The Marshall Economic Plan

A plan for Kansas, a plan for American jobs, and a plan for security.

Our country is truly at a pivotal moment in history. We all just saw the jobs report, which beat all expectations by nearly 7 million jobs.

The economy is roaring back from the COVID-19 cliff in early March, and the Dow Jones has rebounded to November 2019 levels.

Kansans are becoming more optimistic for future job outlooks, travel, and in their spending habits.

I can think of no other economy in our history that could have withstood the blow of a global health crisis and virtual shutdown of the entire United States for two months.

Had it not been for the record-setting U.S. economy under President Trump for the last 3 years, we may have never made it back to normal; now we are looking at a comeback like we’re never seen.

If there’s anything the coronavirus pandemic has taught us, it’s that the U.S. should never again have to rely on a foreign country — especially China — for critical components and products we can make right here at home, made for and by Americans.

We must reevaluate some key components of our economy and supply chain in order to ensure that this never happens again, but if it does, we will be prepared. The millions of jobs we lost from the Chinese coronavirus could easily be refilled with good paying production jobs in Kansas.

We must provide attractive incentives to American manufacturers and producers that include investment tax credits, full expensing deductions, and a payroll tax holiday. Intellectual property incentives must be given to medical supply and pharmaceutical companies in order to reduce our dependence on Chinese healthcare technology.

Most importantly for Kansas — we must negotiate tough agriculture and energy trade agreements with China that prioritize American jobs, and not foreign powers.

With your help and hard work, I’ve helped President Trump build this economy once, and I’m rearing to do it again. It’s time to bring back “Made In America” once and for all.

1. America First

  • 1.1 Address the need to shift critical parts of our supply chains to America. Implement a “Made in the USA” tax incentive package to provide investment tax credits, intellectual property incentives, and accelerated expensing to bring manufacturing and other parts of the supply chain back to the U.S.
    • 1.1.1 Wichita is the #1 best city for manufacturing workers in the USA. Prioritize new manufacturing jobs moving to Wichita and all of Kansas.
    • 1.1.2 Make the tax rates in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and further lower the corporate tax rate to make us more cost-competitive with other countries, including China, so that Kansans can keep more of their money and so businesses can create more good paying jobs for Kansans.
  • 1.2 Eliminate payroll taxes for employers for the remainder of 2020.
  • 1.3 Ensure local access to credit through strong and robust community banks, credit unions, and farm credit systems.
    • 1.3.1 Effectively execute the CARES Act and evaluate provisions to ensure all relief designed to provide liquidity to employers is made available on a timely basis.
  • 1.4 Provide liability protections for businesses, hospitals, and agribusinesses that have been impacted by the pandemic and are working to reopen their doors and continue serving Americans.
  • 1.5 Set up statewide, robust COVID testing sites (FQHCs) and infectious disease control protocols, and invest in digital tools to accomplish that. This will require robust testing in nursing homes, soldiers’ homes, and all assisted living facilities.
  • 1.6 Negotiate and enforce trade agreements that put U.S. businesses on a level playing field.
    • 1.6.1 Enforce China trade deals to hold Chinese government accountable to ensure fair trade for farmers, businesses and consumers.
    • 1.6.2 Expand trade opportunities with Great Britain, EU, India, and Africa, and renegotiate existing deals.
  • 1.7 Pass an infrastructure package to spur economic activity across the country.
  • 1.8 Continue to implement common sense regulatory reform.

2. Farmers First

  • 2.1 Evaluate the CARES Act provisions to ensure we are maximizing the impact to support and sustain our nation’s food supply.
    • 2.1.1 Keep packing and food processing plants open. Ensure adequate COVID-19 testing and PPE. Again, continue to invest in technology to help with tools such as temperature checks and automatic contact testing.
  • 2.2 Create an Agricultural Alliance to connect food banks and grocers with American farmers, remove red tape, and create a continuous flow of produce.
  • 2.3 Ensure proper labeling of food products: eg: meat with label “product of the USA “ means slaughtered in the USA.
  • 2.4 Raise antiquated payment limits on ag programs.
  • 2.5 Biofuels: Provide easier customer access at the pump, and hold EPA accountable to enforce current law and give companies long term certainty.
  • 2.6 Oil and Gas: We need to fill our national storage to the brim. Retrofit US refiners to process American crude, not oil from the Middle East.
  • 2.7 Continue to invest in rural broadband deployment initiatives, so that families, businesses and farms can connect.
  • 2.8 Promote conservation and innovation in Ag and industry.

3. American Workers First

  • 3.1 Provide immediate regulatory relief for businesses in areas that impede hiring, business formation, entrepreneurship and innovation.
  • 3.2 Provide job training and skills development so that those who have been displaced from the virus can find new jobs in the recovering economy. This includes technical college and retraining assistance for displaced workers, as well as incentives for medical, nursing and med-tech education completed by 2025.
  • 3.3 Prevent further expansion of unemployment insurance, offering states flexibility to use supplemental federal unemployment funds to keep employees connected to jobs.
  • 3.4 Provide additional flexibility to businesses utilizing the Paycheck Protection Program, so they have more time to rehire and reopen.
  • 3.5 Make permanent provisions related to working and middle class families found in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
  • 3.6 Provide targeted relief for families who have lost their job or been negatively impacted by the pandemic through assistance to working families with dependent children.
    • 3.6.1 Expand funding for the Victims of Child Abuse Program to help vulnerable children.
  • 3.7 Continue to invest in broadband deployment and telemedicine technologies so that health care providers can continue to respond to the mental, emotional, and physical health of their patients.