If my math is accurate, and Washington keeps it up, this nation will be bankrupt within a few years. Over the next 20 years, we will have done what no foreign army in 230 years could do.

The markets will react, making a solution much more difficult. Our enormous role in the world’s economy will result in a global economic meltdown. We will renege on trillions of unfunded payments due generations of contributors to Social Security and Medicare, and impair our ability to defend our nation.

Now, if this country is going to start electing people to attack this looming threat and mitigate the damage, where do you think those kind of leaders will come from? Will they come from Barney Frank’s or Nancy Pelosi’s home town? Will they originate in Chicago or Maryland?

No. If we’re going to save this precious nation, a different kind of leader will have to come from right here, in the nation’s heartland. They’ll have to come from very conservative, practical districts where folks don’t wait at the mail box for government to deliver their way of life; places like the 5th District of Indiana.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and wondering why you continue to get the same result, correct?

So, if this District sends 28-year incumbent Dan Burton back to Washington for what will amount to a 30-month paid vacation, or another career lawyer-politician-party operative like Luke Messer or Mike Murphy, you think we’ll get anything different?

These are the same two God-fearing, family-loving conservatives who in 2005 worked together to expand gambling at race tracks in Shelbyville and Anderson (HB 1569 – HB 1702). Mr. Messer ran against Mike Pence, then moved into the 5th to be jammed into a vacant state legislative seat, only to quit so he could lobby for a big law firm. He spent five years as a party staffer. Mr. Murphy, who I really like and enjoy as a person, has been in the legislature all his adult life and served as a party chief in Marion County. Now, I ask you: Do these chaps sound like anything new or different to you?

This isn’t personal. It’s just that I’m mad and I’m scared. I have three sons growing up in this world, and I want to see REAL change in Washington and fast. I’m tired of sending old school incumbents, insiders and operatives to Washington and expecting them to act like businesspeople, farmers, engineers and statesmen. Let me spell this out, folks –they won’t.

That’s why I’m going to give voters in the 5th District an alternative on May 4th.

EXPECT MORE

Why Do Folks in Puerto Rico, California, or Arizona Want Burton Re-Elected?

In this first-in-a-series, “Follow the Money,” I want to take you through our current representatives’ donation information for the current election cycle.

In a district that stretches as far north as Miami, Wabash, and Huntington counties and as far South as Shelby County, you’d think that the majority of Dan Burton’s money would come from the good people living in the district. Wouldn’t you?

We’ll, I’d hope so, but after combing through his FEC filings, what we actually found was quite alarming. Since January of 2009, nearly 85% of Dan’s money is coming not only from outside of the district, but outside the entire state of Indiana. As you read through his donor list you see, CA, CA, FL, AZ, CA, FL, CA, MD, TX, AZ, FL, CT, Puerto Rico, DE, CT, CA, NY, NY… I think you get the drift.

So the question I ask to you is, why do folks in CA and AZ have such a huge stake in Dan Burton’s reelection? Is Dan running for Congress in Shelbyville, Converse, Tipton and Cicero? Or, is he running in Sacramento, Flagstaff…?

If this bothers you as much as it does me, I’m going to ask you to do two things. First, would you take a second to write a letter to the editor of your local paper pointing out that we need to have a representative in Congress who is supported by Hoosiers – not by out-of-state money? And that it’s time for all of us to elect someone with the best interests of Indiana at heart, not just someone who collects money from every political action committee that throws open its wallet. If you need help with finding the contact info, just contact my office and we’d be glad to help.

Second, would you make a donation from within the district to a candidate that actually wants to represent the people he’s elected by?

We have 54 days left until the primary election on May 4.
Together, we can win this thing, and restore representative government to Washington.

P.S. As you may or may not be aware, all of this information is publically available at FEC.gov, as it is a federal law to report all donations over $250.

When I read about the President’s $3.9 trillion 2011 budget, my heart sunk.  It sounds corny, but having immersed myself of late in the fiscal sickness of our government, the breathtaking size of this new beast struck my senses like a tragic lightning bolt.

Even if Washington were to suddenly grow up and start showing leadership, we may well be past the point of no return and on the road to an historic meltdown in our government, in our economy, and in our way of life.  And, this catastrophe won’t be the product of an outside army, of disease or famine, or the work of illegal immigrants.  Rather, it will be a disaster of our own making.

“We have met the enemy, and he is us,” said Pogo.

The other day, when Congress quietly authorized the Treasury to place another $1.9 trillion on our nation’s credit card, it set the stage to increase debt on our books to nearly $15 trillion.  That means this year, Washington will borrow 40 cents of every dollar it spends.

But, that’s not the whole story.  Right behind the debt owed Chinese and Saudi bondholders is another $50-100 trillion (depending on how long you want to forecast) in obligations to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

In the greatest “ponzi scheme” of all time, Washington already spent the money they promised to keep in “trust funds” and “lock boxes.”  Our government has no money in the bank, is shrinking the tax base, has a sick economy and has no provisions to meet these obligations.

If our leaders were running a household or small business, and they faced this kind of clear and present danger, what might they do?  They might cut spending dramatically.  They might take radical measures to spur increased income or sales (economic growth).  They might retool programs and systems, and try to increase productivity.  Not Washington.

Instead, the President’s budget is full of headlines, like “Increase education spending by over 32 percent.”  “Increase energy program spending by 9.2 percent,” the headlines read, and “increase spending for the Justice Department, Transportation, Defense, NASA.”  In the so-called “agriculture” budget, he proposes to increase spending by nearly 10 percent to $148.6 billion!  And, of course, most of that is for nutrition programs, not farmers.

Watching the country I love commit suicide breaks my heart.  That’s why I’m running for Congress.  Each day, as the headlines hit my senses, my sense of urgency grows.

Recent messages from voters can be confusing.  “Stand up and fight,” and “quit fighting and get something done” or “stop the bitter, partisan fighting” and “stop the President, Pelosi and Reid” all add to a cacophony of voices.  What do we make of them, and of elections in Massachusettes, Virginia, and New Jersey?

Well, when you mix these sounds with a close look at the now $14 trillion of public debt on the government’s books (and $50-100 trillion more in commitments to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security recipients), my conclusion about what Americans want and need in government is a new group of “grown-ups.”

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