Serious About Jobs? Rein in the Regs!
Ohio, like much of the country, has struggled considerably during the past few years with serious economic challenges. According to the Department of Job and Family Services, the state's unemployment rate stands at 9.1%. Amazingly, Ohio has shed jobs for three straight months; more than half a million Ohioans are unemployed.
It was against this backdrop that President Obama arrived in Cincinnati, to tout his recently announced jobs plan. While there, he called on Congress to fund long overdue infrastructure projects like the Brent Spence Bridge renovation.
I applaud the President's intentions and I appreciate the attention he brought to the bridge, but nobody believes that renovation of the bridge will jump start the economy. Experts predict that even if the project received funding immediately, the first jobs wouldn't come online until 2013 at the earliest, and perhaps as late as 2015. Even the President admitted a few months ago that, "there's no such thing as a shovel ready project."
If the President wants to create jobs today, he should focus on jump starting private sector job creation rather than increasing the amount of money that comes to Washington. He could do that by working to remove obstacles to small business growth. Regulations have been proposed at break neck speed over the past three years and currently there are over 4,000 different proposed rules on the books. With so many regulations in the works, small businesses in Ohio and across the country have struggled to plan for the future. On the other hand, much of the money that is being sent to Washington is being used to implement more regulations. This past week, for example, the EPA announced it would need to hire up to 230,000 new government bureaucrats to enforce newly proposed regulations. Those jobs aren't self-sustaining; instead, they rely on taxpayer dollars.
If President Obama is serious about immediate job creation, he should help small business succeed rather than growing Washington.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Serious about jobs? Rein in the regs!
Below is a guest post by Heather Harlow from the John Pfeiffer Company. She is a small business owner here in Ohio and is also a member of the Small Business For Sensible Regulations Coalition:
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Politicians are able to get away with saying these things because there is a segment of the public that actually believes what they are saying. Further this dogma is repeated by the media and by leaders of various groups that support these politicians.
The unfortunate part of all of it is that it doesn't work. Yet, in spite of the mountain of evidence to the contrary, it still persists.
I suppose my hope is that this pain being inflicted upon us by Washington will cause these Lemmings to think for themselves, and stop parroting what they hear.
It's a mystery to me.
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