John Boehner, July 28, 2006

Even with our economic engine firing on all cylinders, the pinch of rising health care costs, high gas prices, steep college tuition rates, and uncertainty about retirement savings has many Americans feeling a little uneasy.

When my colleagues elected me to serve as House Majority Leader, I promised that we would work to address these pocketbook challenges facing many Americans. To that end, we’ve enacted a number of short-term and long-term solutions that will keep America prosperous and help lower Americans’ cost of living.

Chief among our short-term strategies for lowering Americans’ cost of living was preventing a massive tax hike that would have hit working families, small businesses, and farmers the hardest. I for one think Americans pay more than enough in taxes already -- in fact, in many parts of the country, state and local taxes are on the rise. The last thing working families need is to send more money to Washington. Whatever our budget problems in D.C., we can solve them by restraining spending -- we don’t need to raid taxpayers’ wallets.

To help lower health care costs, we recently passed a health information technology bill which promotes the use of electronic medical records. This modern approach to health care delivery will reduce medical errors, save lives, and bring costs down. We are also fighting to enact small business health plans to make health insurance more affordable. And the Medicare prescription drug benefit is already lowering health care costs for seniors and taxpayers alike.

To help lower gas prices, we’ve successfully passed a number of common-sense energy solutions that will provide environmentally safe energy production in the Outer Continental Shelf and ANWR. We’ve also approved legislation that would encourage the development of new American refineries and limit the number of regional "boutique" fuels. These measures will reduce America's reliance on foreign sources of energy, create thousands of jobs for American workers, and will ultimately help lower gas prices.

To help lower college-related costs for students and families, our education reforms provide greater access to higher education for lower- and middle-income students. How so? The Deficit Reduction Act lowered interest rates on student loans and bolstered funding for Pell Grants. The College Access & Opportunity Act gives members of the Armed Forces increased access to financial aid. And the recently passed Carl D. Perkins Career & Technical Education Improvement Act will help states better utilize federal funds for secondary and postsecondary career education programs.

Lastly, to provide workers with greater retirement security, our critical pension reforms will ensure workers’ hard-earned pension benefits are there for them when they retire. The bill ensures employers better fund their pension plans, closes loopholes that allow underfunded plans to skip making pension payments, and prohibits employers and union leaders from digging the hole even deeper by promising extra pension benefits if their plan is significantly underfunded.

The bill also includes a key issue I’ve been working on for some seven years: providing workers access to critical investment advice to help them navigate the maze of investment options in their 401(k) plans and IRAs. Under our bill, American workers will have access to personally-tailored, high-quality advice to help them earn the kinds of returns they need for a secure retirement.

These pension reforms will also save taxpayers from a multi-billion dollar bailout of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Like I mentioned earlier, I believe Americans pay enough in taxes. We have to be sure we aren’t asking taxpayers to foot even more of the bill.

While the economic numbers are good - 34 consecutive months of job growth, 5.4 million new American jobs, 4.3 percent unemployment rate, and a 3.9 percent increase in workers’ wages - we have more work to do to lower Americans’ cost of living and keep America prosperous. But we’re making progress.

Congressman John Boehner is the House Majority Leader. Boehner, a Republican, represents Ohio's Eighth Congressional District, which includes Miami, Butler, Preble, Darke, and Mercer Counties.