Weekly Column:   –  “Americans send their federal representatives to Washington to work on their behalf, and they want us to work together.  Even though this Congress possesses the margins to advance a partisan legislative agenda or, conversely, to retreat to a partisan position of “no,” this way of doing business is not necessarily good for the country.  The House of Representatives is meant to be a sounding chamber, not a soundproof one.

Health care reform, energy independence, and fiscal responsibility touch every family in Southern Missouri.  Every legislator should be willing to engage in an earnest debate on the issues.  Only in this way can government be truly responsive to the needs of the people.  Given the state of the family budget today, those needs are great and urgent. 

In each case, the wise use of public resources is essential to the bottom lines of the families who are dealing with the temporary, but severe, effects of the economic downturn. Access to quality health care is uniformly expensive.  Roughly 15 percent of all Americans do not have health insurance.  Many families are one severe illness from bankruptcy, and instead of relying on their doctors they have come to rely on government. 

Likewise, energy costs put untold pressure on the week-to-week finances of working Americans.  Domestic energy production today does not keep up with the demands of our economy – especially its manufacturing and agricultural sectors – and we instead rely on foreign resources and regimes.  Today, America is in the process of dangerously conceding the recovery of global energy supplies and the methods of that recovery to foreign interests.

Finally, fiscal responsibility demands a federal government which punishes wrongdoing and malfeasance, strives to strengthen and grow an economy rich in opportunity, and is accountable to taxpayers as well as every young American who may someday pay taxes.

It is no longer sufficient in today’s economic climate to merely identify these problems; we must also solve some of them.  Like no other time in our history, we must be open-minded, propose real solutions, and share earnest ideas in debates on the issues.  We need problem-solvers, not bomb-throwers, to correct the direction of this economy. 

The loyalties of Congress have always been first to the nation, and I am glad our Founders so deeply engrained our sense of responsibility to the country in this institution.  Now, in their tradition, we must bring reason and rationality to some uncertain, and uncommon, times for our country.  In the coming weeks, I will seek new and more opportunities to constructively focus on the issues at hand.  This effort will be open and inclusive; it will depend on good faith and common sense.  I hope every member of Congress will join us. 

Our economy, energy independence, and health care reform are all topics of concern around the dinner table.  But in Washington, I am very disappointed Congress is not cooperating to address these concerns, settling in many cases for inaction rather than pursuing mutual, attainable goals.  Even incremental progress would be better than politics-as-usual, because a House divided against itself cannot stand.”