I called you together because today I am formally announcing my candidacy to run in 2010 as the Republican for the US House of Representatives serving Pennsylvania’s 8^th Electoral District.  

Before I get too far, I want to extend special thanks to Eileen Shapiro and the Mercer Museum for allowing us to hold this event in this beautiful setting. 

I wanted to hold this event here because it’s in the heart of Bucks County, my home.  This is an amazing place.  We won’t find a collection like this anywhere else in the world.   It documents the history and culture of Bucks County and the Delaware Valley from its earliest human occupation.   As you walk around, you can’t but help but be amazed by the resourcefulness and creativity of our predecessors.   They worked hard to earn a living, raise their families and educate their children.   Clearly, they were grateful for the blessings bestowed on them by this great country and always hoping for something better for those that followed them.

Henry Mercer would be excited to see how far we’ve come in Bucks County. We have a vibrant diverse community in which big companies and small artisans both thrive and all races and religions live in harmony. That’s a credit to our neighbors – the people of Bucks County and the rest of Pennsylvania’s 8^th Electoral District.

I also think Henry Mercer would be shocked at how far we’ve fallen in other areas.  These tools of everyday life that we see in the museum, speak to a uniquely American spirit.  A “can do” attitude, where neighbor helps neighbor and common values and a common purpose forge a better future.  A spirit where individuals make up “we the people” and “we the people” in turn give strength to our federal government. 

But in recent years, our representatives in the federal government lost touch with the people, and they have lost our trust.  Our representatives sought to supplant our American spirit with something else.   I’m shocked by how far our politicians are willing to go in order to fundamentally change our nation and its values despite the opposition of the people. 

Bailouts of lobbyists and special interests the government calls “too big to fail” have replaced free enterprise and personal responsibility. While bankers profit from easy access to taxpayer money, our country continues to lose jobs. Instead of fixing problems, the government buys time with money borrowed from foreign governments that our children and grand children will need to repay.  We need to use the tools our forefathers passed down to us to rebuild this country, not our children’s inheritance.  Liberty, free enterprise, and our Constitution gave us the tools to build our country, and those same tools can fix our economy.

I believe that the people of Bucks County and the rest of the 8th District have had enough of out-of-control government spending and waste. Unlike Patrick Murphy, I will listen to people.  I will hold meetings and town halls.  I want to know what your concerns are so I can effectively represent you in Congress.  I want to listen to you, and not cram through legislation proposed by special interests and spun for political gain.

For instance, let’s talk about health care.  Democrats correctly stated that health reform is needed to bring down the staggering costs of care in this country.  Medicare is underfunded by $34 Trillion.  That’s $34 trillion in promises the government has made and has no means of keeping. For people not covered by Medicare yet, insurance premiums have grown much faster than the rate of inflation, and certainly much faster than the average wages of this nation.  Those costs keep companies from being able to pay workers more, and they make the country less competitive on the world stage.

So what have Patrick Murphy and the Democrats done?  They are passing legislation that increases the cost of health care.  Through accounting gimmicks, they are pulling over $500 Billion away from Medicare and creating a new government entitlement to trap the middle class in a welfare program.  Their tentacles reach into and seek to control every aspect of our health care system – one sixth of the American economy – the most successful, most advanced, best performing industry in our nation today!  The government is taking over health care much the same way they took over General Motors. It’s bad enough that bureaucrats will control how cars are made in this country. We certainly don’t want them dictating how medicine is practiced.

Instead, as someone who has worked in all areas of our health care system public and private, I believe our country should be adopting free enterprise solutions that powered this country to its greatness.  For health care, that means turning entrepreneurs loose, not snuffing them out.  Reform medical malpractice laws to minimize frivolous law suits and reduce needlessly expensive defensive medicine.  Allow insurance companies to compete with innovative products like health savings accounts, which promote both savings and personal responsibility.  Fight fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid to be sure, but apply those savings to strengthen promises already made instead of shifting them to new entitlements that weakens the entire system. 

Most importantly, eliminate the middlemen who interfere with the relationship between doctors and patients.  People don’t want bureaucrats deciding what doctor they can see, how long they must wait, and whether they will get the treatment that a doctor prescribes.  Our system has become overburdened by middlemen and bureaucrats.  Whether they work for the government, insurance companies or employers, there are too many people between patients and the doctors who care for them.  The system results in perverse incentives that place institutional care plans over individual decision making, and cost controls over quality of care.  Women and their doctors should decide how early and how frequently they get mammograms to prevent breast cancer – that decision must not be made by a penny pinching bureaucrat!  Eliminate the overhead from the middlemen, and costs for care will go down.

Another example of where I believe our country is on the wrong track and how I would do things differently from Patrick Murphy and Nancy Pelosi – Cap & Trade.  First, I will only vote for bills that I have read. Second, if presented with a bill that could undermine the nation’s economy and erode its competitiveness by driving up the energy costs, I’d like to be sure the scientific support for such a radical change was bullet proof and could be defended publicly, not based on secret, fragmented data, skewed analyses, and scientists biased by enormous financial incentives to reach a predetermined outcome.  Third, it would have to pass the common sense test.  The bill Patrick Murphy voted for would not only hike energy costs on everyone, but it even goes so far as to require a person to get an energy “label” or license for a home before he could sell it.  That means someone with an older or historic home could need to upgrade insulation, windows, heating and cooling systems – and let’s not forget the light bulbs – before the owner could sell the house.  That kind of nonsense fails the common sense test, but that’s what comes out of Washington today.

Instead of Washington elites with enormous financial interests in the “Green” industry picking winners and losers, free enterprise should be allowed to thrive.  Let’s develop all of our resources – green technologies and existing energy reserves alike.  Regulate polluters, but don’t crush today’s jobs in the hope that some unproven, uneconomical solution will become more attractive when people start to freeze in the winter because they can’t afford to heat their homes.

Also, a word about foreign policy.  The Constitution establishes that Congress controls funding, and the President controls foreign and military policy.  As a seven year Air Force veteran, I understand how Congress plays a role in the military, and I believe it’s important to have military experience at the federal level.  Between Afghanistan, Venezuela, North Korea, and most probably Iran, I think our nation will face a major international crisis within the next two years.  When that crisis hits, our nation’s leadership will be tested. 

Past performance is an indicator of future results. Looking at how the government handled the financial crisis, the current leadership reacted by (1) throwing unprecedented amounts of money at the problem without fixing root causes, (2) abrogating Constitutional responsibility for safeguarding the nation’s purse by shifting decision-making to unelected bureaucrats, and (3) covering up their tracks by denying citizens the ability to challenge any of these unelected bureaucrats in court.  We are also witnessing terrorists being returned to the scene of their atrocities only to face kangaroo trials that will give them a platform to preach their hate.  And we have an administration that dithers instead of making decisions about military needs, while at the same time requiring troops to read rights, rights granted by our Constitution to Americans, our troops must read, and by extension grant, those same rights to enemies in the battle field.  That’s the track record. We need better leadership.

I am running because I trust the wisdom of the American People more than the judgment of Washington elites.  I trust that you can manage your health better than the government can.  I trust that you can manage your businesses better than the government can.  I trust that you can manage your lives better than the government can.  I am asking for your support because you can trust me to listen to you, represent you, and provide the leadership to protect and restore our nation’s greatness.

In 1960 President Kennedy observed, “a dry rot, beginning in Washington, is seeping into every corner of America – in the payola mentality, the expense account way of life, the confusion between what is legal and what is right.”  I believe we need to clear out that dry rot.  Looking back on the courage and faith of our forefathers here in Bucks County, we can be inspired and assured that we are up to the task.  Help me clear out the dry rot in Washington.  Help me start by getting Patrick Murphy out of office.