2014 ID Senate debate: on Corporations

Jim Risch: Jobs are created by private sector and not by government

A: As Idaho's Governor and Lt. Governor, my top priority was always quality jobs for hardworking families. As U.S. Senator, I continue this fight. Jobs are created by the private sector and not by the government. In recent years, the government has pursued policies that have slowed private sector job growth. Government regulations, higher taxes, and ObamaCare have cut the growth of the economy and the expansion of small businesses. As ranking member of the Small Business Committee, I fight successfully to change those policies.

Jim Risch: No tax incentive for repatriation of overseas jobs

The Bring Jobs Home Act would have offered an incentive for bringing jobs back to America and eliminated the tax break received by American companies for sending jobs overseas. "I can imagine that Washington lobbyists and special interests are happy with Risch's vote," Mitchell said, "but Idahoans should be angry. Idaho jobs will continue to go overseas, and Idaho taxpayers will continue to foot the bill. That's just plain wrong. Idaho lost more than 18,000 jobs to China alone during one ten year period."

Mitchell pointed out that on his website, Risch claims to support job growth. "Maybe he means job growth in Asia," Mitchell said, "because that's what his vote yesterday does. It hurts job growth at home and promotes outsourcing of American jobs to China and elsewhere."

Nels Mitchell: Subsidies to established corporations waste taxpayer money

A: We have a tax system that plays favorites and is inefficient. We need to make our tax system fairer and simplify it. We also need to increase transparency and eliminate waste and fraud. Federal subsidies to profitable, well-established corporations are a waste of the taxpayer's money. For instance, oil and gas industries are highly profitable, but have been getting huge subsidies from the U.S. taxpayers for almost a century. A conservative think tank recently estimated that corporate welfare in the federal budget costs taxpayers almost $100 billion a year. That's $870 for each one of America's 115 million families. The Simpson-Bo