October 7, 2011

Jeb Hensarling

WASHINGTON – U.S. Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Republican Conference and Co-Chairman of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, issued the following statement today regarding the latest unemployment report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the continued effort by House Republicans to promote pro-growth, confidence-restoring policies to help the nation’s job creators do their job. 

“Our nation’s prolonged jobs crisis is serious and somber but far from surprising. If the president had the opportunity to listen to the job creators I talk to in my district while he was there this week, he would have heard that the policies he continues to pitch — permanent tax increases on small businesses and more ‘stimulus’ spending — remain significant sources of job-killing uncertainty for our economy’s job creators. You simply can’t help the job seeker by punishing the job creator with higher taxes. 

“Taxpayer-funded ‘stimulus’ spending was already tried and it failed. Yet, to my amazement, the president persists with pushing this and other failed ideas as his only solutions to the jobs and debt crisis his policies have only made worse. As today’s jobs numbers remind us, closed-mindedness has consequences. Frankly, it’s this president’s failure to even consider a new direction that has made record debt, record poverty, and record unemployment the hallmarks of his failed agenda. 

“Job creators have to shoulder far too many unfair regulatory burdens that crush the confidence and capital needed to create jobs. As Karl Watson, president of Texas-based CEMEX USA, recently said, ‘We just want regulations that are achievable. … What we’ve gotten from the EPA are rules that are 3 to 5 times stricter than what the European Union just put out.’ This kind of environment for job creators only destroys jobs and makes us less competitive as a nation. 

“The longer this administration refuses to listen to what job creators need, the longer 9 percent-plus unemployment will remain our nation’s painful status quo. While the president continues to promote policies that dissuade businesses from innovating or growing, House Republicans have brought job creators straight to Washington to hear exactly what’s keeping them from hiring more workers. 

“Job growth is job number one for House Republicans. That’s why the House passed yet another jobs bill this week to save American companies from having to comply with strenuous new regulations from the EPA. As part of our Plan for America’s Job Creators, we will continue to fight for a fairer and flatter tax code, smarter regulations, and an end to taxpayer-funded ‘stimulus’ spending. It’s time to stop spending money we don’t have on jobs we never get.”

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