Mary Fallin: Election over, time to get back to work

Now that the election has ended, it is back to work in Washington. Congress will return briefly to organize for the new year, and also to deal with a number of proposals for confronting our ongoing economic problems.

Republicans have proposed a number of ideas, including tax relief to leave more dollars in the pockets of American families.

To ease investor unease, we are also suggesting suspending capital gains taxes, a move that would inject new capital into our financial markets.

We have also suggested reducing our high corporate income tax rate to help keep American jobs in America.

And of course we will continue to press for expanded domestic oil and gas production. Our economy will have a hard time recovering if we continue to send $700 billion overseas each year to buy oil.

The incoming Obama administration is still developing its economic plans, but there is considerable discussion of a whole series of federal actions that would dramatically increase the national debt while targeting many aspects of the economy.

These are one-time efforts which may or may not have the desired effect of stimulating the economy. If in fact the economic downturn is going to endure for some time, itís doubtful some of the ideas being discussed by the majority would accomplish what I believe is key to stimulating our economy: a long term reduction in tax rates.

I will examine any proposals for short term fixes with an open mind, but the end goal should be a shift towards the kind of pro growth policies that put our long term economic security on surer footing. Ultimately that means less taxes and less spending, not more.

The majority party is also proposing a huge public works program for things like roads and bridges. Certainly our nationís infrastructure needs are serious and must be addressed, but I am not convinced they belong in a package designed to jump start the economy.

As a member of the House committee that deals with such issues, I know that it takes many months sometimes years to move those projects from concept to reality. Deciding to spend a billion dollars on a road project today is unlikely to create new jobs much earlier than late in 2009. It may be that the projects are needed, but it is simply too early to say, since we havenít seen a list.

So we have two distinct views on how to boost our troubled economy: spend a whole lot and run up the deficit, or let people keep more of their own money, without it being processed through Washington. I would choose the latter.

Finally, we have a new administration coming to power in Washington in just over two months. President-elect Obama was not my candidate, but I wish him well, and I will always give the office of the presidency the respect it merits.

I will likely disagree with many of his policy proposals and vote accordingly. In other areas we may find common ground where we can agree on specific measures. Most of all, I will continue to represent the views of the people of the Fifth District who so graciously voted to retain me as their representative.