Jobs, jobs, jobs. Every candidate be they Democrats, Republicans, or even Socialist Communists, all promise more jobs. The problem obviously is that regardless of what party is in office, they all seem to go down the same convoluted road in achieving that end, which is that the “government is what makes jobs happen.” It does this by investing billions or even trillions of dollars in infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels, new government offices, Michael Jackson calendars etc.). Such activity then employs thousands if not millions of additional Americans and makes America great again because people who were unemployed go back to work etc. etc.!

The only problem with all this is where the government gets the money to invest in the infrastructure in the first place. The answer of course is the taxpayers! In the case of America circa 2017, we are already broke, and running trillion dollar annual deficits when off budget expenditures are included, so the government gets the additional money for infrastructure spending from the Federal Reserve, which simply prints it physically or digitally and buys the treasuries that represent our deficits. 

Does something sound funny to you about this? How (in the ultimate sense) can the government make jobs happen through ever-increasing debt, taxes and money printing? Does not such activity ultimately depress or destroy the economy thereby leading to a loss of jobs and higher unemployment? No offence, but to believe such nonsense (as some do) one must check his or her brain at the door and ignore both sound reasoning and history. 

If the Democratic or Republican establishments are truly interested in dealing with the 96 million Americans (practically a third of our total population) who are now unemployed with the majority of them being able to work, then it must engage in true reform. For starters, how about eliminating all business taxes! The United States has one of the highest business tax rates in the world, with the top rate hovering around 40 percent. Couple this with state taxes, and larger businesses will pay around 50 percent or more. Now rather than pay this ridiculous amount, businesses in general will relocate outside the country. Taking much of their money and jobs with them (and who can you blame them). Even smaller business pay anywhere from 20 to 35 percent in federal taxes. If you add state taxes, some can pay close to 40 percent. Since they cannot leave the country, they simply cut back on their employees and future expansion or even go out of business etc.

You want jobs? Then engage in true reform and get the government out of the way!  Crucify the layers of ridiculous taxes and regulations, which stifle ambition together with human creativity and competition. Once this is accomplished, the companies together with the jobs will begin to return. And the people who are now unemployed will begin paying taxes once they are employed thereby filling in the shortfall created by the repeal of the various business taxes in the first place. 

Now the fact of the matter is that our congressional representatives and senators will not do this! They have already shown and will continue to show that they are not capable of any true long-term fixes for the United States; and folks “there is little time left” to plug the leaks in this Ship of State.   

I say again “Take your country back.” Article five people, article five.  [email protected]

Steven Howard

Monte Vista