The Top Five Economic Threats to America in 2010

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Free Enterprise Nation (FEN) released a list of the top five threats facing free enterprise in the New Year. FEN is a research, education and advocacy organization that champions the cause of businesses and employees in the private sector.

“Never before has free enterprise in America been more threatened,” said James MacDougald, president of The Free Enterprise Nation. “The combination of unbridled and unsustainable levels of government spending, increased taxation and regulation, and governmental interference into fundamental individual rights, has created a ‘perfect storm’ that threatens every worker and every business in the private sector.”

This month, FEN is launching a legislative tour to educate lawmakers about the threats to free enterprise and encourage the sponsorship of legislation to protect American businesses and their employees.

Top Five Threats:

1. Hidden Cost of Government

The massive cost of government entitlement programs and the cost of their own employee compensation and benefits are hidden from taxpayers. Currently, individual citizens must rely on investigative reporters and/or the Freedom of Information Act to discover the level of pay and benefits they provide to public sector employees, and what the true costs and liabilities of these entitlements, pay, and benefits are. FEN will lobby for, and encourage taxpayers to demand, that Congress and every other tax-supported entity enact a Taxpayer Disclosure Act that will require full disclosure of government expenditures including salary and benefits, and the unfunded liabilities associated with these benefits. These disclosures would be required to meet the same actuarial and accounting standards that apply to employers in the private sector.

2. Social Security Crisis

In the next 15 years, an estimated 77 million baby boomers will become eligible for Social Security. Unless immediate changes are made, Social Security will become essentially bankrupt, while most public sector workers retire with a government guaranteed pension plan. In 2010, FEN will seek congressional sponsorship for a bill to guarantee the solvency of Social Security so that free enterprise workers can depend on Social Security to be available when they retire.

3. Government-Coerced Unionization

In 2009, President Barack Obama issued Executive Orders that can require unionization of service or construction contractors in order to receive government contracts. The federal government has also enabled the forced “unionization” of independent contractors under artificially contrived “employer/employee” arrangements. Congress is currently considering the “Employee Free Choice Act” which, if passed, would allow coercion and would eliminate the secret ballot from union elections. FEN opposes all of these measures as being detrimental to a free enterprise economy and will support legislation to oppose any and all of the above measures.

4. Pending Health Care “Reform” Legislation

The costs of the current health care reform would place an unprecedented financial burden on individual taxpayers, entrepreneurs and small businesses. If enacted, the current legislation would add another level of unsustainable debt while programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are nearly bankrupt. FEN does not believe Congress has the constitutional authority to make any American buy insurance or abridge the rights of free choice and self-determination of businesses or for the individual private sector worker.

5. Unrestrained Spending, Debt and Taxes

Unrestrained and unsustainable levels of government spending have created historic levels of government debt. To cope with the new levels of debt, governments are raising existing taxes and seeking revenue from new taxes, including proposed “Cap and Trade” tax policies. FEN will promote tax decreases and significant reduction in government spending as the most vital economic “stimulus” needed by our free enterprise economy.

To coincide with the release of the top five threats, FEN has launched new capabilities on its Web site, TheFreeEnterpriseNation.org. The site includes what may be the largest database of government spending and waste ever made available to the public; explanatory position papers on each of the five major threats to our economy; as well as specific initiatives that FEN is taking to address them. “We the private sector, the backbone of our economy, have joined together to speak with one very loud voice… so loud that elected officials must listen,” said MacDougald. “Government must be restored to its proper constitutional role and allow free enterprise to flourish. We can’t let our own government destroy the American dream.”

About The Free Enterprise Nation

The Free Enterprise Nation represents employers and employees in the private sector. It raises awareness of the true cost of government, of the disparities in pay, benefits and pensions between the public and private sectors, and of the potential negative impact of increasing government interference with our free enterprise economy. Visit us online at TheFreeEnterpriseNation.org for more information.