Issue Position: Jobs

Issue Position

As a Senator, my number one priority will be putting Kentuckians back to work in good-paying jobs. Kentuckians lost more than 118,000 jobs at the worst part of the recession[31] and they are still struggling to provide for their families. Mitch McConnell failed to put Kentuckians back to work. To increase family incomes, I will work to ensure that all Kentuckians and all Americans can earn a living wage for their work, and make sure that women get equal pay for the same work as men.

We must cut red tape and allow businesses to grow and create new jobs. As Secretary of State, I worked with both parties to create a one-stop shop for Kentucky businesses to interact with multiple state agencies through one point of contact, reducing tape and making it easier for business to grow and create more jobs. There are currently 854 federal regulations affecting small businesses.[32] We must reduce this regulatory burden. Our federal government shouldn't prevent small businesses from succeeding and creating jobs in Kentucky.

We must target burdensome federal regulation of Kentucky's energy sector, allowing our state to create new middle-class jobs across the state. Kentucky is leading the way in domestic energy development and the industry holds tremendous potential to grow Kentucky's economy, creating middle-class jobs across the state, but the federal government stands in the way. I will fight to reduce this regulatory burden on Kentucky's energy industry.

We must encourage manufacturing to return to Kentucky. I'm encouraged that companies like General Electric are opening manufacturing plants across Kentucky, but we must do more to create these new investments in our state. We should end tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas and expand tax credits for companies to invest in research and development and in new machinery and equipment here at home. We should also invest to develop an advanced manufacturing workforce in Kentucky.

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