We cannot spend our way to economic prosperity.
It took the President less than a week to waver from the promises in his State of the Union address to lower taxes and cut the record deficit. His actions do not meet his rhetoric. This includes the massive $1 trillion government takeover of healthcare despite an emphatic no from the American people.
Instead his proposed budget increases spending to a record of $3.75 trillion next year and more than doubles our nations debt over the next five years. This President tries to talk a good game but his tax and spend budget reflects his true intentions.
In a time of recession American families and businesses need the shackles of high taxes removed so they can create jobs and invest. Growing government and continuing to pour record debt onto our children is not the answer.
NASA
The Presidents budget proposal would cancel NASAs Constellation program the successor to the Space Shuttle program. Cancelling Constellation has much broader implications than the planned return to the moon.
It will jeopardize jobs time and money we have already invested put us even further behind in our plans to return to space and in the interim leave American astronauts dependent on the Russian space program for transportation to and from the International Space Station. Further the Presidents proposal will very likely lengthen the time before we are able to create the next round of space related jobs in communities that have grown up around this industry.
Since NASA was created in 1958 every President has understood the contributions our manned space program has made to technological advances that have changed our world. Congress must act to ensure that NASA has the proper vision and resources it needs to carry out its mission and maintain American leadership in manned space exploration.
As a member of the Science and Technology Space Subcommittee I will do everything I can to prevent this devastating setback.
Homeland Security Hearing
Last week the Homeland Security Committee met to discuss the intelligence failures that led to the Christmas Day bombing. It is clear that this was an extraordinary intelligence failure that goes beyond a failure to connect the dots.
Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Michael Leiter admitted that there was concern on behalf of the intelligence community about
potential attacks by al Qaeda in Yemen and the timing of them as well. What they admitted to being unable to connect was the individuals name or where the attack would occur.
Later the State Department stated that the father of the terror suspect was not a credible enough source to revoke his visa. You can view the committee hearing here.
Idaho Wilderness Water Resources Protection Act
Last Wednesday I voted for and the House passed H.R. 4474. This legislation will allow the Secretary of the Interior to extend permits to water facilities to operate under certain conditions in federally protected wilderness areas in Idaho so long as they meet federal requirements.
