The U.S. economy is wounded and Americans are hurting. We all know someone who has lost a job, or a family that has lost a home. Some businesses have closed up shop, and people aren’t sure they’ll ever be able to retire. We’ve lived through previous recessions, but this one seems less temporary, doesn’t it?
Congress in its efforts to remedy the situation – the stimulus, TARP and bailouts – has failed to do much more than grow the federal bureaucracy. For the second year in a row, the official federal deficit topped $1 trillion. Projected deficits for next year are no better. Meanwhile, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke thinks low inflation is detrimental to higher employment and wants to feed even more money into the economy, further weakening our dollar and economic stability while courting runaway inflation.
What is happening here is that government intervention is hindering, not helping, a true economic recovery. Inconceivable levels of spending approved by Congress as well as experimental tinkering by the Federal Reserve and administration agencies cannot make our economy thrive again. They only intensify and lengthen the severity of the downturn.
Markets do have natural cycles, and the ambition of some in Washington D.C. to turn us into a “managed economy” will not smooth those cycles. I like to think of the economy as being like our four seasons (fall, winter, spring, summer). During the past three recessions, the government’s intrusions artificially propped up the economy and softened the fall. Each time government action merely increased our national debt (fall), lengthened the recession (winter), restricted our recovery (spring) and shortened our prosperity (summer). Free enterprise and the individual initiative of entrepreneurs and those in the labor force are the keys to rebuilding our economy.
The federal government too, instead of continuing to make the situation worse, can play its own vital, constructive role.
First, we need new leadership at all levels of government, especially Congress: leadership committed to sound fiscal and regulatory policy and responsible, not excessive, taxes. We need a Congress that respects the marketplace and will grant it room to function as it should. We need representatives who will work with business leaders to spur economic growth and job creation.
One of the best ways a member of the House can serve constituents is to spend time in his home district working as a catalyst, bringing together groups and individuals earnest about jump-starting enterprises. Philanthropists, investors, artists, land owners, innovators and others are all engines for economic renewal here. Marin County is a special place with its own unique advantages and challenges. The same is true for Sonoma County. An accessible, dynamic member of Congress teamed with all of you can help revitalize our local economy.
When on the Hill in Washington, a representative who supports a federal spending freeze, pro-growth tax policies, a repeal of the sweeping 2010 health care law, stable foreign exchange rates and responsible – not inflationary – monetary policy by the Fed, and who legislates sparingly rather than overbearingly, will put the economy on firm ground again.
We again want to be able to trust Washington D.C. as a constructive partner in protecting the American Dream, don‘t we? We want a strong, sustainable economy now and as our children’s inheritance too, correct? Let’s make it happen on Election Day. Please vote for new leadership in Congress.
Sincerely,
Kirstin Merrihew
Jim Judd for Congress
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