Representative Josh Brecheen (R-Coalgate) announced he is seeking re-election for a third term as representative for Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District.
He signed declaration of candidacy papers last week at The Home Office, 223 N. Third Ave.
Brecheen said he has committed to serve a maximum of eight years (four terms) in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He was first elected in 2022, and the 2nd Congressional District covers 28 counties in the eastern part of Oklahoma.
Brecheen said the reason he is seeking reelection is because it is a continuance of what he said when he filed for office in 2022.
“I was feeling like there was a vacuum of people not caring about the debt and deficit spending and I have not only developed a reputation in Washington D.C., but our office is fixated on the constitutionality of what we’re doing and then how do we pay for the stuff,” Brecheen said.
According to Brecheen, there is not enough of a singular focus on the nation’s $2 trillion deficit and the debt crisis, which he said is a real pain ahead for the country.
“I’m really concerned about by 2033 what’s going to happen with the insolvency if some of our mandatory programs hit and then if we don’t have a pathway, not just to solve our spending that increases normally, but then when you’re going to have Medicare and Social Security get to a spot to where the pressure is going to be to tap into the general fund and those programs rely as much on the payroll tax. So, we have got to get serious about this. We have to be people that are long-term in our thinking, not short term and that’s too often what Congress is, is it’s about this year and not what’s going to happen to the future of our country.”
He said to fix the debt problem requires having enough votes.
“If it was up to me and about 20 of us, we would be scuttling programs,” Brecheen said. “It’s no longer just waste, fraud and abuse is enough to correct that $2 trillion deficit. The truth is, it’s time for amputation of unconstitutional federal government programs.
“It’s time for us to reset back to the enumerated limited powers Article 1 Section 8 lays out and let the states be the driving force behind some of the other things that you can’t make a constitutional basis for. But pragmatism says that there are only about 20 or 30 of us that are that serious about it that we would drive that, and you got to get 218 votes is kind of the norm now to get things done. So, what I am is I am someone that got a hold of the rope and I’m pulling and there’s others on the other side of this chasm that are pulling in the opposite direction and the best I can do is the best I can do to influence and influence even people in my own party that don’t see it the same way I do.”
Brecheen said he wants to cut federal programs that are not constitutional and should be handled by the states.
“Most of what we’re doing on the federal level is not constitutional, but I have a Madisonian viewpoint, a very strict viewpoint, but it’s a constitutional viewpoint,” Brecheen said. “If you go to the early 1900s, 67 percent of all government spending was done on the local and state level. By the 1990s, that number had flipped and that’s what we’re doing on the federal level.”
According to Brecheen, state governments are closer to the people, and the founding fathers knew that. He said the average person does not take the time to call members of Congress regarding wasting taxpayer resources at the federal level.
“If it’s on the state level, you would pick up the phone,” Brecheen said. “You would call your state lawmaker. You would demand accountability. Our founders were brilliant. They knew that there would be more accountability, more scrutinizing of the spending, and they call it an act of Congress for a reason. People say, ‘Well, should I take the time to tell my member of Congress about this?’” Brecheen said state lawmakers have filed bills to make changes when informed by constituents.
“How often is it that you see the ability for the local constituency to bring something at a Congressional town hall and see it get signed into law,” Brecheen asked.
According to Brecheen, lobbyists drive the agenda for what gets passed into law in Washington D.C. He said James Madison said that the powers of the federal government were to be few and finite.
“The power of the state is to be numerous and indefinite,” Brecheen said. “They (founding fathers) wanted these laboratories of experimentation, the states, to be running the bulk of decision making. The bulk of authority because they knew that state lawmakers in a short amount of time could make the refinement and changes necessary to make programs run better and to make sure your tax dollars are being used more efficiently.”
Regarding the economy, Brecheen said the country is at the norms now for inflation.
“Gas being an outlier because of what’s happening with the conflict with Iran of course,” Brecheen said. “But in terms of inflation, inflation is at historic norms. The problem is, after four years of the Biden administration, we were averaging five percent year over year increase in infl ation, and it drove prices so high that affordability is still in question.
“We’ve got to have our economy catch up to this resetting of prices which are so abnormally high. So, some of the things, my hope is and we are meeting the projections that when we designed the One Big Beautiful Bill. The working families tax cut, it was designed to put jet fuel into the economy by helping people through tax savings be able to keep more of their money, and some of them know I fought even in that bill to make sure we were paying for it.
“It’s not just about cutting taxes, it’s about making sure you pay for that process also. In Republican circles, often what gets lost is just saying, ‘Well, we’ll just cut taxes.’ It has to be balanced. Yes, tax cuts will pay for themselves in proportions but there’s also that cutting of spending that has to occur in tandem when you cut taxes to make sure that in the long term that the balance is there.”
