One year ago today, the Obama administration launched its “Recovery Summer” publicity tour to bolster flagging support for the “stimulus.” Vice President Biden said, “The fact is, the recovery act is working.” But the fact is, it didn’t. “Recovery Summer” fizzled, much like the “stimulus” itself.
Republicans have a real blueprint for job creation — the “Plan for America’s Job Creators.” What makes our plan different is that it focuses on one thing: removing government barriers to private-sector job growth.
The “stimulus” was all about big spending and big government — not jobs. That was obvious on the day the “Recovery Summer” began in my home state of Ohio. Local construction workers on a nearby site in Columbus were forced to take the day off, without pay, so the White House entourage could roll through and tout all the taxpayer dollars they were spending. But all that spending got us was more debt and fewer jobs.
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Approximately 1.5 million jobs have been lost since the “stimulus” was signed in 2009 — roughly 300,000 of them as administration officials hopped from town to town promoting the “summer of recovery.” The national unemployment rate was 9.1 percent in May — far above the 8 percent promised by the White House — and has averaged 9.5 percent throughout the Obama presidency.
The president can call this a “bump in the road,” or blame ATMs, or joke that those “shovel ready” jobs that were promised “weren’t as shovel ready as we expected.” But there’s nothing funny about policies that keep workers on the unemployment line and drive us deeper into debt. Those aren’t the kinds of results — and this isn’t the recovery — the American people deserve.
To be fair, there are some positive economic signs in Ohio today, in part because the Buckeye State now has a governor, John Kasich, who is working to remove the barriers that have held back our state economy. But we need that same kind of leadership in Washington.
That’s why, from the moment the American people entrusted us with the majority in the House of Representatives, Republicans have been focused on one thing: jobs.
Our new plan builds on our Pledge to America and the efforts we’ve undertaken all year to liberate our economy from the shackles of debt and big government.
First, our plan would rein in excessive regulatory burdens and red tape that make it harder for small businesses to hire new workers. According to the Small Business Administration, smaller firms spend as much as $10,585 per employee complying with federal regulations. Massive laws such as Obamacare have made things worse by driving up health-care costs and threatening jobs.
We’ve already repealed the devastating small-business paperwork mandates included in the health-care law, and we’re working to repeal and defund the whole thing. Another bill — the REINS Act — would require congressional approval for any federal regulation with a major economic impact.
Our plan would expand American energy production to help create jobs and lower gas prices. The House has already passed the Energy Tax Prevention Act to stop the EPA from imposing a “cap and trade” national energy tax that would destroy jobs and drive up prices. And we’ve approved several bills to expand production and end the administration’s de facto moratorium on offshore energy.
Our plan would pay down America’s debt over time by stopping Washington from spending money it doesn’t have and preventing tax hikes on families and small businesses. The House has passed a budget that would cut more than $6 trillion in government spending, spur private-sector job growth, and save Medicare for current and future retirees. Senate Democrats still haven’t passed a budget, and the president’s plan for Medicare is to let it go bankrupt.
Our plan would reform the tax code to make America more competitive, closing loopholes and lowering rates. And our plan would open new markets for American-made goods by passing the three job-creating trade agreements that are now before Congress — those with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. Every day these agreements are delayed, Ohio farmers and manufacturers lose out to competitors in other countries. We need to act now.
The anniversary of President Obama’s “Recovery Summer” publicity stunt is a good reminder that families and small businesses in Ohio and across the country can’t afford more spending and more debt — they need more jobs. And Republicans are listening.
The Republican plan — reining in excessive regulations, expanding energy production, paying down our debt, fixing our tax code, and opening new markets for American-made goods — is a serious blueprint for private-sector job creation and long-term economic growth.
— Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio) is Speaker of the House.
As a small business owner for over 15 years, I seriously doubt that the Speaker really understands very much about the subject of which he writes.
Countless small businesses operating at reduced capacity have shifted from the category of "profitable" to "unprofitable" as sales have fallen while government wage mandates, regulation, and "cost of compliance" remain constant.
(Of course congressional pay and staff levels seem to have remained constant as well.)
But I frankly question how many conservative "thinkers" at NRO understand the subject either.
Small businesses have been operating at razor thin margins for over 2 years now and many are "throwing in the towel" while the "intellectual elites" of the commentator world discuss "statistics".
To the average pundit (who has likely never invested their life savings, blood, sweat, tears and toil into an entrepreneurial venture), the statistics are unfortunate, but not heartbreaking.
The federal minimum wage hike of 2007 ($5.15/hr to $7.25/hr) has wreaked havoc on the entry level job market (service sector) while six figure "earners" like Boehner pontificate about recovery and the need to reduce job killing regulation.
Sure Mr. Speaker, nice to have you onboard, even if you are clueless about the private sector.
Go enjoy another round of golf with the president. He doesn't understand much about the private sector either!
And those of us in the arena won't hold our breath for you to act boldly on our behalf ....we've discovered that with a few exceptions, the only Republicans to boldly espouse real conservatism wear lipstick.
Even if the Republican plan creates American jobs in the very long-term (which it won't), it will do nothing to help anyone today. I'm pretty sure that's by design.
Since fiscal stimulus is off the table, maybe the Fed can help:
"Expansionary monetary policy even at the zero lower bound via quantitative easing is what Milton Friedman recommended for the Great Depression and for Japan.
That's what Friedman would be recommending were he with us today--keep doing rounds of quantitative easing until we get the economy's transactions cash balances and the flow of spending back to normal levels.
If you want to oppose quantitative easing you need to denounce Milton Friedman as a dangerous lefty."
Let's do it! QEIII through whatever! I want my money to be worth less and less. At least my wallet will be spilling over with green, worthless paper. It'll look like I'm loaded!
I've never really understood the mechanism by which spending cuts and layoffs in a depressed economy will create jobs. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?
It is oh so simple. The govenrment does not produce anything. The only way it has money is to borrow or to take from others. If it takes less from others the people are free to invest and spend in a manner that is profitiable guided by growth and not by special interests whereby the government picks winners and loosers w/o accoutablity to the rules of economics. On the second front, if the govenment spends less by borrowing less all of our money is worth more (see supply vs. demand).
This is nice, but my question specifically referred to an economy running at far less than capacity, in which there is little reason for businesses to invest due to a lack of customers. That's where we are today.
"I've never really understood the mechanism by which spending cuts and layoffs in a depressed economy will create jobs. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?"
Your statement precludes any serious discussion of a free market economy. That "casting your pearls before swine" reference comes to mind.
When your mind is already made up, asking silly questions is, well, silly.
And yet, Speaker Boehner, you are negotiating a way to allow the Government to increase it's spending by raising the debt limit.
How does spending more borrowed money, lead to a smaller debt?
I do not buy into the idea that promises of "real" future restructuring of Programs is a fix. Cut up the credit cards Mr. Speaker! We KNOW what it means to have to do more with less, and to do less with less. We know government can not (and it should not) be everything to everybody. Stop promising us the moon and just do what has to be done
Hold the debt limit firm.
A government cut is when they decrease the amount they were going to increase something....really! So if planned spending on xyz was going to be increased by 10%, and they now decide to increase by only 5%, politicians call that a cut in spending. It is rarely a cut in the actual last years amount of spending...maybe never.
Dear Mr. Boehner,
As a small business owner, and as a "normal responsible" American, consider this:
1. Push a flat tax bill. Just do it.
2. Cut capital gains in half.
3. Suspend FICA and SS payments by employers for a year. You'll see immediate job creation.
4. Propose 20% across the board spending cuts. Inflation is already affecting our cost of goods. There is fear by business owners to buy and build now since our customers can't afford to buy. So we are waiting.
5. Put confidence back into the market by simplifying everything. We're looking at overseas labor not just because it's cheap, but it's simpler and less complicated. But you have to make drastic improvements, not layering one set of rules on top of another.
I seriously question whether I can vote Republican any more. The economy is our most important issue. And the logic of Free Trade demands that all production jobs migrate offshore for lower labor costs. Leaving us a nation of hairdressers, farmers and coal miners. So we can ship our food, natural gas and coal to China. A modern banana republic. Google Alexander Hamilton. See how this country was built before our leaders conspired to destroy it.
The reason so many jobs have been sent oversees is because of democratic polices that seek to create more regulations that stifle small business growth.
Okay, which "excessive regulatory burdens" do you want to rein in? The ones that protect workers from disease, injury and death? Or maybe the ones that require companies to produce products that are safe to use or consume? The Chinese don't have a lot of regualtory oversight. That's why we got baby formula with Melamine in it and toys painted with toxic paint. Maybe you should get specific before we agree to anything.
The key to real job growth is productivity growth. There are two ways to grow productivity. First, productivity grows through innovation and automation. Second, productivity grows when overhead is reduced. Government overhead on American jobs is huge and growing. The fastest and best way to reduce overhead on American jobs is to replace all work-based income taxes (FICA taxes, income taxes, etc.) with a national sales tax. Foreign products are subject to sales taxes but are not subject to FICA or income taxes. Doing this one thing would make American labor effectively 30% less expensive at the wholesale level, making American Made much better able to compete worldwide. After you factor in the fact that collection of sales taxes are much, much less costly than collection of income taxes, the economy will boom.
With so much proof that socialism is an utter failure, the comments sections in many articles such as the above still contain admonishments of "trickle-down economics," "corporate greed," "the selfish rich," etc. The routine repetition of such brain-dead anti-business slogans is more frightening than the current depression.
