Chamber of Commerce applauds GOP bill, calls it "a step in the right direction"

A Step Away From ‘Government Knows Best’
by Bruce Josten

Yesterday, a group of Senators including John McCain (R-AZ), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Rand Paul (R-KY), introduced the "Jobs Through Growth Act." This legislation marks a departure from a "government knows best" approach and instead empowers the private sector to rescue our economy. As the Chamber outlined in its Six-Point Jobs Plan, alleviating regulatory burdens, tax uncertainty, and restoring confidence to invest and grow jobs is the best way to get the country back on track. This bill is a step in the right direction and includes a number of the same broad ideas for job creation as the Chamber’s plan.

Comprehensive tax reform is critical to job creation. We believe in reforming the current complex system through fundamental reform that simplifies the tax code, lowers individual and corporate rates, and makes American companies more competitive.

Additionally, we agree that fundamentally reforming the regulatory process is necessary for businesses to begin hiring again. Our complex and arcane regulatory system is keeping capital on the sidelines while businesses wait to see what regulators will do next. Congress must reaffirm its oversight role, and the president should issue executive orders to reform the permitting process and to declare a time-out on new major discretionary regulations.

The U.S. Chamber has long pushed for expanded domestic energy production as a major driver for job creation. We have vast energy resources off our shores and under our lands. We could put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work developing those resources, while generating billions in government revenues, and lessening our reliance on energy from countries that don’t share our interests or values. We should also invest in energy infrastructure, like the Keystone XL pipeline, which would support 250,000 American jobs and strengthen our supply of domestic fuel.

Further, we applaud the long-overdue passage of free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. But the United States should also be vigorously negotiating new trade and investment agreements around the world. We agree that the White House should administratively complete the task of modernizing arcane export control rules. Reaching the 95% of the world’s consumers who live outside our borders is the best way to find new customers for our businesses and create new jobs.

We look forward to working with Congress on shared ideas to put Americans back to work, as well as on other job-creating action items in the U.S. Chamber’s Six-Point Jobs Plan, including infrastructure investment and U.S. travel and tourism promotion.