McCarthy: Our Focus Must Be On Small Business And Entrepreneurial Growth
Washington D.C. – Congressman Kevin McCarthy gave the following remarks at the weekly House Republican leadership press conference regarding the President's latest jobs plan:
"We'll sit down, we'll work with the President, any opportunity we have for job growth. But the idea of more taxes, the idea that you're going to punish business, and continue to do things in the past that failed will not continue."
TRANSCRIPT:
Yesterday I was doing a tele-town hall with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and small businesses throughout California, listening to them for more than an hour on what they're looking for to actually move their company forward. Many of them talked about that they would have the ability to hire more people, but nothing in the President's jobs bill would encourage them to do that. The uncertainty is what puts them to great fear. The uncertainty of what the bill would hold when it came to taxes.
When you look at what the Speaker just talked about, there are clear differences between the Republicans and the Democrats. I began to wonder when the President sent up the bill's pay fors. Because in September 2009 he said it wasn't the time to raise taxes. He talked about how it would hurt the economy and put business in a further hole. When you look at the business climate today, the expansion of the uncertainty even further, the jobs numbers that came back last month of a zero, I would expect the President to hold the same belief that he had in September 2009 – that any tax increases would hurt the economy, and put business in a further hole. That does not do anything for hiring new people.
What I'd like to see happen is that we unshackle the regulations that hold small business back. The focus should be on small business. There are eleven bills sitting on the Senate side that have passed this House about growth and business, from energy policy and further, to enhance the ability for more hiring. What we need in America are more entrepreneurs. The difference with an entrepreneur is that they never take a job from someone, they only create them. We'll sit down, we'll work with the President, any opportunity we have for job growth. But the idea of more taxes, the idea that you're going to punish business, and continue to do things in the past that failed will not continue.