RICHMOND - The way Bloomingdale resident Joseph Sackett sees it, his boss needs operating capital to expand operations and payroll.
"He expands and I make more money," Sackett said. "The tax breaks they're trying to take away from my boss he needs to operate and to expand."
Sackett was among a handful of employees on site Thursday when U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, toured Heavy Duty Industrial's Richmond operations center.
Article Photos
Linda Harris
DISCUSSING AREA GROWTH — U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, left, talked government policy Thursday with Heavy Duty Industrial owner Rick Glass, right. Listening to the discussion were Glass’s daughter, Laren Jursik, and her husband, Cory.
"We understand, loosen his capital up and we expand," Sackett said. "Tighten his revenue up and it's on hold. Loosen his money and I make more money, but they don't get that."
Johnson told the group, "Americans are getting it. The American people are the ones with the final say."
He said complying with federal regulatory policies takes a $1.7 trillion bite out of the national economy every year, and he also criticized a tax code he described as "one of the most onerous in the world."
"That regulatory burden keeps their capital locked up. They're not going to grow and expand because they don't know what government's going to do to them next," he added. "The policies of this administration, the increased regulations out of EPA, the Department of Interior and Health and Human Services and so forth ... that, combined with an onerous and very complex tax code, has a stranglehold on American business."
Sackett, meanwhile, said he's worried what the future will bring for the gas industry, which he credits for the steep drop in Ohio's unemployment rate.
"When Bush was in, gas was $1.99 a gallon," he said. "Now, I'm paying $4 a gallon because they're strangling the oil industry in this country. We've got more oil in this country than anyone else in the world and they won't let us drill for it. Now they're trying to strangle the gas industry."
