The Engstrand Point of View
Bringing jobs Back to the Southeastern Texas Region
Since the day of his inauguration in 2009, this President and his administration have declared economic war on Texas (in particular Southeastern Texas) and its productive, robust economy. These policies have directly impacted the most productive region of Texas, which, in turn, has impacted the world economy. East Texas’ economy is the 25th largest in the world, right behind Norway (per State Comptroller Susan Combs’ March 2010 report, “Texas in Focus, Southeastern Texas Region”).
Let’s begin our journey with the President’s decision to end the NASA program. Arguably an area of the government that has added innovation, jobs and value to our society making it worth the expenditure of taxpayer dollars, the closing down of NASA directly places 14,000 jobs on the chopping block in the East Texas region. According to Comptroller Susan Combs, this action alone would drain the East Texas region of $3.5 billion in revenue each year, negatively impacting some 35,000 jobs. (And as an aside, Mr. President, despite the Johnson Space Center’s storied history, your Administration excluded it from receiving one of the retired space shuttles. I have but one question – “Why?” Could it possibly be because Texas rejects your view of using the government to punish productive citizens and societies?)
Next let’s take a look at the moratorium on oil and gas exploration and drilling. Per Joseph R. Mason, Ph.D., Louisiana State University, a six month moratorium will put 8,000 people out of work in the oil and gas industry and eliminate $500 million in wages. In addition, the economic output lost with just a six month moratorium is $2.1 billion dollars in just the mining and extraction of energy products alone. This does not even include teachers, doctors and hundreds of thousands of other small businesses that support those who work in this industry. It would appear that this Administration has a disdain for the exploration and development of our own energy resources. The evidence of this is the Obama Administration “investing” $ 2 billion of our tax dollars in PETRO BAS, the National Oil Company of Brazil, to engage in . . . off-shore drilling. Why would an administration who claims to want to put its citizens back to work negotiate such a deal? The Obama Administration says it’s because the environmental effects of drilling are too high! They manifestly fail to offer an explanation as to how drilling in waters which are twice the depths of the oil platforms (Petro Bas’ drilling fields average 2 – 2.5 times the depth of the Gulf oil fields) is environmentally safer than our own oil fields in the Gulf. That might be because the explanation is: they’re not. I suggest our President is punishing Texas, in this case East Texas, because the election results in 2008 and 2010 suggest that Texans reject the Obama Administration's socialist economic policies.
The Obama administration is also using the heavy hand of EPA regulations to impose greater and greater restrictions on private property, which has the effect of prohibiting citizens from using their private land as they see fit. His efforts have been anything but good for Texas in general and, in particular, East Texas agricultural, logging and energy production.
The time has come, fellow Texans, to elect bold, moral, ethical constitutional conservatives who will call a lie a lie regardless of the person or party telling it. If the President or other political figures lie to the American people, then liberty loving, freedom preserving Americans, as citizens of this representative republic, should feel emboldened and empowered to speak the truth boldly and confidently.
It is absolutely imperative that we bring jobs back to East Texas. How?
We need to first recognize that in our free-market economy, it is not the role of government to create jobs, nor can it do so. That role belongs to the private sector. Therefore, if I am elected to Congress I will offer and support legislation that fosters private sector, middle-class job creation through the following means:
- Strengthening of the U.S. dollar through instituting tough fiscal policies similar to the Cut /CAP / Balance proposals making their way through the House. I will call for restoring Federal spending levels to their 2008 levels. The average American has had to make do with the same level of income, or less, since then; the government should be no different. Furthermore, I will support legislation which caps spending at 2008 levels or projected federal revenues, without tax increases. And finally, I will author, or co-author, legislation for a Constitutional amendment which will mandate a balanced budget and require supermajorities in both Houses of Congress to raise taxes.
- Make our U.S. business environment the most friendly in the world. Currently, the United States has the second highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. This provides enormous incentives to U.S. companies to relocate operations overseas. The U.S. could immediately realize a manufacturing and service sector job boom by lowering its corporate income tax to the lowest in the world. In addition to this I would call for the Corporate Border Tax policies recommended by Tom Pauken, Chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission. Pauken’s workforce suggestions would make American products more attractive to foreign markets and boost demand for American products, thus boosting American manufacturing and bringing jobs to East Texas and America.
- Slamming the brakes on and then rolling back the Obama Regulatory Agencies’ non-legislative policy edicts and mandates. I will pursue legislation that makes it unlawful for the executive branch to unilaterally impose regulatory bans on energy production, land use rights, gun control, agricultural land usage control, logging, and restrictions on private and public lands. I will fight to allow natural energy sources on all public and private lands to be responsibly harvested so we can become energy independent. T. Boone Pickens says it best: Every year over $500 billion American dollars travel to foreign lands for fuel that costs American jobs and transfers American treasure to countries that on balance hate us!
Ladies and gentlemen I am not a politician but I am a citizen soldier and have provided leadership to fellow Americans in difficult situations. I served in Iraq and have seen firsthand the horrors and hardships of a nation ruled by tyranny. I pledge to represent you, the voters of the 36th Congressional District of Texas, with tenacity, honor, dignity and humility in the face of an overreaching, unaccountable, unresponsive bureaucratic federal government. I will fight tirelessly for the rights reserved to Texas by the U.S. Constitution with the same rugged determination that inspired men like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and Sam Houston to fight for liberty 175 years ago.
Please join me in this fight and join our team for Texas…
COLONEL James K. Engstrand
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36th Congressional District
Newton, Jasper, Tyler, Polk, Orange, Hardin, Liberty, Chambers, and southeastern Harris County. |
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