August 3, 2012

Washington, D.C. -- This week, Representative Erik Paulsen (MN-03) took time to answer questions sent in from Mike in Rogers who wrote in asking about Congress' work to stop the yearend tax hikes. Jan in Plymouth, Barbara in Eden Prairie, and Katherine in Coon Rapids wrote in with their concerns regarding the Violence Against Women Act. Each week, Representative Paulsen receives thousands of letters, emails, tweets, Facebook posts, and phone calls from constituents voicing their opinions. Through this video series, Representative Paulsen regularly responds to constituent correspondences on a variety of topics. On preventing the end-of-the-year tax hikes and working towards tax reform: "Studies now show that jobs will be lost if this tax hike takes place. Ernst & Young did a study that shows over 700,000 jobs will be lost; 14,000 of those jobs would be in Minnesota." "This week the House passed legislation to extend all the current tax rates, to not raise taxes in this tough economy, and also pave the way for more comprehensive tax reform, which will allow small businesses like yourself to invest in your people and your company and hire more folks to get our economy going again." On the Violence Against Women Act: "I will tell you as a husband and a father of four daughters, I also am concerned about the impacts that domestic violence has on women, families, and in our community." "I supported the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in the House." "You also may be interested to know that I authored a provision in the House-passed bill that makes sure that women who are victims of domestic abuse or violence have a safe place to live."