Young Guns, by Rep. Paul Ryan, Rep. Eric Cantor & Rep. Kevin McCarthy: on Government Reform

Charles Djou: Increase penalties & crack down on corrupt agencies

Cory Gardner: Limited government, accountability, and transparency

The race in the 4th District is a critical one. Despite the conservative nature and values of the district, freshman Democrat Betsy Markey has chosen to side with the liberal leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi on issue after issue. She voted for the failed stimulus, the job-killing cap-and-trade bill, and the recently passed government takeover of health care. All of these policies will lead to a future of crushing debt and fewer jobs for Coloradans.

In contrast, Gardner is running on a platform of spending restraint and limited government: accountability and transparency; creating jobs and powering the future through private sector growth; real health-care solutions; and a strong national defense.

Eric Cantor: Moratorium on earmarks now; change culture for future

Eric Cantor: Government is so big it deprives Americans of their rights

Now, we're getting far too used to the overheard rhetoric of crisis. It's not a phony "crisis". The message is being sent from the people to Washington today, not the other way around.

Last February, a remarkable poll came out in which a majority of Americans said they believe the federal government has become so large and so powerful it is trampling on their rights as ordinary citizens. Let me say it again--most Americans believe government is so big it is depriving them of their rights. By overwhelming margins, Americans believe their government is broken.

Paul Ryan: 1990s Republican majority succumbed to the earmark culture

It was this relentless pressure to bring home the bacon that was the undoing of the Republican majority that came into office in 1994. They allowed their limited government principles to be overtaken by the pressure to appease voters and donors. The Republican majority succumbed to the earmark culture.

They continued to get reelected until the corruption of the process caught up with them; until the people got wind of the Bridge to Nowhere and rightly asked why they were being asked to pay for such things; and until their colleagues and associates started going to jail.

Ronald Reagan: Not intention to do away with government; but make it work

But the American people aren't children, and the choice before us isn't one of security versus insecurity, or safety versus fear. We are offering Americans the same choice as Ronald Reagan did more than a quarter century ago when he said: "It is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work--work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."

This fundamental choice has been debated in the name of many different things over the past year & a half: health-care reform, energy policy, economic policy, housing policy. But ultimately it's a debate about what kind of country we want to have.