White House memo: Cut taxes

By Tom Price

Down near the Georgia coast today, President Barack Obama is scheduled to continue his tour of states to celebrate the administration’s efforts on the economy. Though we’re near St. Patrick’s Day, this is no reason to dye the fountains of Savannah green. His is a record worthy of examination, but certainly not celebration.

A year since its signing, four million more unemployed, and 35,600 additional jobs forecast to be lost in Georgia this year, the president’s seminal economic endeavor, an $862 billion stimulus package, has failed to live up to its promises. The president took a big gamble and now, with a $1.6 trillion budget deficit, we’ve all lost.

This so-called stimulus plan has demonstrated that government spending is the slowest, most inefficient and ineffective way to positively affect our economy. According to the Congressional Budget Office, by the end of this year $258 billion will remain unspent, bound with red tape and lodged in the pipes of bureaucracy.

The bill was neither timely nor targeted toward the lasting, private-sectors jobs we were assured would be created. Not only has the stimulus flowed to wasteful pet projects, like the $1.75 million spent on energy-efficient garage doors for fire stations and the $800,000 used to keep animals off the runway at Purdue University’s airport, but it also has gone mainly to bolster government payrolls.

According to a state report, of the 20,007 jobs funded through stimulus funds in Georgia over the previous quarter, only 1,703 were in the private sector. This means that when stimulus spending runs out, so too will 91 percent of the jobs. That’s hardly a sound economic plan. Now, when you borrow this much money, admittedly, you’re going to have some impact on the economy. Unfortunately for us, all that the bill has stimulated here in Georgia is bigger government.

Georgians won’t be happy until businesses, not bureaucracies, are the ones hiring again. Yet this won’t happen in earnest until Washington recognizes that it’s getting in the way. What the president fails to appreciate is that it’s, in fact, his sweeping agenda that is keeping investment on the sidelines and preventing job growth.

Businesses thrive on predictability. Now, all they see from Washington is a coming tsunami of government. Take the president’s health care plan that will levy a host of new taxes, increase regulatory compliance costs and actually raise premiums, according to CBO. Or look at the national energy tax that Democrats refuse to abandon, which would raise energy costs by thousands of dollars a year. And all along, the bailout mentality continues to permeate Washington, with TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) recently extended for another year and tax dollars still flowing to failing companies.

The business environment is simply toxic for investment. From my countless talks with Georgia families and small business owners, the best thing the president could do today to provide confidence is announce that he is dropping his big government agenda and refocus on market-based principles that have provided America its storied financial success.

What we have learned over the last 18 months is that at a time of struggle, we must embrace, not abandon, our principles. Productivity flourishes when it is rewarded with lower taxes; the private sector is where sustainable, good jobs are generated; we cannot spend more than we take in; and free markets work better than any government dictate.

While he will likely do most of the talking, these are the messages the president should take back to Washington if he truly wants to put Americans back to work.

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) is chairman of the Republican Study Committee.