2014 Election Issues - Job Creation and Economic Growth

The foundation of personal success is the ability to be able to have the freedom and ability to achieve economic success.  We should have the freedom to choose our own definition of success, and our ability to succeed should be determined mostly by our innate abilities and freedom to choose opportunities.  Those opportunities will drive job-creation, economic growth and rising incomes.
  
Critical to creating the right environment for success are open and competitive markets that reward value-creation. For many of us, the markets are neither open, nor competitive.  There are many laws that are designed to keep us out of certain markets and professions, and restrict our ability to earn a living - while protecting monopolies and special interests. 
To achieve this goal, we need two types of broad-based reform:
First, we need to root out special-interests that are costing taxpayers millions, and level the playing field for small business. I propose:

• Focusing economic regulation and law enforcement on the protection of rights and preservation of an equal playing field for all parties;
• Eliminating regulations that insulate market incumbents from competition;
• Phasing out government subsidies of specific industries or companies;
• Phasing out special tax and regulatory treatment of particular industries or companies;
• Keeping government neutral with regard to technological solutions, investment decisions, business inputs and business methods;

Second, we need to simplify and streamline the tax system so that revenue raising is transparent and least burdensome to individuals, families, and businesses alike. I propose:

• Eliminating or dramatically reducing the B & O, Machine & Tools, Merchant Capital and other business taxes that hide the cost of taxation, burden employers, inhibit start ups and small businesses, and reduce business activity without consideration for profits;
• Moving to a uniform consumption tax on all final retail sales of goods;
• Reforming property taxes by  lowering the rate applied to improvements to land;
• Preferring, where possible, user fees to general taxes

Bottom line, the government should not be in the position to choose which businesses, technologies and industries succeed or fail.  You should be free to choose which businesses you support with your dollars - and not have those decisions made by politicians in Olympia or Washington.
By leveling the tax playing field, phasing out subsidies and encouraging competition, we will be able to reduce tax burdens on small businesses and homeowners; encourage savings, building and growth; and providing opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation driven by market - not political - forces.