Congressman Pete Visclosky has kicked off the new year by traveling throughout Indiana’s First District, conducting town forums, providing Northwest Indiana residents an opportunity to hear updates about federal issues impacting the region. On Thursday, January 13, 2011, Congressman Visclosky spoke to Portage residents at City Hall.
After a formal introduction performed by an 8th grade Willowcreek Middle School student, Congressman Visclosky opened with discussion on the war and the nation’s initiatives to pull the troops out of Iraq and decrease the number in Afghanistan beginning this summer. He spoke on veteran’s benefits, that “we owe them our gratitude,” and need to get them the benefits that they deserve. “We have not solved all of our problems with veteran’s healthcare but we have improved it,” observed the Congressman.
Next, the Congressman addressed the state of the economy. “If we don’t have a strong economy, we’re not going to be able to strengthen our defenses.” Even though the recession was officially declared over in June of 2009, and we’ve seen 12 months of consecutive growth of jobs in the private sector, the “recession remains alive and well in Northwest Indiana and across the country,” stated the Congressman. The Congressman talked about working hard to make the national economy grow, to do everything possible to protect citizens from economic predators, and to look for tax dollars to return to Northwest Indiana to encourage private investment. “We will have to work very hard to solve this problem,” stated the Congressman.
Congressman Visclosky spoke on the national debt and that spending makes up 24% of the economy and taxes make up 14%. “This is a very serious problem…we will have to act promptly.”
One of the biggest points the Congressman stressed was attracting federal dollars to Northwest Indiana to invest in private dollars. He spoke on several projects that have received stimulus dollars, such as the $1.9 billion Indiana schools received and the 71 million for construction along the freight lines, from Porter to the IL border. “America still remains a very divided nation,” said the Congressman, but he believes we can work together to improve and bring our economy back to where it needs to be.