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Chart New Course for Job Creation

With America’s unemployment rate stuck above nine percent, it’s time for a new approach in Washington for an economic recovery.  It’s time to put the American people in charge.  The heavy hand of Washington, especially during the last 30 months, has been a wet blanket on economic activity.  The President and Congress need to lift this damper by giving employers and entrepreneurs more certainty.  Right now, employers don’t know what’s coming next in the way of tax increases and regulations.  If Congress doesn’t prevent it, a massive tax increase will take effect on December 31, 2012.  I can’t remember when I’ve heard so much frustration at the grass roots of Iowa about duplicative, outdated regulations, especially those from the Environmental Protection Agency, which is trying to regulate the dust kicked up from combines at harvest time.

This kind of uncertainty, plus a 22-percent increase in government spending since January 2009, which didn’t even include the failed $800 billion stimulus program, and the enactment of new entitlement programs and health care mandates, has put job creators in a straitjacket.  It’s time for Washington to say there won’t be tax increases, especially in such a fragile economy, the regulatory reform effort will be meaningful, and government spending will be checked.  If Washington doesn’t get out of the way, employers will continue to be reluctant to spend the trillion dollars now sitting in corporate treasuries and the entrepreneurial spirit of small businesses nationwide will be held back.

The administration has also put up roadblocks to expanding export opportunities for U.S. manufacturers, agriculture and the service sector by sitting on job-generating trade agreements that have been ready for action since before the President took office.  Speaker Pelosi stopped them at that time.  Seeking new market opportunities ought to be a no-brainer for the economic recovery effort.  Congress can’t pass these trade agreements until the President sends them to Capitol Hill.  Years have passed, and other nations are moving past the United States in creating commercial ties and activity.

I’m willing to work with the President to make things happen, but that doesn’t mean more of the same.  No doubt the President inherited a bad economic situation, but by any measure of the economy, including inflation, unemployment or deficit spending, his policies and programs have made things worse.  I hope the President can see that what he’s tried hasn’t worked and that it’s time to chart a new course to help turn around the economy and create jobs for Americans.

September 9, 2011