Taxes

This past week President Obama delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. Traditionally this speech has been a chance for the President to outline his agenda for the coming year. After more than three years of economic hardship, this was the time to chart a new path forward to put our nation back on a sounder fiscal and economic footing.

The November jobs report, which showed nearly twice as many Americans dropped out of the labor force than found work, underscored the deep and systemic problems still affecting the economy. One of those areas is our outdated tax code. Over the years, it has grown too complicated and cumbersome, and it is fundamentally unfair.

Over the past several weeks, Washington has had multiple opportunities to address the nation’s massive spending problem. Instead, the only thing Congress was able to accomplish was prove again how broken Washington has become. Despite the setbacks, we must redouble our efforts to end the unsustainable spending going on in our nation’s capital.

Last month’s jobs report did not offer much to feel good about the state of the American economy. October marked the 33rd straight month of joblessness above eight percent, a post-World War II record and job growth slowed to a four month low.