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Now that the Obama administration is releasing an economic plan at the rate of roughly once a week, it almost makes one miss the days when the president contributed nothing at all to the debate. At least during the months when President Obama remained virtually silent regarding the nation's most significant challenges, we were spared calls for $1.6 trillion tax hikes.

As Paul Harvey might say, "now we know the rest of the story." In an address to Congress, President Obama touted his jobs plan as a cure-all for the nation's economic woes and exhorted legislators to pass his bill without delay -- and without actually having seen the bill yet. But details on how to pay for the plan were conspicuously absent.

After weeks of hype, President Obama finally unveiled his jobs plan in an address to a joint session of Congress. The speech comes on the heels of an August employment report that indicated zero percent job growth.

The nation's job creators consistently cite government overregulation as one of the most significant obstacles to economic growth. Likewise in my August town hall meetings and conversations with Oklahoma business leaders, frustration with government overreach is mentioned again and again as a major barrier to hiring and expansion.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released a midyear update of its Budget and Economic Outlook, and the results are educational. Amid the grim economic news are glimpses of the progress that is possible when Washington get its act together and cuts spending.