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The Insider, Clovis Chamber of Commerce

As a congressman representing California’s 22^nd District, I need to communicate directly with my constituents. I want to hear your ideas on improving the economy and creating jobs, as well as to keep you informed about my efforts to represent you in Washington. Many Americans feel their voice doesn’t matter in politics, but I’m here to tell you that it does. To communicate with me, I urge you to visit my website, nunes.house.gov, where you can sign up for my email list, send me an email, or download my cell phone app.  These are free services, as is my upcoming text messaging service.

Your input is vitally important as the 113^th Congress gets underway and the Central Valley struggles to spark economic growth and create jobs.  

It’s been said that the acrimonious debate in Washington over the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling is harming the entire economy and undermining faith in America’s credit, our political system, and even our currency. Yet these political battles are merely symptoms of a deeper problem.

That problem is over-spending. With a $16 trillion national debt and tens of trillions more in unfunded entitlement liabilities, the federal government is throwing the American people into a deep fiscal hole. By making reasonable spending cuts and restructuring entitlements, we could stabilize our finances and eventually balance the budget. But Democrats don’t show any inclination to do so. For more than three years, the Democrat-controlled Senate has brazenly refused its constitutional duty to pass a budget. Although President Obama submits his own budget to Congress, it is usually so implausible that it receives no votes even among his own Democratic allies. Meanwhile, the government continues posting trillion-dollar deficits year after year.

Businesses expand faster and create more jobs when they have certainty, but that’s not what they’re getting. Aside from budget uncertainty, a torrent of new taxes and regulations is stifling economic growth. Businesses will soon be subjected to enormous costs from ObamaCare, and the never-ending parade of intrusive EPA regulations is suffocating entrepreneurship and innovation.

The destructive pattern of over-spending and over-regulating is also being perpetuated in Sacramento. This yields predictable results: California is suffering an exodus of businesses that are moving to more business-friendly states. What’s more, an increasing number of young people and young families are moving out in search of a brighter economic future. We are literally exporting our future.  

The causes of our current problems are no mystery – we are not subject to some uncontrollable cosmic force that is suppressing economic growth. Specific government policies are hindering private enterprise, and reversing those policies will restore our fortunes.

In Washington, I will continue fighting to provide the private sector with the space to flourish. Businesses should succeed or fail based on their own merits, not their ability to curry favor with powerful bureaucrats or their inability to comply with government directives and regulations.

First and foremost, the federal government needs to cut spending, balance the budget, and restructure our entitlement programs that are heading toward insolvency. Ridding ourselves of the culture of debt – in which huge annual deficits, credit downgrades, and constant pressure for higher taxes to fund our profligacy have become the norm – is the critical step toward fostering an economic environment in which private business can thrive.

We also need to reduce the regulatory burden that is damaging business. Having crossed all boundaries of reasonableness, the EPA’s zealous activism must be reined in. We particularly need to unshackle American energy, which cultivation stands to create millions of jobs, reduce energy costs, and strengthen America’s international position. Our self-defeating restrictions on energy cultivation both off-shore and on land are inexplicable and indefensible.

Finally, we need to increase U.S. access to foreign markets. After recently being appointed Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Trade, I will energetically pursue new agreements for free and fair trade in Europe, Asia, and other key markets. These agreements, signed with foreign partners that have shown a strong commitment to the rule of law, must include inescapable enforcement measures that prevent the kind of reneging and corrupt backsliding that we have sometimes seen in the past.

Once again, I encourage all my constituents to keep an open line of communication with me. If you have ideas on how to return America to the path of prosperity, please visit my website and let me hear them.