FROM LYNN JENKINS = HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

As Our Nation’s Debt Continues to Increase Congress is Trying to Save Their Jobs


Last week the White House Office of Management and Budget announced that the year’s budget deficit was $1.3 trillion. Our national debt is now more than $13.6 trillion and continues to grow at an alarming rate. Since President Obama was sworn into office and Speaker Pelosi was re-confirmed as Speaker of the House, Congress has recklessly spent massive amounts of taxpayer dollars adding over $3 trillion to the debt in less than two years. The share of the publicly held debt for each American citizen, man, woman, and child, was calculated this week to be over $43,000, this is up from $36,000 when the so-called stimulus was signed into law and $29,000 when Nancy Pelosi became speaker.

Continued Efforts to Repeal and Replace Obamacare

Not only is President Obama and Speaker Pelosi’s government takeover of health care unpopular among the American people, it is also unconstitutional. Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.” But, nowhere in the U.S. Constitution did our founding fathers give Congress the authority to regulate commerce between individuals. Requiring all citizens to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty for failing to do so appears to be in violation of that clause.

That is why over the last 10 months I have been hard at work finding ways to repeal this burdensome law and replace it with initiatives that will lower costs rather than raise them. 20 states are currently challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 in court. Kansas, unfortunately, is not represented in the suit, because Attorney General Steve Six ignored my request and that of many Kansans and chose not to challenge the law. To give Kansans a voice in this pivotal case, this week I continued the battle to repeal Obamacare by signing onto the American Center for Law and Justice's Amicus Curiae Brief challenging the law. The brief demonstrates that Congress lacks the authority under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to impose the individual mandate. Furthermore, the brief shows that because the President’s health care reform bill lacked of a severability clause, if the court strikes down the individual mandate it must void the entire package.

Celebrating the Dedication of the Frontier Chapel at Fort Leavenworth

I was honored to be in Fort Leavenworth earlier this week to celebrate the dedication of the Frontier Chapel. The newly constructed Frontier Chapel sits over 500 and serves people of all faiths. Each of us is blessed with so many freedoms and gifts, and it is so important that we recognize the role that faith plays in the lives of those who risk everything to protect us. In Congress, we have a duty to respect both the history and religious traditions of our nation and I will support efforts to do so now and in the future.

Honored with Fiscal Conservative Ranking

This week the National Tax Limitation Committee (NTLC) awarded me with their 2010 Tax Fighter Award. The NTLC was organized in 1975 to seek constitutional and other limits on taxes, spending, and deficits at the federal, state and local levels of government. The NTLC is one of the longest standing and strategically oriented pro-taxpayer/entrepreneur organizations in America. Their research ranks me in the top 5% of current Members of Congress.

I firmly believe that the best way out of the current economic mess is to ensure businesses and families are allowed to keep more of their hard-earned dollars. Raising taxes, especially during hard economic times, creates uncertainty for small business owners, investors, and average American families. Instead of asking cash-strapped families to give even more money to the federal government, Congress needs to learn to tighten its own belt. That is why it is my top priority to keep tax relief for working families and businesses, oppose new taxes such as the value added tax, and put an end to the death tax.


Kansas Visitors in Washington

The 2010 Real World Design Challenge winners from Baldwin High School dropped by my D.C. office this week. The Baldwin High School Real World Design Challenge Team was named national champions of the design competition in March at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The students modeled new jet designs that reduce fuel consumption. Seniors Brandon Baltzell, Carson Barnes, junior Shelby Gregory, sophomore Carrie Deitz and advisor Sandy Barnes got to visit the White House as part of the kickoff to this week’s White House Science Fair.

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