WASHINGTON   –  “Shortly after the sun rises on a new year for our nation, a new Congress will convene in our Nation’s Capitol.  When I travel from Missouri to Washington to convene with my new colleagues in the House of Representatives, we will have a Republican majority for the first time in four years – and some commonsense ideas to go along with it.

The mandate of the new Congress is clear – the American people have sent us to cut the size of government, to pull our nation back from a catastrophe of deficits and debt, to restore reason to the regulations and rules being written by the most powerful Executive Branch in the history of our country.               

This work will not be easy; there are difficult days ahead.  But it falls to each member of the 112th Congress to remain resolute, to represent the people from their districts, and to make difficult decisions for the betterment of our nation and the future generations which will inherit it.

Here is where we’ll begin: with a federal deficit of $1.2 trillion for 2011 and a $13 trillion national debt.  Much of the time in the 112th Congress will be spent on finding ways to cut federal spending.  Many federal agency budgets today remain at elevated “stimulus” levels.  Those budgets must be cut, and unspent stimulus funds must be called back to the federal Treasury for the sole purpose of reducing our national debt. 

After the success of a recent court challenge to the sweeping health care law of 2009, I am eager to tackle several aspects of repeal of the law.  Of immediate concern is the new burden on businesses to prepare more 1099 documents for the Internal Revenue Service.  Not only does this misguided requirement punish us for patronizing several small businesses in our communities rather than choosing one giant company, but it also buries small business proprietors in paperwork when they should instead be concentrating on growing their bottom line. 

Next, the IRS is slated to begin adding to its enforcement division in anticipation of the health law’s mandate on individual Americans to carry government-approved health insurance.  They will come to Congress soon to ask for millions in funding to start that process.  I’ll be working to prevent them from hiring IRS agents to police the health care law.

Cap-and-Trade is another issue, which, right out of the gate, I will be working to stop in its tracks.  Without approval of this policy from Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to implement this new tax on every American who flips on a light switch, drives a car, or shops in a store. 

All the strands of these controversial policies intertwine to form a common theme about which you will hear a great deal from me over the next two years: making the federal government smaller, less expensive, and more accountable to the American people.  If that isn’t a good resolution for the New Year, I don’t know what is.”