JOBS! & The Economy

I cannot overstress the importance of getting our economy going again. Our population is expanding; our economy must expand to absorb new workers. An expanding economy creates competition for workers which increases wages. An expanding economy increases government income so we can reduce the deficit, pay down debt, protect ourselves and fund our programs. 

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But taxes and regulations are killing us. At 0.8% GDP growth in 1Q 2016 and 1.2% in 2Q, who’s coming to Maine for a nice vacation? We need to grow at 4%+ to get back to economic health.

Jobs result when entrepreneurs and companies put money at risk in hopes of a profit. They will not take that risk if taxes and regulations strangle them. Kennedy and Reagan knew it and cut taxes.

I believe Maine is a fantastically fertile place for enterprise. I will fight for lower taxes for everybody, including the tax-free repatriation of $2 trillion our corporations have parked off-shore. Think about $2 trillion seeking out a profit inside our economy, and it doesn't cost us a dime!

Let's look at some of the facts

• Do you really believe the Government's Unemployment rate? You shouldn't! That 4.9% is among those LOOKING for jobs. Many have given up. They didn't evaporate, they're still eating. They're burning through savings or on disability or welfare.
   
• An important measure of unemployment is the Labor Force Participation Rate - able-bodied, working age folks who have a job. Labor Force Participation rate reached its lowest point in 38 years, at just 62.4%

• Perhaps the best measure is the "U-6 rate": defined as all unemployed as well as "persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the labor force." That means the unemployed, the underemployed and the discouraged. This rate was 9.7% in Jul 2016.
   
• Non-farm payroll employment has averaged 206,000 per month for the past year and 171,000 this year alone. The problem is we need more like 350,000 new jobs a month to even hope to get back to true full employment.
• The productivity rate is falling. This measure compares output with hours worked. If hours are up more than output, productivity falls. One major contributor to productivity is technology, which requires investment and usually becomes a factor when business expands.
• Businesses are going out of business, less are forming. This is truly alarming. In addition to the risks inherent with the any business startup, entrepreneurs are simply unwilling to take the risks added on by ObamaCare, the threat of a higher minimum wage and more regulation. 

  

• Our tax code is now five times longer than the Bible. In 2015, Obama had added 81,000 pages to the Federal Register, including  3,378 final rules, 2,334 proposed rules, 29 executive orders and 31 executive memorandums. He will be the first President in all our history to preside over an economy growing at under 3% for 8 years.