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The national debt just continues to grow — and significant cuts apparently won’t be on the way anytime soon.

    President Obama’s budget, released this week, projects more record federal deficits for the current fiscal year and an overall debt greater than the size of of the total U.S. economy.
    It’s not a pretty picture.

Just days ago in his annual State of the Union address, President Obama said ‘the best thing we could do on taxes for all Americans is to simplify the individual tax code’.  The President stated he was prepared to work with the Congress in this effort.  I couldn’t agree more. For a number of years now I have introduced bipartisan legislation, the Tax Code Termination Act, to abolish our current tax code.  My legislation, which I recently introduced in this new Congress, can be the impetus for overhauling and simplifying our tax system.

In Richmond this week, the House and Senate moved closer to the halfway point of the General Assembly session, and prepared for the unveiling of their competing budget plans.  It was the week before Crossover, and temperatures outside varied from the freezing mark to the high sixties in a single week.

    By the time Crossover, the midpoint of the legislative session, occurs on February 8, both houses must complete their work on bills submitted by their own members.  As a result, floor sessions get longer as the week progresses.

    We have a big election year ahead, and I’m not talking about 2012.