Congressman Jack Kingston - First District of Georgia

In the negotiations over the fiscal cliff, we have heard a lot from President Obama about raising taxes. We know that the President wants to increase taxes but despite all the talk about a “balanced approach” we have yet to see him propose any real spending cuts.

After three weeks of negotiations President Obama’s opening offer contained $1.6 trillion in tax increases – two times the level on which the President campaigned.  According to media reports, the offer completely ignored the general framework on which talks had centered.

The President’s political allies would have you believe his proposal contains some $400 billion in “spending cuts.”  Unfortunately his plan also contains at the very least $287 billion in new spending.  Moreover, the so-called cuts count previously-enacted savings, “savings” from winding down the war in Afghanistan, and counts as savings interest the country would not be paying because it did not borrow additional money.

That is as good as crediting Georgia $5 billion in budget savings this year because we were not hit by a hurricane.  It is the kind of thinking that got us into this mess and the gimmickry that lets Washington ignore our country’s problems rather than tackling them head on.

We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.  Historically, revenues are 18 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).  Spending, however, is currently 23 percent of GDP and President Obama’s budget doubles down on this unsustainable path.

Since 1975, federal spending has grown nearly 10 times faster than inflation.  Clearly, both parties have their fingerprints on the national debt but even if President Obama got every tax hike he’s asking for, deficits would average $715 billion during his second term.  Even if the President took 100% of the income of those making $1 million or more, his budget would run a $370 billion deficit this year.

I support the President’s right to advance his views.  His insistence, however, on raising rates is misguided.  The very people says he is targeting – the super wealthy – are the ones that can afford to hire accountants and lawyers to reduce their effective tax rates by taking advantage of loopholes.

As it stands, the President’s definition of wealthy includes as many as 1.7 million individuals whose small business income is reported through their individual income tax filings.  Increasing taxes on these individuals would have the effect of killing jobs.

While I have concerns about Speaker Boehner’s proposal to avert the fiscal cliff, I believe he put forward a thoughtful and serious offer.  Now it is time for the President to do the same. 

Any such offer would most certainly include substantive spending cuts.  That means spending less, not exploiting budget tricks to satisfy phony accounting.
President Obama campaigned on a “balanced approach.”  It is time for him to deliver just that.

Labor Day is a wonderful holiday.  It provides us a chance to celebrate all that summer had to offer while looking forward to fall.  If we are lucky, it gives us a chance to spend time with our family and friends, cook out, and celebrate the start of football season (Go Dawgs!).

The real meaning of Labor Day, however, is taking a moment to celebrate the American worker.  Throughout our history, the American workforce has led the world in innovation and productivity.  We have dreamed up some of the greatest inventions and created the supply chain to spread them all over the world.

America gives everyone – regardless of your past – the opportunity to earn a livelihood, provide for your family, and, if you’re lucky, the chance to give a hand up to the next generation so they may seek an even better life.

Unfortunately, America’s economy is puttering right now and is failing the American worker.  A report this week from the Bureau of Economic Analysis found that economic growth slowed for two consecutive quarters, making this the weakest economic recovery since World War II.

Remember when the Obama Administration campaigned for his trillion dollar “stimulus”?  They promised unemployment would never rise above 8 percent and millions of jobs would be created by the end of 2010.

As of last month, there are still 4.4 million fewer jobs than the Administration forecast for December 2010 and unemployment has been above 8 percent for 42 straight months, marking the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

While some in Washington focused on a passing a misguided health care law, the rug was being ripped out from under American workers.  Today there are 1.5 million fewer full-time workers than when President Obama took office.  Millions of Americans only have work because they have been forced to shift from full-time to part-time employment, often lacking benefits or the ability to support a family.

The economy has become so bad that many are giving up looking for work all together.  Under President Obama, total employment has increased by a net of just 33,000 new employees.  In that same time, the number of people no longer in the labor force has grown by 7.8 million.  That means that during the Obama years, labor force drop outs outnumbered new employees 237 to 1.

Even worse, those who have been able to maintain their jobs see their paychecks falling behind inflation as prices rise while wages stay stagnant or decline.

I hope this Labor Day provides everyone with an opportunity to reflect on this state of the American economy and the American worker.  We face great challenges but America has never been one to back down before.  It is not too late to abandon the failed policies that have made a bad economic situation worse.

It’s not too late to put a halt to overly-burdensome and misguided government regulations.  We should be able to come together and agree that regulators should work with well-intentioned businesses rather than using the law to exploit inadvertent mistakes.

It’s not too late to create jobs and bring down the cost of gasoline by developing America’s energy resources.  An all-of-the-above energy platform would harness America’s energy potential both in conventional means and renewable resources.

It’s not too late to replace our misguided tax code with one that works for the American economy by making it fairer, flatter, and more conducive to growth. 

In each of these areas the House has acted: calling for a review of regulations and repeal those that yield little benefit while they inflict much economic damage; voting to end President Obama’s de facto energy moratorium and to expand safe development of our resources; and laying the ground work to fast track fundamental tax reform.

In each of these areas, we welcome the President and the Senate to join us.  We also welcome them to act on any of the more than thirty bipartisan jobs bills passed by the House which await Senate action.

More than any holiday, honoring the American worker today starts with coming together to reignite the American economy and revive the American dream.

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What do you think would be best to encourage economic growth?  Share your thoughts below.

Dr. Joseph Barrow, Superintendent of Ware County Public Schools, poses with Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) after a meeting in Kingston's Washington, D.C. office.  During their meeting, Barrow and Kingston discussed federal education programs and the challenges in education today.

Last week, the House voted on a bipartisan basis to repeal President Obama’s misguided health care law.  I voted in favor of repealing the law for five reasons.

First, it increases the cost of care.  The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the law will actually increase health insurance premiums for families by $2,100, in direct contrast to the President’s campaign trail promise that his plan would reduce premiums by $2,500.

Second, it would cause twenty million Americans to lose their employer-sponsored health insurance according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.  The Obama Administration’s own Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 80 percent of small businesses and 64 percent of large businesses will discontinue offering health insurance to their employees.

Third, it interferes in the doctor-patient relationship.  The law creates 159 new boards, offices, and panels within the federal government to make health care decisions for individuals.

Fourth, it piles more debt on our children and grandchildren.  At a time when we already borrow 40 cents on every dollar the government spends, the law would add another $1.8 trillion over the next decade.  We do not have the money.

Fifth, it is a job killer.  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nearly 800,000 jobs will be lost because of Obamacare.  As last week’s jobs report made clear, we cannot afford to further erode the employment situation.

While I remain committed to repealing this misguided law, we must work to reform the underlying problems in our health care system.  As opposed to the divisive politics and underhanded tactics used to enact it, we should come together and put our best ideas forward to replace the law.

To this end, I have cosponsored reforms that would:

Enact Medical Liability Reform
Sensible tort reforms would cut back on unnecessary tests and procedures that are only ordered to defend against frivolous lawsuits, saving patients time and irritation while saving all of us money.

Allow Interstate Competition for Health Insurance
Allowing Americans to buy the same plans available to residents of other states would increase competition and help reduce costs while providing more choice.

Expand Health Savings Accounts
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are popular savings accounts that provide cost effective health insurance to those who might otherwise go uninsured. Making them easier to use would increase access to quality care by making health care more affordable.

Increase Access for Patients with Pre-Existing Conditions
By incentivizing states to expand high-risk pools and other innovative programs, we can lower premiums and reduce the number of uninsured Americans.

Level the Playing Field for Purchasing Health Insurances
Giving equal tax treatment to individual and employer-sponsored health insurance would create a more transparent, consumer-driven market for health care and would help reduce the problem of “preexisting conditions.”

Permanently Prohibit Taxpayer Funding of Abortion
Taxpayer dollars should not be used to take innocent life through abortion and health care providers should be protected from performing procedures that violate their conscience.

In a few short months, America’s television and radio waves will be overrun with publicity for the 2012 presidential election.  Every time Americans flip on the news or a sports broadcast, I can almost guarantee that we will see President Obama and Governor Romney going after each other in carefully crafted commercials. 

The Internet won’t be spared, either—Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and even ESPN articles will be hit with a wave of campaign advertising.  For better or for worse, the rise of technology has transformed the way presidential campaigns are conducted. 

Today, I got a glimpse of what election years were like before the Information Age at the Library of Congress’s presidential campaign memorabilia display.  It was very different to see such an emphasis on print advertising—a medium that has become marginalized.  Romanticized photographs or portraits highlighted catchy slogans like “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too” (William Henry Harrison) and “I Like Ike” (Dwight Eisenhower). 

Though flyers and posters are still around, some methods have fallen by the wayside completely.  Songbooks and sheet music used to by common on the campaign trail, and the LoC’s collection included colorful tunes like “Everything Will be Rosy with Roosevelt”, “We’ll do it with Dewey”, and my personal favorite, “Turn the Rascals Out”. 

As frustrating as they can be and as never-ending as they seem, modern campaign tools, like TV and the Internet, are more beneficial for both the candidate and the electorate.  A nominee can get out his message quickly, and voters can debate and fact-check almost as fast.  However, the LoC’s exhibition was a great opportunity to see how history’s leaders presented themselves.  It was also a reminder that today’s invaluable campaign instruments will someday be viewed by an intern as artifacts in a museum.

Phillips W. is a rising sophomore at Clemson University.  He is a summer intern in Jack’s DC office.