Congressional leader campaigns for Vernon, calls for unifying ‘Make it in America’ agenda

CEDAR RAPIDS - 'Made in America” is so yesterday.

The goal today, U.S. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said Thursday, is to 'Make it in America.”

Hoyer was a guest of U.S. 1st District Democratic candidate Monica Vernon at a small business roundtable in Cedar Rapids. Vernon, who started and grew her own small business, brought together several entrepreneurs, some just starting out, others expanding and modernizing established businesses, to get their ideas on what Congress might do to remove of the barriers to starting and succeeding in business.

Vernon sold her company, Vernon Research Group, to The Gazette Company in 2013.

Hoyer is a 'big, big fan” of Vernon and hopes she can win back a district that had a Democratic representative for several years until Dubuque businessman Rod Blum won the seat in 2014.

Hoyer said that he, like Vernon, wants to remove the barriers faced by Americans with ideas for small businesses.

At graduation, he said, a student should get a diploma and a garage 'because garages are so often maker spaces …

where people can take an idea and monetize it.”

So Hoyer is promoting a 'Make it in America” agenda that he believes has two benefits. First, businesses succeed and that's good for job creation, government revenue and exports. Second, there is a political benefit.

'So much of our agendas in both parties are divisive,” he said. 'They drive people apart.”

However, the 'Make it in America” agenda is about 'creating an environment and opportunities for people to start small businesses and grow small businesses.”

'I can go to the most conservative precinct in Iowa - you find one of Steve King's most bright red precincts - and I can go in there and talk about ‘Make it in America' and they will all shake their head and say, ‘Yeah, that's what we got to do,'” he said.

He believes he would get the same reaction in the most liberal communities.

'So it is a unifying agenda,” Hoyer said. 'We can talk about it without creating deep ideological divides.”

'Make it in America” is not protectionist, Hoyer said, but about identifying the government policies, such as taxes and regulation, which prevent people from making it in America.

Vernon said she will continue to run on the idea of government and business working together open the doors for businesses.

'I see the marriage of business working with Congress to make sure we cut the red tape and some of the things Mr. Hoyer is talking about and other things,” she said. 'Business and government not at odds, but working together is what will push us forward.”