Press Releases

Congressman Larry Bucshon (IN-08) released the following statement in response to President Obama’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, September 8th.

Congressman Bucshon (IN-08) states:

            “With an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, my main focus has been getting the American people back to work.  While traveling Indiana’s 8th District during the August Work Period, I had a chance to meet with many job creators.  They continue to tell me that proposed regulations by this Administration are costly, burdensome, and stymieing economic growth.  We need to provide long-term certainty to job creators and individuals by simplifying the tax code in order to get our economy growing again and make America more competitive on a global scale.  We don’t need tax increases on small businesses trying to create jobs, especially during a recession.

I was pleased to see the President acknowledge what I’ve been saying for months.  The Medicare program, one of the most relied upon and successful programs in history, is in trouble and needs to be reformed to protect it for current seniors and secure the program for future generations.

What we don’t need is more deficit spending.  Everyone agrees we have significant infrastructure needs.  As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I am working hard to ensure we have the resources to address this issue without adding to the deficit.  My constituents want Washington, D.C. politicians to work together and get our fiscal house in order.  I look forward to continuing to work with other Members of Congress and this Administration to get America back to work.”

Background:

In February 2009, President Obama promised an unemployment rate under 8 percent if the Stimulus passed.  Since the passage of the Stimulus, unemployment has averaged 9.4 percent.  On August 24th of this year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported the unemployment rate will not fall to 8 percent until 2014.  Also, the White House Office of Management and Budget released their midyear review of the budget showing their projection of an average unemployment rate of 9 percent through 2012.

On August 30th, The White House responded to a request by Speaker Boehner to identify all regulations that could have an impact of over $1 billion.  There were 7 regulations cited that could have a combined economic cost of over $100 billion annually.  One of these regulations, the EPA’s proposed rule on ozone standards, was withdrawn on September 2nd.  In addition, the Obama Administration has disclosed that there are 219 economically significant regulations in the works with an economic cost of $100 million each.

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