Our country is broke. We are spending more than we take in. If you were living your personal life this way, the courts would declare you bankrupt.
When your outflows (spending) exceeds inflows (revenues) you have to do one of two things, increase your revenue or cut your spending. You can get a second job or get training to help get a better higher paying job. On the spending side, you can sell your extra car, downsize the house, cut the entertainment budget…you get the idea. It is precisely the same with our country.
Spending is out of control and it must be solved. We will discuss that in future posts but for now I just want to discuss the revenue side of the equation. This part of the discussion correlates to you getting more inflow.
To get a better understand of the budget woes, I find the following table to be very instructive in showing where the government has received money (revenue) over the last decade.
Obviously, the greatest impacts on government revenues are the 1st three columns.
Look how the first two have decreased in 2009. That is a result of 2 major factors, the recession and movement of jobs elsewhere in the world.
If we want to solve the deficit and the debt, this is the place to start. Bring back jobs that have left the country or which our government has outright regulated out of existence.
With unemployment between 10 % and 20% it is time to reclaim those jobs. The timber industry, mining, agriculture and manufacturing all have jobs waiting to start. Do you remember the 27,000 agriculture jobs in the San JoaquinValley? If we just turned the water back on and kept the minnow alive in breeding farms, jobs would start immediately. The same potential jobs exist in timber, in oil and gas, manufacturing. We then would see tremendous increases in government revenue in the first three columns.
Many say industrial jobs and maintaining the environment are mutually exclusive. Absolutely false.
In Congress, I will be a voice of reason that says we can protect the environment and create many new jobs. Canada is very good at preserving their open spaces, their forests and the natural beauty of their land. Canada has mining and oil and gas and both industries thrive while they have some of the most magnificent landscapes in the world. The bulk of the timber jobs we regulated out of existence in this country now reside in Canada. No offense to the Canadians, but I would like to retrieve them.
Not only can we, here in the USA, do both, i.e. produce jobs and protect the environment, we must do both. Our country is broke.
The other way of increasing revenues is by increasing taxes. Governor Bill Richardson, D-NM, said it best, “Tax cuts create jobs.” The corollary is true also, tax increases kill jobs.
The recession is going to be long and drawn out. With the shrinkage of the economy, especially the revenue in the 1st two columns, I do not think we can risk losing more jobs. If we hope to ease the pain lets be proactive in restarting industries.
I believe we must be bold.
Let’s encourage agriculture jobs, mining jobs, timber jobs, oil and gas jobs, and nuclear jobs. Let’s get the renewable energies started. Let’s invest in America, American energy, American food, American manufacturing…in American jobs. Let’s put America back to work.
