John,

While I breathed a sigh of relief when the U.S. House of Representatives finally accomplished its most basic responsibility - organizing itself to pass legislation - I'm disappointed because I feel that there was a better way to move our country forward. The best news that came out of this process was that the House immediately moved to pass a resolution affirming America's support for Israel.

You've heard me say it before, but the only path forward that will result in bringing people together and getting big policy wins is if we marginalize the extreme wings of both parties and find common ground.

The American people are sick of the partisan politics. We've been stuck in this cycle where one party gets power, they pass highly partisan legislation without any buy-in or support from moderate members of the other party, and then things whip back suddenly when the other party takes control since they campaigned promising to undo everything the other folks did.

This is not a sustainable model and it's the reason why Congress can't even get basic things done like passing a budget or funding our vital government programs. We're not even having conversations about how to reduce spending or find more efficient ways to run the government because both parties are only listening to the people on the extremes that equate compromise with losing.

We need more of our elected officials to have courage and stand up, instead of putting their political future first. When I was in Congress, I witnessed many members willing to risk their careers to do the right thing. We need more of that today.

While in Congress, I worked with Democrat Congressman Tim Penny to create the Kasich-Penny plan that would reduce one penny of every dollar of government spending. We were trying to show that there was a way to find reasonable compromise for the American people. While our bill didn't pass, it received bipartisan support and started the conversation that led to the first balanced federal budget in nearly forty years!

We have to get over this sickness where our leaders act as if compromising on something to help Americans is a bad thing or considered losing. Where in life don't we have to compromise on things?

I'm hopeful that what we'll see next is a broad bipartisan effort to support our allies in Israel and Ukraine with the money and supplies that they need to defend their democracies. While those who don't know history or understand international relations may not understand, they should trust the experts who know that both of these are vital to America's national and economic security.

The world is watching - our allies are very concerned and our opponents are emboldened. Nobody is more happy about America's divisions than Russia's Putin. A weakened and divided America creates opportunities for evil people to fill the vacuum and expand their power.

I am worried for the future of America, but I remain hopeful that the fever will break and we will once again discover the potential of what America can become if we start working together again.