The Pitts Plan for Jobs

Written by Joe Pitts on October 03, 2010, 07:13 PM

There is no doubt what America’s top priority is right now. It’s jobs. Congressman Pitts is one of the few people in Washington who has produced a detailed, commonsense plan for job creation. At its core are seven simple goals: 1) Help those who need it now. 2) Stable and low taxation. 3) Balance the budget. 4) More and cheaper energy. 5) Wise, consistent regulation. 6) Open new markets for American goods. 7) Build infrastructure.

Each of these is a proven way of creating jobs and restoring prosperity. But Congress has failed to even try to act on most of them.

Helping people. Joe Pitts has voted five times to extend unemployment benefits and voted twice to offer first-ever emergency COBRA subsidies for Americans who have lost their employer-subsidized health insurance. Congress recently let those COBRA subsidies expire. For people in need, COBRA is a Catch-22: when you need it, you can’t afford it. Congressman Pitts wrote legislation to fix this problem in the future without increasing spending. The 19 month-old “stimulus” was supposed to limit unemployment and create jobs. Instead it has only put us further in debt, and most of the jobs it “saved” are those of government workers.

Stable and Low Taxes. Every American taxpayer, rich and poor, will face the largest tax increase in American history on January first. Despite a bipartisan majority in Congress who want to stop it, Democratic leaders have done nothing but use the issue for political fodder, accusing Republicans of wanting to cut taxes for the rich. The result? Employers, most of whom are in higher tax brackets, are refusing to expand and hire until they know what is going to happen to their taxes. This has hurt everyone.

Balance the Budget. Our government is $13 trillion in debt. Forty-two percent of this year’s federal spending is borrowed money. We have $107 trillion in binding commitments we have no plan to pay for. This is extremely dangerous to our current and future prosperity. It has to stop.

More and Cheaper Energy. Everything that happens in our economy requires energy. From manufacturing to simply driving to work, our economy runs on electricity, gasoline, and diesel. The law of supply and demand is simple: the more we have, the cheaper it is. Lower energy costs will mean more money for investing in new jobs. Instead, this Congress dedicated the better part of a year on a plan to make energy MORE expensive.

Wise and Consistent Regulation. Cap and Trade, Obamacare, “Card Check” and many of the other initiatives this Congress has focused on constitute major disruptions to America’s regulatory structure. Businesses aren’t only waiting to find out what will happen to their taxes—they’re also waiting to find out what new regulations are going to cost them. In the meantime, they aren’t hiring.

Open New Markets. New markets for American goods would very quickly create tens of thousands of new jobs. At least three already-negotiated trade agreements have been left unratified by this Congress. South Korea, Panama, and Colombia are just three of the countries who are eager to buy more of our goods but can’t until Congress acts. That has cost jobs.

Build Infrastructure. Building roads and highways is the government’s responsibility, and now is a perfect time to invest in this. This would do more than create construction jobs. Traffic jams and poor infrastructure make our economy less efficient, and that limits job creation. Despite strong bipartisan support for “shovel read” infrastructure investment, less than seven percent of the “stimulus” bill was dedicated to this.

The “stimulus” failed. It is no wonder why. The day the bill was passed, the Wall Street Journal called it “a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.” The Pitts Plan for job creation is what America needs.