The United States needs to advance policies that foster broad-based economic growth, said 9th District U.S. Congressman Adam Smith, and the key to that is ensuring that as many people in this country as possible have a chance to obtain good jobs and are participating in the economy.

Nothing is more important to advance that goal than education, Smith said, and community and technical colleges like Green River Community College need to reach more people so they can develop the skills that will help them get good jobs. School districts need to ensure that higher education is applicable earlier on.

Smith said the Puget Sound Area is positioned to participate in the global economy, but it needs access to overseas markets, and good smart trade agreements to get that access. The nation also needs good, smart immigration policies.

And while the nation needs to build infrastructure like roads, bridges and airports that will enable the economy to move, it must also expand access to broadband, and broaden the energy infrastructure.

But as Smith reminded the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce at Emerald Downs on Tuesday, the overarching, dark cloud of “the budget catastrophe” and deficit casts a pall over all the investments that have to be made to make these things happen and get the nation going again.

And the complete lack of consensus about how to deal with the nation’s pressing problems, the house divided, puts everything in the hazard.

“It’s crippling our ability to pass just about anything,” Smith said. “We also have all tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year. We have sequestration, which we have initiated as an automatic, across-the-board cut of well over a trillion dollars set to kick in Jan. 1. That will definitely have an impact,” Smith said.

The solution, Smith said “is as obvious” as it is elusive.

“We need a 10-year plan that puts in place a spending-and-tax policy for this country that gives us at least some dependability. We are at way too high a level of uncertainty right now for businesses to make decisions about the future, to make the decisions necessary to grow our economy, and for entrepreneurs to feel the confidence to make those investments and take the risks to grow the economy,” Smith said.

Redistricting lopped off the southern part of Smith’s District, which used to include Auburn, Kent and even Lacey so that today it encompasses Mercer Island, Bellevue, Newcastle and southeast Seattle. But, having represented the old 9th Congressional District for 16 years, Smith said, he has no intention to stop representing Auburn and Kent on transportation, education, jobs and other big issues.

Fielding questions from the audience, Smith said the biggest challenge facing him as the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee is managing a budget that will no longer grow, even though the country still has national security threats.

He insisted that any plan to address the budget deficit must include a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.