‘Taking Action’ manufacturing plan announced

Business Roundtable proposal focuses on lowering taxes, easing regulation burden.

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Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, released “Taking Action for America: A CEO Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth,” a comprehensive plan to put the United States back on the path of strong economic growth. BRT also outlined specific steps it is taking to urge policy makers to take action this year.

“Accelerating economic growth and job creation are top priorities for American companies and American workers,” said Jim McNerney, chairman, president and CEO of The Boeing Company, and chairman of Business Roundtable. “The plan we are releasing today outlines a path to achieve these goals through sensible, pro-growth economic policies that will create an environment in which American businesses can compete and grow in 21st Century global economy.”

Despite hopeful signs of economic recovery, the United States remains in a deep jobs crisis with mounting deficits and national debt that threatens the nation’s long-term competitiveness and continued economic prosperity. One out of every 12 Americans who are willing and able to work cannot find a job, and approximately 13 million Americans remain unemployed.

“‘Taking Action for America’ is a plan to revitalize the U.S. economy through policies that encourage innovation and investment and remove barriers to economic growth,” said Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company. “While America’s political system remains frozen in gridlock, the rest of the world is not standing still. Other nations around the world that compete with the United States for jobs, business investment and export markets are moving forward – and we must too.”

“Taking Action for America” provides a thoughtful and very specific set of recommendations that builds on America’s many advantages to restore the type of business environment that encourages companies to invest, grow and create jobs. The CEOs recommendations are centered on three general principles:

• American global leadership must be secured through sound fiscal policy, smarter regulation and competitive taxation.
• American advantages should be better leveraged through open markets for international trade and investment, reliable, affordable energy and protection of U.S. technology assets.
• American workers and families should be supported with improved education and workforce policies, affordable, quality health care and stable retirement policies that promote economic growth.

BRT is initiating a series of high-level activities, beginning this week, to build support for the plan and ensure that policy makers act on the priorities this year. Activities include delivering the “Taking Action” plan to every Member of Congress, the White House and federal agencies; meeting with federal policy makers and their staff to brief them on the issues; outreach to reporters and editorial boards across the country; speeches in major metropolitan areas; opinion pieces; advertising; an aggressive social media campaign; and more. Specific recommendations in “Taking Action for America” include:

• A balanced federal budget, excluding interest payments on the debt, within the next five years.
• Streamlining the federal regulatory process and withdrawal or modification of each of eight proposed or pending regulations that BRT CEOs have identified as particularly costly and burdensome to business. BRT CEOs have also flagged dozens of additional regulations, listed on BRT’s website – www.brt.org – that could add costs and slow business expansion.
• Adoption of a competitive U.S. corporate tax rate comparable to the OECD average and competitive territorial tax system similar to the rest of the world.
• Executing a strategy to make U.S. energy systems more diverse, more domestic and more efficient.
• Advancing policies to create a world-class workforce to enable Americans to compete and succeed in the world economy.