PatrickMcHenry

This year's event, entitled "The Washington Perspective," will be on Monday, September 13th, and Tuesday, September 14th. Both days’ events will be held in Washington, D.C., in the Capitol Visitor Center Congressional Auditorium. This widely-attended summit draws more than 300 North Carolina business leaders. Please mark your calendars and make plans to attend!

On Monday the 13th, participants will gather for “The Military-Business Opportunity Panel,” a discussion panel meant to promote discussion about North Carolina’s military presence and the business opportunities it creates and sustains. Participants will also hear congressional briefings from our North Carolina Congressional delegation hosting the event.

On Tuesday the 14th, I will host officials from the Administration and Capitol Hill, as well as political commentators, for an informative discussion on various business, political, and economic topics. Last year’s speakers included Secretary Tom Vilsack, Secretary Ray LaHood, General Wesley Clark, former Governor Howard Dean, Admiral Gary Roughead, Representative Jim Clyburn, former Senator Trent Lott, CBS’s Judy Woodruff, and NBC’s Chuck Todd. In the past, we have been honored to have had speakers such as former Director of Office of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, then-Senator Joe Biden, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist David Brooks, and ABC News Correspondent George Stephanopoulos.

In addition to capturing the massive expansion of government and the overwhelming complexity of new regulations and taxes, the chart portrays:

• $569 billion in higher taxes;
• $529 billion in cuts to Medicare;
• swelling of the ranks of Medicaid by 16 million;
• 17 major insurance mandates; and
• the creation of two new bureaucracies with powers to impose future rationing: the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Independent Payments Advisory Board.

Brady admits committee analysts could not fit the entire health care bill on one chart. “This portrays only about one-third of the complexity of the final bill. It’s actually worse than this.”

This week, claims by his big business allies that President Obama is “at his core, anti-business” broke into the mainstream media.  His response?  Fall back on the Democrats’ predictable, unerring theme: when common sense, facts, and numbers conflict with failing policy, simply continue to push more populist rhetoric.

This maneuver has become typical of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Majority in Congress.  Nearly two years into single party control of the White House and Congress, we have witnessed the supposed answers to our country’s dire economic troubles come in the form of just a few pieces of enormous, sweeping legislation – all crafted and negotiated behind closed doors and sold to the public as emergency, “do or die” solutions. 

These supposed landmark agenda items – a government takeover of healthcare, punishing financial institutions, and a national energy tax – are now the cornerstone of Obama’s presidency (not to mention, the coming tax increases).  And now, the word is finally getting out that these policies (two of which haven’t even been passed) are simply bad for the businesses, large and small, that must create the jobs needed for our economic recovery.

One of Obama’s strongest business allies, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, said last month, “By reaching into virtually every sector of economic life, government is injecting uncertainty into the marketplace and making it harder to raise capital and create new businesses.”

And that’s big business talking.  Imagine the pain the average small business person is feeling.

In the face of these remarks, Obama went to his populist crutch on Wednesday.  He praised the private sector, acknowledging it as the source of source of job creation, yet failed to address the fact that the uncertainty caused by his anti-growth policies have created an environment where businesses are more prudent to sit on their capital rather than hire new workers.

This tactic of ignoring the actual numbers and implications of their policies and continuing to push the rhetoric of their political agenda may be the last trick in the Democrats’ playbook. Speaker Pelosi has even advised House Democrats to shift focus away from the economy and towards continuing to sell the healthcare law.

As the nation’s debt leapt by $166 billion in a single day last week (the third largest single-day increase in U.S. history), Democrats can only attempt to divert the public’s attention from the facts.  Obama’s recess appointment of the new Medicare Chief Donald Berwick is symptomatic of this – waiting for the cover of Congress’s 4^th of July recess to make a potentially politically damaging move.  And when faced with Republican criticism last week when Minority Leader John Boehner compared the financial regulatory reform bill to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon,” Obama predictably shifted focus away from the actual content of the widely criticized bill and simply chose to call Boehner “out of touch.”

In a new video series, "Answers for the 10th," Congressman McHenry addresses the most frequently asked questions you post in the Comments section of this video blog.  In this week's segment, McHenry addresses our district's most pressing concern - jobs.  He lays out his jobs plan: one that works for our people and our economy in Western North Carolina.



Please share your feedback and questions in the Comments section, and have a great weekend.