news

After 28 consecutive months of high unemployment, and with the rate still at 9.1 percent, the White House tells us this is simply a “bump on the road to recovery.”

However, for the 13.9 million Americans still unemployed, we are still miles and many bumps away from having a recovered economy.

During the first quarter of this year, GDP grew at 1.8 percent, down from 2010’s final quarter of 3.1 percent. In addition, housing prices fell 4.2 percent in the first quarter of this year – the lowest point since the economic downturn – and gas prices are up a dollar since last June.

These statistics are hardly indicative of just being in a rough patch.

Yet, Austan Goolsbee, outgoing chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, praised the dismal progress. In May he said, “We’ve finally turned – we’ve finally started adding jobs. We’re finally seeing promise in a lot of industries to come out of a deep hole.”

The latest employment numbers seem to disagree with the Administration. The payroll processor, Automatic Data Processing, Inc, estimates that the private sector only generated 38,000 new jobs in May, missing the expected 175,000 jobs. This is not enough to make a significant dent to offset our economy’s cutbacks.

Americans want to know, “Where are the jobs?”

Over-regulation is a contributing factor of why businesses aren’t able to hire and are scared to invest.

The latest data from the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy reveals that regulations cost the American economy $1.75 trillion. This costs small business $10,585 per employee annually. Moreover, a Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Policy Studies report states that for “each million-dollar increase in the regulatory budget costs the economy 420 jobs.”

What does this mean for you? Fewer jobs and a much slower economic recovery.  

A prime example of regulations killing jobs was the recent announcement by American Electric Power (AEP), a Columbus-based utility company. The company stated that due to pending clean air regulations it might have to shutdown and downsize 11 plants – costing over 600 jobs, $10.4 million in annual wages and $9.1 million annual in taxes. For Ohio, this means one plant closing and downsizing two others, all at a net lose of around 157 jobs.

According to a National Economic Research Associates’ study, these same regulations will affect multiple other companies leading to 53,500 jobs lost in Ohio alone from 2013-2020.

Instead of adding job-crushing regulations, we should rein in the federal government’s regulatory power. We all want clean air and water; however, regulations should be prudent not cavalier.

In fact, on average, if we removed one single unelected bureaucrat the American economy would grow by $6.2 million and approximately create 100 new jobs.  

Washington needs to understand that government intervention in our nation’s businesses, large and small, will not move our economy forward. Government is not responsible for economic growth, the private sector is.

A contrast between today’s slow recession recovery and the 1981 recovery further illustrates that the policies instituted by President Obama have failed. A year after the 1980’s recession was truly on the road to recovery; when Reagan left office the unemployment rate was at 5.5 percent, down from a high of 9.7 percent.

It is clear that current policies are taking resources out of the economy, leaving millions of unemployed Americans stranded. Returning our country on the road to economic prosperity will require one major component used by President Reagan during the recession: rescinding regulations that hinder economic growth.

The Reagan administration’s regulatory reductions “resulted in an estimated $9 billion to $11 billion in one-time savings and an additional $10 billion in annual savings,” according to a study by the Cato Institute.

The inconvenient truth for the Obama administration is that they do not know a thing about what spurs the economy, produces jobs and promotes growth.  

We need regulatory reform policies now that restore our nation’s economic growth – 13.9 unemployed Americans are counting on it.