First Greece was granted a bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Now Ireland has been granted a massive bailout totaling $113 billion. Soon Portugal, Spain and Italy may line up to escape their dire financial straits. When will the perpetual bailouts end?

Bloomberg News details the worries circulating around Spain and Portugal’s financial states:

“Investor concern has shifted to Spain and Portugal since yesterday, when European governments sought to bolster the euro by giving Ireland an 85 billion-euro ($113 billion) aid package and diluting proposals that would have forced bondholders to bear some costs of future bailouts.

“’It is quite likely that Portugal’ will be next in line for a financial assistance, Roubini said today in Prague at a conference of chief executive officers sponsored by ING Groep NV. ‘The big elephant in the room is not Portugal but, of course, it’s Spain. There is not enough official money to bailout Spain if trouble occurs.’”

The United States must send a message resisting domino-effect world bailouts. Although our friends overseas may believe the financial policies of the U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, President Obama, Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi represent the views of our entire country. Fortunately, the bailout mentality isn’t backed by most of the American people. Instead, Americans have called for fiscal restraint from their own government and I extend the same call to our allies.

Countries like Greece and Ireland demonstrated irresponsible behavior as they spent like there were no consequences. Now, by the IMF agreeing to financially back Greece and Ireland, it is moving into dangerous territory itself. The IMF is removing the moral hazard from countries that find themselves swimming in debt with no way out.

What is true for individuals, families, small businesses, townships, cities, counties, states must also be true for countries; create a balanced budget and don’t spend more than you take in.

George Washington in his farewell address advised the young nation to resist foreign entanglements. He was referring to military engagements, but common sense tells us to apply that sound advice to the incessant calls for monetary bailouts. The United States, as a member of the IMF, is tangled into the European mess with first Greece and now Ireland. It is in our best interests as a sovereign nation to not bear the burden of these countries’ reckless spending habits. Market discipline drives private economic decisions. Likewise, tough love demonstrated by the United States to our international allies will also send a message before more bailouts are doled out.

The American people have given Republicans a second chance. On January 3rd we will take the Majority and face a difficult road ahead. We have many challenges to overcome including defunding and repealing Obamacare, ending the bailouts, and facing a harsh financial reality: our national debt has almost reached the allowable debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion.

A vote on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling will be one of the most significant challenges to the start of the 112th Congress. Congress simply cannot continue to operate under the pretense of “gangster government,” raising the limit upon our whim. We aren’t going to find financial stability by allowing ourselves to fall further down the rabbit hole.

At town halls and rallies across the country we saw men and women willing to put everything on the line for our American principles. They called for a reining in of spending and a decrease in the size of government. They called for strict adherence to the Constitution.

Bickering won’t solve our financial woes. Instead we must pause to consider the gravity of our situation and weigh our options like grown-ups. The American people understand cuts have to be made because a lot is at stake here including our children’s future. Will they have the freedoms we know and enjoy daily? Or will they answer to our foreign debt holders in China?

One option being presented by the Federal Reserve, not Congress, is to fire up the printing presses through quantitative easing. I wrote Chairman Ben Bernanke asking him to reconsider and testify on Capitol Hill before pursuing this dangerous option which will create inflation.

Instead, Members of Congress, elected by the American people, must start working on the difficult cuts that must be made. In the 112th Congress we are ushering in a new era of financial responsibility where bailouts will be history. Fannie and Freddie think they have an unlimited credit card billed to the taxpayer. Earlier this month they even requested another $2.5 billion more. But we need to answer “no”, cut off government subsidies and get them off our balance sheet.

Additionally, any paid-back TARP funds should immediately go to the U.S. Treasury. Also going to the U.S. Treasury should be issued any outstanding “stimulus” funds. As the American people tighten their belts, Congress must tighten the country’s purse strings as we work to put our country back on track.

Now is the time to find fiscal stability. Instead of raising the debt ceiling and giving ourselves an excuse to delay the inevitable, let’s start working on solutions. 

Our economy is suffocating under the massive weight of $13 trillion of debt. The interest on the national debt from fiscal year 2010 was $414 billion alone. As soon as Congress reconvenes, immediate focus must be given to easing our national debt.

Under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, debt has grown $5 trillion, even though she promised “no new deficit spending” when she took the gravel. But it’s not too late for Pelosi to revisit her promise. In the last few weeks of the 111th Congress, Pelosi could consider:

•    Cutting federal government spending by 23 percent – the same amount spending has increased since President Obama took office.
•    Proposing and passing a balanced budget for 2011 with no tax increases.
•    Canceling outstanding “stimulus” funds.
•    Returning repaid TARP funds to the U.S. Treasury.
•    Repealing Obamacare and all of its ugly, expensive tentacles.

Going forward, a limited government must be achieved. Congress can announce it is getting out of private business and the bailout business. Uncle Sam will not be the financial backstop for any entity.

Additionally, creating a pro-growth economy will be the main focus. Starting with a permanent extension of the tax cuts, Congress must change policies to help small businesses. If the business tax rate is made 9 percent instead of its current 34 percent, it would be nearly the lowest rate in the industrialized world.

Speaker Pelosi, allow us to get our nation back on track before the 111th Congress ends. Your speakership doesn’t have to be marked by the greatest increase in national debt. We still have time to get our fiscal house in order.

On the heels of last week’s $26 billion spending bill, of which much is going to public sector unions, a new union bailout bill may be gaining traction for discussion this fall.

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, we discovered why some lawmakers would put taxpayers on the hook for union retirement pensions:

“We wrote in June about this class of some 1,500 union-run retirement vehicles, in which companies across an entire industry pay into a single pension pool. Hundreds of these multi-employer pools are badly underfunded, thanks to years of labor funneling money into new pay and benefits, rather than into the funds for retirees.

“The big problem with these plans is that when one company in the pool goes out of business, the other companies remain on the hook for the cost of the plan. These spiraling liabilities inspired Pennsylvania Senator and Big Labor favorite Bob Casey to introduce legislation to cordon off "orphaned" pensions—those for which an employer has stopped contributing or withdrawn from the plan—and drop them on the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

“The PBGC is already significantly underfunded and taxpayers are its ultimate backstop. Yet the Casey bailout could dump as much as $165 billion in new liabilities on the PBGC, while multi-employer plans would get a clean bill of health.”

Recently the Democratic Majority Whip, Senator Dick Durbin, signed onto the plan bringing it a new round of attention and raising my concerns that the bill could move forward to a full vote in the Senate and potentially, the House of Representatives.

Enough is enough.  Democrats have proven time and time again they are not shy when spending your taxpayer dollars, especially when it comes to their union buddies. It is time for Washington to stop the futile bailouts and end the reckless spending spree for good.

I recently submitted an idea on www.americaspeakingout.org to promote transparency in the long-term spending obligations of our government. When considering your family budget, you don’t spend money you don’t have, and our government should be no different. But Congress continues to turn a blind eye to our perilous financial situation, as our $13 trillion national debt stands to be dwarfed by future debt levels if Congress does not begin to reign in their reckless ways. I hope you’ll join the conversation by watching my video message and then by speaking out and making your voices heard!

It’s no secret the U.S. government is in dire financial straits, but Democrats keep spending billions like its Monopoly money. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently released its annual review of U.S. economic policy, so since Democrats have ignored the warning signs until now, its time to listen up.

The IMF reported, “The U.S. fiscal gap associated with today’s federal fiscal policy is huge for plausible discount rates.” It continues, “Closing the fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 percent of U.S. GDP.”

Stated a little more bluntly by Laurence Kotlikoff, economics professor at Boston University, “The IMF has effectively pronounced the U.S. bankrupt.”

If our nation is in fact bankrupt, where do we turn first to rectify our fiscal gap? Kotlikoff lays out the return on doubling our taxes:

“To put 14 percent of gross domestic product in perspective, current federal revenue totals 14.9 percent of GDP. So the IMF is saying that closing the U.S. fiscal gap, from the revenue side, requires, roughly speaking, an immediate and permanent doubling of our personal-income, corporate and federal taxes as well as the payroll levy set down in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act.

“Such a tax hike would leave the U.S. running a surplus equal to 5 percent of GDP this year, rather than a 9 percent deficit. So the IMF is really saying the U.S. needs to run a huge surplus now and for many years to come to pay for the spending that is scheduled. It’s also saying the longer the country waits to make tough fiscal adjustments, the more painful they will be.”

If doubling tax revenue isn’t a viable option, Kotlikoff sees two other possibilities: Either massive benefit cuts must be enacted on retired baby boomers or we ramp up the printing presses to produce more money.

Now is the time for Congress to reexamine our spending patterns so we don’t have to follow the aforementioned paths. This is our fiscal wake-up call.

This weekend, Members of Congress will leave Capitol Hill and go back to their districts as August’s district work period begins. This six week break from legislative duties in D.C. will provide representatives the opportunity to get out of the “Washington bubble” and experience life alongside their constituents.

I expect Members will see the effects of our faltering economy on small businesses. They also may witness families in a pinch due to high unemployment numbers. Auto dealership inventory may be sitting stagnant and home “for sale” signs may not have budged in months.

As families have balanced their budgets and kept a close eye on their own spending, Congress has put spending on the fast-track, racking up our country’s debt level to a whopping $13.2 trillion. Democrats have pushed through more and more bailouts, new bureaucratic regulations, and monstrous policies in this legislative session. During district work period, all voting is put on hold. Now is our time to listen.

This week I posed a question to my Facebook followers: “What topics do you think Members of Congress need to hear about?” I received a myriad of responses, but the underlying principles were the same – fiscal responsibility, limited government, and a strict adherence to the Constitution.

Americans weren’t afraid to answer with specific policy items including everything from more border security, repealing Obamacare, to an audit of the Federal Reserve. Americans clearly have a lot on their minds this summer.

Members of Congress, now is your time to utilize this break to visit with small business owners, farmers and stay-at-home moms. Learn from your constituents and take a moment to find out what they have on their minds. You might be surprised to learn it doesn’t line up with this Congress’ reckless agenda.

Last night by the slimmest of margins (215-210), House Democrats passed a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. Confused? I don't blame you.

The Democrats' "deemed as passed" resolution is missing the most basic elements of a standard budget that is expected each year: total outlays, total federal revenue, total proposed changes to revenue, total deficit levels, and total debt levels. 

Connie Hair with Human Events points out that "never before -- since the creation of the Congressional budget process -- has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money."

So, knowing full well that our nation is already $13 trillion in debt, House Democrats found it politically expedient to pursue this alternative to a real budget that will allow them to keep up their record levels of spending without having to be fiscally accountable. Now that's leadership for you!

The Republican budget committee has put together a very thorough analysis of this faux-budget - “An Admission of Fiscal Failure”

The next big piece of legislation that Congress will consider this summer deals with reforming our Financial Regulatory system. Similar to the health care bill passed three months ago, this final bill negotiated between the House and the Senate is 2,000 pages of bureaucracy in which the people who wrote it don't even know what's in it. In fact, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), the man most responsible for crafting this piece of legislation had this gem to say about the bill:

If you want to be serious about financial regulatory reform, you've got to be willing to  address Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two entities who were the driving force behind our economic downturn these past couple of years. Sadly, Democrats went so far as to reject a series of amendments offered by Republicans to put an end to, or even limit, taxpayer-funded bailouts, including those for government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

The Republican Study Committee has compiled a very informative summary highlighting the shortcomings of this legislative monstrosity:

* Winners and Losers – Instead of using and enhancing existing legal structures like the bankruptcy process, the bill gives the same regulators, who failed to see the current crisis forming, broad new powers to takeover and break up private companies. The Executive Branch would have every opportunity to abuse these powers to pick winners and losers for political reasons.

* Taxpayer Bailouts – Taxpayers will pay the costs of these takeovers upfront out of the Treasury. This taxpayer bailout is supposed to be paid back later by other financial firms, but the costs could quite conceivably rise to trillions of dollars – making repayment out of the question.

* Consumer Restrictions – The bill creates a new agency with jurisdiction over all sorts of financial products offered by banks and non-banks (i.e. Sears or your local mechanic): credit cards, installment plans, mortgages, other loans, check cashing services, etc. In an effort to “protect” consumers from their own decisions, Democrats will make credit more inaccessible for families and entrepreneurs across the country.

* Higher Consumer Costs – To offset the cost of the bill, Democrats are levying a $19 billion so-called “bank tax.”  Of course, banks won’t actually pay these costs in the long-run – their customers will pay in the form of higher rates and fees. So say goodbye to your free checking account.

* Hoarding Capital – While banks need to keep their reserves at responsible levels, the stringent new leverage restrictions – chosen by politicians – will leave even credit-worthy consumers struggling to get a loan.

* Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – Who? Despite their intimate involvement in the financial meltdown and their perpetual taxpayer bailout ($145 billion and counting), the bill neglects to make much-needed reforms to these failed and insolvent entities.

According to a new survey by Rasmussen, seven out of 10 Americans are opposed to bailing out the struggling newspaper industry like we did Wall Street and the automobile industry. This is up from 65% from a survey done in March 2009.

The key take away in all this is that Americans oppose the government getting involved in financially sustaining the industry due in large part to the concern that newspapers will be less likely to report objectively on government officials and policies. I think that's a legitimate concern. After all, it's not smart to bite the hand that feeds you.

Another interesting finding is that an overwhelming 85% of Americans believe that maintaining freedom of the press is more important than supporting the newspaper industry.

At a time when our country is bankrupt, facing a $13 trillion debt that's on its way up to $19 trillion by 2015, it's great to see that the American people understand the dire economic straights our nation is facing. Now, if we could only get that message to the Democrat majority in Congress who control the purse strings.

More bailouts for ANY industry should be out of the question. That's the bottom line. 

Back in 2009 when President Obama was touting his $787 billion economic "stimulus" plan, he claimed that we passed the bill so that "local districts didn't have to lay off teachers, firefighters, police officers and others, and the stimulus succeeded in that." (Fox News - 7/5/2009)

Well, something strange must have happened this past year. Those jobs we already saved... well, apparently they're in need of saving once again.

This past weekend, the Washington Post reported that “President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid ‘massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters’ and to support the still-fragile economic recovery."

Apparently the first $787 billion worked so well that we now have to spend $50 billion more or face economic doom. Who knows, instead of our unemployment skyrocketing to the 9.7% where we sit right now, maybe we can pass 10% if we just spend more money!

It's becoming clearer by the day that this Administration's solution to everything is to simply throw money at it. But the problem with that approach is two-fold:

One, it doesn't work. And two, we don't have the money to spend in the first place. In fact, we are over $13 trillion in debt and the Treasury Department reported earlier this month that our debt will climb to $19.6 trillion by 2015. The approach of this Administration is akin to trying to dig your way out of a hole.

Instead of the same failed policies, perhaps it's time for a pro-growth alternative that unleashes the potential of American businesses, investors, and entrepreneurs and puts more money back into the hands of the taxpayer.

Over 87,000 votes have been cast for this week's winning YouCut proposal to Eliminate the Federal Employee Pay Raise scheduled to go into effect next year. Later today, I'll be bringing this legislation to the House Floor for a vote.

As part of his FY 2011 Budget submission President proposed raising federal civilian pay by 1.4% beginning in January of next year. This will be on top of the 2.0% raise federal civilian employees received this past January, the 3.9% raise they received the previous January, and the 3.5% raise they received the January before that. Freezing federal civilian pay at the current level for one year would save approximately $2 billion next year and $30 billion over ten years.
If the Democrats are really serious about cutting spending, this legislation is a great place to start.

Today, my House Republicans colleagues and I introduced America Speaking Out, an effort by House Republicans to engage the American people in the process of building a new policy agenda for America. Go to AmericaSpeakingOut.com to get involved and take part in the process. It’s time for the American people to drive the agenda in Washington, not the other way around.

There have been rumblings from the Obama Administration regarding efforts to create "Guaranteed Retirement Accounts" and impose new government mandates which would undermine 401(k) retirement savings plans and jeopardize employers’ willingness to continue offering them to their workers.

Human Events reports that Vice President Biden mentioned this idea in February as part of the White House's "Annual Report on the Middle Class." They also report that "in conjunction with the report’s release, the Obama administration jointly issued through the Departments of Labor and Treasury a 'Request for Information' regarding the 'annuitization' of 401(k) plans through 'Lifetime Income Options' in the form of a notice to the public of proposed issuance of rules and regulations."

I am a member of the House GOP Savings Recovery Solutions Group, and yesterday my colleagues and I sent a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging the Obama Administration to keep its hands off of the retirement savings of Americans. We stressed that any proposals to dismantle or nationalize the private 401(k) system in favor of a government-run retirement security regime must be rejected.

You can read a copy of the letter here.

We can do better than a government power grab, and I have cosponsored the Savings Recovery Act that would help Americans rebuild their retirement, college, and personal savings.

As workers throughout the country sent off their hard-earned money to Uncle Sam on Tax Day yesterday, word is spreading about a new, devastating tax that will do nothing but further cripple our already fragile economy. The Value Added Tax, or VAT, is a consumption tax imposed on all levels of production. While Americans are asking to be taxed less, the government may be taking more.

The Wall Street Journal explains the Value Added Tax this way:

"A VAT is essentially a national sales tax that is assessed at each stage of production, with the bill passed along to consumers at the cash register. In Europe the average rate is a little under 20%. In the U.S., a federal VAT would presumably be levied on top of state and local sales taxes that range as high as 10%. Some nations also exempt food, medicine and certain other goods from the tax.

VATs were sold in Europe as a way to tax consumption, which in principle does less economic harm than taxing income, savings or investment. This sounds good, but in practice the VAT has rarely replaced the income tax, or even resulted in a lower income-tax rate. The top individual income tax rate remains very high in Europe despite the VAT, with an average on the continent of about 46%."

With the passage of the multi-billion dollar health care bill, in addition to already high spending levels, Democrats are drowning our nation in debt. The VAT tax lures Democrat support because with a 10% VAT, a potential for one trillion in revenues could be raised. What Democrats fail to realize is that our already struggling economy will be crippled. Small business owners cannot grow if every product they need has been taxed every step of the way.

One of Obama’s closest economic advisors, Paul Volcker, who was also the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, said last week, a “VAT should be on the table.” He also said a VAT was “not a toxic idea.”

Volcker isn’t the only notable source floating the idea. According to USA Today, Congressional Budget Office director, Doug Elmendorf, said a VAT is being studied

The American people are taxed plenty enough as is. Our economy can only recover with fewer taxes, not more.