Issue Position: Economic Recovery

Issue Position

Every business and every family in America has faced difficult financial situations before. For all of us, it meant we tightened our belts, set priorities, and worked hard to move ahead. Indeed, this was my personal experience as a child growing up in the Panhandle.

In the energy industry, I have helped lead businesses that faced severe financial difficulties during recessionary periods -- it was not easy to work through but with good management, dedicated employees, and sound business principles we always survived and ultimately expanded operations and created jobs.

Because of these personal experiences, I am sickened by the endless string of bailouts, massive "stimulus" spending on pork barrel projects, and the trillions of dollars piled onto our national debt in this year alone. Our government and tax dollars were never intended as a slush fund to prop up failed policies, bad decisions, or greed, which drove some of these failures.

America's economic recovery will come from men and women who are working every day to come up with new products, new innovations, or new ways to grow their operations. Congress should be promoting these activities instead of new government programs.

That is why I have focused my effort in Congress on:

Stopping any new so-called "stimulus bills"--dead in their tracks!
Making the federal government tighten its belt -- instead of ours;
Delivering tax cuts for small businesses and families so they can decide how to meet their priorities;
Working to lessen the corporate tax rate in our country which is among the highest of all industrialized nations--these burdens drive millions of jobs and billions of dollars overseas;
Reducing unsound regulations that strangle job growth and economic development -- I have seen this first hand in the energy business -- we can literally create a new energy boom and thousands of new jobs for this country by lessening regulations and allowing our nation to truly focus on American energy development;
Reversing the efforts of the EPA to enforce provisions of the horrible Cap and Trade legislation pushed by Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi--this legislation, based upon unproven science, will likely result in the largest loss/overseas export of American jobs ever driven by a single government action;
Focusing spending on national security, economic growth, sound infrastructure, and trade.

Instead of feeding more government expansion, we need to put money back in the hands of the folks who build our nation, create jobs, grow our food supply, teach our children, and invent new technologies--all of which power our future. It is time we had a Representative who pushed for these priorities as well.

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