If he were sitting in the House chamber during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address, Churchill would have been flabbergasted by the contention that a “wealth gap” was the cause of the nation’s woes.

It’s not a wealth gap that is slowing recovery – it’s a crisis of confidence in Obama’s ability to lead the nation.

Some of history’s most accomplished leaders, like Churchill, got their inspiration from time honored thought leaders and statesmen. In his State of the Union Address, Obama got his inspiration from the Occupy movement, and catered to this largely discredited group.

This agenda is fraught with peril.

It is clear that rather than face the lingering unemployment numbers, Obama has decided to embrace a Pro-Poverty vs. Pro-Growth philosophy.

Looking to win reelection by instigating class war is immoral and inexcusable.

It threatens to break the very social fabric of this country. And some groups are starting to buy into this toxicity.

Politico recently revealed that the number of times the media mentioned the phrase “income inequality” increased nearly five-fold during the first two months of the Occupy protests.

In a late 2011 poll by the congressional daily newspaper The Hill, data showed that almost 75 percent of Americans believe that inequality is a problem for the United States.

In his State of the Union Address, the president suggested that: “We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”

This is his reference to the “Buffett Rule,” a proclamation by Warren Buffett that his tax rate is less than his secretary. And if to drive the message home, Buffett’s secretary Debbie Bosanek, was sitting near Michelle Obama.

This issue is misleading because Obama continues to equate the capital gains tax rate with the ordinary income tax rate. These are two different taxes.

For Buffett or any other person, before having capital to invest you have to first earn it, which leads to higher personal income rates. But these funds are being redeployed and invested into all sorts of enterprises, small and large, new and old, at a lower tax rate to encourage, inspire and create a class of risk takers. Without risk takers, there can be no job creation.

Now Obama is suggesting that a tax rate of 30 percent be imposed on the wealthy. But if you listen closely, the definition of wealthy keeps changing.

Remember when the wealthy were once Americans with annual incomes of $250,000? Now they are described as “millionaires and billionaires.” If this is supposed to mollify most Americans, it will be an utter failure.

The late comedian George Carlin once remarked: “Conservatives say if you don’t give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they’ve lost all incentive because we’ve given them too much money.”

Does he honestly think that Congress will be amenable to altering the current tax code during an election year? Understanding we have a serious problem with our tax code, it is going to take far more than a couple of tweaks to fix it. This is pure political rhetoric.

It is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. Obama cannot mention jobs without raising taxes, growing the size of government and increasing regulations. These are not compatible to job creation; something he would have instinctively known if had ever had to create jobs, or even included job creators in his inner circle.

In his State of the Union Address, the president boasted that: “If you’re an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you’re a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here.”

It sounds like a practical idea, but most economists contend that tax breaks to encourage specific investment decisions are a bad idea, and are rarely effective. Tax breaks given in the past actually diminished investment by the technology sector. Instead, it is generally agreed that the key to investments and job creation is reducing corporate taxes.

It is obvious that a desperate Obama will try throwing everything and anything against the wall to see what sticks. Promising more handouts? Sure.

Castigating the wealthy as the scourge of the earth? Sure. Creating class war? Sure. Creating jobs? Not so fast!

The Obama State of the Union Address was nothing more than a stump speech that he will be making across the country. And he got the networks to help him get his reelection bid out to America. But this time people are listening and they don’t like what they hear.

According to Kantar Media, which studied the tuning behavior of 100,000 households across the United States in the moments leading up to, during, and after President Obama’s State of the Union address, during the first five minutes of the address, 27 percent of the audience tuned away.

The bottom line for Obama: no jobs, no votes.

That’s not the case in Europe, which is experiencing a domino effect as once financially viable countries are drowning in debt and are in danger of defaulting.

What we do have in common with Europe is some of our best and brightest people are leaving our labor force, for many of the same reasons.

Currently in Europe, the economic downturn is driving tens of thousands of skilled professionals away from their home countries. Spain and Portugal have been hit hardest by the flight of skilled workers, but the problem is worsening in Ireland, Slovenia, Greece and Cyprus.

A Wall Street Journal story reports that during the decade ending in 2008, more than 500,000 workers entered the Spanish work force each year. Last year, with a 20 percent unemployment rate, “Spain became a net exporter of people for the first time since 1990. Some 55,626 more people left the country in the first nine months of 2011.”

Workers are bringing their skills to Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, where ex-pats have found a new, more-profitable life.

At the same time, since Europe is losing its luster as a financial haven, skilled and highly educated workers from developing countries are returning back home because of rapidly diminishing opportunities.

Consequently, the future of some European countries looks even bleaker since there is steady erosion in the skilled labor force, which directly and significantly impacts productivity and economic growth.

Another consideration is the flight of trained medical personnel leaving some European countries, putting patients in these counties at risk due to a lack of healthcare practitioners.

This brain drain is also hurting America, where the State Department now estimates that 6.3 million Americans are studying or working abroad, the highest number on record.

In fact, according to a survey by marketing consultants America Wave, the percentage of Americans aged 25 to 34 actively planning to relocate outside the United States has quintupled in just two years, from less than 1 percent to 5.1 percent. This is an alarming statistic and unthinkable a few years ago.

This problem is exacerbated by scores of overseas students possessing great potential attending U.S. universities that are being forced to take their hard-earned knowledge back home.

Yes, part of the problem is the American economy isn’t producing jobs. But the bigger problem is that our current immigration policy is broken. So, even those who want to remain in America are punished by a poorly administered visa program that forces technically savvy workers to leave.

Let Europe serve as a cautionary tale for the United States. We must do more to keep workers with the greatest potential in the United States. That means creating an environment where entrepreneurs are inspired to invest so we create the jobs to keep the most talented here among us.

However, there are endless barricades to growth.

We need to provide entrepreneurs access to financial resources while lowering crippling taxes and ratchet back stifling regulations; all of which kill employment.

Just 44 years ago, America eliminated U.S. immigration discrimination based on race, place of birth, sex and residence. Now we need to enact a fast-track visa program so the most skilled would-be immigrants continue to come to this country, bringing with them their creativity, dedication and business skills that fuel our economy.

We have our historical roots in Europe, but have come a long way since our first ancestors arrived on the shores of the New World in pursuit of freedom and opportunity.

America has learned a thing or two over more than 200 years. We are now leaders, not followers.

In order to keep America strong, we must stay committed to a strong work force and work ethic, backed by innovation and inclusiveness. That’s what has got us here and that’s what will continue to make America the most sought after destination in the world.

Obama wants to put the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM), Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC), the Trade and Development Agency (TDA), the Small Business Administration (SBA) and parts of the Commerce Department under a new roof — something that has been kicked around for years.

As I point out in my book “Conscientious Equity,” we have created a bloated behemoth government infrastructure to manage our global trade relations that is uncompetitive and inefficient.

Our exporters aren’t getting the support they need to combat foreign governments that erode our access to markets by erecting insuperable barriers to our products and services while stealing our intellectual property with impunity.

Without the right government infrastructure to support our exporters, the U.S. is losing about eight million good paying jobs. You would think getting this right would be priority number one in our fight for jobs.

While at an event last April in Washington I handed to Lisa Brown, Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary (she had recently been appointed to a leadership role to guide the White House government reorganization team), a copy of “Conscientious Equity” and told her it contained the solutions to our global trade problems and provided a vision for America’s trade relations with the world.

A short while afterward, I received calls from her office to discuss the chapter “Creating a New Organization” which addresses the very crowded table created by our multitude of trade agencies. We had long discussions during which they appeared to be very receptive to my ideas. I was encouraged that the ship would be righted.

Unfortunately, last week, as the announcement of the Administration’s government reorganization plans were revealed, Obama only mentioned six agencies to be consolidated. This completely ignores at least 21 agencies with overlapping trade responsibilities. Each of these agencies is their own fiefdom complete with kings and queens, legions of workers and cavernous castles that seem to go on for miles.

The savings being projected by this consolidation would eliminate 1,000-2,000 jobs and $3 billion in overhead — a fraction of what it could be if they took bolder steps.

Although it is a step in the right direction, it is a timid step, and one anchored in politics. I am afraid this is only electioneering to show the president is a cost-cutting, bureaucracy buster. You can’t put lipstick on a pig.

It is time to get serious and move towards a comprehensive consolidation that sends an unmistakable signal to the world that global commerce will no longer be an afterthought for the U.S., and that we will stop relegating its management to a hodgepodge of government organizations.

That’s why it’s time to create The Department of Global Commerce, headed by a Secretary of Global Commerce who has extensive experience in international business. Then we must give this department the ultimate power in making trade policy recommendations to the president. All agencies focused today on commerce and trade would be consolidated into the Department of Global Commerce.

The role of the Secretary of Global Commerce would be substantially different from the current role of the U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. This cabinet member would preside over all trade policy discussions.

The current Trade Policy Review Group and the Trade Policy Staff Committee are bureaucratic bodies that stand in the way of clarifying objectives.

The Secretary of Global Commerce would, of course, receive input from other departments and agencies, but he or she would outrank the heads of other departments in matters of global commerce.

This consolidation would free up billions of dollars, some of which could then be reinvested into the hiring of lawyers and other staff needed to do battle with our competitors in enforcing trade agreements and protecting our intellectual property.

This would cost the American taxpayer nothing, but would be a tremendous asset in opening foreign markets to American products and services, and helping American companies trade on a level playing field.

One would think that we might have considered this consolidation approach necessary around the time of the 1947 Marshall Plan (The European Recovery Program). Or at least tried to streamline our bureaucracy during the 1970s when we first started to amass a significant trade deficit.

As we have seen in national security matters, we are extremely slow to recognize that too many cooks in the kitchen turn out a lumpy and unsavory broth.

This new consolidation and emphasis on global commerce shouldn’t become an election gambit. It’s too vital to our economy. And even more vital to putting Americans back to work.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

If you listen closely, he will side-step the priorities he failed to accomplish in his three years in office, and won’t accomplish in 2012. They all have one thing in common: They are needed like blood to resuscitate a hemorrhaging economy where flat lining job creation is beyond the hope of recovery anytime soon.

Here are the five issues he must address to create jobs but will fail to act on.

1. Using tax reform as a competitive advantage

When a company spends its energy wading through and complying with an onerous and confusing tax code, it creates uncertainty. Uncertainty kills jobs. To suggest as Obama often does, that American businesses believe they are not paying enough taxes, is absurd.

Our tax code forces our manufacturers to move operations overseas where it favors foreign producers, even as it discriminates against American producers hiring American workers. It is time that the U.S. tax code stop infringing on American business prosperity, and instead institute a tax code that gives us a competitive advantage to bring our factories home and to grow jobs in the United States.

During the Reagan years, from 1981 to 1989, tax reform helped make this period the most prosperous in American history, creating some 17 million new jobs.

President Ronald Reagan understood that by simplifying the tax code and reducing corporate taxes, it incentivizes our job creators.

There are some promising ideas circulating such as the Flat Tax and the Fair Tax. But these are being ignored by an administration that isn’t willing to fix our current broken tax code other than piling on new taxes. We need tax reform that works with us, not against us.

2. Passing healthcare reform that establishes an efficiently run healthcare system

We all agree that the current healthcare system is a convoluted mess. It is too costly and too fragmented to be effective. It rattles the mind to realize the cost of healthcare is increasing each year at six times the cost of inflation. If left unchecked this alone is enough to turn an economic superpower into one resembling a third-world country.

The Supreme Court by mid-year will rule that imposing personal mandates to purchase insurance is unconstitutional, thereby tossing Obamacare into the trash bin.

The question is what comes next?

It will take a new administration not encumbered by the embarrassment and folly of Obamacare to keep America competitive by finally presenting healthcare reform that focuses on affordability, accessibility and predictability.

3. Immigration reform that builds our economy by attracting the world’s best talent

Obama promised immigration reform, but when highly skilled immigrants who have received degrees at our universities are punished instead of being recruited to boost U.S. technology and innovation, America loses. Foreign students come to the U.S. to take advantage of our exceptional higher education system. We need to retain that knowledge here through a visa program that allows them to contribute in a significant way to our economy.

Truth be told, some of the world’s best minds and most talented entrepreneurs are lining up each morning at our embassies hoping to come to America to invest their talent, education and resources. Sadly they are being turned away in record numbers. Just seven percent of our permanent visas are given to people whose skills could reinvigorate our global leadership. Unfortunately we are losing the recruitment battle to countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

We must stop denigrating illegal immigration and focus on legal immigration.

4. Regulation reform that reduces the burden on our job creators

Though Obama has given lip service to the excessive regulation being thrown at our job creators at the federal, state and local levels, he has done little about it. The best he could do was find $10 billion in cuts out of the $1.7 trillion each year our businesses spend in compliance costs. That’s more than they pay in taxes!

Instead of spending $800 billion on a failed stimulus, for which every dollar we had to borrow, we should reduce the cost of regulation. We would not need to borrow a penny and it would be a boon to job creation.

5. Education reform that puts equal emphasize on vocation.

The Obama administration is populated with Ivy League alums. Besides having no connection to our job creators, they have no connection to other types of education. Specifically, they fail to recognize the relationship between education and vocation. That’s why they have ignored data that projects that over half the jobs generated over the next decade will not require a college education but technical training. Technical jobs pay well and are in high demand.

To balance our educational needs, it will take a new leader with vision that understands job creation at its most basic level. We have one of the smartest and hardest working workforces in the world. We need to ensure they are equipped to compete. We have not done well in tapping into the inherent skills of our workforce to fill today’s technical jobs and those of tomorrow. .

As the election draws nearer, the Obama administration’s glaring missteps in job creation and righting the economy will become increasingly clearer to the American people. In 2012 there will be no legions of believers lined up several blocks to vote. They have tired of the rhetoric without action and have found that Obama’s vision and leadership were no sturdier than the backdrop of faux Roman pillars at Mile High Stadium where he accepted the Democratic nomination.

What’s worse, in order to get re-elected he cannot run on his record. No more lofty ideals and pretending to be the “President of all Americans.”

Even his supporters are disenchanted, recognizing that his ideals were merely campaign fodder. In order to win he will need to go on the offensive and run the most negative, cringe-worthy campaign in American history.

This will redefine gutter politics.

He once ran as an immortal, now he is just running scared.

After nearly four years of crushed optimism, I predict that in 2012, America will get back on its feet by getting back to its roots.

As a nation, we will rediscover our exceptionalism and stop making excuses for it, or worse, being ashamed by it.

We have temporarily lost our way.

We have turned our focus away from the heritage of our Democracy; a symbol of strength and fairness once respected around the world. That’s the America that our forefathers set in place, and that’s the America that we need to get back to.

The pursuit of happiness codified in our Declaration of Independence is made possible by the existence of our free enterprise system. Our founding fathers guaranteed us the equality of opportunity; they did not guarantee the equality of outcome or income.

What you make of yourself and how you invest your time and resources are totally up to the individual. This freedom has been misconstrued by groups that believe they are guaranteed a livelihood through entitlements and give-aways. That’s not what was promised, and it mocks those that work hard and take risk.

During the past few years, our vision has been clouded by the eroding confidence in a misfit economic agenda.

America will soon regain its rightful position as the most respected and trusted nation in the world by once again committing to our culture of entrepreneurialism and inventiveness.

In doing so, we must pay closer attention to world markets.

We should not be scared by global competition but inspired by it. We have nothing to fear if we roll up our sleeves and get to work building great products. We must demand our manufacturers have the same access to foreign markets as foreign manufacturers have to the U.S. market.

We must remember the world is fraught with problems. We are no different, but, I would much prefer to have our challenges to solve than those of Europe and Asia. Our difficulties are largely self-inflicted and therefore have American solutions. We’ve come though bad times before and will again.

Ours is a crisis of confidence and confidence will come roaring back once we have leadership that embraces our Exceptionalism.

If there is one thing that defines American Exceptionalism it is our workforce. Give an American worker an opportunity to excel and they will.

There is no worker anywhere in the world that can outwork, out-think and out-perform us. We need new leadership that understands this.

That’s why it is incumbent upon us to promote our education system domestically and internationally. The world has always been drawn by the exceptional U.S. university system, and the breakthroughs generated in technology, manufacturing and medicine. There’s a reason that the world wants to study in America.

But while we continuously improve our educational system, we must take a fresh look at the relationship between education and vocation. Despite some common perceptions that a college degree is an automatic road to prosperity, keep in mind that over half the jobs generated over the next decade will not require a college education but technical training. Technical training takes less time, is less costly, and produces the skills required to keep us competitive.
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In 2012, we will get back to our exceptionalism by electing a new president that will fire up the electorate and restore hope. He will say the things we need to hear and then go out and do them. When action replaces rhetoric, it will have an amazing impact on our confidence.

In 2012, we will begin moving this country back to the center. Although I am a conservative at heart, America has always performed best in the center.

The person to get us there is Mitt Romney, who will be our new president.

Many Democrats will join Republicans and Independents to right this ship in 2012. This will be an important step to our national healing. They will recognize the good of the nation outweighs the ills of partisanship.

I think it’s safe to say that the 2012 election could be one of the defining moments in America’s history. Although 2012 will begin with anxiety, despair and hardship it will end with the election of new leadership that will give all Americans a reason to be optimistic and excited about the future.

American Exceptionalism is not dead. It is waiting to be rekindled by the people who believe in the power and promise of the United States of America.

At the same time, some 864,000 U.S. jobs were cut.

From 2000 to 2009, U.S. corporations increased employment in Canada by 1.0 million (up 6 percent); in the U.K. by 1.1 million (up 8 percent); in India by 453,000 (up 642 percent); in Brazil by 505,300 (up 47 percent); in China by 943,900 (up 262 percent; and in Mexico by 904,300 (up 17 percent).

Why is it that American companies are excelling at creating jobs, but not for Americans?

Does that mean these U.S. corporations aren’t supporting America? Or is it that America isn’t supporting these corporations?

More than 5,000,000 jobs have been exported in the last decade alone.

Yes, much of this is attributed to lower wages being paid overseas, but that paradigm has shifted.

Many U.S. companies continue to operate overseas even though the labor benefits they once enjoyed have vastly deteriorated. The economies and stability within many of these countries are self-destructing. Wages are rapidly increasing.

At the same time, they are facing enormous supply chain issues, as well as dealing with omnipresent corruption, gripping poverty, hostile labor unions, crony courts, runaway intellectual property theft, inefficient labor, massive infrastructure deficiencies, skewed investment laws, security concerns, environmental meltdowns and host governments that expect strict adherence to their unfair and onerous rules and regulations.

This would be an excellent time to re-sell American exceptionalism.

Manufacturers need to be reminded that U.S. labor is very flexible with a wide range of technical skills. They work hard, work smart, and reflect basic American values. You don’t get that overseas.

The phenomena of “back shoring”— the practice of U.S. companies moving their overseas manufacturing operations back home — is taking root. There is a growing realization that doing business in the U.S. is good business.

But part of the re-selling effort has to begin with restructuring our tax system. Rewarding manufacturers who build factories here and hire U.S. workers makes more sense than over taxing U.S. manufacturers who are trying to export their products. This is a U.S. job killer.

We need to ratify more free trade agreements. When exports grow, jobs grow. When it becomes easier for U.S. companies to ship products overseas instead of building factories overseas, America wins.

There is no better ambassador for the goodness and greatness of our country than the products we make.

American manufacturers whom move overseas consistently say one of the biggest drivers for their decision is excessive and debilitating regulations.

Regulations cost our economy $1.7 trillion annually. The most maddening thing for a manufacturer, who is trying to build their business and hire people, is to waste valuable resources complying with archaic and pointless regulations.

At a time when we need to invest in machinery and technology so that we do not fall further behind our overseas competitors, instead we find ourselves kowtowing to federal and state bureaucrats who have no concept on what it takes to run a successful operation.

We must also rethink our immigration policy. America by far is the choice destination of highly skilled immigrants. We must remember that legal immigration has always been essential to keeping America strong and vibrant.

Attracting the world’s best talent must remain an important component of our economic growth strategy. It starts with restructuring our antiquated worker visa system. Let’s bestow work visas to the most talented immigrants who have attended U.S. universities and can immediately contribute to our growth. They need to stay here and work with us, not against us.

Some multinational corporations will continue to hire overseas. And many have no other choice. But there are thousands of U.S. companies that do have a choice, and would stay here if we demonstrated our commitment to their well-being.

We have amongst us some of the most successful and talented job creators in the world. They have been persistently pursued by foreign governments. We sat back and watched as they packed their bags and left us.

There has never been a time when our exceptionalism has been more important to embrace and promote. There are 14 million unemployed who are counting on it.

This year, some 100 CEOs gathered and concluded that the nation’s top five priorities are:

• create a globally competitive tax system;

• immigration policies should support innovation;

• improve human capital;

• upgrade our energy infrastructure;

• invest in R&D.

The question that must be asked is: Why doesn’t President Barack Obama and members of Congress come to these same conclusions? The answer is that the country needs to be run by people who understand business.

This isn’t the case. If it was, we wouldn’t have some 14 million unemployed Americans.

This should be the impetus for demanding that any presidential candidate
must have a sound business background. Being a community organizer doesn’t prepare anyone for leading a nation. The results are obvious.

I came across an on-line piece that outlined the five attributes of a great CEO:

• A great CEO leads;

• A great CEO is clear;

• A great CEO gets their hands dirty;

• A great CEO is strategic;

• A great CEO knows when they are not being a great CEO.

Think how our country would be energized if a president had these qualities.

The most important attribute is that a CEO leads. He or she demonstrates a commitment to succeed and not to curry favor with employees or even their board.

The president should be showing the American people that he gets the big picture while empathizing with their plight. That means job creation. And coincidently it starts with the number one priority of the CEO Council: create a globally competitive tax system.

When America is allowed to compete on a level playing field amazing things happen. Millions of U.S. jobs are created. A plugged-in leader intrinsically understands this and builds a coalition that appreciates the relationship between American exports and American prosperity.

A great CEO is clear. And so should be the U.S. president. Don’t hide behind programs that are so complicated no one understands them. Tell the people what you are going to do, then do it. The American people realize we have problems. They have been incredibly patient. There will be challenges along the way. We cannot change the weather, but we can reset the sails. Be bold and admit you have been wrong and change directions.

A great CEO gets his hands dirty. That means putting your reputation on the line to support the company’s goals.

Where is the president when it comes to personally taking charge of economic planning and immigration reform? He’s nowhere to be found. Staff members take his place. If a program is important, it’s important to get your hands dirty and make the program work – for the sake of the American people.

A great CEO is strategic. In a company, it means studying both short and long-term challenges. For a U.S. president, it means the same thing. The over-riding strategy should not be how to get re-elected. When doing the right thing, everything else falls into place.

Most importantly, a great CEO knows when he is no longer a great CEO. In the business community, if the job isn’t getting done, the CEO is out, for the good of its shareholders and its employees. This should apply to the presidency. If the job isn’t getting done, a president should not seek re-election, for the good of the country.

These are lessons that should be engrained into every administration. But the president has surrounded himself with academics and others with little or no business acumen. Is it any wonder we have been languishing in mediocrity and wallowing in our shared misery?

When the president starts acting like a CEO; we will start performing like the great nation we are destined to be.

I know I am not the only one waiting for something to happen to get this nation back on track.

Our small businesses, entrepreneurs and 14 million unemployed feel an endless gnawing, the grinding of gears, as America performs like a broken clock.

Time stands still. It has become all about the waiting.

• The waiting for the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare so we can get our future healthcare costs under control. The Affordable Healthcare for America Act is anything but affordable. When the majority of states consider it unconstitutional, something is very wrong. It’s just one more thing keeping small business from hiring. If you can’t budget healthcare costs, you can’t budget the money to hire.

• The waiting for a bi-partisan compromise on the deficit crisis — a compromise that won’t raise taxes on America’s job creators. Congressional bickering and a stalemate on action merely create uncertainty. Uncertainty is the enemy of job creation. As are excessive taxes.

• The waiting for leadership that leads from the front and not from the rear. Leadership with a vision that has America taking its rightful place in the world economy and competing with all nations. An America that is not scared, but has the wisdom to defend and protect its economic interests. Leadership that ensures American exporters have the same access to foreign markets as foreign manufacturers have to the U.S. market. It also means that our intellectual property is protected and cherished.

• The waiting for the end of cronyism; when politicians are more interested in this nation and its people, than their pet projects and re-election. As history has repeatedly shown, market forces pick winners and losers, not the government.

• The waiting for a sincere effort to reduce the $1.7 trillion in government regulation and compliance cost. When business owners are grappling with unfair and harsh regulations, they aren’t thinking about hiring.

• The waiting for tax reform that vastly simplifies the tax code and that incentivizes for our factories to return home. Even a staff member of the Internal Revenue Service characterizes the American tax system as not only a mess, but an “extraordinarily complex” mess … and not just for individuals, for corporate entities and businesses.” When American manufacturers are punished for making money, it’s no wonder so many move their plants overseas. We need them to come back home so they can hire U.S. workers.

• The waiting for American free enterprise, economic freedom and personal liberty to take their rightful place as the foundation of U.S. exceptionalism.

• The waiting for an America that is confident in itself once again. Where the American Dream isn’t a slogan, it’s a reality. It’s time for Americans to believe that the best days of this nation are ahead. Don’t fall victim to negativism that is eroding our collective spirit. America is the greatest, most successful nation in the world. We need to start embracing this and demanding that others do, too.

Come, sing along with me: “Every day you see one more card, you take it on faith, you take it to the heart — the waiting is the hardest part.”

I’m tired of waiting, and you should be too. That’s what elections are for.

The real failure, of course, was to demonstrate to the American people that Congress simply cannot work together and this country is totally devoid of leadership.

In particular, it continues to reinforce the feeling of uncertainty and hopelessness among small-business owners that deficit spending will not be controlled, which means any sort of hiring will be postponed indefinitely.

The losers once again are the 14 million unemployed, who now face a very dire holiday season with little reason for optimism.

The latest labor statistics indicate that both the number of unemployed persons (13.9 million) and the unemployment rate (9.0 percent) changed little over last month. For too many months, the unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range from 9.0 percent to 9.2 percent.

And this is not the worst of it.

Millions more have simply stopped looking for work while others have taken part-time jobs just to survive. This has created the sad statistic that one of four American children live in homes below the poverty level.

No American citizen should find this acceptable.

Against this backdrop, our national debt recently exceeded $15 trillion, or 100 percent of our gross domestic product. We have spent ourselves into oblivion, yet, there are no jobs to be found. Something is very wrong.

Can anyone explain why this didn’t create any sense of urgency among the Super Committee members and our president to find common ground?

Sen. John Kyl of Arizona, one of six Republican members on the Super Committee, said: “By taxing people who provide jobs, you put off the day we have economic recovery and job creation in this country. It would hit those people; the small businesses who we all acknowledge are the ones who create the jobs.” I couldn’t agree more.

As an entrepreneur, I am always looking for opportunities to grow my business and hire more people. But I can’t seriously consider this if oppressive taxes and other uncertainties hinder my ability to spend.

Like any good businessperson, I am projecting revenue and cash flow months out. I can’t get an accurate fix on it if I don’t know what kind of liabilities I may face. This simple reality shouldn’t be too hard to understand.

However, the taxes currently being proposed by the Democrats on the Super Committee would directly impact over 70 percent of our small businesses, which coincidentally created 70 percent of all new jobs in this country during the last decade.

I can agree to closing some loop holes while simplifying the tax code, if these result in some slightly higher taxes on some while reducing the burden on the majority of our job creators. But an across the board tax increase on our economic multipliers — our small businesses — just delays our recovery.

When I see a bi-partisan committee implode rather than compromise on economic issues that impact every American, it sends an ominous message that this country is rudderless. This isn’t the way forward to preserving a robust economy and stimulating job creation. It is like a sledgehammer smashing away at our economic superpower status.

This failure in equal measure resides with the president. His hands-off approach diminished the sincerity of his commitment to deficit reduction.

Locking people in a room and hoping that they come up with a plan is counter-intuitive. If 12 people can’t work together, an entire Congress isn’t going to do any better.

It’s time to go back to the drawing board. Start with the premise that any decisions made about the economy by Congress must have a direct correlation to job creation.

If an initiative doesn’t translate into jobs, it goes to the bottom of the agenda.

No pork, no pet projects.

Instead, every day is devoted to job creation. Every discussion about taxes must be applicable to creating an environment that encourages job growth.

Forget about taxing millionaires, forget about wasting money on solar energy bailouts, and forget about giving billions of dollars to corrupt contractors working in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If it adds to the deficit and if it doesn’t create U.S. jobs, they don’t get a dollar.

The majority of Americans has tuned out and could care less about the Super Committee.

But if they knew that every day, Congress would be doing nothing but finding ways to make us more competitive and passing job-generating legislation, they would be paying attention.

And any politician that veered from the job-creation path would find themselves voted out of office. No more hiding behind the white noise of nothingness.

It is time to tell the Super Committee, Congress and the president: “If you aren’t working to create jobs it’s time for you to find a new job yourself.”

They only see China, but as the recently concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Honolulu illustrated, we have 21 important trading partners with shores bordering the Pacific Ocean.

To concentrate solely on China ignores the robust trading relationships the U.S. has with Asian nations. APEC, besides the United States, consists of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

For example, during the most recent APEC summit, the United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Philippine Secretary of Trade and Industry Gregory Domingo signed a customs administration and trade facilitation agreement. The Philippines is already an important U.S. trading partner, with two-way goods and services trade last year of $20 billion.

Lest we forget, just recently the U.S. finally ratified a lingering free trade agreement with South Korea that is estimated to support 70,000 new American jobs. And that’s just for starters, as South Korea is our eighth largest trading partner and our most important free trade agreement since NAFTA.

APEC is hammering home the benefits of trade. Trade creates U.S. jobs and strengthens the economies of the U.S. and its trading partners. The Asia-Pacific region is the largest market in the world for U.S. exports and consumes over 70 percent of U.S. agricultural exports. This is something that cannot be ignored.

According to reports from the summit, the leaders agreed to adopt market-driven innovation policies, reduce tariffs and eliminate other barriers to trade in environmental goods and services, and improve regulation to reduce unnecessary burdens on businesses. This is good news for U.S. manufacturers.

The U.S. has maintained an open market for other nations, but many of our trading partners impose tariffs and other regulations that make American products prohibitively expensive.

The question is; why did it take President Barack Obama so long to embrace the benefits of trade?

It was encouraging when he vowed during his 2009 State of the Union Address to double exports within five years. He then did nothing to make it happen. Instead, he let labor unions continue their ill-informed diatribes that exports destroy American jobs.

This is nonsense.

With our 17 current free trade partners, we have a trade surplus; setting aside imports of oil and gas. When American manufacturers have access to foreign markets, in the same way that foreign manufacturers have access to the U.S. market, amazing things happen. We perform exceedingly well. What more proof do we need?

Now that Obama is in full re-election mode, the labor union bosses seem to be ratcheting down the rhetoric of their anti-trade demagoguery, at the behest we assume, of Obama’s advisers. They realize that unless the U.S. can quickly find some jobs, Obama has no chance to get re-elected. They are playing along for now.

What was particularly interesting about the summit was that in his opening remarks, Obama did not mention China. This was seen as a way to mollify smaller Asian nations that fear China’s power and its influence on the U.S.

The U.S. certainly can’t ignore China, since they hold so much U.S. debt. And their currency manipulation, excessive tariffs, and theft of American intellectual property are major concerns.

But China in no way reflects or represents the mutually beneficial trade agreements we have with the rest of the world. We have nothing to fear and everything to gain from trade with Asia. We cannot allow a growing animosity toward China to diminish America’s resolve to seek closer ties with our trading partners in Asia and around the world.

We have a choice. We can stick our heads in the sand and build walls around our economy. Or we can go out in the world and compete. An isolated America is a weaker America.

That’s why it will take a true American commitment to free enterprise and free trade. It needs to be more than a re-election ruse. It needs to be the core of an American policy priority that starts with a vision of a strong and prosperous America competing freely and fairly.

Supporting engagement with our trading partners that strengthens the American manufacturing base is the solution to U.S. job creation. It starts with Asia, but it spreads everywhere.

“Made in America” means something in the world. And it should mean something to every member of Congress and every citizen.