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Weekly Columns

The clock is ticking. We are in the last month of the year, which puts us closer to the fiscal cliff everyone in Washington is frantically trying to avoid.  

First and foremost, I want to stress that I truly do believe that both parties are working in good faith to ensure that we do not fall off the impending fiscal cliff. We are just starting from completely different points. I am confident that there is common ground to be found.    

We all agree that we need to bring certainty to our economy.  Right now, people don’t know what their taxes are going to be in the future. Nobody knows what their health care costs are going to be. The same can be said about their energy costs. This has an extremely negative impact on our economy.  If we look at it through the lens of a small business owner, this uncertainty means it is unlikely that we will be hiring any new employees and expanding our operation. 

In order to get the economy going again, we need to address this crisis. However, the idea of increasing tax rates that is being floated by President Obama and the Senate Majority is the wrong way to go about it. Raising taxes is never wise policy, especially at a time when our economy is still struggling to recover from the last recession. These proposed tax rate increases will hit our small businesses hard. Approximately 60 percent of those impacted by this proposal are small businesses that file as individuals. At a time when we are trying to put unemployed Americans back to work, it makes no sense to raise taxes on our job creators. 

I am open to pro-growth tax reforms that generate revenue by making our tax code fairer and simpler. It has been almost thirty years since our last significant overhaul of the tax code. Since that time, there has been constant tinkering to our tax laws, but there have been no major reforms. As a result, there are numerous loopholes that are regularly exploited within the thousands of pages of our tax code. Instead of rate increases, which ultimately will do little to reduce deficit spending, our focus should be on reforming the tax code. The end goal is to eliminate the economic uncertainty and that can be done by bringing stability to the tax code.  

At its core, the idea that we can tax our way out of this mess does not reflect the reality in Washington. Real tax reform that addresses loopholes will result in some revenue that has been missing, but Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. We have got to start by acknowledging that much. If we want to steer clear of the fiscal cliff, it is going to require significant spending cuts. I don’t mean across the board sequestration cuts, but rather smart reforms that target wasteful spending, duplicative programs and ballooning entitlements. The focus needs to be on promoting efficient and effective programs. 

If we combine smart spending cuts with comprehensive tax reform, we will be on the path for real economic recovery. The uncertainty hanging over the business community will be lifted, unemployed Americans will find work again, and the fiscal cliff will be a footnote. 

The clock is ticking. We are in the last month of the year, which puts us closer to the fiscal cliff everyone in Washington is frantically trying to avoid. 

First and foremost, I want to stress that I truly do believe that both parties are working in good faith to ensure that we do not fall off the impending fiscal cliff. We are just starting from completely different points. I am confident that there is common ground to be found.    

We all agree that we need to bring certainty to our economy.  Right now, people don’t know what their taxes are going to be in the future. Nobody knows what their health care costs are going to be. The same can be said about their energy costs. This has an extremely negative impact on our economy.  If we look at it through the lens of a small business owner, this uncertainty means it is unlikely that we will be hiring any new employees and expanding our operation. 

In order to get the economy going again, we need to address this crisis. However, the idea of increasing tax rates that is being floated by President Obama and the Senate Majority is the wrong way to go about it. Raising taxes is never wise policy, especially at a time when our economy is still struggling to recover from the last recession. These proposed tax rate increases will hit our small businesses hard. Approximately 60 percent of those impacted by this proposal are small businesses that file as individuals. At a time when we are trying to put unemployed Americans back to work, it makes no sense to raise taxes on our job creators. 

I am open to pro-growth tax reforms that generate revenue by making our tax code fairer and simpler. It has been almost thirty years since our last significant overhaul of the tax code. Since that time, there has been constant tinkering to our tax laws, but there have been no major reforms. As a result, there are numerous loopholes that are regularly exploited within the thousands of pages of our tax code. Instead of rate increases, which ultimately will do little to reduce deficit spending, our focus should be on reforming the tax code. The end goal is to eliminate the economic uncertainty and that can be done by bringing stability to the tax code.   

At its core, the idea that we can tax our way out of this mess does not reflect the reality in Washington. Real tax reform that addresses loopholes will result in some revenue that has been missing, but Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. We have got to start by acknowledging that much. If we want to steer clear of the fiscal cliff, it is going to require significant spending cuts. I don’t mean across the board sequestration cuts, but rather smart reforms that target wasteful spending, duplicative programs and ballooning entitlements. The focus needs to be on promoting efficient and effective programs. 

If we combine smart spending cuts with comprehensive tax reform, we will be on the path for real economic recovery. The uncertainty hanging over the business community will be lifted, unemployed Americans will find work again, and the fiscal cliff will be a footnote. 

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