by TIMOTHY J. THOMPSON

Created on: July 24, 2010   Last Updated: July 25, 2010

The United States economy is currently in turmoil. We have been in a downward spiraling recession for over 40 months now. Specifically, this nation has an unemployment rate that hovers at nearly 10 percent. And, if you take into account all of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have given up on trying to find work in this awful economy, the REAL unemployment figure is probably closer to 12 percent. That is simply a disastrous number; something we have not seen since the final year of the Carter presidency.

To put it succinctly, we need jobs in the United States. And we need them now; not tomorrow. There are two different corrective actions that can be undertaken whenever a nation faces such a challenge. One approach is to try and spend the way out. The other is to lower taxes, sharply reduce government regulation, and unleash the full innovative and imaginative power of the private sector.

For the last twenty-two months now, the national leadership of the United States has chosen the initial approach; the spend your way out strategy. Has this worked? No, it has not worked. In fact, this appalling strategy has actually made things worse; much worse. We have burdened future generations of Americans with, not one, but two bail out programs, a massive extension of welfare benefits such as food stamps and WIC, and a partial government takeover of specific sectors of the economy such as the automotive industry, the financial institutions, and sections of the housing market. This has caused the United States' national debt to increase to absolutely stratospheric proportions.

This debt load is destined to be so crushing in the future, that we will soon find ourselves at the mercy of nations like China to buy our government bonds and finance this very debt that we have created for ourselves out of the worst case of economic mismanagement in all of recorded history.

That is why we must change our strategy; and now; right now. Our way of thinking must be altered and fast. The answer to this dilemma; the way out of this mess that we got ourselves into, is to turn to the private sector. This is where all the jobs are at. We just need to get government out of the way. We need to limit regulation and severely so. And we also need to start by lowering taxes. 

Instead of issuing a moratorium on offshore drilling, which will cost this nation even more jobs, we need to issue an immediate moratorium on raising anymore taxes on any business, large or small, for at least one year. Such an approach will free up huge amounts of cash that each business will then be able to use to expand, invest in new equipment, and research more innovative ways to produce goods and services in a more economical manner. Once this has been completed, each business in the private sector will then be able to use more cash on hand to expand their respective work forces. This is the essence of how jobs are created and the scourge of unemployment is finally solved.

In summation, if Congress allows the Bush tax cuts to expire, then all businesses in the private sector, both large and small, will further tighten their belts, refuse to hire on any new employees, and even lay off many of their current ones. This in turn will have an even more catastrophic effect upon the already devastated economy of the United States. And shortly thereafter, we could find ourselves in an all out depression, with no hope of retribution.         

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