EUGENE, Ore. (KMTR) – With new pressure on Congress to get the job done, CEO's are saying they'll cut campaign donations until a long-term debt plan is reached and at least one of Oregon's federal lawmakers says he shares the frustration.
The CEO pledge was sparked by Howard Schultz, CEO of the Starbucks Corporation during August 2011. In less than two weeks, Schultz has gotten more than 100 other major company CEO's to join him.
Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio says they're just as frustrated with Washington D.C. as he is.
DeFazio addressed a crowd and took part in a question-answer session Friday, August 26th, 2011, at a Eugene City Club meeting.
With the rest of Congress, DeFazio has been on recess from the U.S. House for the last few weeks. DeFazio says in the last three weeks, he's spoke to about 4,000 people. DeFazio says the tone has changed in the last year. He says people aren't irate or irrational like he experienced more often in 2010.
DeFazio says the House has not created a single job this year, saying it has only cost jobs.
“I just stick to what I know and what I'm trying to do. I m trying to get the President to talk about investment in infrastructure and putting people back to work and fighting the tax cut budget cut crowd because the tax cuts and the budget cuts aren't putting American back to work,” says Congressman DeFazio.
In less than two weeks, DeFazio will return to Washington D.C., as Congress is set to resume on September 6th, 2011.
In terms of future budgets in Washington, DeFazio says he'd like to see a balanced budget amendment pass.
Balancing the budget today, DeFazio says it's time to let tax cuts from the last ten years expire. In the past ten years, the U.S. has cut taxes by 5 trillion dollars, about a third of the national debt, according to DeFazio.
