No time to sit on the sidelines

Friends,

When I see what is happening -- in Washington, in Concord, and across the country -- it is clear to me that this is no time to sit on the sidelines.

More than ever, our country's direction depends on which priorities we choose today.

Here is my list: More jobs. Healthier businesses. Better public education, including technical education. More affordable, safer sources of energy.

I know that these are achievable goals. As Warren Buffett -- a responsible business leader who we could use more like -- wrote just last month: "Now, as in 1776, 1861, 1932 and 1941, America's best days lie ahead."

I truly believe that.

I watched my parents both work hard to build a stronger community for my generation. Every day here in Concord, New Hampshire, I run into a person, a nonprofit, or a local business that they touched. I also know that my generation has this same obligation to our own children -- to pass on stronger communities and a stronger country.

But instead of acting as a partner to our communities, families, workers and small businesses, the U.S. House of Representatives is acting like an anchor, holding our country back. They are cutting student loans, increasing class sizes in our schools, threatening Social Security, and risking public safety with less police on the streets.

• Instead of support for small business, we see rising fuel prices and more record Wall Street bonuses.
• Instead of job creation and job security, political extremists are trying to end collective bargaining.
• Instead of a comprehensive energy plan, Congress is interfering with EPA oversight of greenhouse gases.
• Instead of improving public health, they are pitching ideological fights against Planned Parenthood.
• And instead of fiscal responsibility, Washington is actually making the budget deficits worse.

I am a frugal Yankee and I believe we need to cut wasteful government spending -- like the billions in subsidies for oil companies, the corporate tax breaks for moving jobs overseas, and the billions more spent on redundant weapons systems that our military leaders have identified as wasteful and unneeded. But instead of these cuts, the US House of Representatives is cutting what we need most: education, public safety, and the clean energy research that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It makes no sense.

America can do better than this -- so, it's time for all of us to do something about it.

To fight for good jobs, to protect the fragile economic recovery, and to invest in strengthening our country's future, this week I am taking the first steps to begin a campaign for U.S. Congress in 2012.

I'll make a more formal announcement next year, but I'm not willing to sit on the sidelines until then -- I'm going to roll up my sleeves and start working today.

I've seen the power of a real grassroots campaign, and I need your help in this one. It will take thousands of us working together to bring a new approach to Washington -- but after the hundreds of emails, phone calls, and Facebook messages of encouragement I've gotten from so many of you in the past few months, I am confident we will have the grassroots power to shake things up.

Our nation has risen to meet every challenge for hundreds of years, and together I know we can get our country back on the right track now.

Join me in this cause by leaving a message or sharing this note with your friends, here: www.kusterforcongress.com.

Please stay in touch.

All my best,