By Jill Roberts
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wqcs/local-wqcs-990394.mp3
Stuart –
Rooney Unveils New Jobs Plan
Stuart, FL - While hosting a panel of Florida job creators today, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney (FL-16) unveiled the "Restore America Act," new legislation he will introduce to help the private sector create jobs.
"My jobs plan is based on the fundamental idea that Washington doesn't create jobs - businesses and innovators do," Rooney said. "We can't ask you to lead us into economic recovery while we're repeatedly weighing you down with unnecessary mandates, a broken tax code, high energy costs, and uncertainty about what's coming next.
"Congress needs to give job creators some security and create an environment where people can afford to do business here in America, where smart people with good ideas can follow their dreams and open their own small businesses, and where businesses large and small can grow and hire American workers.
"My bill has three key steps: reform the tax code, get rid of unnecessary regulations, and expand domestic energy production.
"We need to reform the tax code to make it fair, simple and competitive. My plan gets rid of corporate loopholes and deductions, and replaces them with across-the-board, permanent tax relief. A fairer tax code will help business grow and compete on a level playing, and permanent tax relief will give them the certainty they need to invest in their companies and create new jobs.
"By ending unnecessary, costly regulations that are destroying jobs, we can remove a critical obstacle facing small business owners. Businesses spend $1.75 trillion dollars and nearly 9 billion hours each year trying to comply with new regulations coming out of the federal government - those are resources that they should be using to grow and hire new workers. My plan stops the Administration from piling new, job-destroying mandates on our job creators.
"Expanding American energy production would create jobs right away while reducing prices for families and businesses. We have tremendous energy resources in our country, and if we utilize them, we'll see new jobs immediately in the energy sector. Producing American energy would drive down energy costs, helping both families and small businesses make ends meet."
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Rooney Jobs Plan Summary
The Rooney Jobs plan focuses on the principal that private industry creates jobs, not the federal government. In turn, the best way the government can help create jobs and jump start the economy is to get out of the way and reduce overly burdensome taxes, regulations and red tape that continue to plague job creators. The Rooney plan works to simplify and reduce taxes, increase domestic energy production and reduce burdensome government regulations.
Tax Reform
Uncertainties and inequitable burdens in the tax code have stymied private job growth. The Rooney plan lays out a simple plan that creates a more hospitable environment for private sector job growth.
1.) Reduce to corporate income tax rate by 10 percent. The United States has the second highest corporate tax rate of any of the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - a collection of the most economically developed countries in the world. The federal rate is 35 percent. Add on the average state corporate income tax and United States businesses pay a top rate over 39 percent. Anyone from economists to budget hawks to national security experts will tell you that our current rate threatens our global competitiveness and drives jobs off shore. A lower tax rate will allow businesses to keep more of their earnings and invest and grow.
2.) Eliminate the deduction for interest payments: The current tax code has a bias towards debt. When a company raises money through debt financing, or borrowing, it may deduct the interest payments on the debt. However, when a company raises money by issuing stock, or reinvesting their profits, they receive no such benefit. This provision removes this distortion and encourages companies to reinvest their profits.
3.) Permanently extend immediate expensing of purchases for small businesses. Expensing provides an incentive to invest and immediately puts money back into the business. The Rooney plan simplifies the tax code by allowing an immediate deduction, instead of depreciation deductions over a specified recovery period. Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code allows small businesses to elect to deduct the total cost of certain qualifying property in the year it is placed in service. However, there are limits on the amount you can deduct in a year and on the types of property that qualify. The Rooney plan permanently increases expensing limit to $2 million for the total amount of equipment that can be purchased. In addition, the plan would permanently expand the property eligible for expensing, which includes real property in certain businesses (retail, restaurants, and leasehold property).
4.) Make the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts permanent. This would ensure the stability and security small businesses and Americans need. For too long, the federal government has hinged these tax cuts on temporary extensions, and this constant uncertainty has stifled any chance of long-term economic growth. By making these cuts permanent, the Rooney plan once and for all repeals the death tax, reduces capital gains and dividend taxes and keeps individual income taxes low.
5.) Directs Congress to find savings in the tax code. For too long families and businesses have labored under a burdensome and complicated tax code. There are costly loopholes and deductions that should be identified and eliminated. The Rooney plan directs Congress to essentially scrub the tax code and find these savings.
Regulation Reform
This title works to rein in overreaching government red tape and regulations. The 2010 Federal Register contains 24,914 pages of rules and regulations that employers and businesses must obey. The total cost of all these mandates amounts to $1.75 trillion each year and forces American businesses to spend nearly 9 billion hours filling out regulatory paperwork. All told, the administration has proposed 4,257 new regulations, according to OMB, which estimates that 219 of these new mandates would have an economic impact of more than $100 million each to implement. OMB estimates that the seven most expensive will cost more than $1 billion apiece, and as much as $100 billion total.
1.) The plan would require Congress to take an up-or-down, stand-alone votes, and for the President to sign-off on all new major rules before they can be enforced on the American people, job-creating small businesses, or State and local governments.
2.) Major rules are those that have an annual economic impact of $100 million or more.
3.) Congress and the President would have 70 legislative days to pass a joint resolution, if not then the rule under consideration would not take effect.
4.) The plan contains provisions that automatically end debate in the Senate and negate the need for a cloture vote. Therefore the Senate would only need a simple majority not 60 votes to approve.
Energy
This title opens up ANWR, the Outer Continental Shelf and Oil Shale for production. It also repeals a ban on allowing federal agencies from purchasing "coal to liquid" fuels. Finally it expedites the permitting of new and expanded nuclear power facilities.
1.) ANWR: In 1980, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) could contain up to 17 billion barrels of oil and 34 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The plan opens the Arctic Coastal Plain to exploration in an environmentally sound manner, which could provide an additional one million barrels of oil per day. It requires timely lease sales and revenue sharing with the State.
2.) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS): It is estimated that the OCS holds nearly 420 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas resources and 85 billion barrels of oil. The Plan calls for moving forward with a leasing program on the already open portions of the OCS. Additionally, it mandates that in each five-year leasing program, the Secretary of Interior include lease sales that offer oil and gas leasing for at least 75% of the available unleased acreage within each OCS Planning Area.
a. The plan expands State's waters from 3 miles to 12 miles off shore.
b. The plan also sets out a revenue sharing program where State's such as Florida will receive a percentage of the revenues made from leases of its coast.
3.) Oil Shale: It is estimated that more than two trillion barrels of oil are held in shale deposits in the Western United States. Shale oil located in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming is believed to be capable of eventually producing 10 million barrels a day for more than 100 years. The Rooney Plan codifies the oil shale lease program and restores the leasing activities that were underway prior to being halted in February, 2009. The plan mandates that a lease sale be held within 180 days of enactment.
4.) Coal to Liquid: for over 30 years U.S. tax dollars have gone into the research and development of Coal-to-liquid fuel technologies. There are more than 250 billion tons of recoverable U.S. coal reserves - equivalent to an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil. U.S. Coal can be converted through proven, existing technology into clean, zero-sulfur synthetic oil and products. The plan repeals a 2007 law that banned federal agencies from purchasing fuels derived from sources such as oil shale, tar sands and coal-to-liquid technology.
5.) Nuclear: The 104 U.S. nuclear reactors provide 20% of our electricity and 72% of our carbon-free electricity. Unfortunately, nuclear waste and regulatory barriers are seen as the most significant barriers to the future development of additional nuclear power. The Rooney plan mandates the permitting of 200 new nuclear reactors over the next 30 years. It does this by expediting the combined construction and operating license procedure and puts in place a process to pre-certify reactor designs that are already operating internationally. Finally, the plan requires the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to finish its review of Yucca Mountain repository without political interference. If science and technology disqualify Yucca Mountain, then the NRC is directed to find an alternative site.
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1529 Longworth House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5792 www.rooney.house.gov