Issues

Jobs and Economy

The economic growth that our country needs originates from the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. By the end of 2012, House Republicans had passed 40 bills aimed at empowering small business owners, reducing regulatory burdens, fixing the tax code, increasing competitiveness for American manufacturers, encouraging entrepreneurship and growth, maximizing domestic energy production, and paying down America’s unsustainable debt burden. Unfortunately, 27 of these bills never left the Senate. Going forward, Jeb will continue working to advance policies that address our economic challenges, foster innovation and investment, and help job creators – especially our small business owners.

Government Regulation Gone Wild

Today there are more federal regulations on the books than any other time in our nation’s history. Something is wrong when Congress is forced to stop the EPA from issuing rules regulating the dust on farms. In 2012, House Republicans continued their efforts to provide relief from this record government intrusion with legislation such as H.R. 4078 — Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act — a package of 7 bills which would end the uncertainty facing job creators by placing a moratorium on many new government regulations until our economy recovers and unemployment falls to at least six percent.

Obamacare

The Supreme Court’s disappointing and regrettable decision to uphold Obamacare does not change the fact that this law increases health care costs, cuts more than $500 billion from Medicare, forces people who like their current private insurance into exchanges, threatens quality of care, and assaults religious freedom while also making it harder for small businesses to create jobs.

In 2012, House Republicans continued their efforts to dismantle this bill through hearings and votes to:

• Repeal the long-term care provision of Obamacare after the President’s own Secretary of Health and Human Services called its framework "totally unsustainable."
• Stop the job-killing medical device tax.
• Do away with the panel of 15 unelected, unaccountable government bureaucrats the plan puts between patients and their doctors to control Medicare costs through rationing.

Increasing America’s Energy Supply

In 2012, the International Energy Agency predicted that new advances in technology could make America the world’s largest oil producer. Combined with our other energy resources such as natural gas and coal, this dramatic expansion of our energy supply could have tremendous implications for our nation’s economy and national security. Instead of embracing this opportunity, the President has used burdensome regulations to wage a war on coal, block the full development of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and waste taxpayer dollars on failed "green" energy projects such as Solynda.

As Conference Chairman in the 112th Congress, Jeb worked with House Republicans to pass H.R. 4480 – the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act and other bills to expand our nation’s energy supply and stop the job-crushing regulations that hinder our nation’s economic growth.

Housing Finance Reform

To date, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have cost taxpayers almost $200 billion. Now the Federal Housing Administration is likely to need a taxpayer funded bailout in the new year.

Jeb continues to work toward his goal of getting taxpayers out of the mortgage subsidy business by introducing legislation like H.R. 1182 – the GSE Bailout Elimination and Taxpayer Protection Act. As Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Jeb will continue to advance reforms that will:

• Protect taxpayers.
• End bailouts.
• Get private capital off the sidelines.
• Reduce the taxpayer's exposure to the housing market.

Dodd-Frank

When signed into law, the Dodd-Frank Act spanned 2,300 pages and mandated that government regulators write over 400 new rules. More than two years later, regulators have written 224 of these rules, consuming 7,365 pages. It is estimated that it will take private sector job creators more than 24 million hours just to comply with these rules alone (by comparison, it took workers 20 million hours to construct the Panama Canal) and require 2,600 new federal employees needed to implement all the new mandates.

Jeb has been a leader in the conservative effort to expose the harmful consequences of Dodd-Frank and to implement measures to correct its provisions. The Financial Services Committee has held 65 hearings to expose the job-destroying provisions in the bill – hearing testimony from 370 witnesses. As a result, the House has passed several bills that would help bring needed changes to the Dodd-Frank regulations in order to increase certainty and reduce the exposure of the American taxpayer to unjust costs and bailouts.

Jobs Act

The facts show that nearly 65 percent of all new jobs are created by small businesses. Many of these small businesses are finding it hard to secure the investment and financing they need to expand their operations and create jobs. In April 2012, the president signed the JOBS Act into law – a package of six bills that originated in the House Financial Services Committee.

The JOBS Act helps cut the red tape that prevents many startup companies from raising capital and going public. According to press reports, the JOBS Act has had an immediate impact, with many small community banks using the provisions of the law to save time and money – ultimately freeing up capital for economic expansion.

Immigration

I support efforts to reform our broken immigration/border security system. However, I do not support any effort that amounts to an amnesty proposal that gives legal advantages to people who came here illegally and does not require them to go back to their country of origin.

The United States is a nation of immigrants and should remain so, but we are also a nation of laws. I will also not support any reform bill that does not increase beyond existing law the level of protection we have at our borders, nor require illegal immigrants to repay back taxes they owed for the time they illegally spent in America.

While I am sympathetic to those who come here to work hard in order to feed their families, illegal immigration is a flagrant violation of our laws. It threatens our national security and is unfair to all those who worked diligently to become American citizens the right way. We need a properly-constructed guest worker program.

To build it, it must pass a four-point test:

• no amnesty, which means there must be a legitimate touchback provision,
• individuals already waiting in immigration lines must go first — no cutting the line,
• immigrants must be economic benefits not economic liabilities, and
• we must do something about birthright citizenship.

Second Amendment

As a life member of the National Rifle Association, I am a firm believer in our right to bear arms.

Protecting the Dignity of Human Life

I have been working to protect the rights of all Americans — including the rights of the unborn. Human life is a precious commodity that in today’s society is often taken for granted. I believe in my heart and mind that life begins at conception, and I am working to make abortion rarer in America. In addition to making our nation’s laws more family-friendly and ensuring the dignity of human life, we must work to change hearts and minds as well.