While Obama’s creative rhetoric promised economic recovery and job creation, the President has neglected the Jobs Council, wasted $1 trillion on a failed stimulus, awarded foreign countries job-creating military contracts and “invested” in renewable energy that created jobs overseas.  The results? This morning, the U.S. Department of Labor announced just 163,000 jobs were created in the U.S. this July, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent and making July the 42^nd straight month of unemployment over 8 percent.

The promises made have not been fulfilled because the economy’s fundamental ailments have not been healed. When you get right down to it, the United States is doing little to improve our global competitiveness.  President Obama has handed out taxpayer-dollars to companies like Solyndra, but failed to create a business environment that allows private-sector companies, like Solyndra, to thrive.

The toxic business environment is a derivative of decades-old policies that are still dictating how American businesses operate.  It’s time for an economic detox.

To begin, lawmakers must update the corporate tax code.  A product of the 1980’s, today’s corporate tax code fails to accommodate for globalization and forces American companies to pay the highest corporate tax rate in the world.

A Heritage & Milken study demonstrates that between 500,000 to 2.2 million U.S. jobs could be created by lowering the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, which is on par with our economic competitors.  This administration boasts that they built our businesses, when, in actuality, their job-killing policies and empty promises have hurt them.

But it’s more than the corporate tax code that needs revising.  America’s regulatory environment is stifling.  As an example, President Obama put a moratorium on offshore drilling in the U.S., killing 19,000 domestic jobs.  Months later, he offered Brazil financial aid to drill offshore, giving our competitor an opportunity the administration banned in the U.S.

Lawmakers must also address the overwhelming federal deficit, which creates uncertainty and further contributes to a toxic business environment.  Unfortunately, billions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted creating jobs and stimulating the economies of our competitors.  For example, the stimulus may have been a flop in the U.S., but American taxpayer dollars were successful in funding ventures in China, Finland, Denmark, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Canada and Brazil – to just name a few.  In fact, according to an ABC News investigative report, 79 percent of stimulus wind energy money has gone to foreign companies.   We cannot ignore these statistics.

The economy is not doing fine because our business environment is toxic – America’s corporate tax code is outdated, our regulatory structure is stifling and our spending is out of control.  Today’s jobs report is not just disappointing; it’s unnerving.  At a recent campaign rally in Oakland, Calif., President Obama said, “We tried our plan – and it worked,” but American businesses and their employees are still struggling to survive in a toxic business environment.  We have to stop the get-rich-quick policy making schemes, because they aren’t working.  Washington needs to make fundamental changes if we expect different results in the monthly jobs report.