Congressman Tom Price is recognized as a vibrant leader in Georgia and a diligent and tireless problem solver in Congress.
First elected to Congress, representing the Sixth District of Georgia, in November 2004, Price was re-elected with broad support in 2006 and 2008. Prior to going to Washington, Price served four terms in the Georgia State Senate – two as Minority Whip. In 2002, he became the first Republican Majority Leader in the history of Georgia.
In Congress, Price's priorities include reforming the tax system, strengthening health care and education, keeping American families safe, ensuring enforcement of our immigration laws, promoting a 21st century energy plan, and finding transportation solutions for Atlanta's residents and commuters. Congressman Price serves on the important Financial Services Committee as well as the Committee on Education and Labor, in which he is the Ranking Republican Member on the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee.
Price has been an outspoken advocate for patient-centered health care reform in Washington. His signature legislation, the Empowering Patients First Act, would bring about positive changes to provide access for all Americans to affordable, quality health care. Congressman Price is a champion of the FairTax and an All-You-Can-Create Energy Plan. He was also elected by his colleagues to serve as Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee (RSC) during the 111th Congress. The RSC is committed to providing principled, common sense solutions to all of our nation’s challenges.
Congressman Price received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Michigan and completed his Orthopaedic Surgery residency at Emory University. Price established an orthopaedic clinic just north of Atlanta. After nearly twenty years of private practice he returned to Emory University School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor. Before coming to Congress, Price was Medical Director of the Orthopaedic Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, teaching resident doctors in training.
Price is active in the Atlanta community, is a past President of the Roswell Rotary Club and has served on Boards of the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, Orchestra Atlanta, the Arthritis Foundation, and the North Metro YMCA. He is a member of the Georgia Ensemble Theater, Roswell Clean and Beautiful, and the Chattahoochee Nature Center.
Congressman Price with his wife, Elizabeth, and family reside in Roswell.
Congressman Tom Price - Representing the 6th District of Georgia
A government that cannot budget,
cannot govern. And so it is with the current Congress. Drunk with power and
recklessly spending, they have refused to pass a budget this year. Their budget
last year had virtually trillion dollar annual deficits for the next ten
years!
Now they won't revise that - and they want more of your money.
Democrat leaders in both chambers said they’re prepared to raise taxes to pay
for their big government spending programs.
Talk of imposing new taxes on
middle class families is symptomatic of a larger problem in Washington.
Congress – for the first time since passage of the 1974 Budget Act – will not
even be considering a budget proposal. Without a budget, the Democrat majority
is compromising any effort the government might make to set priorities and stop
Washington’s out-of-control spending.
Families all across America have to
set and abide by a budget, and so should the federal government. That is why
the Republican Study Committee, which I am honored to chair, has once again
introduced a balanced budget that makes the tough but responsible decisions
necessary to put our nation back on a sound fiscal foundation. A national debt
of over $13 trillion is unacceptable and unsustainable.
Washington needs
a firm dose of fiscal medicine, and I will keep working hard toward that goal.
We do not need new taxes on the middle class. We need the type of spending
restraint that comes with a responsible budget. The basic task of governing
cannot be ignored if America is going to build a foundation for long-term
prosperity.
One Million Votes on YouCut
The number of Americans
participating in the YouCut initiative has been simply stunning. Recently, we
tallied the one-millionth vote for this common sense program, and it is clear
that there is real momentum among the American people to cut Washington’s
wasteful spending habits.
From eliminating federal pay raises to
reforming the taxpayer bailed-out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, YouCut has clearly
shown that the American people have grown tired of a Washington that spends too
much, taxes too much and borrows too much.
While it is disappointing that
Democrats have failed to support these common sense solutions, Republicans are
not going to give up showing the kind of leadership the American people are
demanding. Every voice counts in this debate, so it is important that we begin
to take every step necessary to bring some fiscal sanity back to
Washington.
A
Deeply Flawed Approach to Financial Reform
The Democrats’ financial
regulatory reform bill was passed out of the House-Senate conference committee
last week and is headed to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote
as early as this week. At 2,000-plus pages, this legislation bestows upon
Washington a deeply flawed set of powers that will spell real danger for
America’s long-term prosperity.
As we saw in the development of the
government takeover of health care, the Democrat Congress has taken an approach
to the challenge of financial regulatory reform that expands the role of
government in the private sector while ignoring the true causes of the financial
crisis. An empowered and misguided federal response will lead to restricted
credit for businesses and entrepreneurs. Taxpayers will still be left to foot
the bill for government bailouts of institutions deemed too-big-to-fail. All
the while, the current proposal shamelessly fails to address Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac – two institutions that were at the heart of our economic crisis and
which continue to eat up billions of taxpayer dollars.
As a physician, I
fought tirelessly to oppose the government takeover of health care that will
undermine access to affordable, quality health care in America. Unfortunately,
I see the Democrats’ financial regulatory reform proposal as an even larger
threat to our nation’s way of life and our ability to foster the type of
innovation and prosperity necessary to ensure we leave our children and
grandchildren a country stronger than the one we inherited.
There are positive solutions to these challenges. I will continue to
fight for proposals that would ensure your tax dollars never again go to pay for
the mistakes of others while avoiding a further politicization of our economy
whereby the government has the power and impetus to pick winners and
losers.
The newly enacted health care law is built around the offensive notion that power should rest with Washington and not with individuals. This same government-knows-best attitude also forms the basis of the Democrats’ far-reaching financial regulatory legislation.
Government should not pick winners and losers in our economy. Yet that is precisely what their bill does by letting Washington bureaucrats declare some financial institutions as a 'protected class', as too-big-to-fail. Such a designation not only gives these businesses an advantage over smaller companies in the competition for investment capital; under the Democrats’ plan, it also makes them eligible for special taxpayer funded bailout programs. Well-run companies should be able to flourish and poorly-run companies should be allowed to fail – without getting a bailout from taxpayers for their bad decisions.
Clearly, the financial system must be reformed to prevent another round of meltdowns and bailouts from sinking our economy in the future. That’s why almost a year ago, House Republicans introduced H.R. 3310, the Consumer Protection and Regulatory Enhancement Act. Our legislation would consolidate and strengthen the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies, enhance consumer protections, eliminate the dangerous notion that any institution is too-big-to-fail, end bailouts once and for all with an enhanced bankruptcy process for failing institutions, and end the taxpayer subsidy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – whose reckless policies fueled the disastrous sub-prime lending bubble.
It’s time for a return to the common sense idea that risk and reward go together. Success should not be punished and failure should not get a bailout. We must re-energize the innovative power of America’s small businesses and entrepreneurs, the real job creators in our economy. The last thing we need is another expensive, massive bureaucracy!
Study Reveals that Health Care Costs Will Rise
The ridiculous premise by Speaker Pelosi and others that more government spending would lower health care costs got a harsh dose of reality last week.
A report by the Chief Actuary of Medicare revealed that national health care spending would rise by at least $311 billion over the next decade under the Democrats’ recently passed plan - and that's probably low. The report indicates that costs will likely rise even more because the new law relies on stark cuts to Medicare that no Congress has been willing to allow.
From the beginning, conservatives have repeatedly stated that putting Washington in charge would take health care and this country in the wrong direction. We are now seeing the real-world consequences of this irresponsible legislation, and American families are paying the price.
When costs go up, patients suffer. As a doctor, I know this is an unacceptable side effect. True reform means enacting positive solutions that will lower costs and make health care more accessible and affordable for all Americans. That is the goal we should always fight for, and I will keep working on your behalf until we achieve it.
The Perfect Recipe for a Disastrous Political Economy
Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after President Obama’s speech in New York City urging the passage of the Democrats’ financial legislation (a.k.a the Bailout Protection Act).
“Look past the President’s rhetoric, and you’ll find an ivory tower approach to regulating the economy being pushed by people with a startling lack of real world business experience,” said Congressman Price. “Officially labeling an institution as too-big-to-fail will give it an advantage over other companies when competing for investment capital and empower it to take bigger risks, just like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Too-big-to-fail will become even bigger and more likely to fail, and the inevitable bailout that the Democrats’ plan allows will hit the American taxpayer even harder.
“The Democrats’ plan should really be known as the Bailout Protection Act. It gives unelected bureaucrats enormous latitude to cover the debt of private companies and step in with bailouts for just about any reason at all. The bailout rules will allow unions and politically favored creditors to get a better deal than regular folks who invested their hard-earned money. It’s the perfect recipe for a destructive political economy.
“This plan is a corruption of the rules of free-enterprise. It will prevent entrepreneurs and small businesses from getting access to the capital they so desperately need to expand and create jobs. With Washington picking winners and losers in this political economy, the only real winners will be the well-connected special interests who benefit from bailouts.
“The real choice is not between this ivory tower Bailout Protection Act or the status quo. House Republicans have a better solution. It comes down to a choice between more bailouts with smothering restrictions that prevent job creation or an end to the bailouts with strong consumer protections that don’t hurt small businesses’ access to job-creating investment capital. We are at a crossroads where checks and balances are needed here in Washington to stop the government takeover of virtually every aspect of the lives of Americans.”
Democrats’ Plans Ignore Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement regarding the complete lack of reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in both Senator Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) financial regulatory reform legislation and similar legislation by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) that House Democrats passed last December.
“Officially, the Congressional Budget Office expects the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cost taxpayers $380 billion,” said Congressman Price. “Unofficially, Democrats promised the companies an infinite bailout, forcing taxpayers to choke down all $1.6 trillion of their combined debt if necessary. At this point, that $1.6 trillion debt may as well be issued in U.S. Treasury bonds.
“The largest taxpayer bailout did not go to Bear Stearns, AIG, or Goldman Sachs; it went to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But those are the two government-created entities President Obama will likely not mention in his speech on Wall Street tomorrow because the Democrats’ notion of financial reform ignores them completely.
“The Democrats’ plans are bad enough by perpetuating and codifying Washington’s bailout mentality. They are made even worse because Democrats just do not care to acknowledge the huge role Fannie and Freddie’s reckless decisions played in the financial meltdown. This intentional omission is a sure way to guarantee more bailouts in the future.
“House Republicans introduced a better solution last year that protects consumers and ends the bailouts for everyone, including Fannie and Freddie. The too-big-to-fail guarantee that allowed their irresponsible decisions to tank our economy must come to an end.”
Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement on Tax Day.
“As many Americans put the finishing touches on their tax forms today, they should remember where their tax dollars are going these days,” said Congressman Price. “Far too much is going to finance a job-killing agenda that takes power and money away from the private sector and gives it to Washington. Their tax dollars are paying for a public sector stimulus and bailouts with no end in sight. Soon enough, they’ll be paying for a government takeover of health care, too. Meanwhile, this agenda is saddling employers with higher taxes and other obstacles to growth that wipe out the job opportunities necessary to keep the American Dream alive for everyone.
“Democrats have already imposed $670 billion in tax increases since January 2009 and hope to add a National Energy Tax and a European-style Value-Added Tax into the mix soon. Yet they still manage to rack up trillions of dollars in new debt that will force our children to pay even higher taxes in the future. Americans have had enough of the tax increases, enough of the skyrocketing debt, and enough of this job-killing agenda. On this Tax Day, Washington should admit to itself that it has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.”
Price: “It’s Time for Elected Officials to Listen to the Will of Those They Represent”
Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement in recognition of the Contract from America.
“The success of the great American experiment requires that those who are privileged to govern do so only with the consent of the governed,” said Congressman Price. “As the provisions of the Contract from America so clearly illustrate, the folks running Washington these days do not have that consent. This document was written by men and women from across the country in response to concerted efforts by those in Washington who ignore the Constitution, spend without limit, tax without restraint, and trample on the freedoms that have made ours the most dynamic and productive nation in history. The people have spoken loud and clear through grassroots initiatives like the Tea Parties and the Contract from America. It’s time for elected officials to listen to the will of those they represent.”
THE CONTENT OF THIS WEBSITE DOES NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE OPINION OF THE OWNER ... At least that's what my lawyer told me, but he was drinking pretty heavily at the time so...
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The newly enacted health care law is built around the offensive notion that power should rest with Washington and not with individuals. This same government-knows-best attitude also forms the basis of the Democrats’ far-reaching financial regulatory legislation.
