Martha's Blog

Let's Get Our Economy Out of Neutral

While the national unemployment rate leveled off just below 10%, this week it was announced that Alabama’s unemployment rose to 11.1% in January.  Alabama continues to be among the states hit hardest by the current economic downturn, and the leadership in Washington continues to spin their wheels. 

Unfortunately, the bleak job numbers don’t even tell the full story.  From January 2009 to January 2010, the numbers in the workforce fell by about 90,000—a number that largely reflects people who have given up looking for work.  If those people are added to the equation, Alabama’s unemployment rate rises to a staggering 14.8%.

The Democrats in Washington think that the answer to every problem our country faces is to make government bigger, more powerful, and more intrusive in our day-to-day lives.  My experiences on the Montgomery City Council have taught me that a bigger, more powerful government only spends more taxpayer money and stands in the way of innovation and growth.

The fact of the matter is that Americans need jobs—and Alabamans are no exception.  As your Congressman, I will fight to get government out of the way so entrepreneurs and small businesses can operate their businesses and create jobs.  This includes fighting job-killing mandates, such as those included in the health care legislation, which would force small businesses to provide health insurance to employees.  Mandates like this would force already-struggling small businesses to further cut their payrolls just to stay in business, and even more jobs would be lost.

Our economy is stuck in neutral, yet Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are fixated on pushing through policies that are counterproductive. We need some common sense. Let’s make it easier for the private sector to create jobs, not more difficult.

Another Endorsement!

We're proud to receive an endorsement from the House Conservatives Fund today. The HCF is supported by over 100 conservative Members of Congress, and seeks to elect the next generation of conservative leaders. 

You can visit their website HERE.  

The text of their release is below:

For Immediate Release                                             Contact

March 10, 2010                                                         Evan Kozlow, 202-731-1275

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Weekly Campaign Update 3/8

To sign up for our email updates please click here.

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Dear Friends,

What an exciting and busy week it was! I officially filed to run for office on Tuesday, we kicked off our phone banking and door to door, I earned two big endorsements, appeared on three radio shows, and had great events in Tallassee and Troy.

We’re keeping up the pace this coming week when I’ll be hosting a Grab a Mug with Martha event in Hartford, speaking to the Rotary in Dothan, having lunch with seniors in Montgomery, and heading to Eclectic!

I’m having a blast spreading our message to all corners of the district, and we’re getting a great response.

The time is now to get involved in my campaign. We need your help. Would you be willing to make phone calls or go door to door? Would you be willing to help put together an event? Or write a letter to the editor to your local newspaper?  There are many ways to get involved and lend a hand.

Please sign up to be part of our grassroots team today if you haven’t already, or make a financial contribution. It all makes a difference.

Thanks for your support and your help.  I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail!    

Martha

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Come Volunteer for Martha

After a great first week, we’re continuing to phone bank at our HQ on Monday and Thursday nights starting at 5:30 pm. We’ll also be going door to door again next Saturday morning at 9:30 am.  If you have a couple of free hours come make a difference and volunteer. Please email Mike Hamilton or call 239-8660 for more details.

In Case You Missed It

Martha earned two endorsements this week, from the national conservative organization Concerned Women of America, and Women Under Forty PAC. We’re proud to have their support!

New on Martha’s Blog

Check out our new blog post on the potential reemergence of Card Check.  We can’t afford job-killing policies like Card Check. The only way to stop it for good is to send more conservative leaders to Washington.

$20.10 for Victory

Help Martha bring common sense, conservative reform to Washington by joining the 2010 Club. You can make a recurring donation of $20 per month through the election or contribute $20.10 today. Your help is important in making sure we get our message out. Please donate today! 

 Upcoming Events

Phone Bank for Martha

March 8, 2010, 5:30 pm

Martha Roby for Congress HQ, 2876 Zelda Road, Montgomery

Hartford Grab a Mug with Martha

March 9, 2010, 7:30 am

Broxson Grocery, 6139 East State Highway 52, Hartford

Martha Speaks to Dothan-Houston County Rotary

March 9, 2010, 12:00 pm

Dothan Country Club, Dothan

River Region Republicans

March 10, 2010 7:00 am

Farmers Market Cafe, Montgomery

Grab a Mug with Martha: Veterans Roundtable

March 16, 2010 11:00 am

Wagon Wheel Cafe, 1961 Bell Street, Montgomery

Is Card Check Back from the Dead?

This week in Orlando, FL, union leaders are meeting to regroup after a year filled with disappointment from their allies in the Democratic Party.  A year after celebrating a new occupant in the Oval Office who would be sympathetic to their agenda, they’ve seen card check legislation – their pet issue -- pushed to the backburner, while pro-labor nominees to the National Labor Relations Board have been blocked.

Not to worry, though.  Big labor still has plenty of friends in Washington to take care of them.  After all, the unions spent plenty of money to put them in power.  In fact, when the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate decided to hold a behind-closed-doors conference committee (to which no Republican was invited), the labor unions were brought into the negotiations. 

Now, here comes Vice President Joe Biden, ready to promise even more to the unions.  In his recent remarks to the AFL-CIO, Biden promised to help appoint pro-union members to vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board.  When speaking about the Employee Free Choice Act (better known as card check), he said, “I think we’re going to get it done.”

Let’s revisit what the Card Check legislation seeks to do.  In workplaces where a group of workers wish to organize or affiliate with a larger labor union, the work force as a whole must vote, and a positive vote from a simple majority of workers is required in order for the employees to unionize.  Currently, that vote is done by secret ballot, but the Card Check bill seeks to make each worker’s vote a public matter.  The passage of this legislation would allow for workers who voted against organizing to be singled out and intimidated, threatened, and bullied by organizers and other pro-union workers.  Like many of the Democrats’ other proposals, this bill seeks to give control of our choices over to someone else—in this instance, a labor union. 

In addition to essentially legalizing worker intimidation by union organizers and pro-union employees, this bill would also kill jobs by enforcing binding arbitration on employers—allowing a government bureaucrat to make decisions rather allowing employers to decide how their companies should be run.  If this bad legislation passes, don’t be surprised when hundreds of small businesses in our communities close, leaving thousands of workers unemployed.

While it may seem like Card Check has fallen off the radar and won’t see the light of day, we must never underestimate the Obama/Pelosi leadership’s willingness to ram legislation through to satisfy their political patrons, at the expense of the American people (see health care). The only way we can ensure Card Check and other job-killing policies will be stopped is to elect more conservative leaders to Congress. You can count on me to fight tooth and nail against Card Check and other anti-jobs policies.

ICYMI: Endorsement Edition

Earlier this week Martha received two exciting endorsements.  The first was from Concerned Women of America PAC, a leading national conservative group that “is committed to the values of religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, American sovereignty, and traditional values.”  We are proud to have their support! You can view their website here.

Martha was also endorsed by the Women Under Forty PAC (WUFPAC), which is “the nation’s only non-partisan organization that identifies, encourages, and supports women forty years of age and under running for local, state and federal office.”

Our campaign is continuing to gain momentum and build support.  Get involved today. Join our grassroots team  and help us spread the word!

Just Start Over

Americans have sent a very clear message on health care.  We’ve all seen what the Democrats are selling, and we’re just not interested in buying.  Still, despite Scott Brown’s overwhelming victory in Massachusetts and poll numbers indicating that a majority of Americans oppose the health care legislation in its current form, President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress continue to ram this legislation through. 

Yesterday’s “Health Care Summit” proves that President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader Reid are not interested in hearing or truly considering conservative, free-market approaches to reforming health care.  More than ever, it is abundantly clear that this health care reform legislation is not really about reforming health care in America—it is about increasing the size and scope of the federal government, increasing the amount of control the government has in our daily lives, and increasing our dependence on the government for our basic needs.  In fact, while the leadership trumpeted their “bipartisanship,” they were still conducting Democrats-only negotiations behind closed doors.  This is exactly why people are fed up with Washington.

The Obama Administration sold the Health Care Summit as a chance for both sides to have their voices heard, but at one point, Senator Mitch McConnell correctly noted that the Democrats in the room had been given nearly twice the amount of time to speak that the Republicans had.  Why are our conservative ideas and opinions not allowed to be represented at this meeting?

There are many major problems with President Obama’s proposal. The biggest of which are the criminal and financial penalties for individuals and families who either choose not to or cannot afford to purchase health insurance.  Simply put, I believe that this provision is unconstitutional, as well as an unprecedented use of power.  Never before has the federal government mandated to the millions of hard-working families that they must purchase a product or service from private industry. 

During Thursday’s meeting, Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA) brought up the issue of cost.  “We just can’t afford this,” he told the room.  While President Obama acknowledged that the cost issue is legitimate, he again swept it under the rug and tried to pull focus back to all the different “reforms” that the plan would implement.  I understand that the President wants everyone to focus on all the things that his plan would do, but it is irresponsible government not to consider how much a proposal will cost. 

A majority of Americans believe that some version of health care reform is necessary, but bankrupting the federal government (and the taxpayers who fund it) is just not the answer.  Our representatives in Congress must be honest and realistic about how much their reforms will cost. 

Just like families across the country who look at their budgets, our government must weigh the costs and benefits of any reform plan.  If it costs too much and we can’t afford it, then we must look for other options.  As a nation, we cannot afford to borrow or spend any more money.  Let’s scrap the bill and start over.