Washington - Last week, I traveled throughout our congressional district to meet with small business owners and leaders of our local business communities.  Our small businesses are leading the way in private-sector job growth, which is the only way we are going to pull through this economic recovery and sustain that growth in the long term.  In fact, the over 200,000 small businesses here in Arkansas employ nearly one million people and provide nearly half of all Arkansas jobs.  

While unemployment seems to be on the decline, our economy is still struggling to recover.  We are all in this economic recovery together and so I wanted to meet with small business owners throughout our district to listen to them, take their concerns back to Washington and find ways the public and private sectors can better work together to create more private-sector jobs and boost economic development.

Throughout the 111th Congress, or over the past two years, I voted for and the House passed 14 tax cuts for small businesses that have been signed into law by the President.  In fact, over the last two years, these tax cuts have affected over 27 million small businesses in America, many of which are right here in Arkansas.  

For instance, I was proud to help pass the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which is one of the most significant pieces of small business legislation in over a decade.  The Small Business Jobs Act provided eight different types of tax cuts for small businesses to spur investment, growth, access to capital, new starts and hiring, all of which are now in effect and applying to small businesses’ taxes.  And, the law was fully paid for by cracking down on foreign corporations that try to evade U.S. tax laws and gain an advantage over American companies that play by the rules.

We also talked about the need to address this nation’s budget deficits and national debt.  If Arkansas families and small businesses are expected to live within their means, then so should the federal government.  That’s why I voted to trim my own office’s budget by 5 percent and the office budget of every other House member and House committee, sending $35.2 million back to the U.S. Treasury.  I also voted for and the House passed a resolution to set federal, non-security spending at Fiscal Year 2008 levels to help reduce the nation’s budget deficit.  These cuts and budget rules are important first steps to restoring common sense and fiscal discipline to our federal government, but we’ve still got a lot of work ahead.
 
While I am working hard to help our economy recover and get our nation’s fiscal house back in order, we still have a long way to go.  I will continue to support and advocate for commonsense policies that support our small businesses and encourage private sector job growth.  I know times are tough and I know many of our friends and family are struggling.  However, I remain confident that our economy will rebound and we will pull through these tough times and emerge stronger than ever before.


A fifth generation Arkansan, Congressman Mike Ross of Prescott represents the Fourth Congressional District of Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Ross serves on the House Energy & Commerce Committee and as Vice President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.  Ross is also Co-Chair of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus and a key leader of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democratic House members that advocates the principles of fiscal responsibility and government accountability.