Saturday, January 28, 2012

Hartzler: All problems will be solved if government gets ouf of the way


(In her weekly newsletter, Fourth District Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler extolls the virtues of getting government out of the way to solve all problems and criticizes President Barack Obama's State of the Union message.

This was a great week fighting for the common sense ideas and Heartland values embraced by citizens of Missouri’s Fourth Congressional District.

One of the highlights was passage of a bill I sponsored on behalf of farmers, small business owners, and manufacturers in our district. I was pleased that H.R. 3336, “The Small Business Credit Availability Act,” passed unanimously out of the House Agriculture Committee. I introduced the legislation to ensure small and rural businesses would continue to be able to obtain loans, create jobs, and access credit in our local communities rather than having to depend upon a few national banks. The bill ensures that the onerous regulations of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act are no longer an impediment to the success of local financial institutions, farm credit agencies, and credit unions. It also contains a provision to help rural electric cooperatives continue to keep the lights on at affordable rates. I received widespread support for our efforts and look forward to bringing this bill to the House floor later this year.

It was wonderful, this week, also, to meet with the hundreds of citizens from the Fourth District and elsewhere throughout Missouri who traveled to Washington with the Missouri Life Caravan to take part in the 39th annual March for Life marking the infamous Roe v. Wade court decision making abortion the law of the land. I was honored to speak to these brave and dedicated champions for life. They weathered the rain and 36 degree temperatures to take a stand for the value of life and to continue to keep alive the hope that all human life in America will someday be valued. I commend and applaud them for their tireless efforts and was proud to join them in this noble cause.

This week also provided us with an opportunity to hear President Obama deliver his State of the Union Address and his vision for America’s economy. I was disappointed to hear a good deal of rhetoric but little in the way of job-creation initiatives that would spur the private sector to get the economy energized and going strong again. The sad reality is there are almost two-million more Americans out of work today than there were when President Obama took office – with more than one in seven Americans on food stamps. Clearly, we need a change of direction that doesn’t involve spending money we don’t have or dividing Americans.

America is the greatest nation on earth with the greatest potential for growth and prosperity. We just need government to get out of the way and let American businesses, manufacturers, and hardworking Americans thrive and grow. We need less regulation, less taxation, and less involvement in our daily lives. There are ideas that will be successful in the effort to get Americans back to work, based on the common sense of the hardworking people of this country. The House has passed more than 30 job-creation bills, but they are stalled in the Senate. The President needs to tell the Senate to take up the bills and pass them now. He also needs to revise his ill-advised decision and approve the Keystone XL Pipeline project. That change of course, alone, would create 20,000 construction jobs and 118,000 jobs in related industries, plus reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Rest assured, I will continue to work to create jobs and to rein in runaway government spending in a responsible way to get America back on the right economic track. Our children’s future depends on it.

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