Rokita Report 11-3-12: Business Roundtable, Family Trick-or-Treating, and more

Rep. Todd Rokita

Nov 3, 2012

Dear Friend,

Thank you for the opportunity to update you on the work of the 112th Congress. I trust this finds you and your family well.

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This Week (Oct. 28 - Nov. 3)

This week, I had the opportunity to meet with business leaders across the district about some of the most pressing issues they’re facing. On Monday, I hosted around 15 members of the Montgomery County business community at a business roundtable in Crawfordsville. We discussed the drivers of our debt, the tax hike looming at the end of this year, and ways to reform our tax code:

I also visited with the Plainfield Rotary Club on Wednesday, where we talked about spending, debt, and entitlement reform. As I often do with groups across Indiana, I shared with them the truth about our republic’s serious fiscal problems. We can only address our mounting debt if we first confront the facts about where our debt came from, how it will continue to grow, and what the possible solutions are to reform government and balance the budget. You can see the presentation I gave here. Here's a photo from my Plainfield visit:

On Friday, I spoke to more than 100 members of the Indiana CPA Society at their Leadership Cabinet/Emerging Leaders Alliance annual meeting in Indianapolis. CPAs have a particularly keen understanding that the real truth of our financial condition is in our financial statements, which show what the federal government is committed to spending over the long-term.

For businesses, obligations and liabilities are shown right on the front of businesses’ financial statements. But for the federal government, our long-term liabilities like Social Security and Medicare are not included in year-to-year allocations, so our debt situation is actually much worse than many people realize – as I explained in my debt presentation. Following my presentation, I enjoyed a good, thoughtful conversation with the CPAs about what we must do to solve our spending crisis.

And on Wednesday evening, Kathy and I took the boys trick-or-treating, dressed in their cow costumes. As you can see from the photo below, older brother Teddy wasted no time checking out Ryan’s candy. But order was quickly restored, and we all had a wonderful time:

Last Week (Oct. 21-27)

Last week, I joined Gov. Mitch Daniels and other state and local officials at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Lafayette-to-Delphi segment of the Hoosier Heartland Highway. This was the culmination of a tremendous team effort that will result in safer travel and much bigger economic opportunities for the counties and communities served by the highway.

Earlier this year, I led a bipartisan group of Indiana’s congressional delegation in fighting to stop a proposed ban on federal funds being used under public-private partnership arrangements, including the Indiana East-West Toll Road. Through the state’s Major Moves program, the toll road deal freed up billions of dollars to fund other needed projects such as the Hoosier Heartland Highway.

I enjoyed visiting with local officials, and was honored to help lead the ceremonial caravan in my 1973 Corvette:

I also had the opportunity to visit with around 50 Hendricks Power Cooperative workers at an employee town hall meeting, where I shared with them a presentation on our national debt and discussed solutions, and to attend the Tippecanoe County Right to Life’s annual Celebration of Life banquet.

In Case You Missed It

1st Annual Red Tape Rollback Report

Rokita Op-Ed: Complex, unfair tax code stands in way of recovery

PJ Media - Two Ex-Secretaries of State Introduce Bill to Clean Up Voter Rolls

For additional news items, please visit my In the News page.

Rokita Readings
A clickable offering of books and articles that I've read recently and highly recommend, as we strive together to "Keep the Republic."

Since being elected to Congress, I have held more than 60 town hall-style events to educate citizens on the truth about our federal government’s spending, and the need to reform the drivers of our debt. Our $16 trillion debt is a result of a government that has far exceeded its limits and which no longer respects the principles of individual liberty and free enterprise that have always made our republic great.

In a recent op-ed, American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks explains why this is such a foundational issue. “Limited government and individual liberty aren't merely policy alternatives,” he writes. “They're moral imperatives.”
Brooks issues a call for leaders to make the moral case for free enterprise, by making three key arguments:

1) That every American has a right to earn his or her success, in a system that rewards hard work and lets people keep what they’ve earned.
2) That a true free enterprise system is the fairest system, where honest competition – and not government cronyism – determine financial rewards.
3) That free enterprise is the best system for the poor, lifting billions around the world out of poverty in the last four decades.

Free enterprise is not just the best system because of the statistics – although the evidence is overwhelming – it’s the best system because it is the most moral system. And those of us who believe in it can’t be afraid to make that case.

Thank you for your continued interest in Congress and for supporting my efforts in Washington. Take care.

Sincerely,