Quakertown business leaders talk with Fitzpatrick about jobs, economy

Aug 2006       Aug 2010        % Increase

National Unemployment Rate: 4.7%                9.6%                  104%[1]

National Debt: $8.5 Trillion   $13.4 Trillion      59%[2]

QUAKERTOWN, Pa–As the Labor Day weekend began today, Mike Fitzpatrick held a roundtable discussion with a group of business owners and employers to hear their concerns about the economy and job growth.  The event, attended by twenty business leaders from the Quakertown area, also demonstrated the frustration of employers with Congressman Murphy’s failed leadership in Washington.

“The current administration promised us that the stimulus would put people to work and that Obamacare would drive down the cost of healthcare,” said Andy Struebing, President of North American Specialty Glass, a local manufacturing firm, “instead, healthcare premiums are skyrocketing and companies like ours have to absorb these costs, pass some of them on to our employees AND put off hiring new people. In the end, there are more Pennsylvanians out of work than when the stimulus was passed, and we have higher healthcare premiums.  We need real leadership on job creation in Washington.  We need Mike Fitzpatrick.”

In addition to adding to the already massive federal deficit, Congressman Murphy has left small businesses in a state of uncertainty about their future taxes.   “Unless Congress acts, we are four months away from one of the largest tax hikes in American history,” said Mike Fitzpatrick, “when access to capital is the tightest in a generation, Congress and Patrick Murphy intend to take even more money from small business.  How do they expect business to grow to create jobs?”

‘The unemployment rate is 9.6%,” said Fitzpatrick, “how many more months does Congressman Murphy need to see that he and President Obama’s policies aren’t working?”

Mike Fitzpatrick has outlined a common sense plan to help small businesses grow that includes extending tax cuts on job creators, reducing government spending and dispensing with burdensome red tape that stands in the way of small business.  The National Federation of Independent Business, an organization representing small business across the United States, also recently endorsed Fitzpatrick.