Pat Meehan, a Republican candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, today applauded President Obama's use of the state of the Union to focus on economic and job creation issues, as well as the need for deficit reduction and cutting federal government spending. "The President continues to say all of the right things," said Meehan. "But the devil will be in the details, because as we have seen over the course of the past year, his words have not translated into meaningful and effective public policy."
"I was sad to see more finger pointing than I thought was appropriate," said Meehan. "Calls for bipartisanship should include real consideration of other opinions. On a range of issues, Republicans have put forward genuine solutions, but Democrats in Congress have used the advantages of their majority and procedural tools to completely shut Republicans outs of the legislative process. That is something that has to change."
"Jobs and the economy need to be our main focus," said Meehan. "We need to invest in programs and initiatives that will have a broad-based impact on the economy. Unfortunately, previous stimulus efforts focused on specific sectors of the economy, leaving many small businesses – which supplied two-thirds of newly created jobs over the past 35 years – to largely fend for themselves."
"Policy initiatives touched on in the address, such as enabling community banks to invest in small businesses and the elimination of the capital gains tax for small business investment hold great promise," said Meehan. "But the top concern of small business owners – particularly in terms of the ability to create new jobs – is lagging sales due to declines in consumer spending. If sales are down, the revenues are simply not there to hire new employees. That is why I believe we need to take a closer look at a temporary elimination of the payroll tax on American workers. This will put more money directly in the hands of consumers to help spur local economies in communities throughout the country – not just specific sectors favored by special interests in Washington. I urge Congress to consider this proposal to help provide small business owners with the jumpstart they need."
"I was also pleased to hear discussion of a small business tax credit for small businesses that hire new workers or raise wages," said Meehan. "But I disagree slightly on the nuance of how such a tax credit would be applied. Studies have shown that a broad job creation tax credit tends to disproportionately benefit larger companies that are already planning to hire new employees, regardless of the availability of the tax credit. As a result, this would tend to help businesses in economic sectors that have already weathered the financial storm. I would much prefer a more targeted tax credit for solo practitioners that would assist them in hiring their first or second employee. Such a focused effort would provide a greater incentive for small entrepreneurs to grow their business, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs."
"Other proposals, such as implementing financial reforms, investing more in basic research, doubling exports, and revitalizing our community colleges all hold great promise," said Meehan. "The challenge will be the ability of Congress to implement these initiatives in a responsible and effective manner. The devil, as they say, will be in the details."
"I was also pleased with the call for a freeze in federal discretionary spending," said Meehan. "It represents a step in the right direction, but the specifics of how this is implemented are extremely important. The American people need to know if this discretionary spending freeze will lock in huge increases in spending levels that occurred last year. For example, if "stimulus" spending is also frozen in place, we will be locking a 66 percent increase in non-defense discretionary spending. That would be unacceptable."
"I also fear that Congressional Democrats will use the rhetoric of a spending freeze to gloss over the need for a true debate over government spending and the need to eliminate non-productive federal spending programs and reign in pork projects," said Meehan. "This is an issue that we will need to watch very closely going forward. We need to hold Congressional Democrats' feet to the fire on the issue of deficit reduction and government spending."
For more information on Meehan, visit www.meehanforcongress.com
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