Increasing Jobs and Economic Growth

Floor Speech

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I think there are three things that we need to do in America in order to increase jobs and economic growth.

Number one, we've got to drill our own oil. If you drive a car or if you use goods and services that come to you by a vehicle using an internal combustion engine, somebody had to drill for that gas. Now, do you really believe that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and Libya are more environmentally sensitive than we are? Of course not. We can do it in an environmentally sensitive way and become oil independent.

Secondly, we need to have tax simplification. I'm outraged when I hear about people not paying their fair share of taxes. We need to have a Tax Code that is a half-an-inch deep and miles and miles wide so that everybody is paying their fair share.

Then, thirdly, we need to change the regulatory environment. Regulators don't need to approach businesses with an ``I gotcha. I'm against you'' attitude, but as more of a partnership--``Hey, we want to work with you on worker safety and environmental protection and product liability laws''--and things like this so that we can work for business and nurture responsible corporate citizenship.

I think we can do that, and that will increase our jobs and our economic growth.

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