Jobs & Economy

"Trickle-down” Economics is and has been an abysmal failure. Big money would continue this failed policy. As a lifelong Nebraskan I know the economy, like corn, grows from the ground up - not the other way around. Let's get serious.

Every small Nebraska business I have started and operated in my life has succeeded – every one has met every payroll. As a lawyer, I have represented tens of thousands of independent small business owners in their most important legal struggles and have developed solutions to help them succeed.

Our local, state and federal government are were laws are made and improved for the benefit of all of us – my life has been spent in the trenches of these issues – I understand the struggles of small business people, the need to counteract the overwhelming political connections of mega-corporations insistent on a status-quo that benefits only them. I have fought Government Regulations on small businesses and won.

It is time to elect someone with decades of experience with the most complicated economic and legal issues affecting small business.

When we talk of creating and encouraging job growth we must take a wide view across the entire economy and country. Myopic focus on job growth only in a certain sector of industry or corner of America will not lead to needed long term solutions.

If solving our decreasing manufacturing base, job exportation, foreign competition because of cheaper labor, and the other issues plaguing us were simple we would have already solved these issues. These problems exist because our politicians and, frankly, all of us have been asleep as our country has slowly but visibly eroded into something less than we used to be.

Improving our job situation and economic outlook requires open minds, tough choices, and aggressive agreement on the vision of our nations future by focusing on shared principles – not being divided by individual issues.

The following elements must be a part of any genuine and long-term solution:

• Jobs must be restored and returned to America. Incentives to ship jobs overseas must be eliminated.  A fair tax structure must be used to accomplish this objective.  The unaddressed reality of Market Concentration – the concept of too few controlling too much, such as 6 banks controlling over 60% of all deposit assets in America, must be aggressively addressed and anti-trust laws invigorated. Anticompetitive corporate job-killing consolidation and mergers must be addressed.   The concept of “Too big to fail” is a risk that must be eliminated.

• Increase the minimum wage. We must work to move Americans off of federal assistance where possible and a living wage is part of the solution.  I support a $10.10 per hour minimum wage at the federal level.  This conclusion is supported by extensive research and by virtually all meaningful economic studies.  Non-politically motivated studies prove that increasing the minimum wage does not diminish employment – it expands it.  Raising the minimum wage will help women and children the most. It will allow them an exit from a poverty – something we must support.

• Focus on creating quality jobs – not just jobs. The rapid expansion of the lowest paying jobs helps only to widen the gap between rich and poor, erodes the middle-class, and concentrates wealth at the very top. It is undeniable that ‘trickle down economics’ has never worked and will never work. You don’t have to look any further than a Nebraska farm to see growing occurs from the bottom up.

• Infrastructure reconstruction needs are well documented.  The American Society of Civil Engineers has given the United States a grade of D, nearly failing,  for the quality of our infrastructure.  It estimates $2.2 trillion must be invested in five years to achieve mere adequacy.  We cannot delay. The infrastructure improvements required would create hundreds of thousands of good quality jobs. Much of this infrastructure reinvestment is needed in communities where unemployment is high, accomplishing another goal of job creation in areas that need it the most.

We must work aggressively to accomplish enacting laws that establish a viable way forward for our citizens and our economy.