Kyl: Fed measures hurt job creation

Sen. Jon Kyl was having "a great day in Yuma" when he visited the city to meet with constituents and address their concerns.

"I have no big message from Washington," the Republican U.S. lawmaker told the Yuma Sun during a stop at the newspaper.

However, he said, he's been hearing plenty about the economy and concerns about the rising unemployment rate here.

While Yuma may go into a recession a little later and come out earlier than other parts of the country, he said, "people are still hurting."

A few things are being done to help, Kyl said.

For example, Congress is expected to again extend unemployment benefits, he said, noting that a number of those who are unemployed have been without jobs for six months for more.

Kyl said "stimulus" has become a bad word and all measures being passed by the federal government these days are being referred to as "job creation."

But in reality, he said, the administration "is doing everything it can to hurt job creation." The agenda is being imposed "irrespective of how it hurts the economy."

For one thing, he said, the health care package "will be a killer" for a disincentive for a business to add jobs. as it amounts to a payroll tax and businesses won't want to take on the extra burden for additional employees.

Kyl noted that 7.3 million jobs have been lost since President Barack Obama was inaugurated.

"He has created jobs but they're all government" between the census and the additional IRS agents that will be needed to enforce the health care package, Kyl said.

"There's no quick fix" to turning around the nation's - and area's - unemployment, he said.

But it needs to come from the business sector, not government, he said.

And he believes businesses are being held back because of the lack of a stable tax structure. He noted that tax cuts enacted during the previous administration are due to revert to the previous rates at the end of the year, the health care package will add costs and there's the prospect of an increased state tax.

Kyl said if the president were to ask Congress for a bill within two weeks "just to leave taxes as they are for five years, my guess is the next day we would see the stock market go through the roof."

The senator also noted that the lack of lending by banks is hurting business. He said credit card companies are offering $25,000 credit limits but "a bank won't extend the same line of credit a business has had for 35 years."

Kyl expressed disappointment the administration didn't include funding for improvements to San Luis I in the proposed federal budget.

He said both he and Sen. John McCain had written letters and appealed for funding for the $80 million port project, expressing concern about the high volume of traffic through it and the hours farmworkers may have to wait to cross the border to work in the area's fields during the peak of the agriculture season.

As for immigration reform, Kyl said he doesn't think it's realistic to expect to see anything passed. "The political support hasn't been built for it. The trade-offs are no longer available ... that worked in the past. This administration isn't willing to make any compromises on it."