In 2003, while serving as Solicitor General of New York, Ms. Halligan approved and signed a legal brief arguing that handgun manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers should be held liable for criminal actions that individuals commit with the guns. Three years later in 2006, Ms. Halligan filed a brief alleging that handgun manufacturers were guilty of creating a public nuisance.

I join the majority of Americans in opposing Obamacare and welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to review the constitutionality of that legislation. Not only is Obamacare bad policy, it is clearly unconstitutional. The Constitution grants the federal government only limited, enumerated powers, and none of those powers permits the government to tell individual citizens when and how to buy health insurance. Never before has the federal government claimed the power to force citizens to buy private products, and it must not be allowed to do so now.

Yesterday, the Senate voted down my motion to maintain 2011 spending levels in certain areas of 2012 appropriations, including agriculture and commerce. This would have saved taxpayers roughly $10 billion. Unfortunately, too many members of the Senate are still committed to fighting every attempt to enact even the smallest amount of savings.

The purpose of this bill is to support a free market method of increasing demand for housing at a time when so many working-class Americans are underwater on their homes, are desperate for prices to rise again, and big-government programs have failed to work. I am sponsoring this bill because I know that it makes economic sense while protecting American citizens.