My fellow citizens, there is only one issue facing us today: the federal government is too big and it costs-and therefore controls-too much. Any candidate who offers specific legislative proposals to the problems with our government without reducing spending and the scope of government is not addressing the core issue. The problems we have with government today do not just seem overwhelming, they are overwhelming, because the federal government is trying to do too much, things it was never supposed to do, and in doing that, it has neglected the things it is supposed to do. What we need is real reform to reduce the size of the federal government, not increased regulations with the misnomer of reform.

The deficit and debt are only symptoms of the larger problem of government spending and the control over the economy that it represents. Taxes are a burden that stifles growth. We must reduce government interference in markets and allow markets to align resources to their most productive use. Real tax reform is needed: tax reform that will reduce government interference with markets and reduce government disruption of normal incentives. We need to cut federal spending and make the corresponding reductions in taxes. The Sixteenth Amendment should be repealed. Only by reducing government control will we get the real growth from the private sector that we need as a nation and a state to create jobs.

We must reduce the size of government so that it can concentrate on the real areas of its responsibility, like border security. The recent actions of the Obama administration towards the people of Arizona have been disgraceful. We need to build the fence, secure the border, and enforce the immigration laws of the United States.

We should remove government obstacles to an "all of the above" energy policy, encouraging the production of energy in the most efficient and cost-effective means possible. We should not destroy the prosperity of future generations by enacting the disastrous cap-and-trade legislation.

We need a strong America and the world needs a strong America. A weak America only encourages the enemies of liberty, both foreign and domestic. We, the people of the United States, must reject the slide into multilateral appeasement embraced by the left. We must pursue a path that unilaterally and unapologetically defends liberty.

We need solutions to health care that are driven by consumer choice, not the federal government. The health care legislation forced through Congress by the Democrats must be repealed. We need to restore market forces to the health care sector and the increased regulation of the health care sector recently passed by Congress does none of that; it merely increases the government distortion of a sector already being badly distorted by government interference. Apart from that, the mandate it contains is an unprecedented expansion of federal power and blatantly unconstitutional. This dreadful legislation is also terribly costly and shows that fallacy of focusing solely on budget deficits and "revenue neutrality."

I am an IT guy. I have managed projects much more costly than a political campaign. I know systems. In Federalist No. 64, John Jay wrote, "Although the absolute necessity of system, in the conduct of any business, is universally known and acknowledged, yet the high importance of it in national affairs, has not yet become sufficiently impressed on the public mind." The system we have is broken. It is running out of control, and if it is not fixed, it is going to crash. I do not want that to happen.

I believe that the solution to fixing the broken system must come from outside the political class. After eighteen years, the equivalent of three full senate terms in one office, I also believe that Roscoe Bartlett is a member of the political class. I attended my first Tea Party rally in February 2009. I believe people are looking beyond political labels for a consistency of ideas aligned with America's founding principles. I consider myself a Reagan Republican: like Ronald Reagan, I think Republicans need to embrace their conservative principles and reject the leftist progressive agenda.