| A Message from Aaron |
Dear Friends,
It has been a busy month in Washington. I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on some of the issues I have been working on in Congress, particularly over the last month.
Red Tape Overload
Red tape and costly regulations continue to put a stranglehold on every aspect of the private sector. Whether it’s a family farm or a small business, unelected bureaucrats in Washington are continuing to hand down new regulations that are costing jobs and dragging down the economy.
Since 2009, there have been 400 new regulations under review that are considered economically significant, which means they have an economic impact of at least $100 million. Just this year alone, there are over 41,000 pages of new regulations in the Federal Register of new regulations.
The House has passed over a dozen bills that are focused on reducing the regulatory burden in commonsense ways. Last week, the House passed the Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act. This piece of legislation would prevent any economically significantly regulations from being enacted until the unemployment rate falls below six percent. Similar to dozens of other pieces of legislation, this bill is waiting for action in the Senate.
Audit the Fed
In July, the House passed Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed legislation. I am a co-sponsor of this legislation that received significant bipartisan support. Day-to-day operations of the Federal Reserve are subject to little sunshine either from Congress or the Government Accountability Office (GAO). That’s trillions of dollars flowing with little accountability and mostly in the dark.
This legislation gives the GAO the authority to review monetary policy operations, make them public and report results to congress by the end of 2012. While the Audit the Fed legislation has passed the House, there is no indication that the Senate will act. To read the column I wrote in the Illinois Review, click here.
Stopping the Tax Hike
The House will vote on Thursday to keep the tax rates for all taxpayers from going up at the end of the year. I believe we need to keep the tax rates at their current level for one year, while the House Ways and Means committee completes its work on comprehensive tax reform. This has been one of the signature issues I have been working on since being appointed to the Ways and Means committee this Congress.
However, President Obama and the Senate Democrats believe that rates should be increased on all those who make $250,000 and up. Despite what they said, raising taxes will stall economic growth, and halt job creation. I wrote a recent op-ed in the Peoria Journal Star discussing this in further detail. To read my recent op-ed in the Peoria Journal Star, click here.
Respectfully,
Aaron |
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