Jobs and the Economy

By Andy Vidak

Finally changing the economic climate of the 20th Congressional District will happen when we realize that government is not the answer. This is what we can do to finally begin a new direction.

When job and employment opportunities are not available children are forced to move and families are broken up. Our current representative has failed us miserably. In 5½ years, our economy is not better, it is worse.

The economy of the 20th congressional district is not going to be fixed by the spending activities of the federal government. If we have learned one lesson over the last several years, it is that.

If more government spending was the answer, the country, the valley and the 20th Congressional District would be doing just fine, but we are far from it.

It is long overdue to finally acknowledge this failure and go in a different direction. It is time to abandon the job killing policies the incumbent has and continues to support and do something different.

In order to put our country back on a solid economic footing, we must address three fundamental areas:

• Out of control government spending and unsustainable levels of debt.
• A level of taxation that stifles private sector growth.
• Too much government regulation that limits free market principles.

My approach to getting our economy back on track is simple. We must start by reducing spending to reign in the deficit and begin to reduce our national debt. Government spending is run amok. Congress and the Obama administration has seen fit to put $1.4 trillion dollars on our nation's credit card just this year alone. That's more than triple the amount of last year and means that our national debt is more than $12 trillion dollars. Much of this debt is owed to countries that don't like us very much.

It is also money that our children and grandchildren will be paying off with interest for the rest of their lives. There are no signs that the federal government or the current incumbent intends to slow down and get serious about reducing our debt load.

To get control of spending and the deficit I will support implementing the following:

• Put an immediate freeze on any further spending on the wasteful and ineffective Obama Stimulus Act. 2/3rds has yet to be spent and if we stopped the program today, our current budget deficit would be cut nearly in half and our federal debt could actually decline by 1 trillion dollars.
• Reign in spending by prohibiting earmarks. I will not support bills with earmarks in them.

• Provide for allowing of a line item veto by the President on spending bills. This is where the President can veto just one part of a bill, rather than what he has to do now which is veto all of it. This will eliminate the common practice of adding massive and needless spending that are attached to critical bills such as defense.

• Re-prioritize what the federal government should and should not be doing then review and eliminate unnecessary federal departments, programs and regulations.

• Reform our tax code. It is far too complicated. We can replace it with a tax process that would actually allow a person to do their taxes on a postcard and be much fairer that the current system which rewards those with high priced accountants who can use the thousands of loopholes the average taxpaying American will never find.

• Begin the process of reviewing the unsustainable level of entitlement programs that threaten to harm the basic financial foundation of our entire economy. We now have trillions of dollars of unfunded obligations that must be paid for eventually. The goal must be to find creative and new ways to control costs yet provide individuals with the protections they need.

Turn on the pumps:

The quickest way for us to bring back jobs in the district is to get our base industry, agriculture, prospering again. Congress has the authority to turn on the pumps and with a willing Governor; we can take action to temporarily suspend the Endangered Species Act. The delivery of water, a guest worker program and the realization that the burdensome regulations Washington DC are passing are really hurting agriculture's ability to create more jobs. Addressing this would be something we could do in the short term to reverse this trend.

Capital Gains Tax Free Zones:

I would like to see this opportunity for areas of our country that are particularly hard hit economically, and the 20th congressional district certainly qualifies. This would provide a period where no capital gains taxes on investments made would be charged. This alone would spur significant new investment and make our area much more attractive for the relocation of new businesses or the expansion of existing businesses.

The only way our local economy can ever reach a new level of prosperity is to empower the hard working people who are vested in the area by making it easier for them to invest in new businesses or in expanding their current businesses. Unleashing the power of the American entrepreneur will do far more to change our economy than any government program.

As a congressman, I will help install pro-investment policies that will make the 20th congressional district and the valley very attractive to private investment. Lowering taxes and reducing government interference with businesses and agriculture is one of the first things we must do.

These are only the start. It is going to take a lot of work to put our country back on solid economic footing and the people of the 20th congressional district need a Congressman who will fight against the reckless spending of our President and the congressional establishment, not be part of it.