Our economic security depends on developing the full potential of entrepreneurs and workers to create a prosperous economy and a good quality of life for all Texans. Small businesses are the innovative, job-creating engines of our economy and need to be nurtured. Jobs should offer dignity and a decent living instead of a lifetime shadowed by insecurity or poverty.
Texans, like all Americans, are now facing an economic crisis. Under “cheap labor Republicans,” government failed its basic responsibility to foster sustained full employment with reasonably stable prices. Instead, recession was followed by a weak recovery and now, another recession. Absent an industrial recovery or a full recovery in information technology, economic growth was primarily maintained by financial tricks in the housing sector, government and military spending and tax cuts that mostly benefit those who needed them least.
We believe “percolate up” works much better than “trickle down.” Republican policies that cut essential services and investments in our future reward only the wealthiest Americans with tax cuts and threaten massive financial hardships in the future. We recognize the importance of temporary deficits in overcoming recessions, but the growing national debt and trade imbalance caused by failed Republican economic policy endanger our way of life and our national security. Our children and grandchildren should not be responsible for these conomic failures.
We understand that economic policy must solve problems — for our people, our country and our planet. People need good jobs that support their families and offer security for the future. Our country needs to fulfill its historical role as a leader in technology and industry. Our planet faces challenges, from infrastructure shortfalls to energy shortages to global warming, whose solutions will require a concerted long term effort. Democrats must lead our country in the right direction.
We further address economic policy in the sections of this platform related to Energy, Housing, Transportation and the Environment.
