I firmly believe that there is no greater responsibility as Governor than to be the Guardian of the People’s Money.

I have watched with increasing incredulity as the Federal Government continues to spend money our country doesn’t have.  Like most of you, I find myself asking:  When will this craziness stop?  When will Congress and the President listen to the people who are saying enough is enough? States are rightfully worried about the costs that the federal government will pass on to them.

In Alabama we have seen billions of dollars in trust fund money squandered in risky investment schemes.  It is time to stop high-risk gambling on the stock market with Alabamians trust funds.  It is time to make the next governor of Alabama directly responsible for the security of those funds.  We need to ensure that those funds are under a proper duty of care invested safely and conservatively.

Individual families know that they must balance their budgets every day.  They simply can’t spend more money than they make.  If they do, in a short period of time they will be bankrupt.  Local governments learn the same lesson. They can’t spend more than they collect in tax revenues.  If they do, they too will be bankrupt.  And if they keep raising taxes on people struggling to put food on the table for their families, local officials know that they won’t hold office very long.

State governments need to balance their budgets every year.  They too may try to raise taxes to do so, but with the same risks that local officials face.  The federal government and Congress refuse to learn this lesson.  They simply continue to incur huge, unimaginable trillion-dollar deficits, spending money unwisely, often foolishly.   They don’t seem to care that sooner or later this money will have to be repaid.  They don’t care that it will be future generations of Americans who will either pay the money back or see our country go bankrupt. 

I won’t let Alabama go down this path.  I will invest the hard earned money of Alabamians in a reasonable, fiscally responsible manner.  There will be no wasteful spending in a Tim James administration

Cross posted at Tim James

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I have called for a series of public forums on Alabama health care as part of my Common Sense Solutions campaign.  Politicians in Washington are so preoccupied with nationalizing health care that they have failed to address a fundamental problem - malpractice insurance premiums have reached unsustainable levels. 

More and more health care professionals are being forced to leave their chosen profession simply because they can't afford the sky high premiums they are being charged by their insurers.

The high cost of malpractice insurance has especially impacted doctors in rural counties in Alabama and throughout the South where many of their patients are covered by Medicare and Medicaid, with low reimbursement rates.

What can we do to reduce their costs? The last several years have seen an explosion of frivolous lawsuits in the medical malpractice field and they have resulted in higher insurance premiums for all medical professionals. First and foremost, we desperately need medical malpractice lawsuit reform. 

Health care reform without malpractice lawsuit reform is no reform at all. The failure of President Obama to endorse malpractice reform is clear evidence that he is not serious about cost reductions in health care.  Congress must explicitly address the costly lawsuit abuses that hamper our health care system and hurt our economy. 

Those insurance premiums have reached an unprecedented level.  If we don't address this issue, we won't have meaningful cost reductions in health care expenses.  Frivolous lawsuits are a large and ever growing factor to increased health care costs.  Experts estimate that the annual direct cost of such litigation is over $30 billion per year.

The failure of politicians in Washington to address the basic problem of medical malpractice insurance premiums has left many areas of Alabama with a shortage of health care professionals.  Malpractice insurance premiums have increased dramatically here in Alabama and across the nation, while politicians have turned a blind eye. 

Flimsy litigation over pharmaceuticals and medical devices acts as a deterrent to innovation in the marketplace, lengthens the time that it takes to get new drugs and devices approved and adversely affect research and investment decisions on the part of manufacturers.

Defensive medicine is another result of the explosion of litigation.  Doctors frequently order numerous medical procedures and make unnecessary referrals in order to limit their exposure to lawsuits. These unnecessary tests and procedures and referrals result in spiraling medical costs. If we take immediate steps to reform medical malpractice litigation, we will see a corresponding benefit in reduced malpractice premiums for all of our health care professionals.

Cross posted at Tim James for Governor 2010

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I was shocked to read the op-ed in USA Today by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer write "These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views--but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American."

I have news for Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer: Dissent and speaking out at meetings is the American way. It is one of the foundations upon which this great nation is based. To accuse American people, whether they are Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, or Independents, of being un-American because dare to oppose something that Pelosi and Hoyer desperately want to see passed is disgraceful and they owe the American people an apology.

Have some of the townhall meetings become heated? Of course they have. Health care is an important issue to the American people. Everyone in the country will be affected by whatever Congress does. We already know that the proposed health care bill that has been voted out of the House Committee chaired by Henry Waxman will consume 1/6 of American expenditures.

Of course people are passionate. They have a right to be heard. They have a right to be loud. They have a right to express their views by shouting if that is what they need to do to be heard. Who among us hasn't felt like shouting at a Congress that ignores the voices of the American people? Interestingly, it hasn't been the opponents of the 1017-page health care bill who have resorted to violence at the townhall meetings. It has been organized supporters of the bill. They are the people showing up in identical tee-shirts, holding identical, professionally prepared signs.

The reason politicians like Pelosi and Hoyer want to silence dissent is because they know that the more the American people find out about the bill they are trying to ram through Congress (one which they certainly haven't read, most members of Congress haven't read, and the President hasn't read) the more the opposition will grow.

Let the debate continue. The vast majority of provisions in the proposed House bill won't even go into effect until 2013. What's the hurry? Could it be that Pelosi and Hoyer both want the bill passed before the American people find out what is really in it? Proponents of the bill like to say that we have been discussing health care for many years. That may very well be true. But they overlook the fact that we have only been discussing a 1,000-page bill proposed by a House Committee for a few weeks.

Few Americans have read the bill, and certainly few members of Congress have read it. Apologize now, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer. You disrespect the American people with your op-ed in USA Today titled "Un-American Attacks Can't Derail Health Care Debate."

Cross posted at Tim James 2010

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He has baffled the mainstream news media and taken the Senate Democrats by surprise, all in plain view of the American people. That man is our own U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions. Also posted at Tim James for Governor 2010.

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