FEB 1, 2012 — Heartland Institute Senior Fellow Peter Ferrara, author of America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb, is testifying today at a hearing of the full House Committee on Small Business.
The hearing — “The Path to Job Creation: The State of American Small Businesses” — begins at 1 p.m. today in Room 2360 of the Rayburn House Office Building. It will examine obstacles to small-business job creation and economic growth.
Ferrara will be joined on the panel of witnesses by:
- Dr. Dennis J. Jacobe, chief economist, Gallup, Washington, DC
- Dr. Martin Neil Baily, The Brookings Institution, director, Initiative on Business and Public Policy; senior fellow, Economic Studies; Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Development, Washington, DC
- Michael J. Fredrich, president, Manitowoc Custom Molding, Manitowoc, Wisconsin (testifying on behalf of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council)
Ferrara served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Ronald Reagan, and as associate deputy attorney general of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.
An excerpt from Ferrara’s prepared remarks:
“Official U.S. government projections have shown for some time now that over the next 30 to 40 years federal spending as a percent of GDP will double to 40 percent or more. Financing that would ultimately require at least doubling every federal tax. Add in continued state and local spending growing towards 15 percent of GDP, and government in America will consume more than half of the economy. Much more than half in the end, because under that burden GDP growth collapses, leaving the government share an even higher percentage of a shrunken GDP.
“This would fundamentally transform America into a static, low growth, socialist European state. America’s traditional world leading prosperity and opportunity, the American Dream, would be gone.”
To schedule an interview with Peter Ferrara, email him at [email protected] or contact Tammy Nash at [email protected] or 312/377-4000. After regular business hours, or on a tight deadline, contact Heartland Institute Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] or 312-731-9364.
The Heartland Institute is a 28-year-old national nonprofit organization with offices in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; Austin, Texas; Tallahassee, Florida; and Columbus, Ohio. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
Peter Ferrara, J.D., is a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute and an advisor for entitlement reform and budget policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation.
