Lynn Jenkins speaks at southeast Kansas job fair

Second District Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins was in Pittsburg Friday to host “Getting Kansans Back to Work,” a southeast Kansas job fair scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Pittsburg Memorial Auditorium.

She took time off to visit with constituents at a noon luncheon put on by the Crawford County Republican Committee.

“We reached capacity with 35 employers for the job fair, and this morning we had over 200 people come in,” Jenkins said. “We were thinking that probably the noon hour would be the busiest time. It’s good we’re having so many people come out, but bad so many people are out of work.”

She said she believes that the high unemployment rate does not reflect the true number of those out of work because so many people have given up.

“I believe you can get a more accurate picture by looking at who’s in the workforce,” she said. “There are still 30 jobs bills stacked up in the Senate. We’re looking at hard-to-find common ground with the Democrats.”

Jenkins, who sits on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, said that this is budget time in Washington, D.C. Under provisions of the Tax Act of 1974, which has been amended but remains the basic blueprint for budget procedures today, a budget must be passed by April 15.

“Since the Republican majority took over in the House of  Representatives, we have met the letter of the law and passed a budget by April 15,” Jenkins said. “We have cut drastically the 12 appropriations bills. This will be two years now that we’ve cut the discretionary portion of the budget. Mandatory spending is two-thirds of the budget.”

This includes entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security.

“Ten thousand people every day in America retire,” Jenkins said. “Medicare will be bankrupt in eight years and Social Security in a few decades.”

She said that there are changes that could fix the problem, including an age adjustment in which people work two more years.

“These adjustments would apply only to those under age 55, and not those over 55,” Jenkins said. “It’s not fair to change the rules when the game is over.”

She also discussed the need for fundamental tax reform to benefit the economy.

“We have the highest corporate tax rate in the world, and we need to change the way we tax international corporations to be more in line with the rest of the world,” Jenkins said. “We are moving forward with corporate reforms and individual reforms. It may not be perfect, but we are the only people in town with a plan.”

She also vowed to continue opposing President Barack Obama’s health care plan.

“We’re not going to let 15 bureaucrats in Washington decide if you are worthy or not of having a hip replacement,” Jenkins said. “That’s just crazy.”

However, the Republicans have limitations.

“I hope you all appreciate what a difficult dynamic we face,” she said. “We thought that when we took the House of Representatives back, we’d be able to do some good things. But Harry Reid (Democrat Senate majority leader) doesn’t let the good Republicans in the Senate, like Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, have a voice.”

She is hopeful that the upcoming election will change that dynamic, and that the Republicans will be able to take the Senate and the White House.

“There has never been a more critical time,” Jenkins said. “I don’t know if we can survive another four years of this administration.”

She took several questions from the audience, and attorney Kevin Mitchelson asked if Congress would be addressing the estate tax.

“When I look at the calendar, knowing we will not have tax reform, I think we’re going to have the lame duck session from hell,” said Jenkins, referring to the congress members who were not re-elected but who will serve until the new Congress is seated.

She said that the worst case scenario, and probably the most likely, would be that the lame ducks would kick the “can” of tax reform on for the new Congress to deal with.

“If the election goes the way we hope it does, that’s OK, because we will fix it,” Jenkins said.