Senator Cornyn advocates some common sense in Washington.
By: Senator John Cornyn
As the New Year begins, I want to start by thanking Texans for sending me back to Washington for another six years. Together we can make the great state of Texas an even more prosperous and peaceful place to raise our families, work, and plan for the future.
I couldn’t be prouder to represent a state where folks value hard work, family, faith and freedom; it’s what makes Texas a land of opportunity. From business to education; energy to medicine—Texas leads the way with its spirit of independence and legacy of accomplishment.
That’s why I find that many of the best ideas and solutions I take to Washington come from Texas. As I roll up my sleeves to start work in the 111th Congress, I do so with confidence, knowing that so many Texans stand ready to help me make a difference in Washington.
At the top of my list this year is the state of our nation’s economy. While Texas has fared better than most, we are not immune to the recession. Last year brought layoffs and salary cuts, and thousands lost their homes. But with a combination of pro-growth policies on the federal level and ingenuity on the local level, we can turn the economic tide back in our favor.
I will oppose any effort to increase taxes on working families and small businesses—the backbone of our economy. Instead, I will push for significant tax relief that will keep more of the hard-earned money in your pocket. Our first step should be to permanently extend tax relief that will soon expire; otherwise Americans will be hit with the largest tax increase in history. Things like small business investment incentives and individual tax relief will help grow jobs, expand opportunity here at home, and make us more competitive. In other words, these efforts will bring a little Texas common sense to Washington.
Another Texas hallmark that has been missing in Washington is government transparency. I have and will continue to make open government a top priority. I have worked to shed light on the federal government for all Americans to see their tax dollars at work. My goal is to create a federal sunset commission, based on the successful Texas model, to comb through and weed out ineffective or wasteful government programs. With the new Administration intent on passing a more-than $700 billion stimulus package, we need this commission now more than ever.
Equally important is the need to finally pass a comprehensive energy plan. Last year, with gasoline above $4, energy independence was the popular pledge. But as quickly as gas prices dropped, the topic also disappeared from the political spotlight. Today we are no closer to reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. I will push for new domestic production and refining capacity. Texas already leads the nation in energy production, but we can do more. We must cut through the red tape and allow Texas producers to tap into our rich natural resources while fully developing clean energy alternatives like wind, solar and biomass.
Also on my agenda are enhanced benefits for our troops and veterans. These fine citizens have made tremendous sacrifices for our protection; we owe them the best benefits and care possible. We need additional resources to research post-traumatic stress disorder and other “invisible wounds” from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have a solemn obligation to help our wounded warriors make a successful transition back to civilian life or return to military service, if they so choose.
I will not give up on achieving broad immigration reform that until now has been blocked by partisanship. Continued inaction is a serious risk to our national security. I am committed to fixing our flawed system while enforcing the rule of law and securing our borders. I will continue to work with Texas law enforcement, Border Patrol, and community leaders to learn firsthand the challenges that face our border.
This year will also bring opportunities to make real differences in health care and education—especially for low-income Texas children who need more affordable preventive health care and college tuition.
In Texas, when a problem arises, we don’t wait for someone else to fix it, we tackle it. I hope all Texans will join me in tackling this year’s challenges by sending me your ideas, your concerns and your priorities. Together we can take Texas to new levels and help the rest of the nation get back on the right track.
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Japan's past suggest that our government's economic recovery plan may be flawed.
from the Texas Public Policy Foundation - Speaking Freely
The last couple of days I’ve been examining the muddled thinking that is driving the debate over how to get us out of our current economic funk. The solution de jure seems to be more government intervention in the economy, such as the economic stimulus package being worked on by President-elect Barack Obama.
Dr. Arthur Laffer, the author of our Thinking Economically series, recently sent me an email commending a December 16th Wall Street Journal editorial (subscription required) on the efforts to create a stimulus package as “the single best editorial I’ve ever read.” The editorial outlines stimulus package after stimulus package passed by the Japanese Kokkai, or Diet, as their parliament is called in English. Here is a brief excerpt:
“In 1992, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa faced falling property prices and a stock market that had sunk 60% in three years. Mr. Miyazawa’s Liberal Democratic Party won re-election promising that Japan would spend its way to becoming a "lifestyle superpower." The country embarked on a great Keynesian experiment.”
Here is a listing of what Japan did over the decade: August 1992: 10.7 trillion yen ($85 billion); April 1993: 13.2 trillion yen ($117 billion); September 1993: 6.2 trillion yen ($59 billion); February 1994: 15.3 trillion yen; September 1995: 14.2 trillion yen ($137 billion); April 1998: 16.7 trillion yen ($128 billion); November 1998: 23.9 trillion yen ($195 billion); November 1999: 18 trillion yen.
What did Japan get for all this? Well, mainly a lot of government debt. Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio started out this period at about 63%. By the time all this spending was through, it had reached 128.3%. It finally peaked in 2006 at 180%. Compare this to the U.S. level that has hovered between 35% and 40% for most of this decade.
What Japan didn’t get was an improved economy. Its economy grew anemically during the 1990s; all of the “stimulus” and negative interest rates didn’t help a bit. As the WSJ said, “Only in this decade, with a monetary reflation and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s decision to privatize state assets and force banks to acknowledge their bad debts, did the economy recover.”
We face the same situation today in the U.S., and may also have to deal with this in Texas if our economy starts to falter because of the drop in oil prices. Our only hope for a turnaround is turning to the market – rather than the government – to lead us back to prosperity. Our paper, The Economy, part of our Influential Issues series, offers some thoughts and ideas about how to do this in Texas.
- Bill Peacock
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