Joe Walsh

A press release from Joe Walsh, the Republican running against 8th District Congresswoman Melissa Bean:

Walsh Speaks with More Than 500 on Illinois’ Manufacturing Industry

(Oakbrook Terrace, IL)– “Illinois manufacturers are job creators, wealth creators, and they are the sector that will lead the economic recovery in Illinois,” said Republican challenger Joe Walsh on Monday afternoon while speaking to representatives from some 500 manufacturing companies at Metals Services Institute conference.

Walsh used the opportunity to contrast his policy agenda for Illinois manufacturers with the record of his opponent, 3-term incumbent Rep. Melissa Bean.

“My opponent voted for cap-and-trade,” said Walsh.

“That’s almost all you need to know. Because a vote for cap-and-trade is a vote to impose the economic death penalty on Illinois manufacturing and raise energy prices on consumers.”

Walsh noted that those manufacturing industries most impacted by the pending cap-and-trade legislation are responsible for more than 177,000 jobs in Illinois, according to the Economic Policy Institute, many of those in the 8th Congressional District.

In 2005, the year Melissa Bean was elected, unemployment in the manufacturing sector was at 2.9%.  In March 2010, unemployment in the manufacturing sector had reached 12.6%.

Melissa Bean is, of course, not solely responsible for Illinois’ eroding manufacturing base but she and the party she represents-because she has consistently put her party’s interests ahead of her constituents-have pursued policies that punish business to finance big government.

2009 was one of the worst years for Illinois manufacturing in a century.  More than 700 Illinois manufacturers closed their doors and more than 50,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared.

Instead of pursuing tax and regulatory relief for manufacturing, Melissa Bean was piling on:

• taking tens of thousands of dollars from trial lawyers to block tort reform;
• voting for cap-and-trade; voting for card-check;
• voting to spend nearly $1 trillion to finance public sector unions and bail out big banks while manufacturers in the 8th district and around the state were effectively told that they were not “too big to fail.”

Joe Walsh will support Illinois manufacturers by:

1. opposing cap-and-trade;
2. voting down the undemocratic card-check legislation;
3. working to make permanent the elimination of the federal estate tax and the 2001 and 2003 personal income tax cuts;
4. opening foreign markets to Illinois’ manufactured goods; and
5. fighting for civil justice reforms that bring an end to costly, frivolous lawsuits

Both Melissa Bean and Joe Walsh support manufacturing. The difference is that Melissa Bean supports moving Illinois manufacturers to India, China, Mexico and Brazil. By contrast, Joe Walsh knows we can keep Illinois manufacturers here and attract new ones to the transportation hub of the Midwest by providing the tax and regulatory relief that allows manufacturing to be the engine that powers Illinois’ economic recovery.