Press Releases

Luetkemeyer to President: Best Way to Create Jobs is Common Sense, Bi-Partisan Approach

Washington, DC, December 8, 2009
With successful efforts to pass small business legislation in the House, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) and six other members from his freshman class in Congress today sent a letter to President Obama outlining their common sense economic solutions and calling for a bi-partisan effort to create jobs for American families.
With successful efforts to pass small business legislation in the House, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) and six other members from his freshman class in Congress today sent a letter to President Obama outlining their common sense economic solutions and calling for a bi-partisan effort to create jobs for American families.
 
“Americans agree that the economic status quo is unnacceptable,” Luetkemeyer, a member of the House Small Business Committee, and his colleagues wrote in the letter. “While each of us is new to Congress, we are all former business leaders with real-world experience in the private sector. Our real world experience in the private sector gives us unique insight into what will work at this moment in our nation’s history. We ask you to work with us so we may together implement proven ingredients for economic growth.” 
 
The letter laid out three proposals to help create jobs for American families:
 
  • Significantly Reduce the Top Corporate Income Tax Rate.  By immediately cutting the top corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent we would encourage the expansion of capital investment and business formation. 
  • Make Permanent the Lower Tax Rate on Capital Gains and Dividends.  By holding the rate on capital gains and dividends at 15 percent we would stimulate outside investment and provide continuity and predictability. 
  • Implement a Five Percent Across the Board Income Tax Cut. By reducing the six federal income tax rates by 5 percent we would allow Americans to keep and spend more of their hard-earned money.
Luetkemeyer has been working hard to help faciliate job growth and is the lead sponsor of two successful pieces of bi-partisan legislation that expand opportunities for small businesses and help create jobs and spur the kind of economic activity we need to get our country going again. His Expanding Entrepreneurship Act of 2009, part of the Job Creation through Entrepreneurship Act of 2009, makes several changes to the SBA’s entrepreneurial development programs at no cost to taxpayers. The bill will also expand entrepreneurial job growth by pulling resources for duplicative government programs into a streamlined and effective program to help emphasize job creation and retention. The bill passed 406 to 15 in the House.
 
Luetkemeyer’s Small Business Investment Company Modernization and Improvement Act of 2009, part of the Small Business Financing and Investment Act of 2009, updates and streamlines the SBA’s largest investment program, the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program. The legislation aims to increase the number and size of investments made in small firms under the program. Perhaps equally important, the bill endeavors to halt the continued flight of SBICs that participate in the program by establishing an expedited licensing process. This would keep successful SBICs that are in good standing involved in the program. The bill passed 389 to 32 in the House.
Luetkemeyer also believes that fiscal responsibility is the key to economic recovery, and is a co-sponsor of a constitutional amendment to force Congress to balance the budget instead of burdening the economic prospects of future generations with trillions of dollars in debt.
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