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Bachus: Entrepreneurs And Workers Of America Will Lead Us To Economic Recovery, Not Government

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 -

:   Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus prepared statement for the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee hearing entitled “Can Monetary Policy Really Create Jobs?” follows:

“I commend Chairman Paul for choosing this topic for the first hearing of this subcommittee.

“The nation’s unemployment rate has been consistently at or above 9 percent for the longest period of time since World War II.  Last week, the chairman of the Federal Reserve predicted we will have unacceptably high unemployment for several more years.

“There are reasons for this dearth of employment. Yes, we had a major economic catastrophe.  But throughout our history, American businesses and American workers have proven themselves strong and resilient.  In just our recent past, the economy was able to shrug off the S&L crisis and the bursting of the dot-com bubble relatively quickly.   So what’s different this time? Unlike now, we didn’t have out-of-control spending and trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. We did not have a Congress and a White House issuing an ever increasing and endless flurry of confusing statutory and regulatory mandates. We were not confronted by a Federal Reserve printing money at an alarming rate nor regulators and the White House arbitrarily deciding which private businesses would survive and which would perish. We didn’t have, with the exception of the Hoover and FDR administrations, the Executive Branch attempting to micromanage the private sector with a barrage of new regulations, commands or directives.

“All this has created higher costs and a level of uncertainty that is causing American businesses to hunker down rather than hire.

“Restoring confidence and certainty is essential for restoring our long-term growth, and I and many others are concerned that the Federal Reserve’s so-called QE2 action introduces more uncertainty which could lead to higher inflation and generate artificial asset bubbles that cause further economic harm.

“It will be the entrepreneurs and workers of America who will lead us to economic recovery, not government stimulus or micromanagement. However, the private sector will do so only if we refrain from burying them in a blizzard of burdensome and overreaching regulatory constraints. 

“The Financial Services Committee and House Republicans are committed to sweeping away unnecessary, repetitive or intrusive government-imposed obstacles to recovery and hiring.  We will look to remove the confusing impediments the Dodd-Frank Act places in the way of a freely operating and safe financial services industry.  And, through the focus of Dr. Paul’s subcommittee, we will look towards a more consistent Fed monetary policy -- as discussed at last week’s hearing by Dr. John Taylor -- without in any way compromising the central bank’s independence.”

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