from the Schilling for Congress campaign
EAST MOLINE, IL-- Bobby Schilling, the Republican Candidate for the Illinois 17th Congressional District, declared the Democratic Party is attempting to intimidate companies who fail to yield to the party's agenda. Democratic leadership recently demanded that the CEOs of John Deere and Caterpillar appear before Congress and surrender company documents, a move that has apparently met with the tacit approval of the district's current Congressman, Phil Hare.
"Our Congressman cannot even muster the smallest protest to this threat to our community's jobs and livelihoods while he marches in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, and the liberal California Congressmen who run our government," Schilling said.
On March 26th, Rep. Henry Waxman, the Chair of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, issued letters to the CEOs of Caterpillar and John Deere, the two largest employers in the 17th district, demanding that they turn over any and all documents and emails related to their recent earnings statements and that they testify before Congress to explain their actions. Both companies, along with a host of other Fortune 500 companies, announced that the latest healthcare legislation will lower future profits by hundreds of millions of dollars, which will hurt their employees as well as the economies they are located in. The companies explained in their announcements that they had to estimate the legislation's impact on profits soon after the legislation passed in order to comply with SEC regulations.
Schilling said that these "companies employ thousands of workers in our district, and the recently passed healthcare legislation will cost each company hundreds of millions of dollars. More importantly, the legislation takes away any incentive these companies have to provide retiree drug benefits. By merely reporting these facts, as they are required to do by the Financial Accounting and Standards Board, Chairman Waxman has decided to rake them over the coals and bring their CEOs to DC for what will amount to little more than a show trial.
"Given Hare's silence on the subject, it seems that when he has to choose between loyalty to his party's leadership and jobs in his district, he sticks with his party bosses. My loyalty will always be to the jobs of the men and women who live and work in the 17th district of Illinois."
