Free Young Guns : A New Generation of Conservative Leaders by Eric Cantor;Paul Ryan;Kevin McCarthy Page A

for all Americans by focusing first and foremost on lowering costs.
    What does a health-care system that works for all Americans look like? Republicans believe in providing individuals and families with more affordable options without costly mandates by expanding insurance market competition. We would allow families to buy insurance across state lines and give every individual and small business the same access to tax incentives and pooling opportunitiesthat unions and corporations have today. We would end discrimination against Americans with preexisting conditions by creating state-based high risk pools, not by forcing everyone to pay more. And we would do something the Democrats will never do: reduce health-care costs by taking on the trial lawyers who force physicians into defensive medicine, which drives up costs for everyone.
    Just days after the Democratic health-care bill was signed into law, American companies began to announce the higher costs they will experience under the law—costs that will be passed on to their employees and their customers. Before America’s competitiveness is reduced, our taxes raised, and our health-care system irreparably damaged, we need to repeal Democratic health-care reform and replace it with a better way. Paul, Kevin, and I are already on the job.

    America’s challenges at home are real and pressing. But the job of a leader is to keep his or her eye on the bigger picture. And whether our current leaders in Washington always remember or not, America has real enemies in the world—enemies who don’t care if they’re read their Miranda rights or get a civilian trial, just that they kill as many innocents as they can.
    As an American Jew, I am acutely aware of the existenceof evil in the world. In 2006, my cousin, Daniel, was killed in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv. I’ll never forget when then-House Speaker Denny Hastert invited Daniel’s family up from Florida to hear Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speak to a joint session of Congress. After the speech, I invited Daniel’s family, along with two representatives from south Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to my office for coffee. It was there that Daniel’s father, Tuly, told us the story of his son’s death for the first time.
    He and Daniel had been sitting in a café in Tel Aviv, Tuly said, when the terrorist walked in with a backpack. As the security guard asked to search the terrorist’s pack, Tuly watched as the terrorist detonated the bomb inside. The next thing Tuly knew, the power of the blast forced his son back into him. Daniel caught all the shrapnel and, in doing so, saved his father’s life. By the time Tuly had finished, we were all in tears.
    No one needs to tell me about the bad guys out there. But being an American Jew has also given me a unique perspective on the good guys. Unlike some in Washington today, I don’t have any doubt about the moral strength of America. We have our flaws, it’s true. But we’re the good guys. We make mistakes, but we never set out to do evil or do harm to other people.
    Contrary to what the conspiracy theorists say, America doesn’t have any imperialist impulses; we’re not out to conquer the world for power, oil, or any other trophy.Unlike European colonial powers, America’s museums aren’t stocked with artifacts and works of art plundered from abroad. What we do have, though, is a set of beliefs. We believe in government by the consent of the governed. We believe in freedom of speech. We believe in full and equal rights for women. We believe in the economic freedom to work hard and see your work rewarded. We believe in the freedom to worship as you choose or not to worship at all. Make no mistake—it’s these beliefs, not any real or imagined offense that America has committed—that our enemies resent.
    Unlike some of our current leaders in Washington, I know we have real differences with our enemies, and that these differences