Just a Speech or More Than a Speech

As the President delivered his annual State of the Union speech last Tuesday, the Congress listened carefully for the tone of his remarks. The important speech is always a benchmark for the year ahead.

This State of the Union, however, is unique for several reasons. It is the first time President Obama has addressed a divided Congress. The Republican-led House of Representatives is open to working with the president on some issues, but it will be the key place where the most liberal elements of the president's agenda can be stopped.

So as we tuned in for the president's speech, Americans wondered and I wondered, would this be just a speech or more than a speech?

If the president fails to follow through on his commitment to make the political climate more civil, more bipartisan, and more open, this will be remembered as just a speech. If we don't have more transparency from the administration and more accountability from a smaller, leaner federal government, this speech will go down as just words. If we are unable to pull back expensive, unwieldy, overreaching legislation like the health care overhaul, cap-and-trade energy taxes, and regulations that stand in the way of American competitiveness and economic growth, this speech may not be remembered at all.

Most important, if the president does not follow through on saving taxpayers' money, to reduce the federal deficit and start paying down our federal debt, then history will forget this speech as another promise for fiscal responsibility on which no one delivered.

A five-year freeze on the cost of federal government is simply not enough. At a time when our national debt has tripled in three years to $14 trillion, holding federal spending constant only serves to commit us to the disastrous course on which we are now sailing the ship of state. The president's proposal on spending, more than any other, represents a multi-generational indebtedness -- a legacy of borrowing for our children and their children.

Forget that the president's spending freeze would lock in stimulus budget levels for many agencies or programs. Forget that the president's spending freeze would still reflect huge requests for budget increases the president made just a year ago for Fiscal Year 2011. Forget that the leaders of the previous Congress failed even to pass a federal budget -- a simple document to show the American people where and how their tax dollars would be spent.

In my book, saving money is not a complicated matter of choosing to not spend more; it is a simple matter of choosing to spend less.

Congress, already, is contemplating meaningful budget cuts. In the U.S. House of Representatives, we've committed to fiscal discipline. My work in this task has already yielded a plan by which we can save billions at just a few federal agencies, starting as soon as we can get the bill written and passed.

The president will soon enough have an opportunity to sign such a bill, and when that time comes it will be his actions which are remembered -- even more than his words.