A Useful Republican Economic Agenda For the Next Two Years

As the new Congress convenes today, the Republican leadership would be well served to look back at the last election results. The election was not just a negative one. Voters sent a strong message that the pursuit of economic growth should be a national economic objective. They demonstrated their understanding that economic growth alone will lead to more jobs, higher wages and greater opportunity. Americans also sent a message that the President's path to achieve economic equality has resulted in either greater inequality, or by making everyone uniformly poorer.

So what should the new Republican majority propose in the next two years? The realities with which the GOP House and Senate leadership must now deal is that the Democrats will once again try to paint the Republicans as out of touch bigots who are only interested in helping big business and the already wealthy. They will try to paint the Republicans as anti-Hispanic, anti-African-American, anti-any help for the middle class, anti-women, and pro war.

In response, GOP legislators should first and foremost stop the advancement of Obama economics, whenever possible; they must put forth a legislative agenda that will show the nation that they are able to govern; they must focus a great deal of their effort on showing people how their agenda would help individual people; they must remain calm and not react to the bait from the president and advice from individuals who want the Republicans, as Stalin put it, to sell the rope that will be used to hang them; they must avoid internecine warfare within the party; and the Senate and House Republicans must learn to work together, which also means that Senate Republicans must remember that House Republicans are their allies and not the Senate Democrats. To bring home this point, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell should hold joint bi-weekly press conferences and explain what they are doing and why they are doing it.

Let me illustrate what could be the elements of a sensible legislative agenda to meet these objectives:

1. Deal with the horrifying problem of teenage unemployment - particularly among African- American and Hispanic youths whose unemployment rates were 28% and 16% respectively in November. Economists know that raising the minimum wage increases unemployment in these groups, but sadly the public believes otherwise thanks to the Democratic Party and most of the media.

A sensible way of reducing labor costs for businesses and increasing take home pay for these young people is to pass legislation exempting individuals (everyone through age 22) and their employers from paying any income taxes on wages, any social security or unemployment insurance taxes, any state disability taxes and any Obamacare taxes or fines. Businesses should not have to count these young workers among the number of employees requiring health insurance coverage. These changes would increase the incentives of young people to find jobs, and would encourage employers to hire them.

2. Deal with the massive problem of what to do with the illegal immigrants already in this country, without having to pass an unwieldy, complex omnibus immigration law covering every problem. No sane person wants to simply deport those illegal immigrants - 10 or 15 million well integrated people who are obeying the law, working hard and paying their taxes.

While immigrating illegally to the United States is unlawful, it's an act that is hard to undo over time. But there ought to be a statute of limitations (similarly to what we have for crimes other than treason or murder). It certainly should not be rewarded, but it should be forgiven after a reasonable time. Perhaps after 10 years? Millions would be eligible, though this forgiveness should not include people who have committed additional crimes, including lying or tax evasion. It should not be a prelude to becoming a citizen, but instead should offer some sort of alternate legal status.

The difficulty is to accomplish this without encouraging new people to break the law by coming here illegally and try to outlast the time requirements. Any reform bill should deal with that possible outcome by strengthening border security, providing a guest worker program, and deporting the rest.

3. Restore the trust in the institutions of government by dealing with the scandals caused by the IRS and the Veteran's Administration, and by reforming the regulations and civil service rules governing federal employees. The regulatory and administrative bodies in the Department of Justice, the Federal Communication Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and a host of other agencies are equally guilty of overreach, excessive regulation and unfair actions.

While the actions of the VA and IRS have caught the attention of the public, policies directed at them should cover all federal departments and agencies. These actions should narrowly increase the power of managers to punish and fire federal employees who break the law or are simply incompetent. These steps are necessary to begin to restore the public's trust.

4. Deal with the generally acknowledged dysfunction in the Affordable Care Act, by eliminating the tax on medical devices, eliminating the individual mandate, and eliminating the employer mandate. The president will certainly veto these laws, but the public would support these actions and the Democrats in Congress will have to go on record with their votes.

5. Deal with the available opportunities to increase the nation's energy production, by passing the Keystone pipeline, opening up Federal lands for exploration and production, and by allowing the export of crude oil and natural gas. These laws will be broadly popular, and if passed will help keep prices down and fuel a new major export business. Again, the President will probably veto these pieces of legislation, but once more Democrats will be the ones to block popular legislations.

The U.S. has the resources to use the current increase in energy production to make America more self-sufficient, and capitalize on this advantage to boost economic growth and create millions of jobs.

Whether or not these proposed laws are vetoed or not, is not the point. They are the elements of an agenda that can speak to Americans and show what Republicans can do. The GOP could not legitimately be cast as the party of no, with such a positive, effective agenda.