We hear all about America’s problems every day. We can’t get away from them, especially when the bad news is compounded with more bad news about natural disasters. The latest economic and jobs news is yet another indication that this nation’s problems are getting worse and stifling our prosperity.
And every time this administration or Congress tries to fix a problem, it gets worse. That’s because the administration believes more government, more spending and more taxes are the answer to everything.
The real answer is less government, less spending and less taxation.
After nearly $1 trillion in federal “stimulus” spending, the economy is still growing at an anemic rate. The first quarter of 2011 weighed in at only a 1.8 percent growth in GDP. Remember, China is growing at about a 10 percent rate of growth.
Obamacare was supposed to help make health care more affordable and accessible. Instead, it is a bureaucratic nightmare with companies and states trying to get as far away as they can from implementing it through waivers and exemptions.
It would be mismanagement to allow the clock to run out on the debt ceiling, to avoid a crisis, without getting serious about drastic cuts in spending. And not knowing what the tax rates are going to be in 2013 is an unnecessary uncertainty hanging over businesses and investors.
Hope and change is not stimulating the economy. Hope and change is not a job, and the latest jobs report shows that to be so. The administration continues to say that the economic hole was deeper than expected. If so, they should have stopped digging.
They also say that people just need to give the president’s policies more time.
That’s called watch and hope.
Let’s get real!
America needs more empowerment, not more entitlement and spending by government. Empowerment means enabling businesses, workers and consumers. Get government out of the way. But that’s not in the president’s or the Democrats’ DNA.
We must empower our economy with lower taxes on businesses and workers. All we have to do is look at the success of the 1960s and 1980s.
We must empower the energy sector with a real energy independence plan that removes government barriers to maximizing all of our energy resources. In fact, the real problem is achieving oil independence. We are already electricity-independent. We just need to break our addiction to oil by getting government out of the way responsibly.
Since the policies of the Obama administration are not working after nearly two and a half years, more time is not going to generate an economic miracle. Lowering taxes is just not in President Obama’s economic DNA. So more time is not going to change anything.
To change the economic course of this nation, we must change the occupant of the White House, electing someone who understands the power of empowerment.
Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, is a Republican candidate for president.
