Draft Jim Jordan for Speaker - April 2018

Thanks to an all-out effort by Oregon CSE activists last week, a sales tax proposal was successfully killed for this session. Activists called, wrote, and emailed state legislators, in addition to testifying at open hearings to express their opposition to the sales tax. This is a great victory for all Oregonians and everyone at CSE would like to thank all those activists that participated in the effort. But our work is far from over.

July 24, 2003 Dear Representative: On behalf of the 280,000 members of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), I urge you to vote YES on the Davis/Frelinghuysen/Boehner Amendment to the DC appropriations bill H.R. 2765, which will enact the program created by H.R. 2556, the “DC Parental Choice Incentive Act of 2003.”

©2003 Copley News Service, 7/23/2003 In life, "It is not the critic who counts. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood - who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worse, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."

In 1996, after seeing federal welfare policy fail to help the poor for 60 years, our leaders in Washington decided it was time to try something new. They boldly passed a welfare reform law that ended the legal entitlement to cash handouts, required many to work in order to receive money, and gave states the flexibility to design their own programs.

Recently, Alan Greenspan testified before Congress on growing concerns over natural gas supplies and the potential adverse effects of high energy prices on the recovery of the U.S. economy. Prices have edged upwards and Greenspan notes they are expected to remain high for a while. Some industrial demand has been priced out of the market, and it remains unclear whether this is a temporary phenomenon. The economic impact of energy prices offers a reminder of the importance of energy policy for a strong economy. Yet energy policy remains embroiled in politics, with the Senate struggling to finalize an energy bill that is dominated by special interests rather than economic growth.

School Choice

North Carolina State House members voted 86 to 23 to put this before the public as an Amendment to the Constitution of North Carolina. Voters will decide in November 2004 whether to let local governments borrow money through a mechanism called "tax increment financing." The financing method allows local governments, without getting the approval of voters, to borrow money for public projects that would benefit private development, such as parking decks, convention centers or similar structures. Taxes generated by the private development would pay off the debt.

When it comes to asbestos litigation, the trial lawyers have gotten out of control. 600,000 plaintiffs and have been sued in asbestos lawsuits, which are expected to take up to $250 billion in total damages. Many of these suits are frivolous, and they are driving innocent firms into bankruptcy. Indeed, asbestos damage awards continue to skyrocket in spite of the fact that the material has not been used since the 1970s.

July 22, 2003 Dear U.S. Representative: On behalf of the 280,000 members of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), I urge you to vote NO on H.R. 2427, the “Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2003.”