Bond: People are Tired of Business as Usual in Washington

Press Release

U.S. Senator Kit Bond and today joined members of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce for a discussion on Washington policies and new solutions for a responsive and responsible federal government.

"I believe this country's future success--like it's past success--depends far more on empowering individual Americans than empowering giant government," said Bond. "We can bring sanity back to Washington and create new jobs, but we need to take the focus off of big government and empower the private sector instead."

During the discussion, Bond expressed serious concern with Washington's role in the struggling economy. As unemployment hovers at nearly 10 percent in Missouri, foreclosures and personal bankruptcies are rising, small businesses are not hiring or expanding, and credit markets have collapsed, there is no doubt our economy is still struggling. Unfortunately, the White House and Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate and House have not adopted policies to reverse the downward trend. Instead, the Majority has spent a trillion dollars on a stimulus bill that is not working, adopted a budget that will double the nation's debt in 5 years, and mismanaged the financial and housing rescues. In addition to these policies, Bond pointed out that the Majority has proposed more policies threatening our economic recovery by prosing new tax increases on individuals, families and businesses, an energy tax and bureaucratic regulatory regime and a government takeover of healthcare.

To combat these bad policies and put our economy on the road to recovery, Bond proposed common-sense ideas on energy and health care. In the coming months and years, leaders in Washington should cut carbon emissions without raising taxes and killing jobs by promoting zero-carbon nuclear fuels, low-carbon biofuels, cellulosic, algae, clean coal technology, clean American natural gas and conservation. On health care, Bond proposed that Washington should fix what's broken to lower costs and increase access by ending junk lawsuits, allowing small businesses to pool together, giving individuals tax equity, enacting common sense insurance reforms and investing in prevention and wellness programs. Bond proposed bringing sanity back to Washington policies by passing tax relief for individuals, families and businesses, removing protectionist trade barriers, enacting a comprehensive energy bill, enacting health-care reform that lowers costs, investing in infrastructure and controlling runaway spending.

Turning to a local issue, Bond expressed outrage that the GSA has been unresponsive to the employees and tenants at the Bannister Complex. Bond noted that for more than five years, Kansas City community leaders, elected officials and others have worked with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to replace the Bannister Complex. The building is extremely expensive to operate, will soon be sparsely occupied, not conducive as a good workplace, and needs to be replaced. Once NNSA moves out, only the 1,000 GSA employees would remain at the 5.2 million square foot complex. Bond pointed out this would cost about $13,000 to $15,000 a year per employee for unused space -- this works out to be a waste to taxpayers of about $13 to $15 million dollars annually. Also, in light of disturbing news reports on possible health risks associated with the complex, Bond stressed there is an even greater urgency to finding a solution. Recently, the Senator asked the Inspector General to investigate reports that employees have possibly developed and died from serious illness related to exposure to hazardous toxins in the federal Bannister Complex.

In closing Bond said, "This is another example of unresponsive bureaucracy at its worst. I look forward to working with the GSA Inspector General to find out what exactly has been going on with the Bannister complex and the best way forward to protect the workers."

Source