Recalibration of policies

A study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce presents two salient points that are worth reviewing. It’s worth our salt if we work proactively on due diligence. They are:

1). Wealth and jobs creation are best handled at the states and territorial levels.

2). Returning to basics that have lured taxpayers and businesses the Lone Star of Texas.

The Praxis Strategy Group and Joel Kotkin prepared the report. This group is an economic research and development strategy company that works with leaders and innovators in business, education and government to create new economic opportunities. Kotkin is an internationally recognized authority on global, economic, political and social trends. His book The Next 100 Million: America in 2050 explores how the nation will evolve in the next four decades.

Progressive strides have been undertaken by states to improve issues like taxes and tax credits, deregulations of federal and state laws to grant businesses greater room for establishment of new or expansion of anchor or traditional investments, human resource training to meet business demands on skills and expertise; and the strengthening of laws that work while regressive ones are repealed forthwith. These are some of the areas that have had businesses sharing ideas to create wealth and jobs for people throughout towns across the country.

Michael Reagan, the son of the 40th president of our country and author of the book, The New Reagan Revolution said, “It’s not complicated: limited government works.” He noted that it takes basic principles of keeping taxes low, restraining government spending, minimizing regulations on private enterprise, and keeping the money supply sound.

Reagan further noted that world leaders across the globe replicated the “American Miracle.” How sad though that a short time ago it has fallen by the wayside. Our country was engulfed in the era of bailouts and budget busting stimulus packages. He argues that the future can be salvaged and improved “by revisiting the lessons of the past” as preached by his father. It’s the sure way that our country could reasonably pull itself out of the economic death spiral.

He challenged leadership across the country to visit Texas Governor Rick Perry who championed and built upon the concepts his father used to rebuild America in the 1980s. “The results…are unassailable”, he declared. Indeed, Texas, by any measure “survived the global economic recession in dramatically better shape than any other state, continuing to add employers seeking to expand or relocate from across the country or around the world.

What’s the secret behind the Texas Miracle? Low taxes, predictable and limited regulation, and restrained government spending. Reagan noted that the Lone Star State stands as an example the rest of the nation should be emulating. In fact, many states want to do so. Earlier this year, a contingent of lawmakers from California traveled to Austin to meet with Governor Perry to try to figure out just what Texas was doing to make it such an attractive destination for relocating California businesses and residents. As the son of the former California governor, he said, “I can appreciate the irony of a Golden State contingent traveling to Texas to learn the lessons originally taught by Ronald Reagan.”

Too, may I add that we also need less federal and local government interference to allow businesses to thrive premised solidly on the free enterprise system. Statutory dictates have done the exact opposite. The free enterprise system works and it is the proven tool of our country for more than 200 plus years. I associate myself with Reagan’s view: Let’s return to basics and limited government!

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Re-establishing a functional working relationship may be difficult. But we must take a deep breath and take the proverbial first step together. Both sides of the Pacific Divide was busy killing the goose that lays the golden egg, mindless of the consequences that have devoured revenue generation in recent past.

Obviously, each side means well but each had interpreted the work of the other as insultingly invasive or intrusive. This need not be the case. In fact, we can all return to the table once more with completely new paradigms and an open mind to speak with one another rather than to each other!

An excellent example of policies best left at the local level is minimum wage. The imposition of the federal minimum wage at 50 cents per year increase until it reaches federal level has resulted in a 35-percent job loss per a U.S. GAO report issued last week. It confirms the irrelevance and out of sync intent versus results that simply destroys our country’s forte—the free enterprise system.

In brief, wages should be left to local governments. We’ve seen how a healthy economy easily accommodates salary increases for its employees, including year-end bonuses. But when we trip, let’s do it the Japanese way—everybody sacrifices until the economy returns to normalcy. It’s the free enterprise system! This and other issues can definitely be worked out amicably between our benefactors in Washington and the NMI. After all, Rome and our country weren’t built overnight. And even with time and due diligence, there remains larger challenges ahead in this century for all countries struggling to attain self-sufficiency via methods that work best even in bad economic times, Reaganomics!