Jobs Through Growth

The appropriations process of the first session of the 112th Congress ended on a surprisingly positive note with passage of a 2012 funding bill that cut government spending for the second year in a row. National Journal reporter Major Garrett described this year's spending cuts as "the deepest and most unsettling" that "official Washington" has ever seen, but most conservatives would just call the $95 billion in cuts a good start. Much more progress is needed to undo the damage of decades of reckless spending and put the nation on sound fiscal footing.

The policies needed to reduce the debt are the same actions required to grow the economy and reduce the persistently high unemployment rate. This commonsense recognition is the philosophy behind the new Jobs Through Growth Act, of which I am a co-sponsor.

The Jobs Through Growth Act would bring much-needed reform to our outdated, overly complex tax code. The legislation would eliminate some of the uncertainty and unfairness in the tax system by indexing the capital gains tax for inflation and permanently eliminating the death tax that jeopardizes the survival of small businesses and family farms. By implementing reforms, the bill would increase revenues while decreasing tax rates. It would lower taxes on foreign-earned profits to encourage U.S. corporations to bring an estimated $1.2 trillion of overseas revenue home. Corporate rates would be cut from 35 percent to 25 percent, and taxpayers could opt to participate in a simpler system that would have just two rates -- 15 percent or 25 percent for filers earning more than $100,000.

In addition to simplifying the tax code, the legislation takes aim at the stifling regulations discouraging job creators from expansion. In just the first six months of 2011, the Obama administration proposed 144 regulations that would create significant costs for businesses. One provision of the Jobs Through Growth Act would place a moratorium on all such regulations until the unemployment rate falls to 7.7 percent or less. The bill also incorporates commonsense policies that have already passed the House but are stuck in the Senate. These include a provision requiring congressional approval of any agency regulation with an economic impact of more than $100 million annually, as well as components protecting small businesses from onerous regulations.

Finally, the bill would create jobs and lower energy costs by removing the barriers President Obama has erected to domestic energy. The legislation eliminates unnecessary delays in the permitting process and opens up ANWR, the Gulf of Mexico and the outer continental shelf to safe energy exploration and production. By simply removing obstacles to American energy, we can create thousands of jobs and lower fuel costs for American families and businesses.

Unlike President Obama's failed stimulus plan, these commonsense policies would actually create jobs without adding billions of dollars to the deficit. The Jobs Through Growth Act should be one of the top priorities for Congress in the new year.