From the Walsh for Congress campaign (8th District)…
(Grayslake, IL)– In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich offered a fairly pessimistic view of any potential recovery from what he referred to as “The Great Recession”.
Since the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, the economy has shed 8.4 million jobs and failed to create another 2.7 million required by an ever-larger pool of potential workers. That leaves us more than 11 million jobs behind. (The number is worse if you include everyone working part-time who’d rather it be full-time, those working full-time at fewer hours, and people who are overqualified for the jobs they’re in.) This means even if we enjoy a vigorous recovery that produces, say, 300,000 net new jobs a month, we could be looking at five to eight years before catching up to where we were before the recession began.
Reich is a demand-side economist so he misunderstands the source of the problem and suggests the wrong remedies, but he correctly identifies the very real challenge: Americans, Illinoisans, and 8th district families need jobs and expanded economic opportunities.
Our region is beset with 12%+ unemployment because of bad policy choices.
Those bad choices have been made by politicians like Rep. Melissa Bean who either don’t understand economics or are more concerned with propping up public sector unions than rewarding work and investment and productive risk-taking behavior by small businesses-in other words, the lifeblood of job creation.
Rep. Bean voted for Obamacare the first time. Earlier this year, the Illinois Policy Institute released a study estimating the federal takeover of health care would cost Illinois 169,000 jobs.
Rep. Bean knew or should have known that the bill would add tens of millions of dollars in cost to the bottom lines of major Illinois employers including Caterpillar, John Deere and Illinois Tool Works-which is precisely what occurred.
Rep. Bean responded to this foreboding information by turning around and voting against her district and for Obamacare a second time.
Cap-and-trade, which Bean voted for the first time appears likely to be resurrected for a second go-around. The proposed cap-and-trade legislation would permanently decimate the manufacturing and energy sectors in Illinois, increasing energy costs for consumers and driving employers out of Illinois and, frankly, out of America all together. Will Melissa Bean vote for cap-and-trade a second time? Don’t ask her. If you want to know how Melissa Bean will vote, ask Rahm Emanuel.
Wait, there’s more. In addition to the federal takeover of health care and the malaise-making cap-and-trade legislation, Bean voted for an $875 billion so-called “stimulus” plan that did little more than prop up public sector unions and insulate government from the pain being experienced in the private sector.
That’s why, as Reich predicts, “What’s likely to slow the jobs recovery most, however, is the indubitable reality that many of the jobs that have been lost will never return.”
Jobs aren’t coming back to Illinois when we have Congressmen like Melissa Bean punishing small businesses to finance big government and voting for policies that outsource jobs overseas.
Joe Walsh understands the economics of recovery and he knows how to create jobs.
Walsh would reduce the tax and regulatory burdens on small businesses by: (1) making the 2001 and 2003 federal income tax cuts permanent; (2) eliminating the federal estate tax; (3) eliminating the amount; (4) reducing the capital gains tax (something even Democrat President Bill Clinton understood would spur capital formation and job creation).
Walsh also recognizes we need to reign in profligate Washington spending that crowds out private sector investment by: (1) eliminating earmarks; (2) eliminating massive unfunded entitlements passed by the federal government on to state and local governments; (3) ending bailouts of politically connected companies; (4) ending false “stimulus” packages that protect public sector unions at the expense of private sector job creation.
If you like the course our state and our nation are on, then you have Melissa Bean to thank.
If, however, you think we need to chart a new policy course, then you need to thank Melissa Bean for her service and relieve her of her duties on November 2.
The numbers don’t lie. Families in the 8th district simply cannot afford Melissa Bean in Congress.
Joe Walsh is the Republican candidate running against Democrat incumbent Melissa Bean in 2010 for the Illinois 8th Congressional District. Born and raised in North Barrington, a policy advocate, teacher, and business entrepreneur, Joe has spent his adult life advancing limited-government and conservative principles. For more information on Joe Walsh and his campaign visit: www.joewalshforcongress.com