Growing the economy and creating jobs

We need to dramatically reduce spending and get our fiscal house in order, which we are doing this week by reducing our overall discretionary spending levels to what they were two and a half years ago. These aren’t the only cuts that are necessary, but by going forward with these cuts now, families and businesses can begin to thrive as these actions create certainty for employers and put our country on the path to fiscal health.
 
When he unfolded his budget on Monday, President Obama proclaimed that government must “start living within its means.” I agree, but after one reads his budget, it becomes clear that the president is not willing to make the hard choices necessary to help the government do so. 

The president’s 2012 budget projects that the deficits will total $7.21 trillion over the next decade with the imbalances never falling lower below $607 billion. The fact is, his plan is unsustainable. Worse still, it does not do nearly enough to avert us from the fiscal train wreck we find ourselves headed for today.
 
Why does this matter?  Over the long-term, by failing to get a hold of our debt and deficits, the president is dooming our future generations to a lower standard of living than our current generation. That means fewer jobs will be available with more people seeking them and lower average incomes.  None of this is good, and makes addressing our spending crisis morally imperative.
 
An important hearing took place in the Education and the Workforce Committee because Members had the opportunity to question the U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. As Chair of the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee, I was eager to ask her about how the Administration’s Labor policies are creating jobs and economic growth. The actions – or inactions – by the Labor Secretary certainly have an effect on our recovery as a nation.
 
As Congress is looking at ways to cut unnecessary programs and reduce our spending, I questioned the Secretary on why $18 billion a year is being spent on 47 separate job-training programs run by nine different agencies, and how effective these programs are. Even the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that “little is known about the effectiveness” of the programs because most haven’t been reviewed since 2004, if ever. How is this a responsible way to spend $18 billion per year, especially since it is unknown if any of these programs are even effective?
 
From her answers, I think it is clear we need to conduct oversight to ensure these programs are streamlined and workers who are looking for job training have an easy time finding out where they need to go.
 
The federal government cannot go on spending billions of dollars on programs that may sound nice but are ineffective. It is an irresponsible way to spend taxpayer dollars and it’s not doing anything to improve our economic climate. The tough questions need to be asked and the tough choices need to be made. It’s the only way we can begin to clean up the fiscal disaster that is before us today.