The recovery of our economy should be a top priority for
Congress, and we must act now. It is our obligation as a
legislative body to foster a stable economy and assure families
everywhere that government can create a business environment where
jobs thrive.
Toward the goal of economic recovery, we must undo the damage
wrought by congressional Democrats, who have refused even to vote
on extending the Bush tax cuts, instead opting for one of the
largest tax hikes in modern history. The first step must be
repealing all the disgraceful bills enacted in the past four years
under the Pelosi-Reid political marriage that have concentrated
power in Washington, at the expense of individual liberty.
For starters, to give just one example, any unspent stimulus
funding should be returned to the treasury to pay down our debt.
Businesses belong in private hands, not in the majority ownership
of the federal government. Accordingly, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac,
AIG, General Motors, Chrysler, Citigroup, and Bank of America
should be returned to the private sector. Instead of nationalizing
ever more industries, Congress should begin returning industries to
the free market.
Similarly, student lending programs should be left to private
companies instead of allowing Washington bureaucrats to decide what
is best for our children. Since when does an out-of-touch
Washington elite know what’s best for regular Americans?
The federal government must announce that it will no longer be
available to bail out public employees’ pensions or health care
plans. The federal government should also state it is not in the
business of bailing out any private business, regardless of size or
unionization. Wall Street firms should not expect the federal
government to save them after they indulge in risky business
practices.
Perhaps most importantly, Congress should heed the repeated
calls of the nation to repeal ObamaCare. The monstrosity of
ObamaCare will raise health insurance costs, increase dependency on
the government, lower health care standards, and further put us
into debt. Real reform would allow people the freedom to buy
insurance plans across state lines, on a tax-free basis.
Instead of punishing American businesses and the
entrepreneurship spirit, there are a number of across-the-board
measures Congress should take to foster a healthy business
environment. For instance, eliminating the death tax, lowering the
business tax from 34 percent to 9 percent, cutting useless
government bureaucracy, and getting rid of the alternative minimum
tax would all help businesses recover. Furthermore, we should
reform our tax system by eliminating the thousands of pages of fine
print that no one seems to understand, and instead replace it with
a commonsense tax plan.
All these legislative accomplishments would just be a start on
our road to full recovery. I believe that, once the economy has
returned to its former strength, we should also plan for energy
independence. We can achieve that goal by opening up American
resources with an “all of the above” policy that includes exploring
wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, petroleum, and clean coal
energies.
Lastly, the enormous current and future planned deficits
threaten to choke out our economy. We can balance the budget and
should do so without raising taxes, by eliminating useless programs
and cutting government spending. Congress cannot be given the
latitude to spend money it doesn’t have.
Recovery means a stable economy, a trusted and limited
government, and optimistic enterprise. Recovery can be ours if we
maintain faith in free markets and limited government, and I pledge
to help start the recovery next January.
