Getting New Jersey Back to Work

There is no greater challenge facing families and businesses today than our nation’s struggling economy.  And the American people know that “Job #1” for Congress should be restoring growth and private sector job creation.   The Administration and Congress should be working aggressively together to find more effective ways to spur private sector job creation and opportunities. 

While the nation’s “official” unemployment rate stands at approximately 4.7 percent, the "underemployment" rate is much higher.  Some estimates put it above 20 percent if you count the officially unemployed plus all part-time workers who want full-time jobs as well as job-seekers who dropped completely out of the job market.  In fact, the Department of Labor estimates that close to 95 million people, of working age, are not actively looking for employment. 

In turn, high taxes, uncertainty and red tape are discouraging the creation of new jobs! 

That’s important.  Studies have indicated that since 1980 nearly all net new jobs have come from businesses that are less than five years old.  In other words, they come from “start-ups” or entrepreneurs.

For example, new firms, aged 1 to 5 years, accounted for two-thirds or roughly 12 million of all the new jobs added to our economy.

That is why Congress and the Administration must realize that the worst time to raise job-killing taxes or increase stifling government regulation is in the middle of a jobless “recovery.”

Instead, Congress should immediately:

• Allow small businessmen and women to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income.
• Let small businesses join together to purchase health insurance for their workers the way large businesses and labor unions do.
• Lower taxes for all taxpayers by reducing the current 15 percent income tax rate to 10 percent and reducing the current 10 percent rate to 5 percent.  This will provide an immediate increase in income to every taxpaying family in America and free up capital to help small businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs hire more workers.

The administration’s attempt to fix our economy has done little but expand the federal and state government bureaucracy and drive up our national debt to record levels.

It’s time for a new approach that: 

• Keeps taxes low on families and businesses.
• Reduces burdensome federal regulations. There are 3,000 regulations currently in the works!
• Makes greater investment in renewable technologies: Energy independence means keeping more money at home, protecting diversity of our energy sources and promotes economic stability.
• Opens new markets to international trade. New Jersey exports over $30 billion of products to other nations annually.  In order to expand, New Jersey businesses must have access to new opportunities.

I will continue to work with my colleagues in the New Jersey Congressional delegation and groups across our state to strengthen our economy.  I will be continue to meet with and listen to local Chambers of Commerce, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners, the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Click here to read Rodney's Plan for Job Creation.