From Roskam’s Office…
Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) Delivers Weekly Republican Address
Rep. Roskam: “Back in Illinois and around the country, the situation has reached a boiling point. Americans are asking ‘where are the jobs?’ and – forget about getting answers – they can’t even get President Obama and Washington Democrats to listen to their concerns.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the Weekly Republican Address, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) says President Obama needs to listen to the American people, who are asking ‘where are the jobs?,’ and abandon his failing ‘stimulus’ policies in favor of common-sense solutions that will promote private sector job creation. Republicans are listening to the American people through America Speaking Out and offering better solutions to cut spending now and help small businesses get people working again. Now in his second term in Congress, Rep. Roskam represents Illinois’ Sixth Congressional District and serves as job-creation policy director for America Speaking Out. Text of the address follows; audio of the address is available here and video of the address will be available here once the embargo is lifted.
Transcript
“Hello, I’m Peter Roskam, and I work for the people of Illinois’ Sixth Congressional District.
“Yesterday, Americans woke up to learn that our economy lost another 131,000 jobs in the month of July. Here in the president’s home state of Illinois, where the unemployment rate is well over 10 percent, families are wondering why Washington is spending money we don’t have and piling up a mountain of debt only to have the economy sputter and job losses continue. Businesses are afraid to invest in the economy when Washington continues to hand down mandates and tax increases that make it harder to succeed and to grow.
“Unfortunately, instead of taking decisive action to provide small and medium sized businesses with the tax and regulatory relief they need to flourish and hire new workers, Speaker Pelosi and Democrat Leaders in Congress are coming back to Washington next week to double down on their ‘stimulus’ agenda that has led to fewer jobs and more debt.
“This latest round of ‘stimulus’ spending comes in the form of a political season payoff to union bosses, and even worse, it’ll be financed with a job-killing tax hike on America’s job-creators.
“Under Democratic Leaders in Congress spending has gotten completely out of control. It reminds me of when Mom and Dad go away for the weekend. The teenagers say, ‘leave us home alone, we’re responsible, what can go wrong?’ Except Mom and Dad come home a day early only to find the house is trashed, the police are parked outside and everything is a mess. At this outrageous rate of spending, the Obama Administration and Congress are on track to triple the national debt over the next 10 years.
“Back in Illinois and around the country, the situation has reached a boiling point. Americans are asking ‘where are the jobs?’ and – forget about getting answers – they can’t even get President Obama and Washington Democrats to listen to their concerns.
“Well, Republicans are listening. This spring, we launched the America Speaking Out project to transform the way people interact with their elected representatives. Every day, whether it’s online or at town hall meetings, Americans are sharing ideas and engaging in a constructive dialogue about the future of our country. It’s time to put the American people back in the driver’s seat. As the great Illinois President Abraham Lincoln once said, ours should be a government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’
“One of the best and most popular ideas on AmericaSpeakingOut.com right now is stopping Washington Democrats’ job-killing tax hikes on families and small businesses. At a time of serious economic challenges, massive new tax increases are a surefire way to stall growth and prevent businesses from creating jobs.
“That’s because every dollar in new taxes owed is a dollar that can’t be used to pay current employees or hire new workers. Hobbling the small businesses that are the backbone of our economy will further delay a robust recovery. According to an analysis by the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation – that’s Congress’s official tax scorekeeper – half of all new taxes collected under President Obama’s plan would come from America’s small businesses.
“Now, many economists agree that raising taxes on small businesses is the wrong approach. Among them is Mark Zandi, a favorite economist of the Obama administration. Mr. Zandi wrote this week that ‘raising taxes on anyone now’ would be a ‘mistake.’
“I served in the state Senate with President Obama, and I know that he has the ability to work across party lines when the moment demands it. And after 18 months of spending sprees, backroom deals, and government takeovers, this is the moment. We need a real economic agenda for growth and job creation, one that moves beyond partisan politics and puts our nation’s economic health front and center.
“For bipartisan economic solutions that can help all Americans, I hope President Obama will take another look at the ‘No-Cost Jobs Plan’ that House Republican leaders presented to him last December. The ‘No-Cost Jobs Plan’ lays out several common-sense ideas that are designed to move us away from government ‘stimulus’ spending that hasn’t worked, and towards responsible policies that free up the nation’s entrepreneurs and job creators to create jobs.
“Ultimately, the key to improving our nation’s struggling economy depends on the strength and innovation of America’s private sector. By engaging the small and growing businesses that fuel our economy, we can get our country back on the right track. That’s why Republicans are listening to the American people and offering better solutions to cut wasteful spending and get people working again.
“Visit AmericaSpeakingOut.com to learn more and to share your ideas. We look forward to hearing your solutions.”
There can’t possibly be anything that resembles a ‘no cost job plan’. Jobs are going to extract a cost from somewhere if the plan is to be effective.
Here’s another posted response to Roskam’s address.
As a Republican who once thought that Republicans were driven by honesty, commonsense and pragmatic effective solutions, I find Rep. Peter Roskam’s address to be more Republican evasion of responsibility, based on deceit and ignorance.
1. There is and never will be a ‘No-Cost Jobs Plan’. For god’s sake, if the Republicans don’t stop pushing for a free lunch at every turn.
2. If tax cuts generates jobs and a healthy economy, then why did the Bush tax cuts without funding for spending, which added to the deficit, fail to prevent our economic collapse? These tax cuts still exist, and there is no demonstrated benefit to the economy. This attitude that we can have a free lunch created the economic collapse.
3. I have a small business. Corporate and individual income tax increases do not impact my hiring. Any intelligent person knows that we pay income taxes on our net income after expenses, after paying our employees. High income taxes actually encourages us to invest in employees and equipment rather than send this money to the government.
Republicans today have made such a mess of our nation with two unpaid wars; deregulation and poor implementation of regulation leading to Wall Street mistakes and fraud, and uncontrolled oil spills; giving corporations the same status as citizens and allowing them to overwhelm the electorate with unlimited political donations.
Wake up America. Democrats may be useless, but Republicans are dangerous. Our private sector was ransacked by Republican assisted Wall Street speculation. Republicans have no credibility to understand nor manage a legitimate business. Under their definition of “capitalism” and “private sector”, bank robbers and murderers are entrepreneurs.