Long term growth

In order to achieve long term stable growth in the United States, there are three things that have to happen.

The first of these is that we need to reduce or eliminate our reliance upon foreign oil. The fact that the country has an abundance of its own energy resources and is capable of developing renewable energy sources for the future makes the ongoing drain and uncertainty of foreign oil unacceptable. Further, it drains funds and contributes greatly to our trade imbalance. This has in my opinion already started as we have started to reduce usage of foreign oil via energy efficiency and ongoing conversion efforts, as well as reduced economic activity. However, as economic activity picks up, we need increased use of domestic and renewable energy sources. This would add jobs.

The second thing is that we need to change our method of corporate taxation and move to a consumption tax. By taxing products sold in this country, we will level the playing field from a tax basis, for domestic manufacturers. The increased cost of products should be matched domestically by a reduction in cost as the current taxes are eliminated. A tax like this would go a long way to encouraging the regrowth of domestic manufacturing as our products were put in a better competitive position both domestically and internationally. This would add jobs.

We need to eliminate the deficit and start reducing the National Debt. It doesn't matter if the reduction seems insignificant, any reduction would have the desired effect of strengthening the dollar and controlling inflation. Now, it may seem almost impossible, but I believe the energy and tax reform initiatives will increase revenue significantly as consumer spending rebounds and imported products pay their fair share. This has to be matched by reductions in federal spending. We seriously need to look at the cost of all federal programs and where spending is not mandatory, such as Social Security, make significant reductions. However the best path to balancing the budget rests in economic growth. Reducing our dependence on foreign oil and reforming our business tax system has tremendous potential to spur growth. If we can foster this growth while reducing spending by even modest amounts we can achieve a balanced budget in 5 years.