18,000. That’s the number of jobs that were created across the country last month. The month before?  25,000. In the last two months, the largest, most industrious and productive economy in the world created only 43,000 jobs.  That is not enough to keep up with a growing workforce, and now the unemployment rate is at 9.2 percent.  Things are moving in the wrong direction.

When you look at the condition of the economy, it is not surprising that nearly every economic indicator has gotten worse since President Obama’s inauguration.  We have 2.1 million more Americans are unemployed; gas prices are 97 percent higher; the national debt per person is $11,300 more; 13 million more Americans are on food stamps.  

Shortly after entering office the President sold his $814 billion stimulus plan to the American people by promising that this new, unaffordable government spending plan would create jobs and keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent.  We can now clearly see how wrong he was.  Instead, all it did was add to the debt.

The President is now on track to add more to the national debt than all presidents between George Washington and George W. Bush combined.  That is a pace that no President has even come close to matching.  So far, all of this new debt has forced him to raise the debt ceiling three times, and now he wants Congress to do it again without any strings attached.

Why?  I believe it is so he can keep spending your money without having to worry about how the new debt will weight down the economy.  But we cannot afford to do that.  Instead, we need to lighten the load by cutting spending and start the process of paying off our debt.  Under current conditions, this is the only way to ensure strong economic growth in the long run.

If we fail to increase the debt ceiling above $14.3 trillion we will eventually default on our debt.  Nobody wants that.  But we must recognize that the limited government we know – the one that protects our freedoms and does little else – is beginning to unravel.  The President wants to preserve policies that will cause our government to grow uncontrollably.  That is why any agreement to increase the debt limit must stop this from happening.

Fortunately, there is a solution.  It’s called a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and I support it with all 46 of my Republican colleagues.  If it passes, it will significantly limit the size and future growth of the government by limiting spending to 18 percent of the economy and requiring a two-third majority of Congress for any tax increase.  This is what our country needs.

To preserve our limited government, we need to cut spending in the short term, cap it in the medium term, and pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution for the long term.  Because this is the only way to protect our liberties and permanently prevent future debt crises, any deal to increase the debt limit will have to include these three things to earn my support.  

The current moment is truly unique to our nation’s history.  In my memory, there has never been a time in Washington where both parties are actively talking about spending cuts.  Let’s take advantage of this to limit the size of government and encourage long term economic growth.  Now is the time to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.  

Governor Mary Fallin is leading nearly 70 delegates from the state’s biosciences industry this week at the BIO 2011 International Convention in Washington, D.C., an international biosciences industry event.

Governor Fallin will be joined by scientists, business leaders, educators and economic development officers from across the state.  The governor will speak at a reception hosted by the Oklahoma delegation and will attend meetings to seek business connections to foster growth in the biosciences industry in Oklahoma.

“The Oklahoma biosciences industry has grown rapidly in recent years but there is room for more expansion and research in our state,” Fallin said. “Promoting Oklahoma’s biosciences industry at this international conference will help us attract new jobs and more investment to Oklahoma.”

According to the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the region’s bioscience employment grew 17.8 percent between 2001 and 2008, outpacing the 15.9 percent growth nationally. The industry continues to provide high-quality, high-wage jobs, with an average annual wage of nearly $50,000, more than $12,000 greater than the average private sector annual wage for greater Oklahoma City’s total private sector.

Between 15,000 and 17,000 attendees from across the globe are expected to attend this year’s BIO 2011 conference.  The state will be featured in a 1,600-sq.-ft. Oklahoma Bioscience Pavilion which will be staffed by scientists and bioscience representatives who will answer questions from those who might be looking to do business in Oklahoma.

The marketing efforts at the conference will be under the banner of the Oklahoma Bioscience Association, an organization formed in 2008 to promote the growth of the Oklahoma bioscience industry through partnerships between Oklahoma’s bioscience companies, research institutions, scientists, economic development organizations and the business community.

Photos: Copyright BIO2011

Just days after rejecting the amendment to end the ethanol tax earmark and tariff, the U.S. Senate reversed course and approved it.  Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) released this statement after the amendment passed by a margin of 73 to 27.

“Today’s vote was a major victory for taxpayers and a positive step toward a serious deficit reduction agreement, which is our only hope of averting a debt crisis.  An overwhelming bipartisan majority of senators embraced pro-growth tax reform while rejecting the parochial politics that so often paralyze the Senate.  The best way to reduce our crushing $14.3 trillion debt is by reducing wasteful spending a billion dollars at a time.  This amendment saves taxpayers $3 billion.  In light of today’s lopsided vote, I urge my colleagues in the House to eliminate this wasteful earmark and tariff at their earliest opportunity,” Dr. Coburn said.

The amendment offered by Senator
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Dr. Coburn to end the ethanol tax earmark
and tariff will save taxpayers $6 billion annually.  Even as 2011 is half over, the amendment will save $3 billion this year.  A broad coalition of organizations on the left and right including the Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity, Koch Industries, and the Sierra Club supported the Feinstein-Coburn amendment.   

Governor Mary Fallin today joined officials with Oklahoma City-based UE Manufacturing to announce the creation of 150 new jobs through the opening of a new manufacturing division.

UE Manufacturing, a division of United Holdings, is a global supplier
and manufacturer of oilfield service equipment.  The company’s new
expansion will focus on remanufacturing previously used equipment. 

“As governor, my number one priority is to create the best business environment possible to help bring more jobs and investment to Oklahoma,” Governor Fallin said. “It’s always exciting when the results of our work to foster a better business environment can be seen in the expansion of an existing Oklahoma company. I want to congratulate UE Manufacturing on their new facility and thank the company for their continued investment in Oklahoma.”

The UE Manufacturing expansion was recently approved for the Quality Jobs Program. The company plans to add more than 150 new jobs and invest almost $3 million in equipment and building improvements at the new facility.

“UE Manufacturing is proud to have its roots in Oklahoma and is looking forward to continuing our success in this new facility,” said Bill Moore, president of United Holdings.

Despite years of claims to the contrary, a new study by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity has found that increased investment in higher education does not yield economic growth.
 
The report, Oklahoma Higher Education: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom, dispels the notion that more funding for public colleges and universities is necessary to spur economic development, for a variety of reasons.

“Oklahoma’s colleges and universities are not starving for funds,” report co-author Matthew Denhart said. “Rather than asking taxpayers to continually foot larger and larger bills for higher education, it’s time for the state’s colleges and universities to reevaluate their priorities and invest their resources more strategically.”
 
The study found that while revenues and expenditures have grown rapidly at Oklahoma’s universities during the last decade, expenditures are highly inefficient and contribute little to educational attainment, graduation rates remain embarrassingly low and out-migration of the students who do graduate remains alarmingly high.
 
According to the report, only 40 percent of total revenues at four-year public universities in the state are spent on areas related to student instruction. Instead, revenues are directed toward administration, research and “public service,” areas that have little direct impact on student achievement.
 
Not only are expenditures highly inefficient, but the lack of a rigorous curriculum and engagement among college students nationwide leads to high dropout rates.
 
In 2009, only 4 percent of students graduated from Rogers State University in Claremore within four years and only 14 percent graduated within six years. Cameron University in Lawton wasn’t much better, graduating 6 percent of students in four years and 20 percent in six years. The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University graduated just 29 percent and 31 percent in four years and 63 percent and 60 percent in six years, respectively.
 
In all, less than 20 percent of Oklahoma college students graduate within four years. At the same time, the study found Oklahoma graduates leave the state at a shocking rate. Between 1994 and 2008, the state experienced a net loss of more than 145,000 college graduates, nearly 10,000 each year.

“If public universities are not focusing on education, it only makes sense that students are not learning much,” the report’s co-author Christopher Matgouranis said.  “If only half of our college students are even earning a degree and a large percentage of those leave the state upon graduation, should we really expect that dropping more public money over college campuses will spur economic development?”

OCPA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank which formulates public policy research and analysis consistent with the principles of free enterprise, limited government, and individual initiative.
 
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity is an independent, not-for-profit research center based in Washington, DC that exists to help facilitate a broader dialogue on the issues and problems facing the institutes of higher education in the United States.

To read the full report, click here.