Robert Harms: Welcome To North Dakota Mr. President

Welcome to North Dakota, Mr. President! We share your concern about conditions on the reservations, and hope that your visit with tribal leaders goes well, and that your visit leads to real progress that will benefit tribal members long into the future.

North Dakota is living proof that that the solution to providing economic opportunity – whether on the reservation or across the nation – isn’t another government program or more stimulus spending. It’s about empowering people and unleashing the potential of our entrepreneurs, our industries, and our natural resources.

Here in North Dakota, we have the nation’s lowest unemployment rate, highest per capita income growth, highest wage increases, and the nation’s fastest growing economy (now four years running). This is no accident or fluke – it is happening here because for the last twenty years our leaders have created an environment that encourages businesses and entrepreneurs, and rewards hard work and investment.

Your Administration, however, has taken the opposite approach. On issues from ranging from health care to energy development to agriculture, you have created an unprecedented regulatory burden that is holding our country back and limiting opportunity for our citizens.

Unfortunately, in spending only a couple of hours here in one location, there are few things you will miss.

You’re not going to see the billions of dollars of private investment that have flowed into North Dakota because of a pro-growth tax policy, a common sense regulatory approach, and a business-friendly climate. You will not see how domestic energy development can benefit not just one state, but create high-paying skilled and professional jobs across an entire region and all sectors of the economy. You won’t get a chance to talk with workers who stand to lose their jobs or the families that will be paying higher electricity bills because of the Environmental Protection Agency’s misguided new carbon capture regulations. You won’t see the hundreds of trucks that could be taken off our roads daily if only you would approve the Keystone Pipeline.

There are lessons to be learned from North Dakota’s successes, Mr. President. I hope that you will return to North Dakota again in the near future to take a broader look at our land, our people, and see for yourself the potential that we are demonstrating for the nation.