Maybe Joe Walsh, Bobby Schilling, Don Manzullo and John Shimkus should run for the state legislature. Or for governor.
The four Republican congressmen just sent a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn, basically telling him that Illinois’s economic problems are due to the fact that he’s not a Republican. Here’s an excerpt from the D.C. busybodies’ message home:
Since January of this year our state has lost a total of 89,000 jobs. Our unemployment rate in the State of Illinois has risen for the third straight month in a row. We cannot stand by and watch these numbers get even worse -- and we cannot let more jobs slip away to other states that have a more pro-business environment.
We hear from constituents every day about just how hard it is to live and work in our state. Whether it is the small business owner struggling to find capital to reinvest in their venture or the parent who is seeing more of their income taxed to pay for budget deficits, Illinoisans are tired of more taxes, regulations, and uncertainty.
As Members of Congress overseeing a vast federal budget that itself is in the red, we certainly understand the difficulty in trying to solve budgetary issues. However, raising individual income taxes by 66 percent will only exacerbate our wider problem and take more Illinois residents off the tax roll when they leave our state…A family of four earning $60,000 a year right now has an additional $1,040 to pay in taxes each year.
The largest employers in the state of Illinois are struggling too. Illinois has the third highest corporate tax rate in the country…Many of our large employers based in Illinois could leave as a result of the new 9 percent corporate tax rate that was raised from 6.8 percent in January.
Aren’t Republicans against the federal government sticking its nose into the states’ business? Federalism and the 10th Amendment have been popular themes in this month’s GOP presidential debates, as Republicans insist President Obama is out of line by imposing his health care plan on states that would rather allow the uninsured to die. We elect congressmen to run the country. We elected Pat Quinn to run the state. He doesn’t give advice to Congress, and he doesn’t need advice from congressmen, either.
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