“42—the number of months unemployment has been at or above 8% and the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression. The President’s policies have made the economy worse, and now he’s insistent on raising taxes on job creators.

“West Virginia is one of the few places left where family businesses and corner stores still outnumber big businesses.  Small business owners across our state tell me they’re already struggling to stay afloat with the weight of new and complicated regulations in laws like Dodd-Frank.  Raising taxes is not the way to stimulate job growth.

“Consistently disappointing jobs numbers reinforce the need for Washington to pass pro-growth policies, including comprehensive tax reform to make the code fairer and simpler.  On Thursday, the House approved the “Pathway to Job Creation through a Simpler, Fairer Tax Code Act” (H.R. 6169) to do just that.  I hope our Senate colleagues will work with us the get our economy back on track and people back to work.”