“Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States” – President Ronald Reagan President Reagan’s words reflect my own long-held belief as a former small businessman that small businesses are the backbone of our nation. Small businesses are where ideas and innovations are not only brought to life but are nurtured into American success stories that create jobs and economic opportunities. Read more »

U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-3) has co-authored a bipartisan letter to the House Ways and Means Committee commending its members for their hard-work and dedication to tackling much needed tax reform and urging them to consider the negative effects of proposed changes that would limit accounting flexibility for small businesses and farmers across America. Read more »

Three years ago, a number of constituents brought to my attention their concerns that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) was involved in political and lobbying activities that were in direct violation of its 501(c)(3) tax-except status that prohibits such activities. To be clear, HSUS is not affiliated with your local animal shelter. In fact, only 1 percent of the money HSUS raises makes its way to animal shelters at all. Instead, it spends millions of dollars on lobbying, ballot initiatives, and other political activities. For three years, and after providing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with more than 3,000 pages of documents exposing HSUS’ activities and calling for an investigation, the agency told me they could not discuss ongoing investigations and were also unable to confirm or deny whether or not an investigation was underway. Read more »

As I traveled around the 3rd District earlier this month, I had the opportunity to speak with many of you and one reoccurring concern was about our broken tax system. Many believe it is far too inefficient, time-consuming and costly. Read more »

Having already supported federal pay freezes, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer today voted for legislation to eliminate the automatic across-the-board pay raise for the president’s cabinet, the vice president and other non-military federal employees that will otherwise occur as a result of a recent executive order issued by President Obama. Read more »

In 2001 and 2003, Congress enacted significant tax cuts, known as the Bush tax cuts, including by not limited to—decreasing marginal income tax rates, providing relief from what is known as the “marriage penalty,” increasing the child tax credit, reducing tax rates on long-term capital gains, unifying qualified dividend rates with long-term capital gains rates, relief from the alternative minimum tax (AMT), and phasing out the death tax. Unfortunately, even with a Republican president and Republican majorities in the House and Senate, lawmakers were unable to make these changes to our tax code permanent, and after a short-term extension, they fully expired on December 31, 2012. Read more »

U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) today issued the following statement after voting in support of H.R. 8 to provide much-needed certainty to families and job creators by permanently cutting taxes for 99% of taxpayers Read more »

Looking back on 2012, I feel grateful to again have served as your voice in Congress. It has been a year of great turmoil in Washington but it also has been one in which several issues facing the people of the 9th District were tackled head on and I am proud of what we have accomplished for a wide cross-section of folks. Read more »

Ronald Reagan was right when he argued that government must trust the people. As negotiations continue on the fiscal cliff, folks like you have been contacting our offices demanding that we resist proposals to allow tax cuts to expire and devastating defense cuts to take effect.Your personal stake in this argument boils down to one thing: You know best when it comes to making ends meet and improving the quality of life for your families. Read more »

We are at a significant turning point in our nation regarding our economic future and there is a lot of concern among hard-working folks about what it means for our families and our communities. Much of the concern stems from the notion of the fiscal cliff, in which significant automatic tax increases and automatic spending cuts go into effect in early January of 2013 if nothing is done. The notion of this fiscal cliff has job creators and the financial markets spooked and many predicting that, if this cliff is not avoided, our economy as well as economies across the globe could be in for an economic collapse not seen since the Great Depression. Read more »