Congressman critical of Obama's address

Posted: Jan. 31, 2012

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) joined State Rep. Don Pridemore (R-Hartford) at Sussex Village Hall on Jan. 27 to speak with their constituents.

Residents posed a host of questions to Sensenbrenner, asking him about the state of the U.S. Postal Service, the federal budget, taxes, military base closures, and his thoughts on President Obama's State of the Union address.

When asked about the postal service, the GOP lawmaker said, "There are going to have to be some changes made. I don't think we need six-day-a-week mail. I do think that getting rid of Saturday delivery may be a mistake, because then there's three days worth of mail to deliver on Monday."

As more people move away from traditional letter writing and bill pay through the mail, the postal service has seen less volume. Sensenbrenner said that revenue from first-class postage has declined by half in just the last six or seven years.

"The postmaster general has made some recommendations of slowing down first-class mail by closing postal sorting centers," he said. "First-class mail is what makes the money. Having poorer service and raising prices, I'm afraid, may drive even more people into using electronic commerce, particularly in bill paying, because if the postal service doesn't deliver your payment on time, you get nailed with interest and the late payment charges and a hit on your credit record. That's no good either."

The Republican representative said Congress probably would not address the issue until after this year's election.

Another constituent asked where Sensenbrenner stood on the issue of closing and reorganizing military bases around the country as the Department of Defense looks to slash its budget.

"If the base is not essential we ought to close it to stop paying for it," said Sensenbrenner. "It's better to close an unneeded base than it is, in my opinion, to reduce the size of the military or not give the military what they need in order to do their jobs."

He added, "My position is that the deficit reduction has got to be the top priority, because we have a $15-plus trillion debt. It will be $16 trillion by the end of the year, and if we are to give money back to the military, we've got to offset it dollar for dollar in other programs so there's no net increase in the debt."

Sensenbrenner was critical of the president's State of the Union address last week, arguing that he ignored some of the biggest problems the country faces.

"I think he missed the boat on pointing out that unemployment has gone up by 2 million since he's been in office. The debt has gone from about $9.5 to $10 trillion to about $15.2 trillion now. So we're talking about a 50-percent increase in the debt," he said when asked for his thoughts on Obama's address. "Now the debt is above our gross domestic product, and when Greece started getting in trouble, theirs was about 130 percent of GDP annually. So we're getting pretty close to the tipping point on this."

Sensenbrenner said since President Obama took office, the nation had added more borrowing and more debt than the 43 previous U.S. presidents combined.

"We've got to be really very, very careful to make sure that our debt does not cause an economic collapse, because the people who will be hurt first and hurt worst in an economic collapse will be poor people."

Sensenbrenner, who represents Wisconsin's 5th Congressional District, told the people assembled at the Sussex Village Hall that he supported the idea of tariffs to help revive American manufacturing.

"I'm all for reviving manufacturing, however the way to revive manufacturing is tariffs, not tax breaks. American manufacturing has had difficulty competing," he told those at the meeting. "It has had difficulty competing against products made in countries like China where they pay slave labor wages to their employees and giving a tax credit, or if you're in green energy a double tax credit, isn't going to be permanent.

"It's not going to provide the types of high-paying manufacturing jobs that we need even when the factory is extremely productive in terms of output per worker hour. The tariffs will be able to do it, so I think (President Obama) missed the boat on that as well."

He also addressed ideas for simplifying the nation's tax code. In response to a question, Sensenbrenner said, "Let me say, we're coming to the time where we're going to have overall tax reform. I doubt it will happen in an election year, but it will happen in the two years after this.

"The best way to ensure that tax reform happens is to sunset the current tax code as of a certain date in the future. That way, if Congress can't get together and get a newer and more simple tax code then there won't be any taxes at all and Congress won't have any revenue. That's the stick that will force Congress to act on time," he added.

The GOP representative advocated for reducing overall tax rates by eliminating loopholes and tax deductions that are not "broadly based."

"All of these comments about the rich paying more, you will get more revenue out of the rich by getting rid of a lot of the deductions and loopholes than by putting another bracket on top of the current brackets," he said at the meeting.

Sensenbrenner said that three tax deductions should remain untouched - the home mortgage interest reduction, the state and local tax deduction and the charitable contributions deduction.

"There are good economic and social reasons why each of those deductions is there."

Pridemore remained quiet throughout most of the meeting, but he answered a question about the controversial mining bill that the state legislature debated last week in Madison. The mining bill, which would open up parts of northern Wisconsin for iron ore mining is supported by conservatives, who argue the legislation would create thousands of jobs for the state. Democrats on the other hand, voiced concerns over the impact of mining on the environment.

"There's so much local support up there, and it's probably the biggest jobs bill that we've enacted this (session)," Pridemore said.

"Not only jobs up north, but also jobs around the Milwaukee area, too with all the mining equipment manufacturers in the area and jobs connected to that part of the business as well. It's a good deal all the way around for the State of Wisconsin, and thousands of jobs are hanging in the balance."