Statement by U. S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush on his "No" Vote on the HIRE Act

WASHINGTON --  "Despite some of the merits of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, I could not, in good conscience, vote for this bill today because its provisions fail to do the heavy lifting to provide a hand up for chronically unemployed Americans.

"The people I serve in my district are hardworking and ready to work.  The hand that's extended in this legislation, for the most part, takes the form of tax cuts for businesses that ought to be doing the right thing in the first place.  How many tax cuts do they need before they'll hire?

"At a time when the African American community's unemployment rate hovers in the range of 17 percent, I cannot go back to them, look them in the eye and tell them ‘I got big business a tax cut today' and simply walk away in the hopes that they'll be hired.  The fact is their prospects of benefitting from those who received these tax breaks, today, are dim.

"What I will do in the coming days is to propose legislation that seeks to expand our nation's economic engine where it matters most—within the ranks of our innovative, small and minority-owned businesses.  I believe strongly that if we shore up small businesses, especially now at a time when green jobs and continued changes in technology and e-commerce continue to spark new innovations, a new, aggressive crop of visionary entrepreneurs will take root in local communities.  They'll look at the faces of the hard working men, women and young adults that I know and see them as part of America's promise for the future.  That's a view that far too many distant, Wall Street businesses simply don't understand."