Americans want us to focus on jobs (Sen. Mitch McConnell)

In a nation where the government’s power is derived from the consent of the governed, that’s a pretty risky governing philosophy. And that’s why the voices of the American people have grown louder and louder.

Republicans have listened to those voices.

We heard the concerns Americans had with a Stimulus bill that was based on the discredited premise that having bureaucrats and Democrat lawmakers spend a trillion dollars on their favorite programs would revive the economy. And we opposed it.

We heard the concerns Americans had about a health spending bill that was built on the discredited premise that spending more money and growing the federal bureaucracy would make health care less expensive.

And we opposed it.

We heard the concerns Americans had about a financial regulatory bill that was built on the discredited premise that hiring more of the same kind of bureaucrats who missed the last crisis was a good formula for preventing the next one.

And we opposed it.

Again and again, Democrats were faced with a problem, and their solution was to ram through some costly, big-government solution Americans didn’t want, but that they’re now expected to pay for. And they’re still not finished.

In order to fund even more programs, more government, our friends on the other side now want to raise taxes.

Nearly 15 million Americans are looking for work and can’t find it. Another 11 million are underemployed, meaning they’ve settled for part time work instead of a full time job.  Household income is down for the second year in a row and Democrats want to take more money out of peoples’ pockets.

Just yesterday the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said these tax hikes will hurt the economy and slow the recovery. So what did we do here over the past week in the Senate?

An ill-conceived bill that the chairman of the Finance Committee said would put U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage and a campaign finance bill the entire goal of which is to give Democrats an electoral advantage in upcoming elections by muzzling their opponents.

If Americans needed any further proof that Democrats haven’t been listening to them, this past week has provided all the evidence they need. Americans want us to focus on jobs, and our friends on the other side focused on preserving their own jobs and spending more taxpayer dollars.

It has to stop.

That’s why earlier this month I proposed a bill that would prevent a massive tax hike from going into affect on anyone at the end of the year. And that’s why Republicans put forward an appropriations CAP that would cut $300 billion from the President’s budget even as our friends on the other side neglected to bring a single appropriations bill to the floor.

Sometime today or tomorrow, we’ll be leaving Washington to head back to our states. And when we do, Democrats will have a lot of explaining to do about how they’ve spent their time here in the last year and a half.

As for Republicans, Mr. President, we’ll be able to say we listened.