Rep. Phil Roe

Today marks the six-month anniversary of the health care legislation’s passage.  Since its passage, the legislation has not lived up to the promises made by the Democratic Congress and the administration.  The sobering reality of this bad legislation includes the risk of higher costs, rising insurance prices, and the loss of current health plans.  Action must be taken to repeal and fix the aspects of this legislation that will be detrimental to Tennessee and our nation. (more)

It’s that time of year again -- it’s back to school time for families across Tennessee and the nation. (more)

America is on the verge of receiving the largest series of tax hikes in its history.  At a time when our leaders’ top priority needs to be restoring our nation’s economic health, this tax increase will be another blow to our staggering economy. (more)

Media reports have indicated that Democrats may bring legislation to the House floor that allows taxpayer funds to be used to conduct embryonic stem cell research -- that is, research on stem cell lines derived from the destruction of human embryos.  This issue has resurfaced in the wake of a district court judge's decision to suspend federal funding for embryonic stem cell research on the grounds that the President's executive order allowing this research violates the law prohibiting taxpayer funding from being used in the destruction of human embryos.  Ensuring that the law restricting the use of taxpayer dollars for embryonic stem cell research remains intact is the moral obligation of this Congress. (more)

Congressional Democrats’ ineffective economic policies prove that we need to go back to the drawing board to find economic policies that work. The economy and job creation still remain my top priorities, as this month our country has an unyielding 9.5 percent unemployment rate. I have three solutions that will bring us closer to economic recovery. (more)

Eighteen months ago, Democrats in Congress voted for $816 billion in new spending and tax provisions the Democrats claimed would "create and save 3 to 4 million jobs, jump-start our economy and begin the process of transforming it for the 21st century." The only thing bipartisan about this legislation was its opposition, but even still, the Democrats forced this irresponsible spending package through with no Republican support.  (more)

This week, House Democratic Leadership reconvened the chamber for a special session to vote on legislation that would provide another bailout costing $26 billion. Instead of a bailout to corporations – which I oppose – this bailout was for states that have not displayed the will to balance their budgets.   We’ve seen less than satisfactory results from previous corporate bailouts, and now Democratic leadership is determined to spend billions more on this. We can’t keep going down this reckless path because it’s unsustainable. (more)

The BP oil spill will be remembered as one of the potentially worst man-made disasters in our history. There's no question we need strong legislation that will help prevent future accidents like the Deepwater Horizon rig, but unfortunately, House Democrats chose to pursue legislation that will prevent us from exploring for oil with the CLEAR  (Cutting Loose Energy and American Resources) Act.  The CLEAR Act will actually increase our dependence on foreign oil and reduce the number of energy jobs overall, rather than simply focus on cleaning up the spill and preventing its recurrence. (more)

As you probably know, the Obama administration filed a legal challenge against the new Arizona immigration law.  The administration has been claiming for weeks that the law is unjust because it will lead to “racial profiling.” However, now that the administration has filed suit – their argument against this law has taken a turn.  The Obama Justice Department is not making an argument about profiling (according to the New York Times, the word “profiling” only appears once, in passing).  Instead, they are claiming that the law violates the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which states that the Constitution, federal laws and treaties supersede state laws. (more)

Before she pushed the health care bill through Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said to the American people, “We have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it.” As a doctor, I don’t think Speaker Pelosi and other supporters of this bill fully understood how this bad legislation would harm patient care. In fact, she made a claim the health care bill will actually “save taxpayers money” – and this claim is already being shown as false by President Obama’s Administration. This is why surveys show the American people continue to lose trust in this Democrat-controlled Congress. (more)

Recently, the president announced his new proposal for offshore drilling. Some argue this was a political tactic by the Administration to further their agenda and pass cap-and-trade legislation. Nonetheless, I hope the president is being sincere about efforts to use our resources here at home because ultimately our nation needs a commonsense, comprehensive energy plan that moves us to sustained energy independence. Gaining this independence is a matter of national security for the United States. (more)