Economy

Unemployment remains above 9%, wages have stagnated, and inflation is consuming more of our incomes. We need to realize that our economy is suffering due to a host of government policies that give foreign firms an economic advantage over our domestic firms. If we modify these policies, we will once again realize that the American free-market will produce the strongest economy in the world. I will work to change these policies in five distinct areas:

Pro-Growth Tax Policy
The vast majority of wage earners currently pay an effective marginal tax rate close to 50% or more; most people don't realize this because the government has become very adept at hiding this true number. For example, a typical worker may think that they pay a 25% tax rate, but this is just the federal income tax. They also pay a total of 15.3% in payroll taxes (half of which is typically paid by an employer). Most Virginians also pay another 5.75% in state income tax. These workers also end up paying local sales taxes in the range of 5% or more along with various other taxes (such as gas taxes, universal access fees on phones, etc.) On top of all of this, most tax deductions and credits are slowly phased out at various levels of income, further increasing the effective rate on every extra dollar earned. However, it is well understood among economists that high effective marginal tax rates hinder economic growth. The solution is to simplify the tax code by consolidating all taxes into a single number (which can still be apportioned to various trust funds) and eliminating deductions and credits. I will fight for a simplification that will minimize the number of tax rates while preserving a minimum (e.g., poverty line) income before paying taxes, preserving deductions for charitable contributions, and providing a graceful solution to the mortgage tax deduction that will not collapse the housing market.

Trade Favorable Tax Policy
The U.S. has one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the world and among the lowest consumption taxes (e.g., sales tax, VAT, etc.) As a result, when an American firm exports a product, the foreign consumer pays a high consumption tax to the foreign government that increases the price of the product; and then the American firm is heavily taxed on the profit from the sale. In comparison, the foreign firm can sell their product in the U.S. with a minimal sales tax and then pays only a small corporate income tax in their host country. The end result is that firms are encouraged to locate overseas in order to lower the overall taxes applied to their products. We can easily reverse this trend by eliminating the corporate income tax (along with many other taxes) and replacing the lost revenue with a consumption tax, such as the FairTax. The tax plan retains our current tax distribution by providing a tax prebate to every legal resident, thereby ensuring that the poor are not overtaxed.

Trade Policies
In addition to the tax policies, we also need to reform our trade policies so that we properly respect human rights, intellectual property rights, the environment, and free market principles. For example, China currently enjoys most favored nation trade status (now called normal trade relations). However, because it fails to respect human rights, it is able to use labor at below-market rates. And because it does not respect international intellectual property rights, it is able to steal many of our products (especially from software companies) in order to produce other products at a lower price. China is also able to produce inexpensive products because it does not protect the environment to the degree that we do. Finally, they manipulate currency exchange rates to artificially lower the price of their goods. The combination of these policies mean that China can manufacturer goods at a much lower price than an American firm and then use the resulting profits to fund its military and conduct espionage against our country. The time has come for us to revise our trade policies so that we properly promote our values world-wide rather than simply trying to get the cheapest product at the expense of our long-term viability.

Energy Policies
America has the natural resources to provide for much of our own energy demands, but we have adopted a variety of policies that prevent us from responsibly using virtually any of this energy. We refuse to grant permits for drilling in the Gulf while other countries are still drilling in these same waters. We refuse to allow drilling in the ANWR, even though it is clear that it can be done safely with minimal impact. We make it near impossible to use coal energy even though America is generously blessed with this natural resource. We refuse to pursue the development of new nuclear energy sources by creating an endless series of environmental reviews. We even inhibit the development of wind and solar energy by worrying about the effects that these facilities might have on birds or worms. In the meantime, we end up leaving Americans without jobs and buying our energy from countries that do not care about these issues. I will fight to give our industry more freedom to responsibly pursue these energy sources while also working to ensure that foreign energy imports are produced in ways that respect our American values.

Government Regulations
While China is under-regulated in many areas, the U.S. has become over-regulated in many areas. Some regulations are necessary, but it is becoming more and more difficult for small business owners to operate due to over-regulation. While some of the examples may be minor from a macro-economic view, they merely represent how extreme our regulations have become - there are many other examples that do have huge economic consequences (especially in energy markets):

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