Back home from Washington, D.C. and the government shutdown, freshman Congressman Joe Kennedy III reassured members of the Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce last week that government can work and that it works best when it with partners with business.
The Massachusetts Democrat said the alliance spurs a “bigger and bolder” growth in the economy.
“We need a federal policy to allow our businesses to keep our country at the forefront,” he told chamber members a luncheon at the Holiday Inn.
Kennedy’s stop in Mansfield was part of a whirlwind visit to all 34 cities and towns in his 4th congressional district.
He cancelled his first scheduled meeting with the chamber during the shutdown but said he was optimistic the worst of partisan politics was over and that Congress could begin focusing on important issues facing the nation.
For businesses that means tax reform, repatriating offshore companies and supporting programs like STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education to serve a 21st century workforce.
Kennedy, who serves on the House Committee on Science & Technology and as honorary chair of the governor’s STEM Advisory Council, said half of all well-paid skilled jobs in the future would not require college degrees. American companies want to tap into that skilled labor force to manufacture their high-end products.
“When you jump out of a plane, you don’t want the cheapest parachute,” he said.
But, he added, “Those educational programs can only exist if government is tied into business.”
Public/private partnerships in Massachusetts have accounted for much of the state’s economic growth and innovations in areas such as the biotech industry continue to drive the economy.
“The economic recovery in this country will not work from the top down. Lend us your credibility expertise knowledge and insight. We need you at the table,” he said.
Kennedy said tax reform would be a key element in spurring the economy because businesses will not risk hiring and investing as long as the tax code was in flux.
Uncertainty makes it impossible to function, he said.
Asked about the medical devices tax by Todd Spangler of Smith & Nephew Endoscopy in Mansfield, Kennedy said he co-sponsored a bi-partisan bill to repeal the tax and is “trying to get it over the finish line.”
Kennedy said he witnessed a very small group of elected officials shut down the government because they couldn’t achieve their policy goals, creating “a permanent insecurity that’s holding our economy hostage.”
Politicians must “transcend the politics of dissent.
“The vast majority of us in Washington understand that the status quo isn’t okay,” he said. “It’s not easy. It’s an uphill battle and there are some challenges in front of us.”
Kennedy later said he enjoyed his first term in office despite the bitter partisanship that characterized the last Congressional session. There is more “reaching across the aisle” in Washington than appears in the media, he said.
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