Washington, DC – Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) today issued the following statement in reaction to reports about the President’s latest tax proposals: "A permanent R&D credit is long overdue and full expensing is a serious proposal Congress should consider.  However, we have to ask: Would any benefit from these be outweighed by the tax increases the President is… Read more

As President Obama proposes tens of billions of dollars in new government stimulus spending, Americans might ask “how effective were trillions of dollars of past government spending in reducing unemployment?”  The answer – not effective at all.  As displayed below, since President Obama took office unemployment has risen by 2.9 million while the debt held by the public was pushed $2.6… Read more

Washington, DC – Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI) today issued the following reaction to the August jobs report: “The fact that the unemployment rate has remained this high for this long is completely unacceptable.  The debt is already dragging down our economy and yet Democrats in Washington are talking about more wasteful stimulus spending and even higher taxes.  That… Read more

As our economy meanders down the road to recovery, yet to hit its stride, the American dream slides out of reach for too many. Nearly one in 10 Americans can't find work. If you consider those who have given up looking or settled for part-time work, that number jumps to nearly one in five. Things are bad - and they are about to get worse. On Jan. 1, Americans will face the biggest tax… Read more

Today’s unemployment claims data show that a total of 9.7 million people are currently collecting unemployment checks in the U.S.  As the chart below displays, that is well above the 8 million who collected unemployment checks when Democrats forced their trillion-dollar stimulus plan through Congress. Over that same period, the number of people collecting paychecks plunged from 141.7… Read more

Congress' inability to make a decision about the fate of Bush-era tax cuts is contributing to the unemployment crisis facing the country, according to the Labor Day 2010 report by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). "Small businesses are America's job creators, responsible for 60 percent of the net new jobs created in the last decade," the report states. "But uncertainty… Read more

As if more than one-half trillion dollars in Medicare cuts that could jeopardize access to care wasn't enough bad news for seniors, analysis released yesterday by Avalere Health, a health care research firm, estimates that 1 in 5 seniors could lose their Medicare Part D plan because of actions taken by President Obama’s Administration.  As reported by the Associated Press, these actions… Read more

An economist who advised Democrats on the $787 billion stimulus has increased his prediction of the odds of the economy entering a double-dip recession. Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, pegged the chances of a second recession at one in three. Just a few weeks ago, he saw only a 20 percent chance of another economic slowdown. “I don’t think we’ll double-dip, but… Read more

Starting January 1, 2011, Washington Democrats will impose a $3.8 trillion tax hike on hard-working Americans.  This tax increase will affect every American who pays income taxes through higher tax rates on individuals, families, and small businesses.  As described below, Washington Democrats are targeting small businesses – the engines of job creation and economic growth – for much… Read more

Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Initial claims for unemployment benefits surged to 500,000 in mid-August, a level more typical of a recession than a recovery. The bad news confirmed what conservative economists have been saying for some time: The biggest Keynesian stimulus in U.S. history was a bust. Incredibly, some Keynesians who supported Barack Obama’s $862 billion stimulus now claim it fell… Read more