Living in a world filled with uncertainty – joblessness, the Gulf oil spill and undercurrents of the next terrorism strike – it should be obvious the American public wants political leadership that will get the country back on the right track.
Unfortunately, Washington doesn’t seem to be getting the message. The White House and the current leadership on Capitol Hill think that nationalizing health care, federalizing the school loan system and taking ownership of General Motors is right for America. The majority leadership can’t seem to shake a strong case of Potomac Fever, embracing a misguided “Washington-knows-best theory” that has put Uncle Sam on a runaway federal spending spree.
Trillions of tax dollars are streaming from the Federal Treasury for massive bailout and stimulus sprees that have mortgaged the future of American’s next generation. Washington believes more spending is needed to turn the economy around. The cash-for-clunkers, banks-that-are-too-big-to-fail, sky-high deficits and double-digit unemployment rates add up to one certainty in the minds of the public: higher taxes. The health care bill raised taxes earlier this year even though higher taxes are the last thing Congress should do when the economy is struggling.
The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse strings. It also authorizes elected federal lawmakers the responsibility for oversight. Throughout my public service in Washington, I have worked hard to make sure Congress isn’t writing blank checks. In other words, the public’s purse deserves strings of accountability and full transparency.
My oversight crusade started with tracing the money trail at the Pentagon in the mid-1980s. Mismanagement and lack of accountability helped create a bloated defense budget that exposed Washington’s addiction to binge spending.
Since then, I’ve doggedly tracked tax dollars streaming throughout the federal bureaucracy; scrutinized tax-advantaged entities, from university endowments to the American Red Cross, the Nature Conservancy and tax-exempt hospitals; and championed whistleblower protections to protect employees who put their livelihoods on the line to expose waste, fraud and abuse in the workplace. My oversight work is non-partisan. I go knocking on the doors of the federal bureaucracy regardless of the political party in power. From the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense and Justice, to the Food and Drug Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission – I leave no stone unturned to protect the integrity of hard-earned tax dollars shipped to Washington. Dollars spent in the name of the greater public good deserve relentless scrutiny to get the most bang out of each buck that’s taxed from a private citizen’s income, investment, property and business.
Most recently, I have led aggressive oversight of the financial bailout to require documentation showing where tax dollars are being spent and transparency for executive compensation and severance payouts.
As the U.S. economy struggles to regain stronger footing, Iowans tell me they are worried about lasting unemployment, stretching their paychecks, saving for retirement, the looming crisis of unsustainable entitlements and a mushrooming national debt.
I also hear a good bit of anxiety about the new health care law. Iowans tell me they wonder how it will affect their access to specialists and medical treatments. Senior citizens share their concerns about keeping their doctors (affected by lower Medicare reimbursement rates) and losing their Medicare Advantage benefits.
With the 2010 tax season behind us, Iowans are keenly aware of the possibility of staggering tax hikes in 2011. If the current leadership in Washington allows income tax rates to climb back up to 39.6 percent, reinstates a 55 percent federal estate tax and lets job-killing investment taxes climb to 20 percent, how is the U.S. economy expected to grow and get Americans back to work?
Despite the current line of thinking in Washington, it’s impossible for the federal government to spend America’s way back to prosperity. Just consider the $13 trillion (and counting) national debt. Growing the public sector will not rev up America’s economic engine, especially with Washington’s track record for financial mismanagement.
Just considering the feedback I’m getting from Iowans, there’s a lot of certainty among the uncertainty: Washington needs to spend less and listen more.