One year ago, I shared with the Nevada Business Journal and its readers my thoughts about the importance of improved education to the future of Nevada’s economy. Today, education reform is a reality, and Nevada schools will see an additional $33 million in education funding from the federal government next year alone. During these challenging economic times, investing in tomorrow’s workforce is something we must do now to ensure results in the future.
While the value of this funding is important when it comes to creating better opportunities for our children, there are more immediate steps that must be taken to create an economy of opportunity today. More than 700,000 jobs across this nation have been lost in the past several months. That means 700,000 men and women, fathers and mothers, are struggling to make ends meet and find new work. Many have lost not only their paychecks but also their families’ health insurance.
We need to help those families who were dealt an economic blow by the attacks of September 11. Terrorists who sought to destroy our nation with their evil acts should not be permitted a victory by rattling the very foundation of our economy — our working families. The best way to help these families is to help get them back to work by stimulating the economy. By providing incentives to small businesses and entrepreneurs, we start a domino effect that helps businesses expand, creates demand for more employees and provides our workforce with benefits for themselves and their families and more money in their pockets to invest and spend.
As someone who built a veterinary practice, I know incentives such as deductibility for business equipment or additional tax relief would provide the extra confidence and financial backing to hire another employee or two. If small businesses across the country slowly expand this way, we are sure to be on our way to recovery and a stronger economic forecast. Here in Nevada, an estimated 65,000 people are unemployed. By giving businesses the boost to expand, we are growing positions for workers to earn paychecks rather than unemployment checks.
I also believe another prescription for our economy is additional tax cuts. I am proud of the tax relief that President Bush and Congress delivered to working Americans last year, but I think we can do more. Stimulating the economy with further tax cuts will make it more practical for a family to purchase that new car they have been needing or go on that vacation they have been putting off or save up to buy that new house that better suits their needs. Americans should have the opportunity to make their dreams a reality by keeping more of their hard-earned money. A lesson I have learned in Washington, D.C. is that extra money left to Congress is quickly and poorly spent.
Unfortunately, many of my colleagues in the U.S. Senate have not learned this lesson. The Senate is currently considering an economic stimulus bill that does a great deal more spending than stimulating. I know more government spending is not the answer to jump-starting our economy. I hope we can come together soon with a concrete stimulus bill that will not only start the wheels of economic recovery but also create an environment of opportunity and continued growth. We need an economic stimulus bill that will renew the belief that Americans can dare to dream, and dare to make those dreams come true.