INDIANAPOLIS – After 4 years of opposing efforts in Washington that would improve the lives of working people, Congressman Luke Messer has announced a task force that he claims will identify policies designed to help working Americans—and will likely lead him right back to the same proposals he’s voted against.

Yesterday, Congressman Messer announced the formation of the “Task Force for the American Worker.” According to the Republican Policy Committee, the new group will “hold a series of hearings to examine workforce issues, including stagnant wages and a slow economic recovery, manufacturing, higher education costs, the opioid abuse epidemic, health care, retirement security and trade.”

But while Congressman Messer now claims to now have interest in solving these problems, he’s fought against common-sense solutions designed to address them. This year, he’s been a major proponent of the recent Republican health care plans that would take away access to care for tens of millions of Americans. He’s supported proposals that would slash social security and end Medicare as we know it. He voted against measures to raise the minimum wage and put more money in the pockets of hard-working Americans. And after supporting budgets that help Wall Street but not Indiana manufacturers, Congressman Messer voted to cut nearly $1 billion in aid set to benefit more than 5,850 Hoosiers from FY 2013 to FY 2015 whose jobs have been sent overseas.

“Congressman Messer thinks he can pay lip service to working families, but Hoosiers haven’t forgotten his history in Washington on the issues that matter to them,” said Will Baskin Gerwitz, IDP Senior Media Strategist. “Congressman Messer has repeatedly sought to reduce Hoosiers’ access to affordable healthcare, slash Medicare, and ignore wage stagnation. If he wants to find the root of the problems facing working people, he doesn’t need to hold another hearing in Washington; he just needs to take a look in the mirror.”

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