Columns
With the holidays upon us, the season brings with it an opportunity for us to pause and reflect on the past year. Looking back over the course of the last twelve months, the pursuit of change has shaped events both here at home and across the globe.
As families and loved ones gather across the Third District over the coming days to celebrate Christmas, I want to extend my season’s greetings to you and your family. During this time of year, our thoughts and prayers go out to the men and women, and certainly their families, who sacrifice so much to defend our freedoms.
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 One of those areas is our outdated tax code.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.
With our nation in the midst of the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, you would think policymakers would be focused on reducing barriers to job creation. Not so. High unemployment has many drivers, but one of the most obvious culprits is over-regulation.
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.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the guns in Europe fell silent and the War to End All Wars was over. And on that day every year thereafter, Americans have come together to remember the sacrifices made by the veterans who took up arms on their behalf to defend freedom.
One of the most significant challenges holding back the American economy is our overly complex and outdated tax code. Instead of having tax policy to encourage hiring American workers and investing here in the United States, our obsolete tax system incentivizes businesses to leave profits and jobs overseas. This dynamic is stifling job growth here in Nebraska and across the country.
For 32 consecutive months the national unemployment rate has been at or above 8 percent. Today, it stands at 9.1 percent. Nearly 14 million Americans continue to look for jobs as average family incomes are dropping and the poverty rate is rising. Maintaining the status quo is unacceptable.