Joint Economic Committee Chairman Pat Tiberi (R-OH), upon filing the Committee’s annual Joint Economic Report for 2017, said “Our Response offers a vision for our nation that will unleash our economy’s capacity to grow, produce, create jobs, boost wages and better compete in the 21^st century.

 

“The economy never surged back from the last recession despite the Obama Administration’s repeated promises. Rather than change course and reverse its policies that constrained growth, it chose more of the same. As each year of Obama’s presidency passed without a rebound, the Administration just postponed the projected timing and tempered its outlook.

 

“The good news is there is tremendous opportunity to implement policies that will encourage growth and expand opportunity for all Americans. From regulatory relief, healthcare reform, and tax reform, to reductions of wasteful federal spending and opportunities to encourage job creators to invest, expand, and hire, there is plenty of room for improvement.”

 

Required on an annual basis by legislative statute, the report is a response to the Economic Report of the President (ERP), an annual report issued by the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. This year’s ERP was published in the final days of the Obama Administration.

 

Findings in the 2017 Joint Economic Report suggest the ERP ignores several important economic realities, among them:

 

• The severity of challenges to reconstitute economic growth potential, to contain escalating mandatory spending and to manage an enormous federal debt, have been exacerbated by the Obama Administration’s policies.

 

• The highest tax rates in the developed world and a flurry of new Obama-era government regulations have led to a period of constrained economic growth.

 

• During the Obama Administration, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) lowered its estimate of potential Gross Domestic Product every year since the recession worsening America’s untapped potential.

 

• While the top-line line unemployment rate appears low, the low employment-to-population rate reveals that many more people could be working but have been left out of the workforce altogether.

 

• Reducing income inequality does not equate to equal opportunity to succeed. In fact, economic mobility is the key to economic well-being. While government has a role in helping those in need, public policy should foster individual empowerment.

 

• While intending to make health care more affordable and accessible, the Affordable Care Act has failed on both measures, leaving patients with rising costs, fewer choices, and less freedom.

 

To read the entire report click here.

For a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, click here.

 

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