July 15, 2006
 
Editorial: John Raese’s Plan for Job Creation in WV
 
After listening to John Raese's remarks over the past several months on the topic of economic development, a plan for West Virginia's private sector renewal seems to be taking shape. Since the private sector has been and remains the chief means by which jobs are created in America, any fresh ideas are worth consideration.
 
Raese is a businessman, has been his entire professional life. His limestone and steel companies have to compete in a global Economy -- if they don't, they will quickly be out of business and his several hundred workers will be out of jobs.
 
What emerges from Raese's speeches on the subject is a combination of traditional business sense and a kind of West Virginia-first populism. For example, when Raese talks about the need for less regulation, he couples this with the realization that West Virginia has more regulations on business than competitors like China.
 
While no one wants us to be as under-regulated as China, Raese's point is clear: for West Virginia job creators like him to have a chance at winning in the global economy, our state and national government must not let them leave the starting gate with too many shackles.
 
Jobs are at stake here. Good paying jobs with benefits. Raese knows this and is demanding that our political leaders take a fresh look at what they're doing to American families. Just how many families have to look hard for replacement jobs due to some regulations that are unnecessary--and hobble our chances against un-regulated China.
 
U.S. Senator Robert Byrd likes to think of himself as the great federal jobs king, but his jobs are a drop in the bucket compared to the number we have lost as a state over his time in Washington, D.C.
 
What West Virginia needs is a real plan for private sector job growth, a plan no longer dependent on one U.S. Senator playing Santa Claus with some areas of West Virginia to the exclusion of others.
 
No, West Virginia needs a plan like what Raese is developing -- a jobs plan whose benefits extend to every corner of the Mountain State.
 
We need a plan that is no longer so dependent on rare goodies from Washington but instead depends on one thing only: a fair playing field in the global economy and individual entrepreneurs with their toil and sweat--and that of their fully engaged employees.
 
We need the Raese Plan for Private Sector Job Creation in West Virginia. Haven't we lost enough of our people to North Carolina and other points south?