The simple answer and maybe the most honest answer is what I call careerism. The career politicians in our nation’s capital are trapped between wanting to get re-elected and doing what is in the people’s best interest. This was obvious just this week in the news. Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who is not running for reelection, spoke out against extending unemployment benefits and DOT funding. The shockwaves reverberated throughout Washington DC. Both Republicans and Democrats were denouncing his position. With outrage they cried “How can he be so insensitive? Doesn’t he know we are in an economic crisis?”

Senator Bunning was asking a question that rarely gets asked by career politicians. How are we going to pay for this? Just weeks after Congress voted for a “pay-go” requirement in the budget–where any increases in expenditures must be offset with cuts elsewhere or tax increases–they are already ignoring it. What Senator Bunning wanted was for the leadership to explain how the extension was to be funded. He could ask this very important question because he didn’t care about his reelection. The political fallout didn’t matter. What mattered was the principle.  We must pay for our services now; we cannot force our grandchildren pay for what we receive. Pretty simple and very honest.

This issue is not about whether or not extending benefits was the right thing to do. There are all kinds of important projects in government and each one has its own constituency. The point I am trying to make is that many members of both chambers, and both parties, feel that they can’t ask tough questions anymore because they become victims of politics – the classic GOTCHA moments. It’s time for these career politicians to step down. These are important issues and how we as taxpayers pay for services and benefits must be part of the national discussion.

The government has no money of its own. Therefore it must take from one and give to another. Since we as taxpayers are the ones the money is taken from we are the primary stakeholder. But career politicians apparently no longer care about that. It’s time to vote them out and not send just another carbon copy to replace them. That’s why I have already gone public by self term limiting my time in DC to four terms. Then I will step down and let another go serve. By doing this I can shield myself, and more importantly you, from the politics that has taken us to this critical juncture in history. By doing this I can remove the insider pressure that is certainly causing some of the problems.

There are other issues in Washington DC, but I believe any measure that forces politicians to do what’s right, not just what’s politically expedient, is in all our best interests.

“Once again, our national jobs picture is bleak. As Congress continues to dawdle on items that will have very little impact on our current employment situation, families in northeastern Wisconsin continue to suffer.

Wisconsinites are asking, for yet another month: ‘Where are the jobs that we were promised with the stimulus bill?’ The trillion dollar proposal was widely touted as the answer to the nation’s woes, but is acknowledged to have come far short of its supporters’ – and, more importantly, the American taxpayers’ – expectations.

In fact, most of the federal programs designed to rescue portions of the private sector have fallen flat. For example, a total of $2.87 billion was allocated to the “Cash for Clunkers” program, which attempted to prop up the automobile industry in the last year. In reality, the automobile market in Wisconsin has been in decline for several years.

National unemployment rate remained at 9.7%, with construction and information sectors losing ground while temporary jobs increased. Yet Congressman Steve Kagen continues to support Nancy Pelosi and increase massive federal deficit spending to increase government jobs at the expense of the true economic engines: private sector jobs. As a former small business owner, I saw first-hand how many of the federal programs passed in the last year stifle job creation nationwide, and especially in northeastern Wisconsin.

I’ve said it before: Business owners are reluctant to add jobs when we don’t know how much adding a job will cost. How much more will we pay under “cap-and-trade?” How much will the health insurance reform plan cost? How much will the stimulus plan ultimately cost me in increased tax dollars? Until small businesses find out the bottom line impacts of these massive federal actions they will be reluctant to add jobs.

Yesterday, Congressman Steve Kagen voted for – among other things — a payroll tax credit for businesses who hire the unemployed. While this makes for a nice press release, I question how many companies will hire a new employee for $30,000 to save 6.25%, or $1,875, of that salary. Even with the $1,000 bonus if the employee is still working in a year, given the costs of all the other expensive federal legislation out there, employees are still costly…and most of Kagen’s proposals make it much more costly.

With all respect to Dr. Kagen’s efforts, the only way to create jobs is for the federal government to stop spending our country into deficit, stop adding new regulations on our small businesses, and stop looking at the American taxpayer as one big piggy bank that can be raided on a whim.

Background on unemployment may be found at:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

State’s economy suffers as new car sales plummet – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/business/86093722.html

I choose to wear a helmet when I ride and that’s a salient point…I CHOOSE, not a government bureaucrat who can’t tell the difference between a sport bike or a touring motorcycle – not a politician who’s never ridden a motorcycle before, but me. And that’s the way it should be. I support motorcycle safety programs like those offered by ABATE and other motorcycle clubs and associations to encourage safe and fun driving.

America is the ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ and Wisconsin is the birthplace of Harley Davidson. Here, of all places, we should stand firmly for freedom and liberty, and should allow a person to choose whether they will wear a helmet or not.

Since Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States the federal government has continued to expand its influence over the States. Recently with the health care reform debate moving through Congress states are pushing back… and rightly so.

The “powers not delegated” is a powerful phrase, since so little was delegated to the United States to begin with. I have spoken in speeches lately about this very thing. Recently I was asked about the federal stimulus bill and how some cities in America now have police and fire fighters because of it. I responded that local citizens along with their elected officials should decide how many police and firefighters they need and then if they decide they need additional man-power that they should pay for it; not some tax payer in another part of the country. It’s not the role of the federal government.

Intrusion by the federal government is pervasive; DOL, OSHA, DEA, DOE, IRS, EPA and on and on. Someday, some state government backed by their citizens, will stand up against this unnecessary intrusion. That’s why I support the Enumerated Powers Act currently sponsored in Congress but not yet passed. This bill would require a constitutional test prior to bills being passed into law. Is that really too much to ask since each of our representatives takes an oath to defend and protect the US Constitution?

I have tried to make the tenth amendment one of my core principles. If one amendment can be ignored by Congress isn’t the entire document at risk? I also realize that this freedom requires responsible citizens to govern themselves. The citizens of each state should be able to decide the laws placed upon them on most issues and in that way they will make it easier to change them if necessary.

A year later, and the people of Northeastern Wisconsin are still looking for the jobs alleged to have been created through last year’s federal ‘stimulus’ package supported by Congressman Steve Kagen.

Republican candidate Reid Ribble, a former Kaukauna-area roofing contractor, questioned the results of Kagen’s spending plan.  According to the federal government’s own website, Recovery.com, Wisconsin’s Eighth Congressional District is set to receive over $272 million, which has only created 217 jobs.

“So far, the federal government has spent $1.25 million for each job created in Northeastern Wisconsin,” Ribble said.  “This Congress continues to spend future generations into debt.  Nancy Pelosi and Steve Kagen have mismanaged taxpayer dollars and continue to do so, while jeopardizing our future by growing our deficit to record levels.”

On February 4, 2009, the Shawano Leaderpublished an article about a “listening session” Kagen held with constituents.  One of the topics was of the so-called stimulus bill:

“Kagen also took several questions from callers demanding to know how the $815 billion in the proposed stimulus package would be spent, and he sought to draw a distinction between this bill and the Wall Street bailout he voted against last year.  ‘This bill has unprecedented oversight,’ Kagen said, adding that oversight and accountability had been lacking in the bailout bill.”

“I would argue that the Kagen set the bar pretty low as far as oversight,” Ribble said.  “We needed jobs a year ago, not a year from now. Spending millions on projects like turtle crossings in Florida isn’t the ‘stimulus’ Wisconsin needs.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was 7% in January of 2008.  The most recent data shows the unemployment rate in Wisconsin as 8.7% for November 2009. 

Wisconsin’s Eighth Congressional District allocation of stimulus money can be found at: http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency/RecipientReportedData/Pages/RecipientReportedDataMap.aspx

Click on “Funding” next to the Map View in the right hand side of the map. Select “Congressional District” and click on the outline of northeastern Wisconsin.

Highlights from the Shawano Leader story are found on Congressman Kagen’s website at: http://www.kagen.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=296:stimulus-top-topic-of-kagen-call-&catid=66:in-the-news&Itemid=195

Unemployment statistics are found at: http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LASST55000003

To understand the issue one must be open to understanding legal immigration and the limits placed on various countries around the globe as it relates to immigration to the United States. The rules are hopelessly complex and political forces have been in play for decades. One country’s residents can immigrate to the US in fairly short order while another country’s residents might have to wait ten to twenty years.

Add to this the economic issues in Central and South America, the collapse of the Mexican peso in the 1980’s as well as other South American currencies, and the thousands of border miles to protect and things get even more complicated.

I believe there are two areas that the federal government needs to take immediate action–action that has been slow to come for far too long:
1. Securing the borders to insure safety for American citizens.
2. Correcting the broken legal immigration system.

Secure the borders:
If you visit any website of current Members of Congress (and my primary opponents too) you will find the simple statement above. “Secure the borders” as a stand-alone-three-words it makes for a great sound bite but it is much more comprehensive in practice.

If not a physical wall what else can be done? Below I offer some suggestions for securing our borders.

1. Electronic surveillance (in essence a technological wall) along the southern and northern borders should be implemented at the earliest possible time.

2. Border patrols should be expanded. Some US military personnel currently stationed abroad could be redeployed to the border-states. The appropriate laws can be put in place to allow these military personnel to prevent and detain those illegally crossing into the United States. This would be deficit neutral because we are already paying for these troops – and redeploying to the border would provide economic stimulus for our border states. Right now that spending and economic benefit is going to foreign countries. I believe that the national security concerns we have along our borders is significant enough to warrant some drawdown of military personnel in places such as Germany or Japan and others whose economies are certainly able to provide for their own defense. I also believe that military leaders, not Congressmen, should decide where and how best to deploy the personnel.

3. Our Seaports need a higher level of inspection. We must thoroughly scan boats and shipping cargo entering our ports. That means additional man-power and technology to scan incoming cargo before it is off loaded onto US land.

4. As we saw at Christmas 2009 our airways are still not totally secured when flights enter the United States from foreign lands. There are infants that have their baby food thrown away on domestic flights but international inspections don’t occur at all in some places…our TSA system is not working as it should.

Fix the legal immigration system:
It’s relatively easy to get a visa to work or study in the United States if you have an advanced degree or seek one. Stop and consider that for a moment. American families send their children to college, spending tens of thousands of dollars to do so and then the government allows foreign workers to come in a take those high paying jobs under the guise of taking the smartest the world has to offer. We must thoroughly reevaluate our H-1B, L-1, J-1 and other visa programs to ensure our 10% national unemployment rate is not being exacerbated by our legal immigration mechanisms. Jobs that Americans want and can perform need to be going to our residents first.

So what should happen? The government needs to better analyze the needs of industries and the supply of available, domestic workforce and allow for immigration to meet any remaining needs legally, while not harming US job-seekers.

Secondly, the government needs to streamline the bureaucracy and years of time it takes for someone to immigrate to the United States legally. Immigration and Naturalization have been operating under a framework and guidelines that are woefully inefficient and virtually beg someone to break the law. Right now it is easier for someone to enter the United States illegally than it is to enter legally…no wonder we have a problem.

As is often the case the government has it backwards. We need to know who is in our country and be able to deport them if necessary—that will be increasingly difficult as long as immigration system remains in its current, virtually broken, state. Let’s make it easier for people to do things the right and legal way and make it harder for them to do it the wrong way…commonsense that isn’t so common in Washington DC.

Fox Valley businessman works to unseat Kagen; Republican running to unseat incumbent in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District
By Joe Van DeLarrschot of the Lakeland Times

Reid Ribble decided last July that the time had come for him to stop complaining about how our federal government is being run and instead try to do something about it. “My son and I were talking and he heard me complaining about our government and he said, kind of tongue-in-cheek ‘instead of complaining about it, why don’t you run for office,’” Ribble said. Ribble said he began thinking seriously about what his son had suggested. “It was keeping me awake at night sometimes and after some talk with my family and others I decided to run. I filed my candidacy with the Federal Election Board on July 4.”

And since that time the Fox Valley businessman has been campaigning and visiting all four corners of the 8th Congressional District in his effort to defeat incumbent Democrat Steve Kagen. Ribble paid a visit to the offices of The Lakeland Times Monday while on his tour of the 8th Congressional District. He said his business background – 35 year in the roofing business 00 allows him to bring practical economic experience to his campaign and to a seat in the US House of Representatives.

Ribble puts his position simply – he wants a smaller and much more efficient government, fewer regulations to allow small businesses to grow jobs and a health plan for Americans that cuts the costs of medical care instead of just replacing it with a costly US Government bureaucracy. “This government just spends, spends, spends,” Ribble said. “You can’t spend your way out of a recession and with the spending spree this government has been bent on our children and our children’s children will be paying for the mistakes we are making today.” Ribble said the government’s current spending spree is only going to make the future of this country even more difficult for those who follow in America’s future. He said all Americans must admit that the “government is too big.” “Too many Americans are now living in fear of what the future holds. That’s not how it should be. They should be looking forward to the future.”

Ribble also said he is against the proposed national health care plan as it’s now been passed in Congress. He calls it “a jobs killer.” “They (the Obama Administration) want to penalize small businesses and force them to offer medical insurance. That makes it difficult for small businesses to make enough money to stay in business. They should be working to promote health insurance that employees can buy, ot through their company, but on their own so they can take it wherever they go for ajob. That’s what makes sense, not forcing companies to offer the insurance. Make it so the employees can take it where ever they go.” Ribble said the current health care proposals “won’t do anything to reform health care.” Ribble said he cares deeply that Congress and President Obama continue to spend money that they do not have. “I care deeply that my grandchildren will be forced to pay for benefits to recipients who will have long since passed on,” Ribble said. “I care about the impact of unnecessary government regulations that have driven up the costs for businesses and consequently to consumers. I also care that Congress routinely disregards the US Constitution when promulgating laws.” Ribble said many in Congress wrongfully believe they can cure all the nation’s ills by merely raising the taxes on the wealthy. “I believe the real solutions are more complicated. In this campaign I plan on offering salutation and a plan to balance the federal budget, to reduce the size of government and to restore the Constitution to its rightful place. We must do better.” Ribble said the nation’s budget problems are now the problems of the current administration. “You can’t borrow your way out of debt,” Ribble said. “The administration must now admit that this is their budget and their problems. Just borrowing more money and spending it is just throwing money at the problem without it being the real solution.” Ribble also said too much of the Obama Administration’s economic stimulus was directed to places that did not provide stimulus.

Including Ribble there are now eight declared Republican candidates for the 8th District seat. They are Door County Board supervisor Marc Savard; How physician Marc Trager; Brown County Board supervisor Andy Williams; former state Rep. Terri McCormick of Greenville; Kerry Thomas of Sayner and state Rep Roger Roth who is a relative of former 8th District Congressman Toby Roth. Roth was also a Republican.

Congressman Steve Kagen issued a puzzling guest editorial in the Green Bay Press Gazette this morning, claiming to support Washington’s efforts to “rebuild our economy and grow the jobs we need to work our way through today’s recession.” 

What?

Kagen has continually voted against job growth and measures to rebuild the economy since he took office in 2007.  In fact, he also claims in the column that he has “voted against every single bailout that came along.”

Okay, Congressman.  We have heard that Washington is an “echo chamber” and that members need to come back to their districts and get back in touch with reality.  So here’s a brief reminder of what you’ve really done in four years:

• Voted to bail out the automobile industry with the TARP funding (Roll Call 26 on HR 384: Kagen voted yes)
• Voted for cap and trade, a measure that is widely acknowledged to cost $4.8 trillion in lost Gross Domestic Product over the next twenty years  (Kagen voted yes);
• Voted for the “stimulus” bill, which cost almost a trillion dollars and “created or saved” much-less-than expected results (Kagen voted yes);
• Allegedly “wrote” and voted for the health insurance reform bill, which will cost more than $1 trillion (Kagen voted yes);
• Voted – just last week — to increase our debt ceiling to $14.1 trillion (Kagen voted yes); and
• He spent the most money on his office budget than any other in Washington (Sunlight Foundation http://sunlightfoundation.com/presscenter/releases/2009/12/02/sunlight-makes-congressional-expenditures-db/)

Congressman Kagen is seriously out of touch with his voters.  Does he really think that we’d believe he’s fiscally responsible?

With the extreme stress of combat many of the wounds our soldiers return with can’t always be seen on the outside.  Our veterans affairs services need to aggressively help those with PTSD or other psychological ailments.

The IED’s and roadside bombs of our current wars are injuring thousands of soldiers.  Modern technology and medical techniques keep many of those wounds from being fatal, but an increasing number of soldiers require prosthetics or assistance to better function upon their return.  I support increased research funding to continue to develop even more functional prosthetics for our wounded soldiers so they can live their civilian lives with as little disruption as possible.

We have all heard it said, “war is hell” and for the vast majority of us it’s only something that we will read about or see on the news, but for the hundreds of thousands who have bravely volunteered and served our country in combat we owe a debt of gratitude and that starts with enhancing the benefits our veterans receive.

In Congress I will always stand with our veterans and their families…they stood up and fought for you and I… and in Congress I will stand up and fight for them.

Congressman Steve Kagen again followed Nancy Pelosi in leading our nation deeper in debt. Today, Kagen voted to raise the debt ceiling to an unprecedented $14.3 trillion.

“It is unconscionable that we are plaguing our children, our grandchildren – and now, our great-grandchildren — with this mountain of debt,” Eighth Congressional District Candidate Reid Ribble said.  “This Congress has done nothing but spend future generations of this country into a black hole.”

Democrats — including Kagen – just voted in December to raise the ceiling to $12.4 trillion. Quickly, though, these free-spending politicians realized that they had spent even more than they planned for only a few short months ago.  They raised the credit limit or the federal government would be out of money by the end of February 2010.

“How do we expect our economy to keep growing when each taxpayer is responsible for more than $113,150 of debt?” Ribble asked.  “My grandchildren have a tax burden and they haven’t even entered kindergarten, much less have a job to pay off their debt.   This behavior by Congress is simply insane.” 

Ribble is calling on Congress to stop the spending spree now, not in 2011 as President Barack Obama suggested in last Wednesday night’s State of the Union speech.

“The State of the Union is disastrous,” Ribble said.  “Congressman Kagen is on notice that the people of northeastern Wisconsin are watching and we are outraged.”

The depressing statistics on debt burden per taxpayer and per citizen can be found at http://www.usdebtclock.org/