Hultgren talks money at Elgin gathering

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U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Winfield, of the 14th Congressional District says he's disappointed by fellow Republican Congressman Joe Walsh's announcement that he will run for the newly drawn 14th District seat. Hultgren is shown here speaking at an Elgin

Updated: November 16, 2011 1:58AM

ELGIN — Vic Portincaso came to hear 14th District Congressman Randy Hultgren talk at an Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday and provided a prime example of how the still-sluggish economy is dominating the national discussion.

Portincaso asked a question that politicians across the country have been hearing a lot as the recession drags on: Why aren’t banks, which were bailed out by Washington and are making big profits once more, lending money to small businessmen such as Portincaso’s?

Hultgren said continuing uncertainty is playing a role in the lack of capital flowing back to people like Portincaso, who bought Boss Automotive in Elgin 18 months ago. He also owns the eGeneva Magazine website.

Hultgren offered to see what he could do and asked the room of about 85 listeners if there were any ways they could all help each other.

“I don’t think there is any easy answer,” Hultgren said.

After the session, Portincaso said he needs a line of credit to buy parts and has tapped into his own 401(k) from a career spent as a processing engineer, which in turn has lowered his credit rating. He didn’t expect Hultgren would know what to do, but liked that the freshman congressman listened to him.

Hultgren spoke for more than a half-hour about his first eight months in office, then took questions for about 20 minutes. The audience, which had gathered at Elgin Community College, was far less animated than the one he faced Aug. 18 in Geneva, where about 150 people showed up, some with signs, and some to ask about jobs, raising taxes for the “millionaires and billionaires” and the national debt.

In Elgin Thursday, the Winfield Republican hit talking points that define his conservative philosophy.

He said a lot of the burden during the bad economy is unduly on the backs of small- and midsize business people. While there is a role for government, local government is the key cog.

“The least effective and least accountable seems to be the federal government,” Hultgren said.

Debt ceiling vote

The way to reduce the $14 trillion federal deficit is not by raising taxes but by bringing in revenue via increasing the gross domestic product. And he is not averse to cuts being made at the Pentagon, among other federal departments.

Hultgren said he voted for two bills that would have raised the debt ceiling but not the third and final draft, because it did not include a call for a balanced budget. It did meet two other of Hultgren’s requisites: making real cuts right now and capping future spending.

He said he hopes the bipartisan super committee Congress formed to come up with budget solutions works as well as the one he served on as a legislator in Springfield, which served as a check on Gov. Rod Blagojevich — and not as poorly as the state’s committee that recently realigned and gerrymandered district boundaries.

Hultgren called the latter effort embarrassing and noted it is being challenged in the courts. Hultgren said the remapping, which was controlled by the state Democrats, shortchanges Hispanics. As is, the new boundaries would have Hultgren more than likely running in a primary next year against fellow freshman Republican and tea party favorite Joe Walsh.

Hultgren said he has been hearing consistent themes from constituents: that they are struggling but making it; that there is a good deal of frustration and uncertainty; and the aforementioned issue about accessibility to credit.

Some of that uncertainty is due to health care costs, Hultgren said, which he blamed in part on lawsuits and doctors practicing defensive medicine. And if more people could get back to work, it might lead to more people being insured, he posited.

Hultgren said the current tax code is impenetrable, punishes productivity, and needs to be made “a little flatter.”

Although he noted he was surprised by just how vast the bureaucracy is in Washington, at the same time he said the federal government doesn’t really create jobs but in some cases can kill them.

That Congress has yet to pass a budget — as is the case now — should mean legislators don’t get paid, which is the essence of a bill Hultgren supports.

And movement is needed on a transportation bill that provides funding while at the same time addresses why federal costs are so much higher than similar ones paid for with state or local tax dollars and cuts down on the number of hoops businesses must jump through to compete for contracts.

Hultgren began his speech with an anecdote about growing up in a family that owned a funeral home in Wheaton. Struggling one evening to put on a tie before heading out to a school dance, his father told him to lie down on the couch. With Hultgren supine, his father knotted the tie for him.