Devastating Defense Cuts or Small Business Tax Hikes? House Dems Will Take Both
| FYI, a similar version of this release below went out to the following districts: Bruce Braley (IA-01), Andrei Cherny (AZ-09), David Cicilline (RI-01), Val Demings (FL-10), Lois Frankel (FL-22), John Garamendi (CA-03), Alan Grayson (FL-09), Raul Grijalva (AZ-07), Pam Gulleson (ND-AL), Jim Himes (CT-04), Steven Horsford (NV-04), Bill Keating (MA-09), Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01), Pat Kreitlow (WI-07), Mike Michaud (ME-02), Patrick Murphy (FL-18), John Oceguera (NV-03), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Nick Rahall (WV-03), David Schapira (AZ-09), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09), John Tierney (MA-06), Niki Tsongas (MA-03), Christie Vilsack (IA-04), Jamie Wall (WI-08)
Devastating Defense Cuts or Small Business Tax Hikes? Michaud Will Take Both
Threat of Major Job Loss Right Before Election Poison for Dem’s Chances WASHINGTON – Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of receiving pink slips right before the election due to roughly $1 trillion in defense cuts. Congressional Republicans are ready with a plan to avoid these irresponsible defense cuts but Mike Michaud refuses to support any plan that doesn’t include taxing small businesses. This unpopular position has Michaud and his party bullying contractors into preventing them from sending warning notices to American workers who will be affected. “Taking military cuts off the table would save our workforce from a demolishing blow and keep our national security strong,” said NRCC Communications Director Paul Lindsay. “However, Mike Michaud and his Democrat leaders refuse to take defense cuts off the table until tax hikes on small businesses are in place. There’s an alternative to avoid both, but it’s obvious that Michaud is too beholden to his party leaders to even be open to the idea.” Roughly 17,000 jobs in Maine alone could be lost over the next decade from devastating defense cuts as part of sequestration. (“Defense Spending Cuts: The Impact on Economic Activity and Jobs,” National Association of Manufacturers, Accessed 7/19/2012) Afraid for what it would do for his party’s reelection chances, the Obama administration sent a ‘guidance’ to defense contractors, urging them not to send their employees notice of possible layoffs: “Under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, employers are supposed to give at least 60 days notice of expected mass layoffs, but the DOL said doing so would be inappropriate under the law. The guidance noted that it’s not clear at this point where the cuts would come from and that both parties are working to find an alternative to the sequester.” (Steven T. Dennis, “Sequester Has GOP in a Tizzy,” Roll Call, 8/2/2012)
Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid said his party will consider stopping the $1 trillion defense cuts only if Republicans agree to a tax increase on job creators: “We could avoid these defense cuts tomorrow if Republicans would simply agree to ask millionaires to pay their fair share,’ [said Reid].” (Jeremy Herb, “Republicans: Obama administration hiding big job losses from sequester,” The Hill, 7/31/2012)
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