E-Newsletters
Plato once said, "People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die." It's much the same with government. When it comes to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the health care law, its negative impact on jobs and the economy is becoming clear.
I have always believed that a government should do a few things and do them well. However in the last few years, it seems we are far exceeding our quota. The federal government has been deeply involved in the auto business and with several banks. Now with the recent Supreme Court ruling, we can add health care to that list.
Recent reports from the Congressional Budget Office indicate the health care bill will cost taxpayers $2 trillion just in the first ten years. Statistics also show about 72 million people losing their current healthcare coverage as a result.
Influential Federal Judge Learned Hand once wrote, "Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes." But when Hand wrote this in 1934, he surely never imagined Americans being taxed for simply existing.
On July 3rd, 1776 Massachusetts delegate John Adams sat down to write his wife, Abigail, an exuberant letter. The day before, delegates voted to break free from British rule and would soon sign the formal Declaration of Independence. The vote was to be marked by "Pomp and Parade with shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations," Adams wrote, "from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more." And that's still what we do today.
Harry Truman said it's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. Once again, I have signed onto legislation authored by Heath Shuler, a North Carolina Democrat. I'm not interested in who gets credit for helping stop illegal immigration, I just want it stopped.
When you are building a house, you have to do things in a certain order. You could not, for instance, put the roof on before you have the walls up. In the same way, no plan for immigration reform will work until we control the border.
I have long advocated that the best solution along our porous southern border is an actual fence. I voted for 700 miles of fence along the border, and in 2007, I introduced legislation that called for a real fence across the entire border. Only a fraction of that fence has been completed.
On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution stating: "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."
I believe that as soon as we get small businesses moving in the right direction, we will get our economy moving in the right direction. It's simple math. If 70% of jobs are created by small businesses, then in order to encourage job growth, we have to encourage small businesses to start up and grow.
At 5 a.m. on April 19th in 1775, the ‘shot heard round the world' was fired at Lexington, Massachusetts. That night over 700 British Redcoats had marched through the night to restore order in the colonies. They were met at Lexington by 77 minutemen. Now, 237 years later, no one knows who took the first shot, but within minutes 8 colonials were dead.
Too often, government agencies create rules that do not level the playing field. Instead they tip the playing field to one side or the other. The National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) recently handed down two rules that I believe will make it much more difficult for small businesses to survive.
The first is allowing the formation of micro-unions. These unions could be made up of 2-3 workers. A small business owner would have to spend money and resources fighting against professional union organizers.