1st District Republican: Steve Rathje

Twenty-two years ago, I left the comfort of a good-paying job and took a chance on myself, taking all the experience I had gained in manufacturing, and formed two companies of my own. Two companies that would become instrumental in eliminating customer waste, controlling spending and bringing back to America the good-paying jobs that had been outsourced to other countries.

We proved beyond a shadow of doubt, that 30 percent of everything our customers had outsourced was being returned as scrap; another 15 percent had to be reworked just to meet fit, form and function standards. Then, after subtracting the cost of fees, insurance, and freight associated with shipping their components back to America, we came within 3 percent of the Chinese, matched the Mexicans dollar for dollar, outperformed the Canadians by 10 percent, the Taiwanese by 41 percent, and the Europeans by as much as 70 percent. Our customers said bring the jobs home, and for the most part, we placed as many as possible with manufacturers right here in Eastern Iowa.

Merely talking about the problems and blaming others for them accomplishes nothing. Real planning that produces solutions, however, does. Solutions that come together by way of proving viability, and getting opposing parties around a table to debate, negotiate and even compromise.

Successful businesses realize that unless they do these very three things, and provide solutions to their customers, those very customers will seek others that will.

So just as I have provided solutions for my customers, I too will provide for the very people I hope to represent in my district, and all across America, the kind of solutions that can create as many as 6 million jobs, while addressing $1.2 trillion in spending and waste. A common sense plan that (based on an average income of $50,000 per year) reduces the federal payroll tax rate from 18 percent to less than 14 percent, adding $124 per month to the amount of money taken home in a paycheck.

A plan that empowers new businesses with more of what they earn during their first two years when they need it the most. A plan that empowers existing businesses with the ability to better compete in a world market by reducing their federal tax burden from 39 percent to 15 percent, thus placing more than $235 billion into the hands of those that will advance technology, purchase machinery, build new facilities and create more than 4.7 million jobs.

And lastly, a plan that empowers college graduates with the ability to pay down or pay off their student loans within three years, with their own money.

Americans are without a doubt tired of being asked to vote for someone rather than something. They're tired of the sound bites, talking points and political rhetoric. What they want are those who have taken the time to offer solutions for the problems they discuss around their conference tables, kitchen tables, and in their living rooms.

I believe I'm offering that, as I, too, expect nothing but the same.

' Steve Rathje is a Republican candidate for 1st District in Congress. Comments: srathje@ipsinc-usa.co