Yesterday, President Obama visited Chattanooga to lay out his plans for a “Grand Bargain” to lower corporate tax rates in exchange for increased government spending. While Tennesseans are always happy to welcome our commander-in-chief, there was skepticism about the message he was selling. Some concepts in the president’s speech sounded great: more manufacturing jobs, investing in infrastructure and more jobs in the energy industry. My colleagues in the House of Representatives and I have never stopped working to create private-sector jobs, so I’m glad if there’s renewed interest from the president. Unfortunately, the president’s speech offered few new ideas, and most of his proposals were very much in line with a familiar theme we’ve seen before: tax, borrow and spend.

The president called for new spending to invest in infrastructure. I can think of 800 billion missed opportunities to repair our roads, bridges and infrastructure. The president’s first stimulus failed to grow our economy, and there’s no reason to trust this administration wouldn’t blow through billions of dollars more with little benefit.

Furthermore, the president continues to insist on tax increases as part of any negotiation with Republicans. And while the deficit has fallen from the historic levels we experienced in the first four years of this presidency, we are still incurring far too much red ink to save us from future financial calamities. Still, the president has willfully ignored the problem our mounting debt poses to our country’s future.

Rather than new spending, it seems to me we would be better served to remove some of the red tape that holds back infrastructure projects and pass a budget to provide financial certainty. These regulations and lack of funding stability can hold projects up for months, some even years, while increasing uncertainty and making it nearly impossible for state and local governments to plan projects or hire contractors.  

I also agree with the president that we should lower our corporate tax rate, but we should do so as part of comprehensive tax reform that provides relief to every American. The president’s proposal is siding with big businesses and leaving middle-class families behind. Further, it’s not clear how he is compromising, as he has always been supportive of lowering the corporate tax rate. House Speaker John Boehner’s office appropriately described the proposal, saying, “This proposal allows President Obama to support President Obama's position on taxes and President Obama's position on spending, while leaving small businesses and American families behind.”

The president also discussed his plan for energy, calling for jobs in wind, solar and natural gas and touting the “success in doubling America’s use of wind, solar and geothermal energy.” Unfortunately, he consistently fails to mention how we can make better use of some of our most abundant and utilized resources: oil, coal and nuclear. 

The new regulations the president proposed will harm the coal industry and could cause electricity prices to increase by roughly 20 percent. The Administration has significantly slowed drilling permits for oil and natural gas on federal lands, despite new technologies being made available to make extraction easier, safer and cleaner than ever before. And virtually nothing has been done to make nuclear power, one of the cleanest, reliable sources of energy, more widely available.

The fact is, there is no one source of energy that will leave America energy independent and create jobs. We must pursue a true all-of-the-above energy policy that includes nuclear, natural gas, coal, and oil in addition to renewable energy like wind, solar and hydro. But we must encourage this development in a way that makes sense, and we should do it without massive government subsidies that favor one form of energy over another.

As I’ve said time and again, the American people don’t need more empty promises, we need action. We need to stop putting off the tough decisions and stop spending money we don’t have. House Republicans have a better plan to deregulate and move out of the way of private-sector job growth. But our plan is not only a better path for today, it’s also a better plan for future generations. To find out more, visit http://www.gop.gov/jobs/.

Feel free to contact my office if we can be of assistance to you or your family. Our contact information can be found on our website, www.roe.house.gov.