Government Roadblocks to Job Creation - May 26, 2011

Good morning. I’m Vicki Hartzler. I’m a small business owner and I’m one of 96 percent of the businesses in this country who employee less than a 100 Americans.

Small businesses are the backbone of job creation in this country. And from my own experience and from visiting with a dozens of small business owners in my district, I can tell you unequivocally that the policies and the procedures of Washington, D.C., in the past have been what has caused the loss of jobs in this country. Washington has been destroying jobs by overtaxing, overregulating, and over-involving itself in the day-to-day operations of the free enterprise system. They have created an uncertainty, which has caused job creators and entrepreneurs to hold onto their capitol and not invest or create jobs. This has got to change and is gonna change.

Republicans know how to create jobs, because many of us do it on a daily basis. To us it’s not rocket science, it’s common sense. Washington needs to be run like a business, not a bureaucracy. Republicans understand the basic business principles, and we know how to create jobs. The proposals that we are putting forth today will have direct, real implications that will get people back to work.

And let me give you a couple examples: regulations. We have got way to many government regulations and we’ve got to get them off the backs of our business owners. The Small Business Administration reported that government regulations are estimated to cost our economy over $1.75 trillion a year. And I hear these horror stories on a regular basis from business owners back in my district, and yet the bureaucracy seems to be oblivious to the implications of these rules on jobs.

I received this week, a letter from the EPA regarding a letter I’d written them about some of their rules. And they wrote here, “Thus the agency is prohibited from considering cost in setting these standards.” Now in business we do a cost benefit analysis before we make policy changes. Washington should as well.

Second example that we’re going to address is trade. In business we understand that in order to succeed you need customers, and before us we have three trade proposals of willing customers who want to do business with us, plus remove the barriers that they’re holding for us. The Obama administration itself says the passage will create 250,000 jobs. So let’s quit dragging our feet, and pass them before other countries take our business away.

And the last thing I want to mention is we need to lower taxes. We’ve got to let small business owners keep more of their money instead of sending it here to Washington. It’s pretty simple. If business owners don’t have the money and they have to send it here, they’re not going to have it at home to hire a new worker.

So by removing these roadblocks to job creation, we can move ahead with growth for our economy and meaningful, permanent, private sector jobs for American families. Once again, it’s time to run Washington like a business, not a bureaucracy.

Speech from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_lkaYqmm_g&list=UUAvttUz6qBVEJiFt7p_MZxw.