Congressman Fitzpatrick Announces Small Business Advisory Panel

IVYLAND, Pa – Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick today announced the formation of a small business advisory panel of local business leaders in the Eighth Congressional District during the annual “State of the Nation” address to the Central Bucks County Chamber. With unemployment remaining high at 9.0%, according to a report out today by the Department of Labor, Fitzpatrick outlined his plans to spur private sector job growth through reducing out of control government spending and enacting meaningful healthcare reform.

“Over the last few years, a bad economy has been made even worse by massive government spending and interference with job creators, like those in this very room,”said Fitzpatrick.

“The level of debt and spending by the federal government threatens our economic recovery, mortgaging the torch of liberty and placing today’ bills on tomorrow’ taxpayers. It’ time to end such reckless practices and put small businesses back in the driver’ seat of our economy.”Fitzpatrick cited that in the first weeks of the 112th Congress, the House has taken affirmative steps to reduce spending by: reducing the House budget by 5% across the board, moving to electronic copies of legislation, eliminating taxpayer funding for Presidential elections, and returning all non‐defense spending to 2008 levels. In addition to these steps, Fitzpatrick has also proposed returning any unspent stimulus dollars to the federal treasury, reducing the federal workforce by 10%, and reducing the number of federal government contractors.

“Healthcare costs are also a major concern for employers,”said Fitzpatrick, “and the new healthcare law has only made things worse and did nothing to contain the cost of insurance. To make healthcare affordable for families and small businesses, we need to enact medical liability reform, force competition among insurance companies and put patients, not the federal government back in charge of their health.”

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