My Plan for Jobs

A new job starts with a good idea. A small business owner, an investor, a manager or a CEO thinks of a new way to make money. At a critical point, they have to decide whether they need help to make their dream reality.

Between that initial idea and the handshake hiring a new employee, there are a lot of barriers. The cost of raw resources, the ease of acquiring new funding, and the availability of qualified workers will always be a challenge. Government also creates challenges. Complying with regulations and mandates raises the cost of hiring. Uncertainty about new laws and tax rates can make long-term planning difficult.

Private sector job growth is the engine that moves our economy and that funds out government. My first priority is to help that engine start working smoothly again. Right now it is sputtering. Job creation isn’t keeping up with all the new workers entering the market, and many of the long-term unemployed have simply given up their search for work.

I have a detailed plan for what we can do in Congress to help workers searching for jobs and make that decision to hire a new employee easier for business owners.

First, we need to help those who need help. I voted to extend unemployment benefits when Congress made the responsible choice to find a way to pay for it. These benefits help workers transition between jobs, we can certainly prioritize federal funding to help.

The economy is constantly changing, and workers need to learn new skills to adapt. Currently, the federal government has 47 job training programs reporting to nine different agencies. If we consolidate programs and cut down on bureaucracy, we can get more money out of Washington and into classrooms across the country.

Second, we need stable and low taxation. It’s far past time for Congress to make long-term decisions about tax policy so that businesses and individuals can plan for the future. We should simplify the code, eliminating lobbyist loopholes and reduce rates, especially the corporate tax rate. Right now, we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. This makes the U.S. a more expensive place to do business, driving jobs overseas.

Third, we need to get back to a balanced budget and begin paying off debt. The higher the debt climbs, the more it reduces our gross domestic product. If we don’t get a handle on things, we could face rapid inflation, deep cuts to spending, and radically higher tax rates. For two years in a row, the House of Representatives has passed a plan to balance the budget and pay down debt.

Fourth, we need more and cheaper energy. Everything we do in our economy requires some form of energy. If prices are high, companies have less resources to hire new workers. We need to maximize the use of domestic natural gas and petroleum resources and build new pipelines between the U.S. and Canada. We can be North America energy independent, which would reduce and stabilize prices.

At the same time, we can promote green energy alternatives. Ultimately, if we have more Americans with good jobs and more wealth, we will have more available resources to adopt new, clean technologies.

Fifth, we have to regulate wisely. When business owners have to wade through more bureaucracy before they can hire workers, they will hold back on hiring. We also need to wisely regulate our trade policies to make sure our businesses get a fair deal domestically and overseas. We need to repeal Obamacare, reduce barriers to business lending and end Chinese currency manipulation.

Finally, we need to invest in infrastructure. Workers need to be able to get to where the jobs are, whether they have to drive or take mass transit. Goods shipped by truck and rail need to be able to avoid bottlenecks and ship on time.

At pitts.house.gov/jobs you can read my complete memo that goes into more detail about what I think needs to be done. You can also read further about what the House of Representatives has been doing this year and a few of the bipartisan successes we’ve had in the last two years.