Reducing health care costs for families requires increased competition in health insurance.
Charles Boustany
Encouraging wellness and prevention helps improve quality of life and can lower costs, too. I saw too many patients who had poor health because of their decisions, but too often, all they needed was a doctor to help point them in the right direction.
I want to be influential as a legislator.
The incredible resiliency and spirit of the people of Louisiana is inspiring, to say the least.
Health reform should be open and transparent.
It is an honor to join my former colleague in Congress, Jim McCrery, and the very talented team at Capitol Counsel.
The robust benefits of employee stock ownership plans are hard to beat.
Having witnessed the success of Acadian Ambulance firsthand over the years, I became a champion for the employee stock ownership plan business model. This was easy to do based on the evidence that employee stock ownership plans are reliable, high-performing sources of retirement security.
The tax code's complexity adds enormous costs to families and businesses across the country and takes nothing short of an army of federal bureaucrats to enforce.
If employed by employee stock ownership plan companies, working Americans can spend less time worrying about job security and retirement savings and enjoy a clearer path to prosperity.
Trade transcends party lines here in Washington, and it unifies stakeholders across the globe.
While Obama's economic policies have failed to spur growth, our anti-poverty programs have long failed to promote upward mobility and move people from welfare to work.
Leaders need to compromise, negotiate with members of both parties and ideologies, and reform health care the right way - by developing a strong plan that encompasses the needs of all Americans.
Americans deserve the best health care system in the world - one that emphasizes quality but reduces cost so all Americans can participate.
I want to dig in before I finish with a career here in Congress - be known as someone who was a really serious legislator, who had really good ideas and was willing to work across the aisle to get broad consensus to solve some of these problems the country is facing.
Working together in a bipartisan way, we can truly lower the cost of health care while improving quality for the American people.
We need to make sure people continue to have access to retirement plans because everyone deserves the opportunity to retire with dignity and financial independence.
Clearly, the oil spill in the Gulf is a terrible tragedy; we lost 11 lives on the rig, and their families are suffering, and it's also an economic tragedy for our state and ecological tragedy for the Gulf. But Sept. 11 was a different type of event: it was an intentional attack on soil.
Medicaid is a deeply flawed program.
Senator Vitter and I had a track record of working together on some key issues, restoring funding for our waterways and ports; he assisted me on the Senate side with the veterans' clinics. We have a working relationship where we look out for the interests of Louisiana.
Just like American families, government agencies need to start doing more with less, and the Internal Revenue Service is no exception.
Washington Democrats see the IRS' overextended resources and automatically think the answer is to take and spend more of your tax dollars. I disagree.
This country doesn't have a revenue problem - it has a spending problem.
As a physician, I treated hundreds of patients who needed long-term care, including ones with Alzheimer's.
We can create more affordable coverage options for all Americans and help patients with pre-existing conditions - without forcing any satisfied Americans to lose coverage they like - through high-risk pools and reinsurance options.
Too often, patients without a primary doctor go to expensive hospital emergency rooms for nonurgent care.
Opening markets abroad through trade agreements is especially important for American small businesses and manufacturers to enhance growth and job creation.
The United States cannot achieve significant economic growth without expanding exports.
America's small businesses and manufacturers are innovators ready to usher in a new wave of growth and opportunity if given access to foreign markets.
Having more customers means nothing if America's small businesses cannot obtain the required capital to support their exports in the competitive international markets.
Trade plays an important role in empowering our nation, growing its economy, creating domestic jobs, and enhancing American competitiveness in the global chain of commerce.
The TPP supports economic growth and job creation in America while expanding access for American goods and services in the Asia-Pacific region.
Trade is a source of strength and an engine of growth for America.
For people to escape poverty for good, we need better policies that support work, strengthen families, and move America forward.
The 1996 welfare reform law, for the first time, connected welfare benefits with an expectation that recipients would work or participate in training. That work requirement led to record increases in employment and earnings and a record decrease in poverty and welfare dependence after it was enacted.
The American people deserve their government to be open and accountable.
Working together, we can help Americans get back on their feet and make businesses more competitive to allow them to hire and expand again and revitalize our economy. It requires Republicans and Democrats working in a bipartisan way, though.
American workers need a common-sense plan to make small businesses and entrepreneurs competitive again - not simply more government spending.
Replacing your family's current health care with government-run health care is not the answer. In fact, it'll make health care much more expensive.
I operated on too many people who could have avoided surgery if they'd simply made healthier choices earlier in life.
As a doctor, I saw firsthand the problems many patients face finding a doctor, navigating the system, and paying their health care bills.
Before we start making blanket statements about abolishing the IRS, I think it's important to focus on what the tax code for the 21st century should look like.
It is my responsibility to ensure the Internal Revenue Service respects the Constitutional rights of all Americans while enforcing the nation's laws.
This federal welfare system is large, fragmented, and growing in cost. This system may have started out with good intentions, but it has become a confusing maze of programs that are overlapping, duplicative, poorly coordinated and difficult to administer.
Our engagement through international economics, trade, these trade agreements, is vital and is linked to our national security. This is a lesson we learned from the '30s, it is a lesson we learned post-World War II, and it plays to our strengths.
I've supported the process of getting to a good Trans-Pacific Partnership deal.
I love nothing more than a challenge.
I first learned of the value of employee stock ownership plans while representing Louisiana's 3rd congressional district, home of employee-owned Acadian Ambulance.
Having access to affordable, available health care is not a Republican or Democrat issue.
