I believe in the principles and ideas first set forth by our founding fathers. The genius of the men who bravely defied England to establish our country is best illustrated by the Declaration of Independence and Constitution they drafted so many years ago. Our Constitution has stood the test of time and remains the keystone of our form of government. 

When I read the Mount Vernon Statement, drafted by conservative leaders, I recognized immediately that it reflected my beliefs and principles and that it was a document I would proudly sign. So I have done exactly that. 

The authors of the Mount Vernon Statement wrote, "We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding Fathers. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government."

I agree completely with the Mount Vernon Statement and believe strongly that most of America's problems can be solved today by following the principles and ideas of the men who founded our country. We must move in the right direction – back to the principles first set forth in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. 

I believe in constitutional conservatism that follows the principles set forth in the Mount Vernon Statement:

• It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law
• It honors individual liberty
• It encourages free enterprise, individual entrepreneurs and economic reforms
• It supports America's national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world
• It informs conservatism's firm defense of family, neighborhood, community and faith.

As long as I live I will never forget being a part of the movement to kill the income tax when it was being proposed a decade ago here in Tennessee. So many Conservatives from across the state came together to tell our Governor, and our legislature, that an income tax was not what this state needed. We understood that lower taxes equal a more prosperous people, and an income tax would have placed a heavy burden on us – and we knew it needed to be stopped. It was a great day for our state when the idea was finally rejected and the voices for low taxation had won the day.

When I go to Congress I promise to continue to fight for lower taxes, less government regulation, and less government spending. The projected federal deficit is almost $1 trillion annually over the next ten years. We must work to reduce spending and make permanent budget cuts. $20 billion in earmarks is unacceptable. $55 billion in overpayments to federal programs must end. And the fact that discretionary spending has increased 74% faster than inflation since 2001 is unconscionable. President Obama’s miniscule spending freeze over the next decade does not come close to solving the problem. Real action must be taken.

It is imperative that we overhaul our current tax system in order to reduce the amount of red tape and money that is spent and lost due to an overly complicated tax system. I am a strong proponent of looking at moving to a system such as the Fair Tax that would do all of those things.

I will also continue to fight against a government takeover of health care, and fight for reform that truly works for the people. As I have been saying since day 1 of this campaign, we need tort reform, Health Savings Accounts, and portability of health insurance. All of these reforms will lower costs and allow the free market to do what it does best. We cannot allow the federal government to turn our health care system into a waiting line at the DMV.

As I listened to the President speak about the problems facing our nation and how he intends to solve them I heard one phrase repeated over and over again - more government. I wondered why the President isn't listening to the American people. They don't want the government involved in every part of their life. They don't trust Washington to solve their problems any longer. The President has learned nothing from his failures over the last 12 months.

A year ago he delivered a speech to Congress regarding health care, education, and a stimulus package for the economy. Yet tonight he was again talking about health care, education, and a stimulus package for the economy that he is now calling a jobs package. After the American people rejected his health care proposal(s) and after his stimulus package was a failure in keeping the unemployment rate under 8%, he is still talking about health care legislation and spending billions of more dollars on government created jobs. The President, and the liberal leadership in Washington, just doesn't get it.

The American people do not want a closed door health care deal that involve billions of dollars in bribes for individual states and does not bring about true reform. Instead of a government run system, we need tort reform, access to purchase health insurance across state lines, and Health Care Savings Accounts.

While his proposal for a spending freeze is laudable, it does not go far enough. His spending freeze would save $250 billion over ten years, but our current monthly deficit is close to $200 billion. What we need are major, permanent cuts in our spending. The bloated bubble that is the federal deficit needs to be popped.

Thirty-seven years ago the United States Supreme Court, in a display of judicial activism and constitutional revisionism at its worst, handed down the ruling in Roe v. Wade that made abortion, for any reason, legal. Since this decision, 52 million unborn children have had their lives taken from them, and the number grows each day.

It will take Americans from all walks of life coming together to make sure this horrendous practice is no longer a commonality in or society. This is not simply a religious issue, this is a humanity issue. We can not sit idly by why the most liberal in this country allow children to have their lives taken from them. We must stand up for the voiceless and continue the work that has begun.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.chuckforcongress.com
Follow me on Twitter: @chuck4congress

Today I signed the Club for Growth's pledge "to sponsor and support legislation to repeal any federal health care takeover passed in 2010, and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs without growing government."

It is imperative that we stop the passage of a government takeover of health care. However, if this legislation does pass, we must repeal it when we take back Congress in November. So I am writing today to encourage you to sign the citizen pledge in order that your voice may be heard so we can fight this takeover together – and repeal the legislation if necessary.

We need true health care reform; this means allowing the purchase of health care insurance across state lines in order to create more competition within the market, permitting individual Americans to create Health Savings Accounts, and bringing about tort reform in order to lower medical costs. Please join with me and sign the pledge, because together we can win this fight.

To learn more, please go to: www.chuckforcongress.com
Follow me on Twitter: @chuck4congress

Once again the liberal leadership in Washington has used the dark of night to continue the process of shoving health care "reform" down the throats of all Americans. On Saturday Harry Reid threw out his original 2,000 page bill and replaced it with an amendment numbering in the hundreds of pages, leaving other members of the Senate, and the American people, very little time to understand what is in the bill before this morning's 1 a.m. vote. After having promised to be the most transparent administration and Congress, the liberals who are in charge in Washington continue to use the dark of night to insure a government takeover of health care. They just don't get it.

What little we do know about this new amendment assures that there will be an abortion tax forced upon Americans who participate in a new Exchange program being created – and they have no say in the matter. This is utterly reprehensible. We have a responsibility to give a voice to the unborn and make sure their lives are protected. The federal government forcing Americans to pay a tax toward abortion is unconscionable.

We also know the bill which passed the House of Representatives, and many of the ideas being put forward by the liberal leadership in the Senate, will increase premiums and add to the already exploding deficit. None of these things bring about true reform in the health care system.

With the Senate having voted to end debate last night, the American people are almost assured a government takeover of health care. This will include higher taxes, more spending, and government support of abortion. This must be stopped. We cannot allow the liberal leadership in Washington to continue to use the cover of darkness as part of their plan to takeover one-seventh of the U.S. economy.

The Chattanooga Times has decided that an income tax is best for the state Tennessee. I cannot disagree anymore vehemently, and I'm not certain why the Times would choose to open this debate again. When our state was facing a similar recession and budget shortfall almost a decade ago, the idea of a state income tax was rejected and has long been considered unconstitutional under the Tennessee constitution. The idea was a knee jerk reaction then just as it is now.

The logic of the argument of the Times is just another example of what has become all too common these days: if there’s a problem, let's have the government throw more money at it to try and fix it. I believe that given time and opportunity and the freedom from the heavy hand of government, the free market has the capacity to fix any financial problems that come our way. I believe that government should learn to live within a budget, just like our families and small businesses must do, instead of raising or creating taxes when they want to spend more of our hard earned money. I believe in less government and more private ingenuity.

Most experts agree that TennCare has already proven to be a financial disaster for our state, yet the Times suggests that we create a new tax on the citizens of Tennessee and pump more money into what has become a financial sinkhole.  If anything, we need less government intervention in our health care system.

They also list a number of programs that will be in financial trouble once federal stimulus funds expire and, therefore, will need financial support from the state. When did it become the norm to expect the government to bail you out if you couldn’t make it on your own? The bigger problem is not programs that are going to run out of government funding but rather the ever growing number of programs that rely on government funding to exist. When a family of 4 hits hard times and has trouble making ends meet, they learn to make sacrifices – not sign up for a new credit card. Our government needs to watch and learn from the hard-working folks across our country and stop this mentality of "spend-our-way-to-prosperity."

Tennessee is one of only a few states in the country with no income tax. This gives us an advantage over other states and allows us to have access to economic growth that they do not have.  Every year, many Californians "go Nevadan" as they move across state lines to Nevada, which has no income tax. In the last year, we have heard about many people in New York considering a move to Florida where no income tax exists and the "disappearance" of hundreds of affluent Maryland citizens that have fled the state to escape its income tax.

Tennessee's economy has been fairly stable during this economic downturn due to our use of a sales tax and not an income tax.  An income tax is not a panacea to a state’s fiscal problems.  States with income taxes are having serious budget problems as well.  In fact, the states with the highest income taxes are having the biggest budget problems – New York, California and New Jersey to name a few.

Although the position of the Times is that the tax should be imposed on the rich, government seldom has the discipline to limit a tax's reach. Inevitably, income taxes "creep" down to the middle class. This is either the result of not indexing the tax to inflation, or that, once a tax is in place, it is an easy way to raise funds for pet projects or fill holes in budgets rather than exercising fiscal discipline. People who work hard to create income are not rich; they are productive. Let's reward such conduct – not punish it.

They must be stopped from increasing the debt ceiling by another $290 billion – as is being proposed now – and instead must make cuts to the federal budget. When a family of 4 hits hard times, they learn to make sacrifices – not sign up for a new credit card. Our government needs to watch and learn from the hard-working folks across our country and stop this mentality of ‘spend-our-way-to-prosperity.’ The bailouts, the stimulus packages, the pork and pet projects, and the ever-increasing size of the federal government must be put to a stop.