Making a List, Checking it Twice

As the New Year quickly approaches, many people are making a list of New Year’s resolutions and goals for 2017. While those lists often include getting in better shape, eating healthier or spending more time with loved ones – the incoming Trump Administration is working on a different kind of list. Theirs is a list of priorities, changes, repeals and policies to help move our economy forward, enhance the security of Americans and truly once again make our country great.

Topping the list of President-elect Trump’s priorities heading into 2017 is a day one repeal of so many of the regulations which are holding back innovation, access to care and economic prosperity in this country. President Obama continually went around Congress and the will of the American people to implement his big government, liberal agenda with the stroke of a pen. Through executive orders, executive ‘guidance memorandums’, and administrative rules and regulations, President Obama consistently sided with left leaning groups and lobbyists in a direct assault on our economy and our Constitution. President Obama so often went around Congress that on over 20 different occasions the Supreme Court ruled with unanimous decisions that the actions of the President or his Administration were unconstitutional or illegal. However, what President Obama will soon learn is that when you enact an agenda without the approval of Congress or the American people via the Executive pen, your policies can just as easily be undone with the stroke of that very pen. As a result, President Trump on day one will have the power to undue much of the damage done over the last 8 years.

Next on that list, Congress will work with President Trump to reform our healthcare system in order to lower costs for patients and put you back in control of your healthcare choices, not the federal government. This week I met with those on the front lines witnessing the failure of Obamacare in southeast and south central Missouri during my healthcare roundtables. From Farmington to Kennett, to Poplar Bluff, to West Plains, to Rolla and Cape Girardeau, there was unanimous agreement that our current healthcare system simply isn’t working and an overhaul is needed to put the power of choice and competition on the side of the patient. I look forward to working with the new Trump Administration during the first 100 days to repeal Obamacare and begin the work to provide Americans with affordable and high-quality healthcare coverage options.

Fixing our country’s broken tax code is also a major priority list item for myself and the incoming Trump Administration. We need a simpler, fairer and flatter tax system which lowers rates on the middle class, gets the IRS off the back and out of the lives of families and farmers, and makes our American companies competitive. We will use the tax code to incentivize companies to expand, locate and hire here in the U.S. while holding accountable those who chose to locate elsewhere. We can make our economy great again and it starts with developing a tax code which rewards those who choose to invest in ingenuity and the American worker.

Also on the agenda list for 2017 is to restore a sense of security to American families. That starts with ending the talk of relocating terrorists housed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on domestic American soil and continues by standing tall against those who wish to do American soldiers and families harm. Those efforts are further fulfilled by seeing through President Trump’s commitment to place enhanced security, personnel, and a wall on our southern border. I am dedicated to seeing these efforts through and will work with our incoming President to help authorize the resources and tools needed to help enhance the security and safety of American families. ‎

As a country, we have so much to look forward to in 2017. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will soon be home to a reformer who shares our vision that step one is getting Washington off the backs and out of the lives of American families and small business owners. Our White House will be home to someone dedicated to making our lives easier and who wants to remove the regulatory red tape, the tax code complexity and the “Washington, DC knows best” mentality that has marred the last 8 years in this country. Our next President wants to bet on the American worker, not enact policies which push workers overseas. The list of goals and plans the Trump White House and Congress are working together on is an impressive one – and I am truly excited about what it will mean for my friends and neighbors in south central and southeast Missouri. It is high time the needs of the Washington elite and bureaucrats take a back seat to those of American families and workers.