ECONOMY
“Innovation hasn’t ceased, but it has taken new forms and it has come in areas we did not predict very well. Yet we made our old plans and maintained our old institutions on the understanding that the new innovation would be a lot like the old, except that it isn’t.”
~ Tyler Cowen, Economist, Academic, Author of The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All The Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better
We have the #1 economy in the world. The United States of America is NOT broke. Our country is still the hope of the world. This is our moment.
Over the past few years, I have dealt personally with the effects of the Great Recession. I enjoyed being a commission-only recruiter working for a staffing agency between 2006 and 2009. A good deal of my time was spent counseling new candidates about their future opportunities. We discussed their “personal economy” which included their careers, their dreams and their value to the workplace. And buzzing above these conversations were the voices of the media parroting the politician’s tale of woe.
We are the economy. You and I. We are the people from “We the people…”
What’s been confused over many of the past decades is government’s role. Our Declaration of Independence is very clear:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.“
Over the past few years especially, our economy has been layered with doubt around our laws, bitterness between our lawmakers and confusion within our markets. Politicians have been overstepping their boundaries at worst and governing without our consent at best.
As Congressman, I will work to:
- Simplify the tax code by reducing deductions and rates – for the long term
- Work with the Government Accountability Office to reduce agency duplication
- Build on the progress of the American Invents Act to speed the approval of patents
- Support bipartisan legislation similar to The Startup Act which supports new business
- Starve doubt. Feed confidence.
Much of what we need to do for our economy, we’ve been taught by our parents. “Starve doubt” is a quote from my Dad. The people who are currently in Congress have given this country their best shot. It falls to us now to:
- Help to reduce our budget deficits
- Help to provide the environment for a growing economy
Our 21st century problems require 21st century problem solvers. New congressional leaders can not be a part of Senator Coburn’s Waste Book. Positive congressional leaders cannot be a part of what’s wrong in Peter Schweizer’s Throw Them All Out.
2012 is a political year and it is also an Olympic year where the best of the world raises the bar for excellence. It is time for a new generation of lawmakers. It is time to pass the torch. In a complex world ever in need of leadership, our economy MATTERS.
