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October 25, 2011
Breast Cancer Awareness -- Early Detection is Key
The chance that a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her life is 1 in 8. This year, over 6,500 North Carolina women will be diagnosed with the disease and breast cancer will claim the lives of approximately 1,340 women in the state. Considering those statistics, it is not surprising that most of us know someone who has been affected by breast cancer.
Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’d like to call attention to the effectiveness of early detection in saving lives and to point out a few of the many helpful resources available.
Most women are prone to risks for breast cancer, regardless of family history or other risk factors. That is why it is important for all women to learn how to perform monthly self-exams, have regular clinical exams, and receive mammograms as advised by their physicians.
The American Cancer Society website has information about early detection and even a mammogram reminder you can sign up to receive.
The U.S. Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs has posted a few tips that may help reduce the risk of developing the disease and they point out that, although rare, men can develop breast cancer as well.The Pretty in Pink Foundation provides “financial assistance to uninsured and underinsured breast cancer patients with quality, life-saving medical treatment regardless of their ability to pay… through sponsorships, fundraising, donations and pledge drives … throughout North Carolina.”
There are also screenings available to those who qualify through some of the county health departments throughout the Second District, such as the Harnett County Department of Public Health which provides access to mobile mammography screenings each month.
When caught early, survival rates for breast cancer are quite high – over 90 percent. This is why early detection is so important! Please talk to your doctor about the steps you need to take and take advantage of the information and resources available this month and throughout the year.
October 4, 2011
888 Days: A Pro-Jobs Message from House GOP Freshmen
According to a CBS News poll, 73 percent of Americans think our country is on the wrong track. Considering the nation’s historically high 9.1 percent unemployment rate and crushing $14.7 trillion debt, we believe they’re right.
In January, 87 men and women representing a variety of geographic, economic and professional backgrounds came to Washington carrying a message from the American people that it was time to turn our economy around and preserve the American dream for generations to come. Since then, the Republican freshman class has worked with our colleagues in the House to pass more than a dozen pieces of legislation that work to spur job growth, eliminate regulatory barriers, reduce the nation’s debt, and enact a balanced budget amendment.
While House Republicans have honored their commitment to get America’s fiscal house in order and get Americans back to work, the Senate leadership has failed to do the same.
In order to turn our economy around, we need the Senate to join us in our efforts to get America back on the right track. That’s why today we are launching “Operation Turnaround,” which is a call to action, appealing to our colleagues in the Senate to pass a budget and bring the following House-passed, pro-growth bills to a vote:
- H.R. 2560, The Cut, Cap and Balance Act
- H.R. 872, Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act
- H.R. 910, The Energy Tax Prevention Act
- H.J. Res. 37, Disapproval of FCC’s Net Neutrality Regulations
- H.R. 2018, The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act
- H.R. 1315, Consumer Financial Protection & Soundness Improvement Act
- H.R. 2587, Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act
- H.R. 1230, Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act
- H.R. 1229, Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act
- H.R. 1231, Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act
- H.R. 2021, The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011
- H.R. 1938, North American-Made Energy Security Act
It has been888 days since the U.S. Senate has passed a budget. The time to act is now. With 14 million Americans out of work and millions more underemployed, we can’t afford to waste another day.
Signed,
Sandy Adams
Dan Benishek
Diane Black
Mo Brooks
Francisco Canseco
Jeff Denham
Renee Ellmers
Blake Farenthold
Stephen Fincher
Bill Flores
Bob Gibbs
Tim Griffin
Andy Harris
Bill Huizenga
Randy Hultgren
Mike Kelly
Jeff Landry
Tom Marino
Mick Mulvaney
Kristi Noem
Richard Nugent
Steven Palazzo
Steve Pearce
Reid Ribble
Scott Rigell
Martha Roby
Bobby Schilling
Austin Scott
Tim Scott
Steve Southerland
Steve Stivers
Marlin Stutzman
Scott Tipton
Allen West
Rob Woodall
September 27, 2011
Health Insurance Premiums Rise Sharply and More Consequences of Obamacare Are Yet to Come
Although many provisions of Obamacare do not take effect until 2014, we have already seen the reluctance of small businesses to hire additional employees based on the uncertainty the law has created. Results of recent studies show more consequences of the healthcare law including higher premiums and the likelihood that employers will stop offering health coverage altogether.
Today the Kaiser Family Foundation released itsannual Health Benefits Survey showing health care premiums in the workplace have increased by 9 percent -- over $1,200 for an average American family! (During his campaign, President Obama said he would reduce health care premiums by $2,500.)
If a 9 percent increase in premiums was not bad enough, according to a study published in McKinsey Quarterly this summer, when some provisions of Obamacare take effect in 2014, three of every 10 employers will “definitely or probably” stop offering health coverage at all.
The study says that, “At least 30% of employers would gain economically from dropping coverage, even if they completely compensated employees for the change through other benefit offerings or higher salaries.”
Not only did this law, which gives the government more control over healthcare, affect the way healthcare providers and their patients interact, but it has a huge impact on the way businesses function. Instead of decisions regarding healthcare and business being made between doctors and patients and employers and employees, many of those decisions are heavily influenced (and in some cases mandated) by this ill-conceived law.
Instead of providing market driven, patient-centered solutions, the President and the previous Congress gave us more government intervention and control. As a result, many employers will likely find providing healthcare coverage to their employees under the new law too expensive and will likely stop offering health coverage.
Unfortunately only those chosen by the administration to receive Obamacare waivers are exempt -- everyone else will have to suffer the consequences of the provisions of the health care law. Especially in the current economy, we cannot afford these or any other additional obstacles to job creation and American families cannot afford these rising premium costs.
Follow this link to read more blog posts.September 22, 2011
Higher Taxes Is Not the Answer to the Jobs Crisis
In a speech this week, the President called on Congress to pass his “American Jobs Act” right away. He also released his plan to pay for it -- $1.5 trillion in jobs-killing tax hikes. He said the plan is not class warfare, but simply “math.” Any plan that chooses winners and losers by calling for massive tax increases aimed at America’s entrepreneurs and job creators will further hamper job growth and only exacerbate the already dire unemployment situation.
The President is pursuing the same failed policies that have resulted in a double digit unemployment rate in North Carolina and many other parts of the country. Those policies have not worked over the past 3 years and they will not work now.
Calls for higher taxes and more government regulation will continue to erode the confidence business owners need to grow the economy and hire more workers. America’s job creators need to know they will not be burdened with excessive regulation and new taxes.
The President attempted to justify his plan by saying the rich must pay their “fair” share. The President cited a story Warren Buffett tells about his secretary paying a lower tax rate than he does. Rather than relying on a flawed anecdote that compares different types of taxes, the President should be sharing some of the figures (simple math) that show just how much of their “fair share” the “rich” are paying.
Fact Checking Simple Math
Here are a few of those figures (via the Tax Foundation):
- “Recently released IRS data for 2009, shows that taxpayers earning over $200,000 paid 50 percent of the $866 billion in total income taxes paid that year, or $434 billion. Skeptics will say, 'That's because they earn the majority of the income in America.' Not so. These taxpayers earned 25 percent of the $7.6 trillion in total adjusted gross income in the country that year.”
- “The 2009 IRS data also shows that a record 58.6 million tax filers had no income tax liability that year. This means that 42 percent of the 140 million Americans who filed tax returns that year contributed nothing to the basic cost of government.”
- “In 2008, the roughly 1,900 largest corporations paid $152 billion in income taxes. This amounted to 67 percent of the $227 billion in total corporate income taxes paid that year.”
Earlier this year, Veronique de Rugy and Jason J. Fichtner charted the "fairness" of the biggest source of federal revenues – the federal income tax, with this bar graph using IRS information.
The chart above shows just how much of their “fair share” the business owners in America are paying.
Here are additional fact checks on the President's tax claims:
Fact Check: Are the rich taxed less than secretaries?
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he wants to make sure millionaires are taxed at higher rates than their secretaries. The data say they already are.
"Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it," Obama said as he announced his deficit-reduction plan this week. "It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million."
On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.
The 10 percent of households with the highest incomes pay more than half of all federal taxes. They pay more than 70 percent of federal income taxes, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Wall Street Journal
The President's complaint, echoing billionaire Warren Buffett, is that too many billionaires pay a lower rate than regular salary earners. So even as he endorsed tax reform in general yesterday, Mr. Obama insisted that one of his reform "principles" is that people who make more than $1 million must pay a higher tax rate than middle-class earners.
There's one small problem: The entire Buffett Rule premise is false, as the nearby table shows. In 2008, the last year for which such data are available, the IRS reports that those who made more than $1 million in adjusted gross income paid an average income tax rate of 23.3%.
That's slightly lower than the 24.1% rate paid by those making between $500,000 and $1 million, probably because the richest are like Mr. Buffett and earn more from capital gains and dividends. The rate for a relative handful of the rich—400 people—fell to 18%, the modern equivalent of Barr's Gang of 21. But nearly all millionaires still paid a rate that is more than twice the 8.9% average rate paid by those earning between $50,000 and $100,000, and more than three times the 7.2% average rate paid by those earning less than $50,000. The larger point is that the claim that CEOs are routinely paying lower tax rates than their secretaries is Omaha hokum.
Squeezing America’s job creators is not the way to grow jobs
President Obama is now calling on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, which is tasked with reducing the deficit by $1.5 trillion, to raise taxes by $1.5 trillion. The plan would raise taxes on both small businesses and on private capital, both of which are essential for job creation.
The President says we need a balanced approach to the jobs and debt crisis, but when the President talks about balance, he talks about taxing those already paying the majority of taxes even more. We don’t need more taxes to achieve balance -- we need a Balanced Budget Amendment to control spending.
House Republicans have had a jobs plan for months – a plan that removes excessive regulation standing in the way of growth, cuts government spending without punishing America’s job creators with new taxes, and provides for a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment. Rather than passing a plan that increases taxes by $1.5 trillion and does nothing to remove the burdensome regulations that are hampering job growth, the Senate and the President should take up some of the jobs legislation that House Republicans have passed this year.
A new round of taxing, spending and regulating will not improve America's economy and jobs situation. House Republicans' plan for fundamental tax reform, cutting spending and reducing excessive regulation will create an environment for economic growth, and it is my hope that the President will join us in these efforts.
September 14, 2011
Time to Pass Real Jobs Legislation
Today the President brought his American Jobs Act tour to North Carolina. Unfortunately the President’s long-awaited plan (and promotional tour) are more about politics than policy. Not only is the President late with his jobs proposal, but he is pursuing an approach that will do nothing to create an environment for job creation. The President’s plan is a repackaged version of the failed “stimulus” strategy that has resulted in sustained unemployment of over 9 percent. To make matters worse, he wants to pay for this $447 billion spending bill with tax increases, many of which will likely result in higher energy costs to American consumers.
The people of North Carolina understand that the government inserting itself into the free market is never going to be the answer to this jobs crisis. Instead we need to remove excessive government regulation that is hampering job growth. According to a September 2010 report from the Small Business Administration, total regulatory costs amount to $1.75 trillion annually—enough money for businesses to provide 17.5 million private sector jobs with an average salary of $100,000. House Republicans have worked since January to reduce the regulatory burdens that have kept businesses from hiring, but Harry Reid is standing in the way of prosperity and job creation in this country because he refuses to take up the jobs legislation the House has passed.
New reports out this week brought more bad news on the jobs front, highlighting just how critical the situation is. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) optimism index showed confidence in the future of the economy down to 88.1 – the weakest number since July 2010 and the sixth month of decline in a row from 89.9 in July. The number of small-business owners saying they expected the economy will improve six months from now fell to the lowest level since 1980.
A report released this week from the Census Bureau shows the national poverty rate hit 15.1 percent in 2010 – the highest level since 1993 – with 46.2 million Americans living in poverty. This is the largest number of people living in poverty since the census began tracking poverty figures in 1959. With this many people in such dire circumstances, there is no time to waste on failed policies and political stunts.
When the President spoke in Raleigh today he said it was time to “finally get Washington to act.” He said Americans “need action now.” What he did not say is that House Republicans have been in action, working on the issue of jobs since taking office in January. House Republicans have a plan for job creation that focuses on creating jobs in the private sector. House Republicans have passed at least a dozen jobs bills since January. Eleven of those bills have been and still are waiting for Senate action. (You can track the progress of this legislation at http://majorityleader.gov/JobsTracker/).
The President said it is time to act now. Actually it is past time to act. But this is not the time to engage in class warfare pitting Americans against each other and it is definitely not the time to pass another round of so-called “stimulus” spending that has already failed so miserably.
September 8, 2011
What America's Job Creators Need
Reportedly in his upcoming jobs speech, President Obama will be proposing a $300 billion "jobs package" consisting of temporary tax cuts, infrastructure spending and aid to state and local governments. In order to offset these short-term measures he will reportedly call on Congress to raise taxes in the "later years."
In his Labor Day speech, Obama claimed to be responsible for the “biggest middle-class tax cut in history.” If that statement left you scratching your head, this fact check in the Washington Post explains what the President really meant.
This is no time for word games that require interpretation and it is definitely not the time to be talking about tax increases. Americans need to know what proposed policies will mean to them, in real terms. Any tax increase, or promise of a tax increase at a later date, will have a negative effect on job creation.
Reports that the White House would be calling for a moratorium on some forms of regulation have now been put to rest. Unfortunately, excessive regulation is one of the biggest problems job creators today face. Just this week, John Schiller, Chairman and CEO of Energy XXI, said "If the government would get out of the way, from a regulation standpoint, and let us [XXI] do what we do good you'll see us continue to hire and grow this economy. I think that's a message from across the board." (More statements from business leaders regarding the effect of regulation can be found on the Majority Leader's blog.)
Again and again I have heard business owners say that one of the things hampering their ability to expand and hire is the uncertainty of how government policies will affect the state of the economy overall and their businesses specifically. America’s job creators need to not only know what policies will affect them, but they need to be assured they will not be harmed by new regulations and big tax increases. Until they have some certainty that their government is going to enact pro-growth policies, their ability to create jobs will continue to be stifled.
September 7, 2011
We Need Real Solutions to the Jobs Crisis, Not More Government Spending
Some reports suggest that in his “jobs speech” Thursday, the President will recommend another round of spending similar to that in his 2009 “stimulus plan.” More government spending is the last thing America can afford and is not an approach that will result in the job creation we so desperately need.
Every economic report released recently provides more evidence that our economy will continue to struggle if we stay on the same big spending course the President and Democrats in Congress have favored. The most recent labor report showed zero jobs created in August – the weakest jobs report since September 2010.
These latest figures, as well as those over the past two years, clearly show that President Obama’s policies are not resulting in job creation and although millions of Americans are suffering due to unemployment, inflation and high energy costs, the President and leaders in the Senate don’t appear eager to change course.
The President said we needed to pass the so-called "stimulus" plan to keep unemployment below 8%, but now over a year after our supposed “Recovery Summer” we are seeing unemployment still above 9% and according to the most recent CBO report it is expected to remain well above 8% in 2014.
Some of the examples previously cited as “stimulus” success stories (such as Solyndra which filed bankruptcy last week) have failed to produce jobs. A recent news report citing figures from Recovery.gov, the U.S. government's official website that tracks stimulus spending, showed that a “stimulus grant of nearly $500,000 to grow trees and stimulate the economy in Nevada yielded a whopping 1.72 jobs.” “If the question is ‘was this a job-creating project?’ the answer is 'no, it wasn't," said Nevada state official Bob Conrad.
The President’s so-called "stimulus" plan did not achieve the job creation we were promised, yet he and Senate Democrats seem poised to propose more of the same, although possibly under a different name. Now is the time for leadership and bold solutions, not failed policies reintroduced under new names.
Republicans in the House have passed at least a dozen bills to promote job creation by reducing the burdens and uncertainty that are keeping America's businesses from hiring. Only one of those jobs bills passed by the House (the one to repeal the 1099 reporting requirements in the health care law) has been taken up in the Senate. Eleven bills are still waiting for the Senate to act.
Speaking at a Labor Day event attended by President Obama on Monday, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa offered his “army” to the President to “take out” those who oppose him and “give America back to an America where we belong.” Now is not the time to pit Americans against each other or to play politics. Now is the time for the President and Senate Democrats to join Republicans to work on real solutions.
August 31, 2011
More Evidence of a Failed Jobs Policy
Today, as the President announced that he will finally reveal his jobs plan next week, Solyndra, a company he touted a year ago as a green jobs success story, announced it is suspending operations and plans to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company employs over 1,000 workers.
Solyndra’s $535 million loan was the highly celebrated first stimulus loan guarantee awarded by the Department of Energy and now is the most recent example of the Administration’s failed economic policy.
The President’s stimulus plan that was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent has resulted in a sustained unemployment rate well over 9 percent. His economic policies which are heavy on spending have not worked, but he is proposing more of the same. House Republicans have passed many bills to promote job creation, but the President and Senate Democrats refuse to address this legislation and change course, even when the examples they previously cited as successes have been shown to have failed.
To see the GOP plan for jobs visit GOP.gov and click here to track the status of jobs legislation passed by the House.