Labrador Statement on Economic Development
Posted on May 22, 2010
LABRADOR PRESS STATEMENT
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
MAY 18, 2010
My friends, thank you for coming today.
Everyone knows that the economy and jobs are the biggest challenges facing Idaho, and America, now and in the foreseeable future.
Nancy Pelosi and President Obama have pursued a policy of economic madness: They have massively increased spending with the vain promise that this will somehow put people back to work. Not only will this not solve our economic woes – it threatens economic ruin.
Just last week, the head of the Bank of England stated that America’s burgeoning debt crisis is very similar to the dynamic at play in Greece. It is heartbreaking to realize that the United States of America is being run like third-rate European power.
That must end.
The people of Idaho deserve leadership and some specific ideas about how we can rebuild the American economy. Before people make their decision next week, I’d like to offer the voters of the 1st District some concrete proposals – so they can see I take this problem seriously and am prepared to offer real solutions and leadership:
There are three basic principles I think necessary to long-term economic growth:
1. We must cut government spending:
This means putting a hard cap on more bailouts for entities like Fannie Mae – which now has a blank check from the Obama Administration. But it also means going through the federal budget and conducting performance audits of each office in each federal agency.
I know how to cut budgets – I know how to resist the special interests – we’ve been doing it in the Idaho Legislature for the past two years to ensure that Idaho’s economic house is in order.
But our deficits and debt have gotten so large that we cannot fix this massive problem through cuts alone. It will take too long.
America must grow its way out of this debt. We need to focus on helping the private sector grow wealth and jobs again.
That means energy.
2. America must increase the supply of cheap, domestically produced electrical energy.
We must revamp our national forest policy to encourage the harvesting of timber, cleaning up our forests, to produce wood-based energy products.
We have within our borders one of the world’s leading research facilities on nuclear power. INL has shown France how to become self-sufficient – why can’t America?
I want Idaho to become the great energy exporter for the whole western region through the development of safe, cheap nuclear energy. While California and Oregon are ringing their hands about global warming – we can be selling them electricity and reducing CO2 emissions in the process!
Increasing our energy production means attracting new industries to Idaho who need access to cheap energy.
I have seven specific ideas for encouraging the development of privately-financed nuclear power plants in Idaho. I’ll talk about just a few here:
We must have litigation reform. Lawsuits by environmental groups are killing private developers. We need to revamp this system. Groups abusing our courts to impose their agenda must pay the price – they should post bonds, and environmental groups should have to pay the investors if they lose.
We also have to revamp INL’s mission so that private developers get access to the immense technical resources available at the site. This improves safety … and makes sure that our nuclear industry is at the cutting edge.
We must further create an ombudsman’s office in the Department of Energy to assist private developers with permitting and environmental regulations.
The culture around energy production needs to change. Government must see its role as helping the development of this tremendous resource, rather than one of obstruction and regulation. How is the government serving the people of Idaho by throwing road-blocks into energy development – making it more expensive?
3. The third part of my economic development strategy is to retool government spending. The spending done by the federal government must be guided by three priorities:
# National Defense
# Protecting our seniors
# Invigorating economic development
Each dollar spent must be scrutinized: Will it help grow the economy?
We need to make strategic investment in our national infrastructure – not just roads, bridges and airports – but in our people.
I would like to conduct a thorough performance audit of the Department of Education. I generally believe that it is totally inappropriate for the federal government to be involved in this state, local and parental area of policy.
On our road to eliminating this whole department, however, we need to start slashing. Part of the money saved should go into deficit reduction. But another chunk should be available to the states in the form of string-free block grants.
These monies should be controlled by the Legislature and State Superintendent to fund STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) grants/scholarships for high school and college kids in Idaho. Some of this money should also go into Vocational/Technical scholarships and programs.
If we are going to build a high-tech future for Idaho, we will need to develop a work force that is second to none.
I don’t pretend to be an economist with all the answers to rebuilding Idaho’s economy. But maybe that’s a good thing. I am a common-sense guy and I’ve learned a lot talking with the people of the First Congressional District. The proposals I’m offering today are not the entire solution, but are a good first step towards getting us out of our economic woes.
With that, I’d be happy to answer any questions.