution will enhance public participation in our democracy and help restore the public trust in government by raising the level of openness, order and discourse. I urge the Speaker to give the American people at least the weekend to read this bill so Members can stop voting blind.

Over the past year, Americans have said in every possible way – through letters, phone calls, town hall meetings, and elections – that they do not want a government takeover of health care. Today, the president will once again deny the American people the right to a clean start with health care reform, instead opting to push through his own agenda.

Last week the president said he did not want to get “too bogged down” in the numbers associated with health care costs. I would argue that we have no choice:  Medicare is currently broke, Social Security is going broke and Medicaid is bankrupting not only the federal government, but also the states. The president’s plan does not fix these problems. Instead, it burdens the taxpayers with yet another entitlement program at a time when we can’t afford the entitlements we currently have.

After a year of debate, I appreciate the president’s adoption of a few, select Republican ideas. If this new proposal truly represents commonality, as the president claims, than surely there is no need to jam this bill through under reconciliation. It should be able to garner bipartisan support like other major pieces of legislation that have passed Congress. I look forward to working with President Obama and my colleagues on common sense health care reforms that will lower costs for families and small businesses and expand access to affordable, high-quality care.

The legal research, litigation, and legislative experience I gained  first through my successful lawsuit to end federal Judge William Wayne Justice’s 25 year rule over Texas prisons, and now through my work in Congress have convinced me that a resolution like this one adopted at the precinct level coupled with federal legislation designed to achieve the same purpose can create an impenetrable barrier protecting our personal freedom and the autonomous sovereign authority of our State government, as the Founders intended.

To understand why this will work, remember that our individual freedom and the independent sovereign authority of our State governments have been obliterated by federal statutes enacted by Congress and enforced by the Chief Executive and the Courts. What Congress has destroyed by statute can be restored by statute. Now is the ideal moment to push for new federal laws designed to restore freedom and State sovereignty.

Precinct, district, and state conventions are the closest modern analogy to the original Conventions that created the American Republic and the Republic of Texas, so I sincerely hope that you will offer this resolution at your precinct convention. It is important we get it adopted in as many precinct and district conventions as possible, and then press to win its adoption at the State convention.

Please send this email and the resolution to friends and family around Texas, as I am, and encourage them to help.

 I am confident we can restore the individual freedom our Founders meant for us to have, and the prosperity they dreamed we would have, because fiscal conservatives are going to turn out in record numbers this year to vote. We must also be sure that the conservative candidate who earns our vote takes an iron clad oath, as I do every election, to keep their word to represent you as a true fiscal conservative and work relentlessly to cut spending and cut taxes to balance the budget and to honor the Constitution by getting the federal government out of our lives so that Texans will run Texas.

Thank you entrusting me to represent you in Congress, and for taking the time to consider my request.

Sincerely,

John Culberson

Member of Congress

Texas

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The president and Congressional Democrats should also listen to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) whose Director on Monday indicated he does not have the information necessary to provide adequate or timely estimates of the potentially enormous costs of the president’s plan.  How can we have an honest discussion about a health care plan when no one knows how much it will cost?  After the summit, Congressional Democrats indicated that they would like to ram a bill through by the end of March. I would urge these Members to postpone any floor action on another  health care bill at least until CBO can provide a complete cost estimate for the legislation.

Sadly, the president isn’t even listening to himself. In 2005, when asked about the use of  reconciliation to jam a bill through the Senate Barack Obama said, “[W]hat I worry about would be you essentially still have two chambers – the House and the Senate – but you have simply majoritarian, absolute power on either side.  And that’s just not what the Founders intended.” Given that the American people have repeatedly said “no” to a government takeover of health care and the costs of this plan are unknown, I was disappointed the president failed to commit to not jamming a bill through the Senate under reconciliation.  As the president previously noted, using reconciliation is a tacit acknowledgement that the bill lacks bipartisan support and not what our Founders intended.

I was pleased to see Members sit down together yesterday. Conservatives have repeatedly been shut out of the process and finally were given a chance to present our ideas to the president and Speaker Pelosi. I am confident that these fiscally conservative policies can lower health care costs without adding to our already unsustainable debt burden and raising taxes on Americans who are struggling from the recession.

The president’s latest plan for health care reform includes more spending, more taxes, and more government control – ideas the American people have repeatedly rejected.  Unfortunately it seems that President Obama has not been listening.  The president said he wants to sit down with Republicans and Democrats at today’s health care summit to discuss their ideas.  First, President Obama should listen to the millions of Americans who have said no to a government takeover of health care.

The president and House Democrats should also listen to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) whose Director on Monday indicated he does not have the information necessary to provide adequate or timely estimates of the potentially enormous costs of the president’s plan.  How can we have an honest discussion about a health care plan when no one knows how much it will cost?  I would urge the House and Senate to postpone any floor action on a health care reform bill at least until CBO can provide a complete cost estimate for the legislation.

Sadly, the president isn’t even listening to himself. In 2005, when asked about the use of  reconciliation to jam a bill through the Senate Barak Obama said, “[W]hat I worry about would be you essentially still have two chambers – the House and the Senate – but you have simply majoritarian, absolute power on either side.  And that’s just not what the Founders intended.” Given that the American people have repeatedly said “no” to a government takeover of health care and the costs of this plan are unknown, I hope the president will commit today to not jamming the bill through the Senate under reconciliation.  As the president previously noted, using reconciliation is a tacit acknowledgement that the bill lacks bipartisan support and not what our Founders intended.

I look forward to hearing from the president and my colleagues today.  I am confident that we can lower health care costs without adding to our already unsustainable debt burden and raising taxes on Americans who are struggling from the recession.

A year ago today, President Obama signed a $787 billion spending bill into law.  This massive piece of legislation was crammed through Congress with zero transparency and was brought to a vote just 15 hours after being drafted in the dead of night – hardly enough time for anyone to read the bill.  President Obama and Speaker Pelosi told us the so-called “stimulus” package was intended to create jobs and keep the unemployment rate below 8%.  A year later, unemployment stands at nearly 10%, we have record high deficits, record high spending levels and our national debt currently stands at $12.3 trillion. Americans are demanding to know:  Are we better off?

So here we are, one year later, and I join my fellow citizens in asking:  Where are the jobs President Obama promised?  It’s time to get serious about job creation by cutting income taxes and payroll taxes, and removing barriers to domestic productivity.  Most importantly, we need to stop spending money we don’t have and leaving our children and grandchildren holding the bill.

This one year anniversary of the failed stimulus package is a fitting reminder of the liberal majority’s allegiance to deficit spending.  Despite all the evidence to the contrary, they still seem to think that throwing money at a problem will make it go away. 

Today Congressional Democrats are set to raise the debt limit again by $1.9 trillion to $14.3 trillion – roughly the size of the entire U.S. economy.  This will be the largest one-time debt limit increase in history and the fifth increase in less than two years from the Democrats.  If all this borrowing weren’t enough, President Obama’s budget would force Congress to raise the limit once again in just nine months.

The United States is facing an urgent fiscal crisis. Our national debt currently stands at $12.3 trillion, which is a $3.7 trillion or 42% increase since the Democrats took over Congress in January 2007.  In three years Congressional Democrats have accumulated more federal debt than in our nation’s first 200 years. Yesterday, Moody’s Investors Service Inc said the U.S. government’s Aaa bond rating will be jeopardized unless strict measures are taken to reduce our budget deficits.

Americans across the country do not budget their finances this way and neither should the federal government.  Congress has to start living within its means or we will end up like Argentina – fiscally insolvent.  Instead of raising the debt limit and charging more on our credit card, we should use repaid TARP funds and unspent stimulus money for deficit reduction.  We should also amend House rules to require that any increase in the statutory debt limit be considered as a stand-alone bill and pass with a supermajority two-thirds vote.  I believe by taking these small steps, we can put our country back on a path to fiscal stability.

The president’s budget released today contains more spending, more taxes, and more debt.  According to news sources, White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said yesterday that the White House would really like “to draw a line in the sand and enforce some discipline in the spending process.”  If that is true, why is the Administration proposing a budget that more than doubles the debt, drives spending to a new record of $3.8 trillion in FY2011, pushes the deficit to a new record of $1.6 trillion in FY2010, and raises taxes by over $2 trillion through 2020?

Our nation is facing an urgent financial crisis.  Today, the individual share of the national debt for every woman, man, and child in the U.S is $39,870.  This debt is almost entirely comprised of new spending that our children and grandchildren will be forced to repay with interest.  I believe it is time to stop spending our children’s future.  As Thomas Jefferson prophetically observed, “Loading the nation with debt and leaving it for the following generations to pay is morally irresponsible.”

Elected officials in Washington must start doing what they say.  If they promise to cut spending, then they need to cut spending. Common sense tells you that spending more to save more is not a logical fiscal policy.  The president has said he will “continue to go through the budget, line by line, page by page, to eliminate programs that we can’t afford and don’t work.”  As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I would urge the president to include Republicans in that process.  Hopefully we can move beyond the rhetoric and achieve real savings for the American people.