021411 Renacci discuses state of the economy during Wooster town hall meeting
By Sharon Haught
February 8, 2011
301
Within days of being sworn in as the representative to the U.S. House of Representatives from the 16th congressional district Jim Renacci was back in the district to hear his constituents concerns firsthand during a town hall meeting on January 31 in Wooster.
Im excited to be able to represent you, said Renacci acknowledging that while not everyone will agree with his decisions all of the time I do represent everybody here.
Im never going to make everybody happy. There are going to be times when Im going to walk in a room and you are going to shake your head and not like what Im saying but what I have to do is represent the majority, said Renacci.
Youre not going to agree with everything I do but at least you are going to know what I am going to do, said Renacci adding Im not going to go down there and tell you one thing and vote a different way.
Renacci noted that constituents can expect to see some significant changes in the way Congress does business over the next two years.
Youre going to see Congress work as a real Congress, said Renacci.
A lot of decisions during the last two terms were made by five to six people in leadership and they were never debated on the floor. Start watching CSPAN because what youre going to see is the opportunity now for Democrats and Republicans to openly debate bills on the floor. That hasnt happened in four years, said Renacci.
Citizens can also expect to see Congress more vigorously use its oversight and funding powers to check the power of federal government agencies.
According to Renacci the House majority is united in pursuing three goals.
We need to cut spending, we need to get our deficit in line and we need to listen to the people back in the districts, said Renacci.
Not one bill will come to the floor that doesnt have constitutionality, doesnt show how its going to produce jobs and doesnt show how we are going to reduce the size of government and reduce spending. Thats what we have to do and thats the way Im going to vote, said Renacci.
There is no doubt we need to be able to reduce our spending and the national debt, said Renacci.
We need to worry about our children and our grandchildren and what were leaving them, said Renacci adding before a child even takes his first breath theyve got a $43,000 debt to the U.S. government.
According to Renacci reducing spending, not raising taxes, is the key to deficit reduction.
Deficits are not born because we dont tax enough. Deficits are born because we spend more than we bring in, said Renacci.
According to Renacci by cutting spending and increasing employment youre going to see the deficit shrink. The problem we have today is were not cutting spending. Were continuing to grow spending.
And because government doesnt create jobs, employers create jobs by not providing certainty and predictability for businesses owners, employers simply arent hiring noted Renacci.
According to Renacci more spending wont foster job creation.
Nobody, whether its a business or family, can spend themselves into prosperity, said Renacci adding that when spending is necessary there has to be a return on investment, which didnt happen in the case of the stimulus programs.
As the session closed Renacci reached into his pocket and held up the card that allows him to vote on the House floor.
This is your card, said Renacci. This is the only thing that really I do to represent you down in Washington and its yours.
