Obama’s proposed budget is the opposite of what the American people want

Even the president admits his own budget doesn’t go far enough to address deficit reduction. The Associated Press reports it is the largest deficit spending ever, nearly doubling the record size of the federal government when former President George W. Bush was in office.

This is not living within our means.

The old definition of insanity rings particularly true today: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. The time has come to fundamentally change the trajectory of spending in Washington. We must make these cuts so we can lower the debt and bring our country back into fiscal equilibrium which will lead to job creation and paychecks.

Every American family and business needs to live by basic budgeting rules – the first among them: Don’t spend more than you make. In other words, live within your means. In my small business, and with my own family of seven, I understand the challenges of budgeting. And when money becomes tight, you need to make some tough, sometimes painful decisions, to ensure you’re protecting the health of your family or business.

We must again apply these principles to our country’s budget. Doing this will not be easy, or painless. Everything must be on the table. But by doing it now, we will save ourselves and our children and grandchildren’s generations from even more painful cuts. We also must remember that, with a budget nearly doubled in size in two years, expectations have become inflated. Programs like the stimulus suddenly became a baseline for spending instead the rare, “emergency money” it was sold as.

To really get back to living within our means, a more acceptable budget plan would involve a three step approach, focusing on spending reform in the short, intermediate, and long term.

In the short term we must cut spending immediately, making some tough decisions now so we don’t have to make even more painful ones later. The Continuing Resolution offered by Republicans this week is a good first step, while putting programs and administrators on notice that the budget atmosphere has changed for good.

In the intermediate term, we need to evaluate program outcomes, keeping only the most effective, and instituting new planning and priorities in our budgeting process for the coming year and beyond.

In the long term, we must begin to have an open and honest conversation about how to tackle the unchecked expansion of entitlements. The President has missed an opportunity on this front.

Our constituents are more engaged than ever, and they stand ready to hold us accountable. As their representatives, we were elected in a massive wave to bring a new message to Washington about spending: Enough is enough.

I know firsthand how the environment has truly changed over the last decade. Ten years ago, I was the on-the-ground District Director for my predecessor, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, where at townhalls people often told us they did not want talk about cuts to the programs they liked. Now, as I’ve learned from my own multiple telephone and live townhall meetings, constituents understand our situation and are much more ready to begin the tough conversations regarding the way Washington spends their tax dollars.

We all need to do our part. As Representatives, we need to listen to our constituents’ desires. As lawmakers, we need to be sure we’re making thoughtful, long-term decisions, through a process that is inclusive, open, and transparent. Kudos to Speaker Boehner for doing so. Now that our deficit is so high, everything is on the table. We need to be serious or voters won’t take us seriously. If we’re willing to finally have an open and honest conversation, our constituents will stand behind us, because they know it’s time. If we do our jobs right, we can again return prosperity and economic freedom to the American people.