President Barack Obama was exactly right when he said that “we can’t wait” in getting the American people back to work. Considering the fact that President Obama has waited almost three years to present a jobs plan, it is puzzling he would try to suggest that there is anyone to blame but himself for the delay.

During a recent speech in a Las Vegas neighborhood President Obama declared that he plans on issuing a series of executive orders to enact portions of his “jobs bill” without congressional approval. Not only does this send a troubling message regarding his administration’s views on the constitutional separation of powers, it is completely unnecessary.

Since day one of the 112th Congress, House Republicans have been hard at work in developing solutions that will put Americans back to work. In fact, we have been successful in passing 16 bipartisan jobs bills. Unfortunately, Senate Majority Leader Reid has refused to even allow this legislation to be brought up for a vote on the Senate floor. These bills would empower small business owners, increase domestic energy production and pay down our unsustainable debt. Surely, with an unemployment rate of over nine percent, these bipartisan bills deserve to at least be considered.

Rather than trying to bypass the Congress, the president should urge Senate Democrats to allow these bills to be brought up for a fair vote on the floor of the Senate.

Further, I disagree with the President when he claims that House Republicans are unwilling to work with him in finding methods to create jobs. Of course, there are things that Republicans and Democrats are just not going to agree on, but my Republican colleagues and I have shown that we are willing to put those differences aside and work together on areas of common ground.

For example, a key part of President Obama’s jobs package was the passage of the free-trade agreements with Panama, Columbia and South Korea. These trade agreements, which have been estimated to create over 250 thousand jobs and add $10 billion to our nation’s gross domestic product, were brought up and passed in the House with overwhelming Republican support and signed by the president earlier this month.

Additionally, in his jobs plan, President Obama asked for a delay in implementing a three percent withholding requirement on certain payments made to contractors doing business with federal, state and local governments, calling the rule a “burdensome withholding requirement that keeps capital out of the hands of jobs creators.” House Republicans agreed, and responded by introducing bipartisan legislation to repeal the three percent withholding requirement.

Clearly, we have shown that there are areas where we can work together, but what my colleagues and I won’t do is give this president a second stimulus package or increase taxes for more wasteful government spending that will not produce jobs. Circumventing Congress is not the type of leadership that the American people expect from our commander in chief.

Instead of looking for someone to blame, it is time for President Obama to join us in finding areas where we work together in implementing solutions that will get Americans back to work. I hope that his “we can’t wait” rhetoric is a sign that from this point on we will see a president more focused on saving American jobs, rather than the campaign to save his own.

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Rep. DesJarlais,

Where in the Constitution is power given to Congress to create jobs?

Drew Daugherty
Soddy Daisy

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Congressmen DesJarlis suggests that the Republicans have advanced jobs bills to the Senate only to suggest that this pending legislation is held up by the Democratic controlled Senate.

I ask the representative just what is in these jobs bills and would be willing to conjecture that nothing of real value or stimulative is in the bills proposed. What is likely to be in any of these bills is reducing taxes on the businesses and reducing regulations.

I posed this to the congressman, and since Tennessee is poised near or last in meaningful measurements of nearly every measure, ie. education, child mortality, number of college graduates, obesity, jobs, etc...where is his leadership helping his constituents?

Factories where high school graduates could go to work are gone. The Republican party advocates only for the wealthy. When will the voter realize that?

Robert Brooks
Chattanooga