Thousands attend annual congressional luncheon in Macon

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Leaders from different businesses, the state, and Capitol Hill met Tuesday morning for the Georgia Chambers’ annual luncheon.

“Other states wish that they could do what we’re doing right now,” Chris Clark, the chamber’s president and CEO said, referring to Georgia’s economic uptick.

He says he has the numbers to back it up.

“A $7 billion film/video industry in the state of Georgia, music industry that’s growing, manufacturing that’s coming back like Caterpillar moving back from overseas back to Georgia,” Clark said.

He spoke to thousands of leaders as part of the luncheon.

It was a chance to hear how Georgia is stacking up compared to the rest of the country.

“The business community, we like stability, we like to play by the rules, we like to know what’s going to happen,” Clark said.

A look into an economic crystal ball and Senators Johnny Isakson and David Perdue want leaders aware.

“We’ve got a global security crisis. We’ve got a debt crisis. Right now, we’ve got to produce different results out of Washington,” Perdue said.

“America will be statistically broke, morally broke, and bereft of a future for our children and grandchildren. I don’t want to be part of that,” Isakson said, referring to the national debt if left unfixed.

The two say it starts with what happens in the upcoming election.

“When you hear candidates say that they want to turn trade agreements when the state of Georgia has built its economy through our ports and through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, that scares businesses,” Clark said.

He calls it a possible fear for business owners, but until then he wants the state to continue to work on areas it can improve to make the economy even better.

“What we need to do is look at, particularly, is our rural parts of the state that aren’t recovering as well as they should. We’ve got to make sure that we protect our military communities,” Clark said.

Clark went onto say it’s important for business owners to know what’s going on in Washington because the laws set can impact their businesses.