Issues

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The Economy and Jobs

The President and Congress have responded to a crisis brought on by too much spending and too much debt with even more spending and even more debt. Unfortunately for the nation, they have little to show for it.

The President’s economic advisors warned that if Congress did not pass the $787 billion stimulus bill in February 2009, unemployment would rise above 8 percent. A full year after passage of the massive spending legislation, unemployment surpassed 10 percent—the highest in a generation. It is almost 11 percent in Kentucky.

Since the stimulus bill was enacted, over 3 million jobs have been lost nationwide—and nearly 60,000 in Kentucky alone.

At a time when unemployment is at the highest rate in a generation, Congress should be focused like a laser on the economy and jobs. Employers are not hiring now in large part because of the proposals coming out of Washington—proposals that would allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, do away with the secret ballot in workplace elections, increase energy costs through a new cap and trade system for carbon emissions, result in a government takeover of healthcare with massive new taxes on businesses and individuals, and levy a series of new taxes on the financial services industry.

Over the course of the past year, politicians in Washington have perpetuated an environment of economic uncertainty by promoting oppressive regulations and red tape, skyrocketing deficits, and tax increases which will prevent job creation.

During this President’s first year in office, our economic freedom has diminished considerably. According to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, the United States suffered the greatest loss of economic freedom among the world’s largest countries in 2009. Sadly, Canada has now moved ahead of the United States as the most free economy in North America.

To put this into perspective, the American economy will need to create over 250,000 jobs each month for the next five years in order to return to full employment – an improbable scenario unless politicians in Washington change course.

So the first step in getting Americans back to work would be to abandon the tax increases proposed in the health care legislation pending in Congress, defeat proposals to increase taxes on capital gains and dividends and prevent existing tax relief from expiring at the end of this calendar year. The prospect of higher taxes will make it much less likely that small businesses and entrepreneurs will hire new workers.

Next, I believe the best way to grow the economy and create jobs would be to cut taxes and get the government out of the way. We should make the Bush tax cuts permanent, extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for all taxpayers. We should reduce the number of tax brackets and lower marginal rates on those that remain to allow families and small businesses keep more of what they earn. Ultimately, we should abandon our needlessly complex and unfair tax code with an alternative system that promotes work, saving and investment.

Because small businesses must be able to access capital to expand their operations and hire new workers, it is imperative that Congress promote healthy credit markets. Proposals to modernize financial regulation should not overregulate our markets, eliminate risk taking, or add to uncertainty in a way that would prevent banks from lending to credit-worthy entrepreneurs.

Finally, we need to promote more domestic energy production from multiple sources to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create jobs. Expanding nuclear power as a reliable and efficient source of clean energy is an important long-term goal. In the meantime, I vigorously oppose the Environmental Protection Agency’s undue interference with surface mining permits in the Appalachian coal basin; we should aggressively promote Kentucky’s coal industry as a source of high paying jobs and an integral part of our nation’s overall strategy to achieve energy independence. Likewise, we should ease federal restrictions on domestic oil and natural gas production and make more U.S. lands and waters, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), accessible for appropriate exploration and production.

National Security

One of the most important functions of the federal government is to provide for the safety and security of the American people. Our nation faces many grave and serious threats: the continued rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the global war on terror, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, North Korea’s development of ballistic missile technology, and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, just to name a few.

We are blessed by the men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces who are heroically committed to the defense of our nation. We should demand a Congress and Commander in Chief who are equally committed.

Homeland Security

The national Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission established by Congress has given the Obama administration an “F” for failing to protect the United States from nuclear, chemical and biological attacks. We know that al-Qaida is more interested than ever in bioweapons. As a result, we need a national plan to coordinate federal, state and local efforts to prevent and respond to a bioterrorism attack. We need better cooperation among federal agencies to provide a more capable response to nuclear, chemical and biological threats. In addition, Congress should reform homeland security oversight to consolidate the committees and subcommittees sharing responsibility over the subject. Currently, the Department of Homeland Security reports to more than 80 congressional committees and sub-committees. This fragmentation has resulted in a duplicative and incoherent strategy on homeland security issues.

Missile Defense

This administration’s decision to reverse our commitment to the Poles and the Czech Republic on missile defense on the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland is shameful. And it is a slap in the face to some of our most trusted and loyal allies. In a dangerous world, we need to stop trying to make friends of our enemies by repudiating our allies. We don’t need friends, we need allies.

The range of North Korea’s Taepodong-2 ballistic missile is estimated to be 3,000 to 6,000 miles, up to five times farther than in 1990. By continuing to test and perfect their existing technology, North Koreans could reach anywhere in North America with a nuclear warhead in about 33 minutes. Developments in North Korea, Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the prospect of a nuclear missile falling into the hands of al-Qaida or another terrorist group counsels in favor of a rigorous program of testing, development and deployment of a strong ballistic missile defense system.

Iran

Rather than seeking to negotiate with terrorists and the corrupt leadership of Iran, we should immediately impose tough economic sanctions to prevent that rogue regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Specifically, Congress should immediately pass the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, which would direct sanctions at one of Iran’s most significant vulnerabilities: its low level refining capacity. Likewise, we should do all we can to support the voices of freedom and dissent among the Iranian people.

The War on Terror and Detention Policy

We also need to stop giving terrorists new and special rights. The attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day, which originated in Yemen, is a stark and sobering reminder of the dangers we face. Yemenis account for 97 of the 210 men still left at the prison at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and 47 of the detainees released as of last March are suspected of terrorist activity since their release.

Yet this administration presses ahead with its reckless plan to close the prison, move the detainees to the United States or release them to their home countries. I will oppose any and all efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and I will vote against any and all appropriations that would allow the President to do so. The world’s most dangerous terrorists are locked up at Guantanamo Bay, and that’s where they should stay.

I also oppose the President’s decision to try the self-indentified mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and his co-conspirators, in federal court in New York. These terrorists are non-citizen enemy combatants and they are not entitled to American-style constitutional rights. They should be tried by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay, consistent with the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions.

Treating these non-citizens like common criminals rather than the terrorists that they are reflects a September 10th mentality and would give them more rights than even the men and women of the Armed Services, who are subject to court martial.

All of this compromises sensitive U.S. intelligence and it threatens the safety and security of the American people. I agree with Scott Brown who said after his Senate victory in Massachusetts that our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop the terrorists, not lawyers to defend them.

Afghanistan

I support our mission in Afghanistan, as a war of necessity, and I agree with General Stanley A. McChrystal that we should give our soldiers the resources they need to do the job and then come home safely, with honor and victory. As a Member of Congress, I will be an advocate for our soldiers, sailors and Marines and I will encourage the Department of Defense to ensure clarity in the rules of engagement of the enemy.

Adequately Funding Our Military

Our commitments have left all branches of our active duty military, the National Guard, and the Reserves strained. We owe it to the men and women who daily put their lives in harms way to immediately fund the military’s pressing modernization and procurement needs. It is far more cost-effective to provide sustained funding to the military, including consistent maintenance and regular upgrades, than to allow the military to collapse and then rebuild it from scratch. Most importantly, it is only right that we provide our soldiers, sailors and Marines with the weapons and equipment they need to keep them safe and fulfill their mission.

Energy Policy

In Congress, I will promote more domestic energy production from multiple sources to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create jobs. Expanding nuclear power as a reliable and efficient source of clean energy is an important long-term goal. In the meantime, we should aggressively promote Kentucky’s coal industry as a source of high paying jobs and an integral part of our nation’s overall strategy to achieve energy independence.

If the United States is going to decrease its growing dependence on imported petroleum and have a sufficient supply of affordable electricity to support long term economic growth, then we must expand production of coal, the nation’s most abundant energy resource. That is why I vigorously oppose the cap and trade energy tax legislation, which would double energy costs for families and small businesses in Central Kentucky and jeopardize the tens of thousands of high-paying jobs supported by Kentucky coal. The Kentucky coal industry annually pays over $1 billion in direct wages, directly employs over 17,000 persons and indirectly provides 3 additional jobs for every miner employed. In 2006, the total estimated economic impact of Kentucky’s coal industry was $10 billion. Central Kentucky’s largest private employer, Toyota, and other manufacturers in Central Kentucky are heavily dependent on Kentucky’s low cost energy. Almost all of Kentucky’s electricity (over 92%) is generated from coal. Cap and trade would eliminate Kentucky’s competitive advantage and result in a mass exodus of jobs to states in the Northeast, on the West Coast, and overseas. Even worse, because other industrializing nations with inferior power generation technologies such as India and China have made no similar carbon reduction commitments, cap and trade would likely increase the world’s overall carbon footprint.

For this reason, I also oppose the Environmental Protection Agency’s undue interference with surface mining permits in the Appalachian coal basin. In Congress, I will challenge the EPA’s authority to apply “enhanced coordination procedures” to 404 permits, which in my judgment amount to a moratorium on surface mining and a compensable regulatory taking of private property by the federal government.
Likewise, we should ease federal restrictions on domestic oil and natural gas production and make more U.S. lands and waters, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), accessible for appropriate exploration and production.

Taking these steps will give entrepreneurs, scientists and researchers time to develop reliable, cost-effective and economically viable alternatives to fossil fuels, including nuclear, wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal and other forms of renewable energy. It will also encourage the private sector, through free enterprise, to invest in carbon-consuming, oxygen-producing algae, which in turn can be used to manufacture clean-burning biofuels.

Health Care Reform

Congressional leaders are relying on backroom deals and unconstitutional mandates to ram through health care reform. Instead of targeting the problem of rising health care costs, and making health insurance more affordable, the leading proposals in Congress would amount to a government takeover of our health care system. The same government that gave us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now thinks it can do a better job providing health care than your private doctor and your private hospital. Make no mistake, this is a Trojan horse that would ultimately lead to a single payer, government run health care system.

The Pelosi bill is over 2,000 pages long, costs nearly $2.5 trillion when fully implemented, and would increase taxes over $800 billion. This includes a $544 billion surtax on small business owners who file their taxes as individuals, either as subchapter S-corporations or as pass-through entities, and $208 billion in new taxes on businesses that cannot afford to pay for their employees’ health care. Small businesses represent more than 99 percent of all businesses in the country, and employ half of the total U.S. workforce. The result of these new taxes would be the loss of an estimated 5.5 million jobs.

In addition, the House proposal includes nearly $500 billion in cuts to Medicare. These cuts are not designed to shore up the existing program but, instead, to expand Medicaid and create an entirely new government-run program. Medicare is not sustainable under current law. Now, the politicians in Washington are further undermining Medicare’s long-term solvency by creating an entirely new set of unfunded government obligations.

A new federal “health choices commissioner” would also have the authority to impose a broad array of new one-size-fits-all mandates. And the individual mandate is clearly unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has never interpreted the commerce power to allow Congress to require Americans buy particular goods or services at a particular price. If it had, there literally would be no limit to congressional power.

Rather than fix the problem with our current system, the proposals pending in Congress would actually increase health care costs over the next decade by $289 billion, forcing millions of Americans to lose their current health care coverage. According to an actuarial report prepared by the President’s own Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, health costs would rise to 21.1 percent of GDP by 2019, as compared to 20.8 percent under current law. A recent WellPoint study estimated that younger Americans could see their health care premiums triple and a family of four could see their health care premiums more than double.

Our health care system needs reform, but it should be done in the open, not behind closed doors, in a way that treats all states equally and in a manner that reduces health care costs through increased private sector competition and choice.

That is why I have pledged to the people of this District to sponsor and support legislation to repeal any federal health care takeover passed in 2010, and replace it with real reforms that lower health care costs, without growing government.

I will support real reform that relies on free-market solutions, rather than the government, as a way to preserve quality, increase competition and choice, and decrease cost.

I support:

  • Encouraging interstate competition among the 1,300 private insurers across the nation by authorizing interstate compacts among state departments of insurance. This increased competition would drive down cost without federal preemption.

  • Insurance reform that does not include a “public option” but instead allows individuals to deduct from their taxes the costs of insurance premiums just like employers to make health insurance more affordable and portable.

  • Sensible medical liability reform, which would prevent defensive medicine, lower health care costs, and save as much as $54 billion over the next decade according to the Congressional Budget Office.

  • Encouraging Association Health Plans to allow small businesses and the self-insured to band together to purchase coverage on a more affordable basis.

  • Promoting consumerism through high deductible, tax free Health Savings Accounts that will reconnect the health care consumer to the cost of health care services.

  • Focusing on wellness and prevention, rather than an orientation toward expensive treatment of preventable disease.

  • A renewed focus on health care information technology to bring medical care into the 21st century without government mandates. The government should consider incentives to increase the voluntary use of electronic medical records and billing in a way that is more efficient, protects patient privacy and decreases medical errors.

Government Spending and Debt

Aside from the prospect of terrorists acquiring and deploying a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon inside the United States, I firmly believe that the single greatest threat facing our nation is runaway federal spending and our ever-increasing national debt.

Government spending and deficits are surging at a pace not seen since World War II. All parts of government are growing. Today, the federal government is running banks, insurance companies, automobile companies, student loans, and is now engaged in an effort to takeover our entire health care system—a full one-sixth of the American economy.

A decade ago, U.S. government spending was 34 percent of GDP. Only one year into Barack Obama’s administration, U.S. spending will reach 40 percent of GDP, compared with 47 percent in Europe.

On inauguration day last year, the national debt was $10.6 trillion. Today, it is over $12.3 trillion—an increase of 16 percent since this President took office! As a result, we are now spending over $100 million a day in interest on the national debt alone. And these interest payments will only get worse.

Last year’s federal budget deficit was a shocking $1.4 trillion. This year, the President’s budget is projected to result in an even worse $1.6 trillion deficit! It will add more debt to the U.S. economy over the next decade than the total accumulated by the 43 presidents that preceded him. The Congressional Budget Office projects that under the President’s budget, publicly held debt will reach 82 percent of GDP in ten years.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Congress recently voted to increase the debt ceiling by another $1.9 trillion. Although 37 Democrats joined all of the Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote against this credit extension for the federal government, Ben Chandler once again sided with Nancy Pelosi to approve almost $2 trillion in new spending for the federal government. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Ben Chandler could have used his influence to reign in runaway spending. Instead, he once again gave Nancy Pelosi the slim majority she needed for reckless policy, just as he did on the cap and trade energy tax last summer.

As a result of the irresponsible and wasteful spending in Washington, the United States has become the debtor to hostile foreign governments. We are leaving mountains of debt to our children and grandchildren—money that our government is borrowing from places like China and the Middle East. This not only undermines our economic stability, it threatens our national security.

The spending policies of President Obama and Nancy Pelosi – enacted by an unquestioning Ben Chandler – have brought us to a point where every American citizen will be saddled with an additional $6,000 of debt over the next year, bringing our total national debt to a level in excess of $14 trillion.

Clearly, we cannot continue this reckless approach. We must take stock of what our true priorities are, limit this rapid expansion of government and ease the burden on our families.

So I will support an agenda that will cut government spending, balance the federal budget and reduce the national debt:

• I will stop spending money we don’t have, on government programs we don’t need.

• I will support returning unused or recovered TARP money to pay down the deficit.

• I will oppose any effort to spend unused or recovered TARP funds on new government programs.

• At a time of trillion dollars deficits, I will support legislation to direct all unspent stimulus funds to pay down our debts right now, rather than have money spent out on questionable projects.

• I will oppose plans to increase the debt ceiling.

• I will sponsor legislation requiring the federal government to divest itself from any ownership interest in GM, Chrysler, and AIG.

• I will sponsor transparency legislation to require the entire text of non-emergency legislation to be posted on the Internet for at least 72 hours so that members of Congress can actually read the bills before they vote on them.

• I will fight for earmark reform and oppose pork barrel projects.

• I will expose questionable junkets, funded by the taxpayers, for members of Congress.

• I will support legislation to end the practice of using the Social Security surplus to mask the true size of the deficit and fund the Social Security trust fund with real dollars.

• I will support a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

• I will support a Line Item Veto Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

• I will support congressional term limits and proposals to limit the terms of committee chairmen to eliminate incentives to dole out projects as a means of accumulating power.