Regulation Nation
“Most new jobs are created in start-ups and small businesses. So let’s pass an agenda that helps them succeed. Tear down regulations that prevent aspiring entrepreneurs from getting the financing to grow.”
—President Barack Obama, State of the Union address, January 24, 2012
The President’s policies have failed and are making the economy worse. Because the President cannot run on his record, he has regrettably turned to the politics of envy and division. House Republicans have a Plan for America’s Job Creators—it’s time for the President and Democrats in the Senate to stop blocking our jobs bills , such as the REINS Act, which would require Congress to take an up-or-down vote on all new major rules before they can be imposed on the American economy.
Even the president’s own Jobs Council agrees with House Republicans’ jobs plan on the need to reduce the burdens of government on the private sector.
Take the words of Jobs Council member and CEO of investment firm Revolution, Steve Case, advocating in a recent Washington Post op-ed for, among other things, reforms to the Sarbarnes-Oxley Act’s onerous “Section 404(b).”
Mr. Case explains why policies need to create an environment in which growth is encouraged and rewarded, allowing for young, fast-growing companies to go public:
Unintended consequences of well-intentioned regulations have made public capital markets harder and more expensive to access: Initial public offerings of less than $50 million were 80 percent of IPOs in the 1990s but just 20 percent in the 2000s. This is a concern, as 90 percent of job creation typically happens after a company goes public — and all too often, the alternative is for a company to be sold. While job growth accelerates after an IPO, it decelerates when a firm merges or is acquired.
A co-founder of one of the largest and fastest growing companies of its time, AOL, Mr. Case can probably better appreciate the realities of entrepreneurship and job creation—and the constraints thereon—than any law professor or community organizer.
As Mr. Case points out, with most jobs coming from firms less than five years old, it is imperative that policymakers nurture the creation and expansion of these high-growth businesses.
Sadly, recent data indicates that the Obama economy has sent entrepreneurship to a 17-year low in the U.S. This is why the American people can’t wait for President Obama and Senate Democrats to consider the solutions of the House GOP Plan for America's Job Creators, with 27 House-passed bills—some of which specifically address access to capital for small businesses—now stuck in the Senate.
For additional information, contact:
The House Republican Conference Policy Office
