INDIANAPOLIS – The challenges we faced coming into the 2014 session of the Indiana State Legislature were immense:

• How to help Hoosier families who have seen their incomes decline over the past decade.
• How to keep our best and brightest from leaving Indiana.
• How to address the crisis facing Hoosier girls, one of six of whom gets raped or sexually assaulted.
• How to not only put Hoosiers back to work, but make sure they are paid decent wages.

We have had numerous chances to fully address these problems, but we have avoided looking for answers. If there is such a thing as a textbook case of missed opportunities, the first half of this session is it.
Consider what our priorities have been so far. It doesn’t take too long.
Our biggest priority has been deciding whether to open up our state’s most cherished document to tell the world who can marry whom in Indiana.
Our second biggest priority has been a step toward elimination of the business personal property tax, something that will not create jobs, but will add to the burdens faced by families, homeowners, local units of government, and schools.
And it’s not like we haven’t had the chance to consider some things that will help our middle class. Here are just a few things that House Democrats have advocated this session:

• Increasing the state’s minimum wage.
• Asking the people of Indiana if they support an increase in the minimum wage.
• Asking for a study of the wage equity gap in Indiana.
• Restoring a Small Business Innovation Program to assist technological start-up companies.
• Establishing Manufacturing Reinvestment Accounts to help small businesses purchase equipment and hire new workers.
• Creating an Indiana Goes Back to Work Tax Credit to encourage employers to hire unemployed Hoosiers.

We tried to get rid of Indiana’s faulty wage suppression law. We asked Congress to do something to help 70,000 Hoosiers who lost their unemployment benefits. We tried to increase Indiana’s earned income tax credit. We tried to provide more than $500 million for state and local infrastructure.
We tried to get the women and minority program, Indiana Plan, funded again in Evansville.
We asked for a plan to encourage our top college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to stay in Indiana. We asked that our state finally study why so many Hoosier girls have been raped or sexually assaulted. We tried to end ‘pay-to-play’ in Indiana for people who want taxpayer-funded assistance. We asked that the Indiana Inspector General keep the people of our state better-informed.
Indiana House Democrats believe all of these ideas offer chances to help millions of Hoosiers. House Republicans did not agree. They stopped all of the things I just mentioned.
There were some successes. We did get the majority to support our proposal to increase the exemption our state provides for families with children. They supported our plan to provide the funding to help local firefighters, police and EMTs purchase the equipment they need to keep their communities safe. They even agreed with us that the Indiana Attorney General needs to keep the public better-informed.
But when you consider what we did, and what we could have done, the bottom line is this: we can do better. We have time to do better. Indiana House Democrats will do our part. I just hope the majorities feel the same way.

  

(Washington, DC) – According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report released this morning, the economy added only 113,000 jobs last month, lower than what economists expected.  The unemployment rate saw little change at 6.6% and the number of Americans actually participating in the workforce remains at its lowest since the 1970s.

Rep. Bucshon (IN-08) released the following statement:

 

“As many Americans struggle through the fifth year of the slowest economic recovery since WW2, we are reminded again that the President’s policies are standing in the way of any chance at sustained growth.   This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that ObamaCare is effectively a tax on labor that will push 2.5 million full-time workers out of workforce, hampering job growth and exacerbating our already low labor force participation.

 

“The President still refuses to pass the Keystone pipeline project, which will create thousands of good-paying jobs and help secure American energy production, despite his own State Department’s report that the project will have no significant impact on the environment.

 

“In the House, we want every American to have a fair shot at finding a job and we have passed dozens of jobs bills that will grow the economy and expand their opportunity to do so. I hope the President will join us, so that we can promote a stronger economy that gives hardworking Americans the opportunity to climb the ladder of success.”

BACKGROUND:

7.3 million Americans are involuntarily part-time workers, which means they are employed “…part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time work.” (BLS; 2/7/2014)

3.6 million Americans have been unemployed for 6 months or more (accounting for more than 1 out of every 3 persons unemployed),  while the total number unemployed is 10.2 million. (BLS; 2/7/2014)

Real unemployment, a measure that includes discouraged workers and those employed part-time who would rather work full-time, was 14.0% and the labor force participation rate was at 63%. (BLS; 2/7/2014)

This week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported that ObamaCare is a tax on workers that will push 2.5 million full-time workers out of the workforce by 2024. (Forbes; 2/4/14)

“The State Department’s latest study — the product of more than five years of investigation — largely confirms the conclusions of previous assessments and those of many independent energy experts: Allowing the firm Trans­Canada to build Keystone XL, which would run across the Canadian border to Steele City, Neb., is unlikely to have significant effects on climate-change-causing greenhouse gas emissions.” (Washington Post; 2/5/14)

Former Energy Secretary under President Obama, Steven Chu, has confirmed that the President’s decision to hold off on the construction is purely political. AND Former Interior Secretary under President Obama called the project a win-win.