Boehner Column: "Economic Growth Package Should Make Real and Positive Difference"

It’s no secret that middle-class American families and small businesses have real concerns about the state of our economy and the rising cost of living. Families are clearly feeling a squeeze: their incomes are stagnant while the costs of health care, energy, food, college, housing, and other necessities are rising. While government cannot control the economy – and we shouldn’t pretend that it can – there are steps Congress can take to support economic growth and address the anxieties middle-class families and small businesses are facing.

House Republicans want to work with our Democratic colleagues to address this challenge. Democrats have indicated they have a similar desire to work with Republicans. And so far I’m pleased with the bipartisan discussions that have taken place. While there are many ideas being pitched, I strongly believe that this package must not become a Christmas tree on which we hang tax hikes and wasteful spending.

Last year alone, House Republicans fought against more than $250 billion in tax hikes on working families and small businesses, including the largest proposed tax hike in history. Beginning this new year and the second session of the 110th Congress with a prolonged fight over a tax hike will only make it harder to pass legislation intended to help our economy. What’s more, we fought to save taxpayers about $22 billion in wasteful spending by upholding vetoes on bloated spending bills. And while I will continue this fight, I’d much rather see a responsible bill that doesn’t reduce Congress to partisan rancor.

A tax expert at the National Association of Manufacturers recently said employers have “a real fear” that tax hikes will be included in a stimulus package to help offset its costs, which could reach as high as $150 billion. But tax hikes would have a devastating impact on the economy and on consumers, according to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. In testifying before Congress last fall, Bernanke said tax hikes “tend to be a drag on consumer spending and on the economy” and “would probably not be advisable.”

One need only look at the current environment to know that what Chairman Bernanke said in the fall still applies today. A recent Labor Department report indicated that wholesale inflation was up 6.3 percent last year, “reflecting a huge increase for the year in various types of energy costs ranging from gasoline to home heating oil.”

But in a recommendation to Congress just recently, the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission suggested doubling the federal gas tax to up to 40 cents per gallon over the next five years with automatic increases every year tied to inflation. The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon and Ohio ’s state gas tax is 26 cents per gallon. That’s 44.4 cents per gallon you’re paying on top of what the oil companies already charge. Raising the federal gas tax would move the cost of gas in exactly the wrong direction. We need to lower the cost by increasing our domestic supplies and developing alternative energy sources, not raising taxes to give the federal government more of your hard-earned dollars to fritter away.

If Congress and the President are going to enact an economic stimulus package, it has to be a package that truly encourages economic growth. We should examine tax incentives for small businesses to encourage investment and growth, and we should provide tax relief for families so they have more money to either spend or save, depending on their current needs.

House Republicans believe this package should focus on putting more money back into the pocketbooks of middle-class families and help employers create jobs for the American people. My hope is that a renewed spirit of bipartisanship in Congress will pave the way for enactment of responsible legislation that will help to stimulate the economy without expanding bureaucracy and government programs – legislation that will make a real and positive difference for working families and small businesses.

Boehner represents Ohio ’s 8th District, which includes all of Darke, Miami and Preble counties, most of Butler and Mercer counties, and the northeastern corner of Montgomery County . He was first elected to Congress in 1990.