Sunday, September 30, 2012
Safe Doses Act aims to crack down on theft of drugs and other medical products.
The Safe Doses Act, legislation I introduced to fight medical theft, recently passed both the House and the Senate. In a time of intense partisanship, this bipartisan legislation passed both chambers of Congress to protect patients from stolen and mishandled medical products that find their way back to our stores. It currently awaits signature by the president. Medical theft is a growing form of organized crime that impacts thousands of patients in the U.S. who rely on life-saving drugs every day. These stolen drugs are sold through a network of middlemen to our stores and patients have no way of knowing if the drugs were tampered with or tainted. The Safe Doses Act addresses each step of the supply chain to crack down on medical theft. …
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Not only does health care law expands the role of government to unprecedented levels, its taxes also decimate our religious liberties.
The Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, gives the federal government the tools to tax religiously-affiliated schools, hospitals, universities and soup kitchens right out of existence if they object to a government mandate. Last week, I voted to repeal Obamacare because the entire law is bad policy, the mandate expands the role of government to unprecedented levels, and the taxes decimate our religious liberties. This cannot stand. We have heard a lot about the mandates in the law, but we have not heard much about these hidden taxes on religious freedom. Obamacare includes provisions that trigger penalties already written into our current tax code if the employer chooses not to comply, based on religious or moral convictions, with …
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Regardless of the Supreme Court decides on health care law, we should repeal it and replace it with common-sense solutions that will make health care more affordable for Americans.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of Obamacare sometime this month. Americans want to repeal all or part of the law by margin of 2 to 1. It’s no wonder, as we are living the nightmare of Nancy Pelosi’s “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.” While we wait for the court’s decision, the president’s health care law has already become a giant discouragement to our job creators. In order to pay for the monstrous new entitlement, the bill includes several new taxes. One example was the expanded 1099 reporting requirement that would have forced businesses to a file a tax form with the IRS every time they paid more than $600 to a vendor in a year. The provision would have particularly hurt small …
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act will strengthen and standardize the government’s reporting standards, and puts all the information online for the American public to see.
When it was revealed that the General Services Administration (GSA) spent $823,000 on a conference in Las Vegas in October 2010, Americans were appalled at the blatant disregard for taxpayer dollars. I take very seriously my role as trustee of taxpayer funds, and the GSA’s conference was an egregious display of wasteful government spending. GSA employees not only spent a lavish amount on the government dime, but also made videos poking fun at the cost and extravagance. The responsibility lies with head of the GSA, as well as the president. The White House should be setting a tone of fiscal responsibility throughout all federal agencies that discourages squandering taxpayer dollars. In the meantime, Congress is acting. The House passed, …
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Obama Administration at fault for advocating for policies that only increase our country's dependency on foreign oil and prohibit domestic production.
On Sunday, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the Milwaukee area hit $4.07. When President Obama took office, it was $1.89. Higher energy costs are a burden on American families and threatening our economic recovery. In 2011, the average household spent an estimated $4,155 at the pump. In total that represents 8.4 percent of what the median family makes annually, money that could be spent elsewhere when times are tough. Surging gas prices hit Americans not only the pump, but also at the grocery store. As gas prices increase transportation costs, small businesses and large distributors alike will shift that price burden to the consumers. Continued political uncertainty in the oil-producing regions puts the world’…
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bipartisan legislation that withholds federal funding to communities that commit eminent domain abuse earn House approval.
The freedom to own and protect one’s private property is foundational to our country — our Constitution explicitly protects private property rights. The House last week approved my legislation, H.R. 1433, the Private Property Rights Protection Act, to protect every citizen’s right to private property, not just the most powerful or profitable. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Kelo v. City of New London that private property could be “condemned” for the sole purpose of implementing a local government’s redevelopment plan. In this case, the city seized Susette Kelo’s home to give the property to the Pfizer Corp., but the new owner was unable to obtain funding and the project was never developed. Practically, this means that government…
Sunday, February 19, 2012
President's actions on contraception controversy shows blatant disregard for our constitutionally protected freedom of religion.
When President Obama mandated that religiously-based organizations violate core tenets of their faith, Americans were rightly outraged. In response, the president announced an “accommodation” policy to these organizations, but the so-called compromise is not a compromise at all because it does not take away the mandate that infringes upon religious liberty. On Jan. 20, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, affirmed a rule that requires church-affiliated hospitals, agencies and universities to provide contraception and sterilization in the health insurance for their employees. The president later announced a false compromise, mandating that insurance companies offer free coverage of these services …
Sunday, February 5, 2012
House was right to repeal CLASS program, a key part of Obama's health care reform law that some consider a 'ponzi scheme.'
This week the U.S. House repealed an unsustainable entitlement called the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, which was created to offset the costs of Obamacare. Its repeal is a victory for those of us seeking to dismantle the fiscal quagmire of President Obama’s health care reform law. A former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office called CLASS “the poster child for President Barack Obama’s health care reform: bad policy, deceptive budgeting and stealth government expansion.” The top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee called it “a ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff would be proud of.” It is also the key policy linchpin the Obama Administration used to offset the $1 trillion price tag on …
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Democrats who oppose measure either burying their heads in the sand or trying to score political points.
Last week, our national debt hit $15 trillion. The urgency of our debt crisis demands that Congress pass true spending reform that will enforce fiscal discipline. This can only be accomplished with a Balanced Budget Amendment. If we want to give job creators certainty for the future, and encourage them to expand and grow, we must rein in out-of-control spending. The House considered a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, which requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber of Congress to pass. With opposition from the tax-and-spend left, the amendment did not pass. This Balanced Budget Amendment closely mirrors the same one that passed the House in 1995 — with broad bipartisan support — and failed by only one vote in the Senate. …
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Congress must take aim at true fiscal transformation.
Since 1960, the federal government has only balanced the annual budget an astonishing six times. As a result, our national debt is $14 trillion and the government currently borrows 42 cents on every dollar. There is not a business or family that could sustain that amount of borrowing. It is far too easy to offer political platitudes about how we need to take action on our fiscal situation. And far too often politicians have neglected long-term fiscal responsibility to score short-term political points. That is why I support a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. This would place a statutory limit on our spending and ensure that our government makes the tough decisions to balance the budget and begin living within our means. Last …
Craig
10:37 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
There have been red flags raised for decades when Dr's over prescribe drugs. You pharmacist is required by law to report any suspected abuse. In fact if you look at medical suspensions of Drs, you will find it was usually the pharmacist who started the investigation. more ›