The Hill Report -- Cong Pete Sessions (R-TX)

Thanks to Cong Pete Sessions for spotlighting some of the flaws with this Administration and Democrats in Congress. By pointing out Republican ideas to help fix the economy and the travesty of attaching hate crimes legislation to the Defense Appropriation Bill, Cong Sessions has highlighted the fact that Obama and the liberals democrats in Congress are not interested in anything Republicans have to say and that the liberals will always put their agenda ahead of what our troops need to fight this time the war in Afghanistan. The difference now is that the American people are waking up to this fact as well. Our Country is not a leftist Country but one that is center right which Obama and the Progressive Democrats don't seem to get.

If the elitist media wasn't so much in the tank for Obama, they would have seen it much faster.

The Hill Report
A Weekly Newsletter from Congressman Pete Sessions
Week of October 5 – October 9, 2009

Where are the jobs? In letters to President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), on Tuesday I joined other Republican Leadership members to highlight proven solutions for strengthening small businesses and creating jobs.

With the national unemployment rate at 9.8 percent and the trillion dollar “stimulus” proving unsuccessful, small businesses are bearing the brunt of these losses. According to the ADP National Employment Report released September 30, employment among small businesses (those with fewer than 50 workers) declined by 100,000 from August to September, while employment declined by 61,000 among large businesses and by 93,000 among medium-sized businesses during the same period.

I firmly believe that the engine of job creation in America is small business – not government. That is why I have joined my colleagues to support the following common-sense solutions for job creation and economic growth:

• Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income. This will immediately free up funds for small businesses to retain and hire new employees.

• Let small businesses join together to purchase health insurance for their workers the way large businesses and labor unions do.

• Enact genuine legal reform and policies that incentivize wellness to reduce health care costs for small businesses.

• Lower taxes for all taxpayers by reducing the current 15 percent rate to 10 percent and reducing the current 10 percent rate to 5 percent. This will provide an immediate increase in income to every taxpaying family in America and free up capital to help small businesses hire more workers.

• Expand health savings accounts (1-ISAs) to provide additional flexibility to small businesses in providing health care to their employees.

• Increase the net operating loss carry back from 2 to 5 years to provide struggling employers with additional resources to keep their doors open.

These proposals are just a few of the pro-growth policies that can enable small businesses to keep more of what they earn to save, invest, and hire more workers. My Republican colleagues and I continue to extend our offer to work on bipartisan solutions that will grow jobs and the economy – not the government.


Policy or Politics for Troops
On Thursday, I attended a special briefing for Members of Congress on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Based on the information that President Obama’s National Security Advisor James Jones provided to us, I believe that Afghanistan requires immediate action and that our troops need additional resources to combat Al-Qaeda and violent extremism in the region.

Following the briefing, the House voted on the National Defense Authorization bill that funds our troops. Instead of honorably providing our troops with the resources and funding they need to succeed, yesterday Democrats in Congress chose to infringe on the freedoms they fight for and use our troops as political pawns to advance a left-wing agenda on so-called “hate crimes” legislation and “rights” for terrorists.

Under our criminal justice system based on “equal justice for all,” every crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Unfortunately, the poorly-written hate crimes bill also prosecutes thoughts and threatens to persecute legitimate religious beliefs. In addition, I cannot support attempts to create a hierarchy of victims that establishes preferential treatment for some but not for others.
As our troops bravely fight terrorists around the world, Congressional Democrats are empowering President Obama’s reckless decision to close Guantanamo Bay and move terrorists to the United States for trial under the U.S. constitution. As a pathway to appeasing left-wing anti-war activists, this legislation waters-down previous congressional votes to ban the terrorists from U.S. soil. Additionally, Congressional Democrats are using the bill to codify President Obama’s decision to short-change missile defense programs and funding.

In Afghanistan and around the globe, the men and women of our military are risking their lives for freedom – freedom of expression, freedom of worship, and freedom from oppressive government. Unfortunately, this legislation is a disservice to our troops, and I cannot support it. I continue to call on Speaker Pelosi and Congressional Democrats to place the needs of our troops over personal partisan agendas and provide clean military funding that is worthy of the freedom they defend.