By Erik Paulsen

One year ago, the White House proclaimed that the summer of 2010 would officially be known as “Recovery Summer”. Yet today, unemployment remains painfully high, the housing crisis continues to get worse, gas prices are at record highs, and many in our community are wondering just when our economy will turn around.

As I travel around our district, families and small business owners from Bloomington to Coon Rapids are understandably concerned. This is not a Republican problem. This is not a Democrat problem. It’s an American problem that we can solve together with common sense, pro-growth, reforms.

The solution for reviving our economy is straightforward: cut wasteful government spending to help the economy grow and Minnesota businesses create jobs.

It is imperative that we empower small businesses by reducing the regulatory burden holding them back from creating new, well paying jobs. As of 2008, small businesses face an annual regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee. With small businesses producing 64% of all new jobs over the last 15 years, it is critical that we remove the redundant and harmful barriers to job creation and investment that small businesses face.

As we work to bring down the burdensome regulations imposed on American job creators, we also need to reform the tax code.The current tax code is ten times larger than the bible- with none of the good news. The United States has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world which has impeded America’s global competitiveness. The President signaled his support for this reform and I also support making the tax code simpler, globally competitive, and less burdensome for American families and businesses.

Today, President Obama announced the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to offset current disruptions in supply from the Middle East. If we had our own energy independence plan here in America, we wouldn’t need to tap into our reserves. Last month, I joined with my colleagues in introducing The Infrastructure Jobs and Energy Independence Act. This piece of legislation would increase domestic exploration and invest in clean American energy and our aging infrastructure.

As we work to find new and fiscally responsible solutions to our energy infrastructure, we must also commit to paying down our unsustainable debt burden, and have the government live within its means. That's one reason I voted not to increase the debt ceiling by another $2.4 trillion. Our nation’s $14 trillion debt is creating vast uncertainty for Minnesota job creators and investors.  In fact, last week 150 economists called for an end to stimulus spending and for prudent spending cuts to boost our economy and help create a better climate for job creation in America. I firmly believe you deserve a government that spends its money as wisely as you spend your own.

By enacting these common sense pro-growth strategies we can turn our economy around and put America back to work.

Cross-posted at Erik Paulsen’s Blog.