My Endorsement: Idaho Congressional District 2

Our country faces a fiscal tsunami. Government has grown beyond its constitutional limits and beyond our means to pay. We face a $44 trillion entitlement shortfall which coupled with our $13 trillion debt will leave our country bankrupt.

Those who are in office now are irresponsible as they continue to run up debt without addressing our country’s long-term problems. For six years, Republicans controlled the national ship of state, and it took on more water as Congress spent irresponsibly without regards to future generations.

As I look forward to having a child of my own, I worry that while my parents could offer me a heritage of liberty, all that can be offered to the generation that will come after is fiscal bondage paying for the profligacy of the baby boomers who chose to replace the functions of the church and the family with the functions of the almighty state.

We are past the point where this is merely a matter of Constitutional minutiae or an argument of philosophy. The numbers are hard, real, and scary. We are heading towards a clift and facing the possibility of virtual economic slavery or massive collapse to keep our country afloat.

As my generation looks to the future, we see a black hole ahead. It seems far more realistic to assume that aliens from outer space will invade and mitigate the crisis, than we’ll see any of this money that’s confiscated from our paycheck ever again. 

Mike Simpson exacerbated this problem with his vote in September, 2008 for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout that became a playground of Secretaries of Treasury Paulson and Geithner to bail out bankrupt automakers, and try to gain control of the private sector economy.

Mike Simpson is on the House Appropriation’s Committee. He is one of the conductors of this train to disaster. As an appropriator, he has defended the toxic process of earmarking.

Proponents of earmarking like to tell us that the practice does not add actual funds to bills and they’re right. However, the inclusion of earmarks for a Congressional district serves as incentive for members of Congress to support bills that spend too much because some of the money goes to their districts. In addition, the granting earmarks comes to members of Congress on the basis of their influence. This means that sites for important federal projects are decided on the basis of who has Congressional seniority and influence rather than which location would best serve the national interest. Finally, the process of having Congress earmark funds for certain projects leads to the federal government subsidizing functions that ought to be paid for by state and local governments leading to the allusion of local government services, when in reality every citizen of the country is paying for it whether they use it or not.

Over the past three years, Congressman Simpson has given 136 chances on the House floor to support fiscal responsibility or to support government waste. 133 times he’s opted to support waste.

Here are some of the projects that Congressman Simpson thinks should be taken from your children’s federal tax dollars:

• $30,000,000 to a National Drug Intelligence Center that has proven itself to be a redundant waste of federal money meant to helpt the district of the late Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.)
• $2,000,000 for a Microbial paint shield that the Pentagon didn’t ask for.
• $300,000 for the Houston zoo
• $150,000 to a South Carolina Aquarium

I could go on, but the list is quite exhaustive. You can see all the pork project Simpson backed in 2007 and 2009. It’s an exhaustive list of projects that Simpson supports spending money we don’t have on.

Simpson fiscal irreponsibility is well documented. National Taxpayers Union reports that Simpson has only once been in the top 100 most taxpayer friendly members of Congress. This past year, with 178 Republicans in Congress, Simpson ranked #143, near the bottom of U.S. House Republicans in his willingness to stand up for the interests of taxpayers. Citizens Against Government Waste gives Simpson a 55% rating.

Simpson is a pork barrell politician whose career marks him as a man who favors spending future generations into oblivion. I therefore cannot support renominating to the U.S. House.

Thankfully, Idahoans have a second choice.  Chick Heileson has been running for Congress now for months. His campaign has been reaching out to voters. Heileson, a businessman and veteran from the small town of Iona.

His bedrock belief in Constitutional principles will guide him to be a different Congressman than we’ve had the last 12 years. To hear Heileson speak is to hear someone with a deep and abiding love for what made America great. And contrary what Mr. Simpson seems to think, what made America great is not bridges to nowhere, bank bailouts, and corporate giveaways, rather it is that simple respect for God-given rights and liberties that are protected in our Constitution, which can be guaranteed by a limited federal government.

Heileson will not go to Washington to build himself an empire of political patronage, rather his goal is to restore the best principles of America.

It will be my honor to support Chick Heileson. His values are far more closer to my own as well as the 2nd District in general. It is vital that in this debate over our future we elect a Congressman who represents our values rather than those of the beltway elites who fund Congressman Simpson’s campaign.

While Chick Heileson faces an uphill battle, he has worked hard and held multiple town meetings across our district and raising money from Idahoans. I think Chick represents our best chance to elect a conservative who will stop the rising tide of government waste and overspending. For this reason, Heileson has my personal endorsement.