GOVERNOR LINGLE PROVIDES CLEAR CHOICE ON JOB CREATION

News Release from www.Lingle2012.com

HONOLULU - Former Governor Linda Lingle, candidate for Hawaii's open U.S. Senate seat, responded today to the weak August jobs report by calling for Congress to exercise leadership to resolve the nation's fiscal crisis which is acting as the barrier to job creation. Governor Lingle also called for Congresswoman Mazie Hirono, a current member of Congress, to answer for the 40,000 unemployed in Hawaii and 12.5 million unemployed across the country with a real plan to put our people back to work. [1]

"Friday's weak jobs report is another indictment of how the 112th Congress, with a deservedly abysmal approval rating, has failed to deal with our nation's fiscal crisis. And it is more bad news for Hawaii's middle-class families who are struggling to get by each and every day. Hawaii's small business owners are also hurting because they have lost faith in our federal government's ability to reinstate certainty and confidence in our nation's economy," said Governor Lingle.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the economy created 96,000 jobs in August, far fewer than the 200,000 jobs a month needed for the economy to recover. [2] Unemployment rate fell slightly, but for the wrong reason - 368,000 more people have given up looking for work and therefore were not counted in the government's calculation. Friday's report also signaled another new low - the percentage of Americans in the workforce dropped to 63.5%, its lowest level in 31 years.

"At the same time, it is estimated that U.S. corporations hold $3 trillion in cash, more than three times the amount the federal government spent on the 'stimulus' package," said Governor Lingle. "That is capital businesses could be using to invest, to expand and to hire more workers. But these businesses are not investing or hiring because they do not have confidence in an economy laboring under record federal deficits and debt and which is facing a 'fiscal cliff' in January of next year.

"The United States national debt last week hit a record $16 trillion and our nation is facing the imminent threat of another recession caused by the $1.2 trillion in automatic federal spending cuts and across-the-board tax increases to take place in January. Mazie Hirono and the partisan Congress have failed to solve our country's financial crisis and workers are suffering as a result.

"In clear contrast to Hirono's status quo approach, I believe that creating jobs starts with restoring business and consumer confidence in America's economy. If elected the next United States senator, I will immediately advocate and work on substantially eliminating the tax loopholes and special tax treatment that result in $1.1 trillion a year in revenue loss to the federal government. I will also work toward a bipartisan tax reform of the kind called for by the President's own Simpson-Bowles Commission, which reform could result in $80 to $180 billion in additional revenues to the federal government. That tax reform will also result in lower taxes across-the-board for all taxpayers, and more hard-earned money kept in households' pockets to spur economic activity and job creation. Finally, I will advocate for annual spending caps on federal discretionary spending which could result in approximately $2 trillion of savings by 2020.

"Medicare and Social Security, which are not included in discretionary spending, would be reformed to ensure longer-term viability, while keeping promises made to seniors and those near-retirement.

"Congress needs to reach an immediate agreement on concurrently tackling these major drivers of our deficit and debt and avoiding the fiscal cliff. Only when businesses see that our federal government finances are on a firm and stable footing will they have the confidence to invest their $3 trillion in cash reserves to expand their operations, make new investments and hire more people," concluded Governor Lingle.

Mazie Hirono's only "plan" to address this serious fiscal crisis is to "tax the rich", eliminate "subsidies for big oil" - which make up only $2.5 billion of the $1.1 trillion a year in total tax subsidies - and finding unspecified "Medicare fraud and abuse". This is not a serious plan to address a serious national crisis. This is not a plan that will create the certainty and confidence to put the 12.5 million Americans looking for work, back to work.

Besides restoring confidence through a sound budgetary and fiscal approach, Governor Lingle has common-sense proposals to immediately create jobs through federal policies that increase tourism, energy efficiency investments and increased exports, all of which can be accomplished with little or no additional federal spending. For details, see http://www.lingle2012.com/jobs-economy/, http://www.lingle2012.com/visitor-industry/, http://www.lingle2012.com/apec/, http://www.lingle2012.com/energy-hawaii/.

Additional information on the Linda Lingle Senate campaign is available at www.lingle2012.com or on LL12, channel 110 or LL12HD, channel 1110 on Oceanic Time-Warner Digital Cable. Follow the campaign on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Lingle2012, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Lingle2012, and on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/Lingle2012 .

[1] http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.hi.htm

[2] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

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