WASHINGTON – Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), chairman of the House Republican Conference, issued the following statement today regarding H.R. 8, the Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act, to prevent scheduled tax increases by extending current tax rates for one year.

“The House has taken action to prevent the automatic tax hike that is set to strike hardworking families and small businesses at the end of this year. Unless President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Senate follow our lead, taxes will go up and jobs, wages, and economic growth will go down. It is time for the president and his party to act for the sake of rescuing Americans from an imminent but preventable economic disaster.

“With economic growth in the last quarter being downgraded from ‘tepid’ to ‘miniscule’ and unemployment stuck above 8 percent for more than three years, the anemic state of our economy speaks for itself. A new study shows that allowing the president’s desired tax hike to happen would result in more than 700,000 job losses throughout the nation during what is already the worst unemployment crisis and slowest recovery since the Great Depression.

“House Republicans strongly believe that higher taxes on any American are the last thing our economy needs right now. President Obama and Democrats seem to believe that we can be the first nation on Earth to tax our way into jobs and prosperity. The right way forward is obvious: If we want to help millions of Americans still struggling through the Obama economy, then we have to stop the tax hike.”