Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) Warns Dems in GOP Weekly Address: “Big Government is Blocking Job Creation Not Helping It” (Video)

Republican star Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) delivered the GOP Weekly Address this week. The former business leader warns democrats and our President Obama that big government is blocking job creation, not helping it.

Full transcript of Senator Johnson’s Address:

“Hello, my name is Ron Johnson. I’m the newly elected Senator from the great State of Wisconsin.

“For those of you who don’t know me, this is the first elective office I have ever sought or held. The reason I ran is simple and straightforward. We are bankrupting America, and I thought it was time for citizen legislators to come to Washington to help those individuals already here that are seriously facing that reality.

“For the last 31 years, I have been running a plastics manufacturing plant in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. As a manufacturer, I have learned to identify and attack the root cause of a problem, not spend my time addressing mere symptoms. Huge deficits, slow economic activity, high unemployment, and woefully inadequate job creation are severe symptoms of the problem. They are not the root cause. The ever expanding size, scope, and cost of government is. This is what we must address. This is what I hope the President has come to realize.

“I hope the President and his allies in Congress accept a simple truth: big government is blocking job creation, not helping it. The sooner Washington ends its dependence on more spending, the sooner our economy will see real growth.

“I bring the perspective of someone who’s been creating jobs, meeting a payroll, balancing a budget, and living under the rules, regulations, and taxes that politicians here in Washington impose on the rest of us. I know firsthand the incentives and disincentives, the intended and unintended consequences of government intrusion into our lives. Unfortunately, when it comes to creating jobs, government is rarely helpful. Government tends to make it harder and more expensive to create jobs. We need to make job creation easier and cheaper.

“Recently, President Obama talked about the harmful effect of government overregulation. Highlighting this problem is long overdue. The Small Business Administration estimates that government regulations cost our economy $1.7 trillion annually. According to the IRS’s own figures, it cost taxpayers 6.1 billion hours to comply with tax code just last year. This is a staggering amount of money. And it is money that is not available for consumption, business investment, or job creation. That’s a problem.

“The President often speaks of making investments in our economy. If he means allowing taxpayers and businesses to keep more of their hard earned dollars, and providing them the freedom to invest where they choose, I’m all for it. Unfortunately, I’m afraid he means more government spending and more government control. The lesson we all should have learned from the pitiful results of the $814 billion stimulus bill, is that growing government does not grow our economy or create long term, self-sustaining jobs. It is the private sector that creates jobs.

“History proves that governments do not know how to efficiently allocate capital. Millions of private individuals, acting independently within the free market system, do it best. We need to encourage and incentivize entrepreneurs, not tax and regulate them out of business.

“We’ve also heard the President talk about controlling spending and the deficit. If he’s serious about it, he should present a serious plan. If he does, I feel confident Republicans will be willing to help him get it passed.

“In his response to the State of the Union Address, my fellow Wisconsinite Paul Ryan – a leader in tackling our spending problem – did a great job of expressing our willingness to work with the President, and pointing out how critical it is for us to act now, before it’s too late.

“The issues of spending, deficits, and the debt will be central in the upcoming debate over the 2011 spending bill and the need to raise the debt ceiling. This will be the moment of truth when talk and rhetoric must be turned into action and tangible results. Real reductions must be part of the solution.

“As a business person, I’m used to getting things done. I came here to accomplish something, to help solve the very serious problems facing our nation. I also came to Washington with a deep reverence for the genius of our founding Fathers, what they passed on to us, and what they hoped we would preserve. Their fight for freedom, their belief in the power of the free market system, and their vision of a limited government is what has made America the greatest nation in the history of mankind.

“It is our honor and our duty to be worthy stewards of this legacy. It is our turn to act responsibly.

“Thank you.”

Great job!

#2 January 29, 2011 at 6:51 am
JD commented:

Great message from Senator Johnson. Having a successful businessman who understands economics and job creation, problem solving, and meeting payroll commitments is a great step forward for Wisconsin and the US Senate. We have way more than enough lawyers and poly sci majors roaming the halls in DC.

I particularly like his comments on recognizing the difference between a symptom and a root cause. Whether from denial or ignorance, our current administration does not know the difference.
#3 January 29, 2011 at 6:57 am
squeaky commented:

fox n’ friends had an interview yesterday with phil angelidis and a bit of re-hash today. he’s part of a group looking at the financial meltdown and just where to pin the tail. he blames big business, etc. the competing view today looked more at the housing mess – fanny and freddy – the congress, etc. curious, i looked up phil and find his connection to the appollo alliance which just happens to be associated with van jones and jeff jones [co founder of the weatherman with bill ayers and helped write the stimulus]…sometimes what they don’t tell you might almost be more important than what they do.
#4 January 29, 2011 at 7:10 am
justasimplepatriot commented:

When you take a dollar out of the wealth-creation pool, the economy suffers the loss of the profit that dollar would have generated. Business have to lay off people – unemployment skyrockets.

When you change foundational aspects of the economy and make long term planning impossible, you shift risk taking into its most conservative mode. Job growth suffers.

When you create a mountain of debt unlike anything ever seen before and suspend it over the country’s head by a thin, frayed thread – you shut down the growth machine. Job growth suffers.
#5 January 29, 2011 at 7:23 am
Tim Wiley commented:

This guy gets it!

Ron Johnson is the kind of Senator the Founders had in mind, an experienced man wise in the way the world actually works.

I am truly surprised that Wisconsin has produced two men like Ron Johnson and Paul Ryan, I used to live there and it looked like it was going to be all Socialists all the time. There is hope yet!
#6 January 29, 2011 at 7:23 am
Rick554 commented:

Excellent Job Mr Senator! Note to BHO : The time is fast approaching for YOU to put up or shut up. Got a plan Barry….or just more words?
#7 January 29, 2011 at 7:24 am
Big L commented:

For the donks, they will say “Huh, Wha?” to Sen Ron Johnson’s speech/
For the GOP, they will put him on the Committee to Regulate Snowblowers and Lawnmowers..in other words oblivion
and the GOP will nake sure he is primaried in two years…Buh bye Johnson you are too smart and that threatens YOUR party.
#8 January 29, 2011 at 11:02 am
mama winger commented:

Ron Johnson won’t be primaried in two years by the GOP or anyone else. He’s a Senator. 6 year term.
#9 January 29, 2011 at 11:05 am
Julie commented:

I watched Johnson make a fool out of himself during the Senate Budget Committee hearing this week. We’re talking zero, zilch, nothing between the ears regarding basic economics. After the hearing, Chairman Kent Conrad remarked that members need to be better educated, maybe send them back to school or something if they expect to be part of the Senate team. How humiliating for Wisconsinites. It only took “Pants of Fire Johnson” one week to become beholden to lobbyists, break his promise not to comment on war in public, and receive the Liar Liar Pants on Fire award for telling the biggest lie of 2010, that the ACA was a gov’t takeover of the healthcare system.
#10 January 29, 2011 at 12:50 pm
CT commented:

#7 Big L’s comment appears baseless and uninformed, #9 Julie’s comment however is ridiculous. How could you listen to the posted video or read the transcript and come to the conclusion that Sen. Johnson has “…nothing between the ears regarding basic economics…”? The childish name calling that follows is not worth the time to recognize, but it seems to be all that we can expect from the Lunatic Left.
#12 January 29, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Blacque Jacques Shellacque commented:

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) Warns Dems in GOP Weekly Address: “Big Government is Blocking Job Creation Not Helping It”

Wasted words.

Democrats care more about having Big Government than they do about promoting job creation.
#13 January 29, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Phil commented:

It was a sad day when Mr. Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate. He talks of the deficit and that we need businessmen (and women) to run the legislative branch. Lest we forget
that the reason we are in all of ths trouble is because we let the businessmen run this
country. The Republicans were (and still are) against deregulation of Wall Street and the
insurance industry and what did that give us? The worst economic disaster since the Great
Depression, which by the way, happened during the Hoover administration. If my facts are
correct, Hoover was a Republican and deregulated big business then. It took a Democrat to
fix that mess and the reponsibility is on a Democrat again. We have Republicans wanting to
repeal the Health Care bill to so that CEOs and stock holders make billions off the average citizen. I don’t know about you, but I would rather have an increase in my taxes of a few hundred dollars a year than have to keep paying over $7,000 a year for insurance that doesn’t cover anything. It’s funny how Americans are willing to spend trillions for two wars
that the Bush administration started and are against spending billions less to help the citizens of this country get affordable insurance. Let’s just keep talking about decreasing government spending by cutting taxes and programs that help our fellow man while taking care of the rich. I guess most of the Republicans feel that one day soon they will all be millionaires so they can share the wealth. I am proud that I did not vote for this businessman. I’ll take the man who does the RIGHT thing anytime.
#15 January 29, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Scott commented:

Taxing productive persons and businesses. Filtering those tax dollars thru the worlds largest beurocracy. Then sending those remaining dollars back into the economy via every manner of vote buying scheme is madness. It is the very epitomy of wealth destruction. Yet Obama, Reid, and Pelosi and countless other politicians have bankrupted our government this way and learned nothing.
#16 January 29, 2011 at 8:46 pm
David Kramer commented:

Glad to say that Ron is my Senator.
As for the lefties here blaming businesses, tell me oh ignorant ones, who forced the banks to give loans to those unqualified? Who told the congress to stop the madness about 20 times? (Bush among others) Which the banks then created and used derivatives to spread the leverage across the entire economy. What did you expect them to do? Go out of business? Who authorized the dissemination of the debt vehicles?

Reagan was right “Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”

Hmmmm, question for the ignorant liberals amongst us, how goes that stimulus package?

It is like talking to a 4 year old when talking to a liberal, you tell them that the sky is blue and they say “nuh uh”. You can show them historical references of centrally controlled economies and socialist systems that have ALWAYS failed. Ask them for ONE instance where it has worked and they say “nuh uh”.

Time to just ignore them I guess or their “nuh uh” comments will turn to ad hominem attacks.

“NUH UH?
#17 January 30, 2011 at 11:23 am
Julie commented:

@CT

Heh brainless, try channel #997 and maybe you might learn something. Johnson went on a diatribe about Greece and it was an embarassment to any student who passed Economics 101. America is not Greece, we can monetarize our debt, borrow money to ourselves and print money. UNLIKE GREECE. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the most powerful committee in Washington, was openly ashamed, going so far as to exclaim that members needed to educate themselves better. Johnson sounded like a complete idiot, even you could do better, and it was on national television. If you want to be on the Senate Budget Committee, you need to have better than a fifth grade grasp of economics, which leaves Johnson out.
#18 January 30, 2011 at 11:32 am
Julie commented:

@DavidKramer – Oh Ignorant One!
It was republicans who separated home mortgages from traditional bank loans, opened the door for derivatives trading and deregulated the banks under The Glass Stegle Act in 1992. And democrats who wrote the Dodd Finance Bill under Obama. The banksters still have too much control, yet Obama did create a consumer protection agency to monitor the FED.