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At the end of the day, Republican-driven tax reform is not only going to be good for the economy and for growth. It's going to be good for middle-class Americans.

Republicans are not going to play I-told-you-so, but it is pretty obvious that the tax reductions passed in 2003 helped Americans dig out of a recession and get back to work.

With Americans worried about losing their jobs, their savings, their homes and their chance at the American Dream, the New Direction Congress will work in a bipartisan way to lift our economy and help America's middle class.

Our economy is robust and will remain strong as more Americans who want a job find one. Republican economic policies based on tax relief are working for the American people.

Now that we have the Senate and the House fully controlled by Republicans, we need to be working together.

Tax cuts create more jobs and this is something we as Republicans have to do a better job of marketing.

But what is striking about this, in a town that often talks about tax cuts, we could quite easily, Republicans and Democrats working together, do something that everybody in America desires, and that is a simplification of our Tax Code.

I am not surprised that this is a longer bit of work than many of us would have hoped. It is not where any of us would have hoped it is. And I think we need to give credit to the Republicans in Congress who have done everything they can to defeat every jobs bill and slow down the economy.

I think we have lost track of a core Republican principle of limited government and balancing budgets and restraining federal spending. We have got to change the system.