By Louis Aguilar Two Republican congressmen held a hearing in Plymouth Township Tuesday that drove home the GOP narrative that President Obama is killing small businesses through increased federal regulation. "Many of the new regulations are designed to put me out of business," said Janet Kaboth, president and CEO of an Alliance, Ohio, firm that makes bricks. In the past, Kaboth has spoken out on "the war on coal" by federal regulators, according to previous media reports. She was among four panelists chosen to speak at the hearing sponsored by Republican Reps. John Mica, of Florida, and Kerry Bentivolio, of Michigan. About 50 people attended the hearing at the Plymouth Township Hall. "This used to be the Arsenal of Democracy," Mica said, referring to the phrase coined during World War II that conveyed Michigan's key manufacturing role in producing war machinery. "Now, I'm really concerned how many machinists we have lost" to foreign competition, he said. Thousands of new regulations have been enacted under the Obama administration, mostly through the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, new EPA pollution rules and health care reform, also known as Obamacare. But the impact of those rules is one of the many polarizing issues between the two parties, with both sides quoting differing studies and statistics to support their stances. Democrats contend Dodd-Frank doesn't really target small businesses. It's aimed mostly at Wall Street and banks that issue credit cards and mortgages. The environmental rules apply primarily to big energy companies. Between 2008 and 2013, regulation went from being small business's fourth most important problem -- after sales, taxes and the cost/availability of insurance -- to being its biggest difficulty, according to a recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. "There is intimidation by regulation, now," said Richard Kligman, president of Superb Custom Homes, a Michigan home builder. Bentivolio asked the four panelists to share their concerns about Obamacare. Each panelist recalled hearing anecdotal evidence about how the new health care law had negatively impacted the business of their clients. None, however said it has had much direct influence on their own companies. An estimated 5.4 million businesses with fewer than 50 full-time employers -- a large chunk of the nation's businesses -- are not required to offer workers insurance. But in January, 45 percent of small-business owners with at least five employees said they have reduced their hiring plans because of Obamacare, and almost a 29 percent said they had been forced to make staff cuts, according to a national U.S. Bancorp survey of small business owners.

By Kerry Bentivolio One of the trademarks of President Barack Obama's time in office has been high unemployment and the economic suffering of too many Americans. Because of the failure of Obama's economic policies, millions of Americans -- and many Michiganders -- have relied on unemployment insurance, continuously extended by Congress, to make end's meet during their long-term unemployment. Rather than offer solutions that can both help those in need while also promoting their search for work, Democrats in the Senate seem to believe we should simply pass another federal unemployment insurance extension. Though conservatives rightly point to studies that show that unemployment insurance subsidizes unemployment, many Republicans are getting cold feet, and some have begun insisting that we pass the Senate bill. Many employers from my district have told me the same story. They find someone to hire for an entry-level job, but all too often the prospective employee asks to start in a few weeks rather than right away. They all give the same explanation -- they do not want to start working until they've exhausted their unemployment insurance. It doesn't have to be this way. If the House of Representatives is going to pass another federal extension of unemployment insurance, we should first reform how it works. That's why I introduced House Resolution 4431, a conservative reform of unemployment insurance. This bill is straightforward: If Congress passes an extension of unemployment insurance, the benefits will automatically reduce every week by 5%. This gives those on unemployment insurance an economic incentive to look for work. My bill does not extend unemployment insurance itself, nor does it affect those who have newly lost their jobs in this tepid economy. My bill affects only the extension of the federal program for the long-term unemployed. Most people believe that our social safety net needs to be fixed, but Democrats want to continue the status quo. This bill begins a conversation by offering a solution to the problems that have arisen during the debate over extending unemployment insurance. We can have a social safety net that promotes free enterprise. We can help those who are truly destitute without subsidizing unemployment. We can start by tackling the issue of extending federal unemployment insurance.

By Pete Kasperowicz Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.) on Wednesday proposed a new bill that would require congressional salaries to be cut 15 percent any time Congress fails to balance the budget. Bentivolio said his Spending Accountability Act, H.R. 3993, is needed to give Congress an incentive to cut the annual budget deficit, which is now at $600 billion per year and expected to rise. "I think my colleagues need a little more motivation to do the right thing and balance the budget," Bentivolio said Thursday. "They're hitting the American taxpayer in the pocketbook by accumulating so much debt. "It's time for Congress to make the tough decisions today, rather than mortgaging our childen's and grandchildren's future." His bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Mich.), who said the government needs to balance its books just the way American families do every year. "When moms and dads in Northern Michigan plan out their family budgets, they know they have to live within their means," Benishek said. "Washington should do the same. This common sense measure simply asks Congress to do its job or take a pay cut." Under the bill, member pay would be cut by 15 percent in the next calendar year following a fiscal year that ended in a budget deficit. An aide to Bentivolio said that if the bill were passed into law, it would not apply to the current Congress due to the 27th Amendment, which says pay adjustments can only apply to the next Congress, not the current one.