Dear Members of the 114th Congress

November 10

Dear Members of the 114th Congress,

Welcome, or welcome back. To the 471 of you newly elected or re-elected: congratulations. As you prepare to assume your new positions in January, may we two citizens respectfully offer three suggestions? Distilled to three words they are: understand, focus, and relax.

First, please understand. Understand that what unifies American voters of all parties and persuasions is economic anxiety—about themselves today and about their children tomorrow.  Exit polls on Tuesday made this soberingly clear. Only one percent of voters described the U.S. economy today as “excellent.” Almost 70 percent described it as “not so good” or “poor.” Only 29 percent said their family’s financial situation had improved in the past two years. Nearly 80 percent said they were “somewhat worried” or “very worried” about the direction of the economy. These numbers accord with a slew of recent polls. Two months ago in their joint survey, The Wall Street Journal and NBC asked Americans, “Do you feel confident or not confident that life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us?” An all-time record 76 percent do not feel confident about their children’s prospects.

What drives this pervasive anxiety is not jobs per se. Last Friday’s Employment Situation report indicated that unemployment in October fell to 5.8 percent. Allowing for measurement error in this statistic, it means the U.S. labor market is quite close to full employment. No, what drives anxiety is the stagnant earnings of so many jobs. Since 2000, only workers with a doctorate or a professional post-graduate degree—just 4.0 percent of workers in 2013—have enjoyed increases in their average inflation-adjusted money incomes. Median household income in America in 2013 was $493 less than inflation-adjusted U.S. median household income in 1989.

Second, please focus. Focus only on those economic policies that will support creating higher-quality, higher-paying jobs. We respect that the demands on your attention will be many. The world is fractious and unsafe; and within U.S. borders the matters of state extend far beyond commerce. You will have finite time to consider the economy. Draft and pass only bills that will matter. Companies connected to the global economy tend to be America’s strongest and highest paying. So, please enact policies that help companies build jobs in America connected to the world.

You could start with something easy: renewing Trade Promotion Authority for President Obama. This would be both substantive and symbolic—both to a President seeking to spend his last two years on tasks more meaningful than proving Michael Jordan wrong, and to our foreign partners who understandably underinvest in trade and investment negotiations with America when absent TPA any one of you can reopen an agreement when considering its Congressional ratification. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has provided yeoman public service skillfully keeping alive U.S. negotiations without TPA. You granting him TPA will bolster his and the President’s hand to deliver you deals that will meaningfully expand opportunity for American workers.

If time allows you to enact only two other economic changes, then please liberalize high-skilled immigration and please simplify our corporate tax code. Current U.S. law admits far too few talented immigrants who have long spurred innovation and who thereby boost the incomes of both more-skilled and less-skilled natives alike. And America’s high-rate, worldwide-breadth taxation discourages multinational companies—which thanks to their dynamism have long paid wages about 25 percent above the national average—from investing in jobs, capital, and R&D here in America. Almost all other bills you might consider will do less than these three for quickly supporting the ability of America to create high-paying jobs.

Third, please relax. Here we do not mean, “do nothing,” but rather, “be patient.” We the American people understand that the challenges confronting the American economy cannot be fully resolved in the 114th Congress. That’s okay. We just want a good-faith start. Indeed, many of the 76 percent of Americans worried for their children’s futures will feel uplifted once you implement a few tangible steps to show a future better than they currently expect. Receding gloom will help boost the proverbial “animal spirits” that America (and the world) needs more of. If you end up on a roll then other policy priorities can be tackled, such as rebuilding America’s infrastructure and strengthening our social safety net.

The American people are not seeking government shutdowns. Nor are they seeking posturing by those of you seeking this (or higher) office in 2016. They are seeking a measure of solace and progress: solace that you our elected leaders understand the worry in our country, and progress toward resolving that worry.

We know you can rise to this occasion. Over the years, we two have had the good fortune to work with some of you returning Members and new Members, on both sides of the aisle, who are inspiring both in your understanding of these economic challenges and in your dedication to finding solutions to them. If either of us can be of any further assistance, please just let us know.

Respectfully and sincerely,

Matt and Matt

Articles © 2014 Matthew Slaughter and Matthew Rees. All rights reserved.
Publication © 2014 Trustees of Dartmouth College. All rights reserved.