Issue Position: Economy

Issue Position

A national energy crisis, the failures of some financial institutions leading to frozen credit markets and the troubles in the housing and auto industries have all contributed to a downturn in our economy over the last several years. The challenges facing our economy resulted in a drastic increase in American unemployment

Unfortunately, our government's approach to the economic crisis over the past few years has been to bail out failed businesses and drive massive spending increases under the guise of stimulating our economy. Both have required unprecedented amounts of federal borrowing. Each of these huge expenditures has resulted in questionable benefits at the expense of individuals and businesses that made responsible choices.

We need a better solution. More government is not the answer. In order to foster a growing and healthy economy, Congress must enact policies that will increase our competitiveness, reward entrepreneurship and ingenuity. We need to craft common-sense, pragmatic policies that will quickly foster job creation and allow Americans to keep more of what they earn.

Additionally, Congress needs to continue to investigate the causes of our current situation in order to determine ways to improve regulation of the financial sector and guard against predatory lending and unwise business practices. Congress must conduct aggressive oversight to protect taxpayer money allocated to fund the recent bailouts. To empower effective oversight, Congress will have to change some laws that prohibit appropriate transparency at the Federal Reserve. In pursuit of that goal I am a co-sponsor of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (H.R. 1207).

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