Democrat Policies Are Undermining Business Confidence

That sound you hear is the White House’s credibility bubble bursting. CBS reported last week that 74 percent of Americans believe the Obama stimulus either damaged the economy or had no effect.

The wisdom of the crowd turns out to be true.

The White House boasts that the $862 billion Stimulus is performing like a well-oiled machine, ensuring that 3.5 million jobs have been “created or saved” because of it. At $246, 285.71 per job, that’s a hefty claim were it true. Since February of 2009 the U.S. economy lost a net 2.35 million jobs.

What is true is that the administration’s confidence-crushing economic policies are, according to National Federation of Independent Business Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg, “scaring us to death”. What’s happened here is that a White House sorely lacking in private-sector experience has, for almost two years now, been broadcasting a clear message: “Business: beware.”

America’s $14 trillion economy got the message. Stuck in neutral, the economy seems incapable of reducing its near 10% unemployment rate. Capital remains stranded: $2 trillion looking for an environment that encourages investment, job growth, risk-taking.

Here’s what House Republican Leader John Boehner, Rep. Aaron Schock and myself are doing about it. On Friday, as part of our AmericaSpeakingOut.com outreach, we met with private sector leaders representing 4.5 million businesses nationwide that employ more than 46 million people. We webcast the meeting (watch it here) with a novel idea in mind: listen to and learn from job creators on which policies Washington should support to give them confidence to hire new workers and expand operations. Visit this page at AmericaSpeakingOut.com to vote and comment on the ideas that came out of our meeting.

The only certainty American business knows right now is that Washington is not listening. House Republicans are changing that, looking to bring the knowledge of our job creators to the policy needs of our economy so that people can get back to work and drive our economy back to prosperity.