GOP Address: Sen. Portman Says There’s a Better Way to American Economic Comeback
Published at
Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — With the nation’s unemployment rate still above eight percent, Sen. Rob Portman criticizes President Obama for what he says are failed economic policies that hinder job creation.
In this week’s Republican address, Portman calls claims the president is responsible for the millions of Americans still out of work, declining manufacturing, and lower wages and home values.
He says, “instead of focusing on jobs and reigniting our economy, President Obama focused on growing government and tired to remake the United States into the image of debt-laden countries of Europe.”
Portman adds, “His approach has been more spending, more regulation and higher taxes.”
But after the passage of President Obama’s stimulus bill and Affordable Care Act, the Ohio senator says the president’s “two biggest initiatives” only raise taxes on employers and middle class, grow government at the expense of free enterprise and pile on regulations that increase the cost of doing business. Portmans says these outcomes “make it harder, not easier, to create jobs in America.”
Portman also rails against a “massive tax increase on nearly one million small businesses that employ tens of millions of Americans.”
“President Obama says this tax hike is about fairness. Well, under his plan, many of these small businesses would pay higher taxes than Fortune 500 companies. How’s that fair?” Portman says in the address. “President Obama likes to talk about the Buffett Rule. Well here’s a Buffett Rule that all Americans should be able to support: mom and pop businesses should not pay a higher tax rate than Fortune 500 corporations like Warren Buffet’s.”
Portman is referring to the “Paying a Fair Share Act” which would have ensured that the highest-earning taxpayers would pay at least a 30 percent tax rate. The bill was dubbed the Buffett Rule because of the example used by the administration that billionaire investor Warren Buffett pays a rate lower than his own secretary.
The senator says the way to revive a struggling economy is to reform the “outdated” tax code, “lift[ing] the regulatory burdens” on small businesses and “tap[ping] into the exciting potential of homegrown American energy.”
“The government-knows-best approach of the past few years has given us the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression,” Portman says. “It’s time to turn things around. We know we can restore America’s greatness by harnessing the power of free people and free enterprise.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio