Allen: A blueprint for America's comeback

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of occasional columns by candidates running for the seat of retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia.

Susan and I watched with great pride as our oldest daughter, Tyler, graduated from college last year. Like many parents, we worried about the diminished opportunities that lay ahead for her and other young people these days. Many of Tyler's friends, saddled with student loans, struggled — and are still struggling — to find work. Even when many of these young people find a job, few are working in fields that take advantage of the college degrees they studied so hard to earn. The disappointing reality is that many parents do not believe that future generations will have a better life than the one they inherited from their parents.

America should be a country where young people graduating from college are limited only by their imagination, hard work and ingenuity. For our country to truly be a land of opportunity, we must reinvigorate our nation's entrepreneurial spirit by making it more competitive for investment and more American jobs with pro-growth economic and creative American energy policies.

Over the past few years, I have travelled throughout Virginia listening to the concerns of working people and business owners. It's sadly apparent that many Virginians' sense of achieving the American Dream has been badly shaken by our struggling economy, falling home values and a government that borrows $40 for every $100 it spends. Draconian regulations, threatened tax increases, costly health-insurance mandates and counterproductive energy policies have paralyzed America's businesses — our economy's job creators — leaving them unable to invest, hire or expand.

With one policy change we could send a clear message: America is open for business! Reducing the U.S. tax rate to 20 percent on job producers would add more than 500,000 private-sector jobs a year — that's more than 5 million new jobs for Americans in the next 10 years. A vibrant economy with more investment and businesses prospering means more jobs and revenue. Even a lesser reduction to 25 percent is estimated to increase gross private investment by $57.2 billion per year and add $132 billion per year to America's gross domestic product.

Americans are the most productive, innovative and hardest-working people in the world. It is not the quality of the American people that is limiting economic growth. A significant impediment to job-creating investment in the United States is the punishingly high taxes the federal government imposes on businesses. At 35 percent, the United States has the second-highest business income tax among developed nations. According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis, America's working men and woman bear 70 percent of the corporate tax burden — meaning this tax thwarts jobs, depresses wages and increases the cost of American-made products and services. Our government is taxing America out of the competition. And American workers and consumers are paying the price.

The average tax rate on businesses in developed countries is 25 percent. I strongly believe that America should be better than average. Reducing the tax rate to 20 percent on job creators in America would give our country a competitive advantage rather than another disadvantage. By lowering the cost of doing business in America, we will unlock the capital sitting on the sidelines, make it more attractive for businesses to invest and create jobs, and keep U.S. jobs from moving overseas.

And if we are serious about American jobs, national security, revenues and reducing our dependency on foreign oil, we need to unleash our American energy resources and creativity. We are blessed with the most plentiful energy resources in the world, and it is time we stop treating them as a curse. Just by removing the self-imposed barriers from producing energy from American resources on the outer continental shelf, not only will we reduce energy costs for families and businesses, but we could create more than 1.2 million jobs and generate approximately $8.2 trillion in GDP, or about $273 billion a year, with the potential of $2.1 trillion in new federal revenue — without raising taxes.

In Virginia alone, the exploration and production of oil and natural gas could mean up to 2,500 jobs a year and $271 million in state and local revenues — in addition to the significant millions in revenues that Virginia receives from coal, coal-bed methane and natural gas.

In today's international marketplace, Virginia is not only competing against Maryland and North Carolina — we are competing against the European Union, India, China, Brazil and the rest of the world. We need to ensure that America is the best place in the world to invest and create jobs by taking control of our energy and economic destiny. By improving our tax policy with a competitive 20 percent tax rate on businesses and unleashing our American energy resources, we will once again start creating the jobs needed to get our country on the right path.

A growing and vibrant economy is the best graduation gift possible for the young Americans who are completing their college educations. Let's do everything we can to spark a real American comeback by creating the conditions and opportunities for more American jobs.