Tiffany addresses small business owners at economic summit

Having owned and operated Wilderness Cruises for over 20 years, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Minocqua) has firsthand experience with the ups and downs of running a small business.

“He knows our needs,” Jeff Verdoorn, executive director of the Oneida County Economic Development Corporation (OCEDC), said Thursday afternoon in introducing Tiffany’s keynote speech at the 2023 Northwoods Economic Summit held at the Pines Event Center in Rhinelander.

In an approximately 25-minute speech, Tiffany offered his thoughts on how to improve the economy. 

He also spoke briefly about the vote last week to oust former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, and the negotiations that averted a shutdown of the federal government.

Tiffany said Congress is too dependent on continuing resolutions and omnibus spending bills and this has led to rising debt.

“It’s been about two decades since the full appropriations process has been used by the Congress of the United States,” he noted, adding that the state tends to do better in terms of budgeting because it is required to pass a balanced budget.

Instead of proper budgeting, Tiffany said Congress continues to pass either continuing resolutions (which continue spending at the current levels) or omnibus bills where numerous sometimes unrelated items are “crammed” into one bill.

“I would say those two things are much of what has gotten us to a $33 trillion dollar indebtedness here in America,” he said.

According to Tiffany, the move to oust McCarthy was largely the result of dissatisfaction over his inability to get all appropriations bills before Congress before the end of the fiscal year on Sept, 30.

Tiffany said he voted for McCarthy to remain Speaker of the House.

“I thought, though there were a few things he could have done better, I thought we were headed in the right direction,” he explained.

“While I don’t agree with the vote to remove Speaker McCarthy, we have to move forward now and you’re going to see next week, I think you’re going to see votes for a new Speaker,” he added, before outlining his personal criteria for the next Speaker of the House.

“I want to make sure it’s someone who will at least begin to rein in this deficit spending. We have to get control of the border, we have to get back energy independence,” he said.

Deficit spending is driving interest rates up while at the same time many employers are struggling to find workers, he said. 

“Since COVID hit in March 2020 about 5 million people left the workforce and many did not return and are still collecting benefits,” the congressman said. “We have people sitting on the sidelines that are able-bodied that should work.”

Tiffany also noted that he is in favor of doing away with the Social Security penalty for seniors so that older Americans who want to keep working can do so without losing Social Security benefits. Finally, he addressed the issue of energy independence.

“The third thing that I believe we can turn our economy around real quickly if we would do it is in regard to energy independence,” he said. “We have given that up and we see as a result diesel fuel approaching $5 a gallon, gasoline has been close to $4 a gallon in the Northwoods over the last month. And we see continued rising electricity rates as we move to intermittent sources of power.”

“Energy is critical to our prosperity in America and we need to get back to energy independence,” he said.

During a question-and-answer session, Tiffany also addressed housing concerns. 

“Local zoning can have a great impact on affordable housing,” he told the group.

Before wrapping up his remarks, Tiffany urged the attendees to contact his office if they run into issues related to government agencies and regulations.

State Sen. Mary Felzkowski also addressed the group. 

She focused on the passage of Wisconsin Act 12 which will result in a significant increase in state aid, via shared revenue, distributed to all cities and towns in 2024.