This week, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress and the nation in his State of the Union Address. Our nation continues to be confronted with tough challenges, and he touched on many of these difficult issues in his speech. I believe that North Carolina and our nation can and will overcome these challenges by working together. In order to turn our economy around we must empower individuals, families, and small business, not expand the size of government and increase taxes. The president took a step in the right direction by suggesting a lower corporate tax rate, but if he intends to couple this with a tax increase on the American people, then it is a non-starter.
I applaud the president's call for fiscal responsibility, and I could not agree more. However, these are mere words until we make the difficult choices necessary to begin paying off our enormous national debt. On Wednesday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a report stating that the budget deficit is now estimated to have widened this year to $1.5 trillion.
The CBO Outlook makes official what you and I have known for a long time - that Washington has a spending problem that threatens to bankrupt our country. The American people sent a clear message last November that they want spending to be cut, not frozen at the current, inflated levels like the president suggested Tuesday night. We must stop the out-of-control spending in Washington or our economy will be no better off, and future generations will suffer the consequences.
On Wednesday, I joined many of my Republican colleagues in cosponsoring legislation to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care reform bill President Obama signed into law March 23, 2010. Despite being marketed as health care reform, the legislation that was signed into law expands the size and scope of the federal government while failing to deliver on the promise to lower health care costs. Hard-working Americans who are already struggling in this difficult economy are bearing the brunt of new taxes, fees, and penalties because of this law. With each day that goes by, it becomes clearer that we must repeal this bill and replace it with meaningful health reform that will actually reduce the cost of health care.
I was proud to cosponsor several other pieces of legislation that I supported in the 111th Congress, but that did not receive a vote and had to be reintroduced. Among them was a bill to balance our national budget and a bill to abolish the IRS and establish the FAIR Tax. Stay tuned to this newsletter, my Facebook page, and Twitter for progress on these bills and other updates from Washington.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Richard Burr
