GOP majority can jump-start economy with tech agenda

Washington Examiner ^ | December 15, 2014 | DEREK KHANN

[Mellonkronos]

[This piece makes a very important point about what the GOP should do. I add that the socially-liberal tech types who normally support Obama should side with the libertarian Republicans who make free markets their important issue. I understand that the GOP has opened an office in Silicon Valley. And Rand Paul spoke there this past summer!]

Having swept both Houses of Congress, Republicans have an opportunity to set an ambitious agenda to jump-start the economy, and they need to seize it.

There is less entrepreneurship today than for several decades. A recent report by the Brookings Institution revealed a persistent decline in the rate of new business formation since at least 1978, and critics blame America's legal and regulatory environment for that. They think it is time for America to take innovation and economic growth seriously again.

The vast majority of new jobs and economic growth comes from small business, not big business. Specifically, it comes from small businesses that are new. Companies less than five years old account for all of the country’s net job creation, and the technology sector leads the charge, according to data compiled by the Kauffman Foundation.

Business formation is 23 percent higher in the tech sector than in business overall, and 48 percent higher in the red-hot field of communications technology, according to a 2013 research report the Kansas City nonprofit published jointly with Engine Advocacy, a San Francisco lobbying group that promotes high-tech startups.

These supporters of old-fashioned American entrepreneurship are convinced that new small businesses are the key to job growth, and preserving that growth demands a rethink of economic policy.

A smart economic agenda would foster dynamic competition and reduce barriers to entry for new businesses, they say. So it is vitally important to protect the interests of new …

[ConservingFreedom]

I read the title as advocating that government try to pick the winners - but it's really about limiting government and unshackling the power of the free market. Good stuff!

[GilesB]

Expecting the GOP to do ANYTHING but pander to the dems, and grovel at the feet of The One, is pure folly

[ConservingFreedom]

I don't expect it - I'm not sure whether the article's author does. But a man can dream ...

[txnativegop]

The GOP must rebrand itself as the party of innovation, willing to confront cronyism in favor of dynamic competition to foster innovation. The GOP needs to do this in the political arena as well as the business arena.

[Zathras]

Nice idea but I think the GOP lost Silicon Valley when it did the War on Terror while Silicon Valley collapsed during the .com crash.
Now I think the RATS will get credit for the turn around in SV.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Numero uno in jump starting the economy is to roll back literally thousands of regulations and bring these rogue aagencies like the EPA etc under control. Until you do that nothing is going to get better. The must do is lowering the corporate tax rate to about 15%. Or doing away with it.

[RayChuang88]

The easiest ways to jump-start the US economy:

1. Get rid of as many business-unfriendly regulations as possible (there are WAY too many "on the books").

2. Massively overhaul our tax laws so compliance is cheap on a per year basis and it encourages savings and capital formation staying in the USA.

[The Antiyuppie]

They’ve already endeared themselves to the tech community with the H1B thing. And, I’ll bet Boner can’t get his computer to work because he talks into the mouse.