An outspoken conservative leader in the House, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) appeared at The Heritage Foundation this morning to outline how to champion conservative values in the 112th Congress. Before today’s event, the Congressman sat down with us to talk about the repeal of Obamacare and the effort to wrangle federal spending under control.

The new chair of the Republican Study Committee, Jordan has locked onto the federal government’s spending addiction and plans to work with his colleagues to tackle this persistent and critical problem. “The next six month will really all be about how we allocate and spend taxpayer money,” he explained, “We’ve got the continuing resolution, the budget fight, the debt ceiling issue, and then the 12 appropriations bills. It’s all about stopping the ridiculous spending.”

Towards that goal, Jordan, along with Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) and Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) unveiled the Spending Reduction Act this afternoon which seeks to cut $2.5 trillion in federal spending. This plan follows a similarly ambitious plan from our own Brian Riedl which outlined $343 billion in spending cuts that Congress could make in the federal budget immediately.

In the interview, Congressman Jordan emphasized his belief that the American people were ready to be treated as adults and have serious national conversations about the direction of our country:

“In my time in public life, I’ve never seen the American people more ready, more receptive to the tough-love measures that need to be taken to put our country on the right path. The question is whether the politicians get it … and I think they do.”

We here at The Heritage Foundation, along with Americans all across the country, will be watching closely over the next year to make sure they do.