Newsletter: To Create More Jobs, Obama Needs to Do His Job

Statement

Dear friends,

When I talk to my friends and neighbors, and visit communities throughout our state, the number one issue that comes up is the economy. There is a widespread consensus that we should be doing better. We should be creating more jobs. We should be sparking more innovation. We should be opening up more opportunities, especially for our young people. And to achieve those things, Congress can play a positive role -- not by increasing government spending and regulation; but by reducing the power of government to enable families and businesses to grow and prosper.

The main problem is that while the House is taking action to bolster our economy (passing dozens of jobs bills), the Senate has been asleep at the wheel. Actually, it's worse than that: the Senate Democrats -- led by Harry Reid - have been deliberately blocking legislation that has already passed the House in order to give President Obama a campaign issue.

Consider: As the campaign season drags on, President Obama has changed his rhetoric, attacking Republicans in Congress, and claiming that Congress' lack of productivity is because Republicans don't like him. The Washington Post picked up on this theme, running a story titled Obama's New Argument: Republicans Are Picking on Me Because They Don't Like Me. The article quotes Obama saying, "What I do worry about is that, right now, we got a Republican Party that seems to only care about saying no to me…Republicans in Congress right now have shown over and over they'll do anything to rig the system for those at the top or to try to score political points on me."

But is any of that true? What is the reality?

During the 113th Congress (which started in January 2013), the Republican House has passed nearly 40 jobs bill that the Senate Democrats refuse to consider. These bills would cut red tape, expand American energy production, improve our broken tax code, and lower health care costs. And yet the Senate won't even allow a vote on these bills. Overall, the House has passed nearly 300 bills that the Senate has failed to act on.

As for the bills that have passed Congress and been signed into law, it's the House (not the Senate) which has been the source for most of these bills. Of the 120 bills President Obama has signed into law, 73 percent originated from the Republican-controlled House. Overall, the House has passed four times as many bills as the Senate.

Things have gotten so bad that a Democratic committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, went on record saying he is "furious" with his leaders for blocking a bipartisan patent bill that would have encouraged more business innovation and job creation.

President Truman had a sign on his desk: "The buck stops here." For President Obama, the buck is everywhere, except with him. The American people deserve real leadership from the White House. Instead, all we get is whining and finger-pointing.

That will need to change in order to get our economy moving again. In the meantime, the House will keep doing its job and hope for a change of heart.

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