Romney Unveils Job Creation Plan

[VolsNSkinsFan]

Romney Unveils Job-Creation Plan - WSJ.com

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, in a bid to create jobs, proposed Tuesday to reduce regulations and taxes on companies, impose sanctions on China over its currency practices and weaken the clout of labor unions.

Romney’s jumbo jobs plan - Right Turn - The Washington Post

The American Competitiveness Act
• Reduces the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent

The Open Markets Act
• Implements the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements

The Domestic Energy Act
• Directs the Department of the Interior to undertake a comprehensive survey of American energy reserves in partnership with exploration companies and initiates leasing in all areas currently approved for exploration

The Retraining Reform Act
• Consolidates the sprawl of federal retraining programs and returns funding and responsibility for these programs to the states

The Down Payment on Fiscal Sanity Act
• Immediately cuts non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent, reducing the annual federal budget by $20 billion.
He held up his book touting 59 policy ideas, telling his audience it’s available in color on Kindle. And then he detailed five executive orders :


An Order to Pave the Way to End Obamacare
• Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services and all relevant federal
officials to return the maximum possible authority to the states to innovate and design health care solutions that work best for them

An Order to Cut Red Tape
• Directs all agencies to immediately initiate the elimination of Obama-era
regulations that unduly burden the economy or job creation, and then caps annual increases in regulatory costs at zero dollars.

An Order to Boost Domestic Energy Production
• Directs the Department of the Interior to implement a process for rapid issuance of drilling permits to developers with established safety records seeking to use pre-approved techniques in pre-approved areas

An Order to Sanction China for Unfair Trade Practices
• Directs the Department of the Treasury to list China as a currency manipulator in its biannual report and directs the Department of Commerce to assess countervailing duties on Chinese imports if China does not quickly move to float its currency

An Order to Empower American Businesses and Workers
• Reverses the executive orders issued by President Obama that tilt the playing field in favor of organized labor, including the one encouraging the use of union labor on major government construction projects

You can read the PDF document here

Believe in America: Day One, Job One | Mitt Romney for President

 

[IBlvNTmWrk]

Agree or not, it's nice to see someone putting something specific on their agenda. My guess is this will draw a fair amount of attention during the upcoming debate.

 

[volinbham]

Bet Obama won't be publishing his...

 

[BigPapaVol]

Understand all but the Open Markets act.

 

[dreVol]

Do you think the specificity of Rommey's plan forces Obama to commit to specifics rather than platitudes and demagoguery?
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[BigPapaVol]

Do you think the specificity of Rommey's plan forces Obama to commit to specifics rather than platitudes and demagoguery?
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It should, but won't. Romney has an advantage here in that he can just make crap up while Obama has to live down a record. Romney's business record is absolutely top shelf when compared with Obama. In fact, the two shouldn't be spoken of in the same sentence.

 

[Voodoomonkey]

Couldn't find one more point for an even 60?

 

[Cartervol]

Not a bad plan, would get some things moving in the right direction anyway.

 

[RespectTradition]

This is what he tells us this week. Wait until it doesn't poll well or some other idea pops into his head.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

Immediately cuts non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent, reducing the annual federal budget by $20 billion.

$20 billion is not even 1/10 of a percent of the Federal budget.

Go to page 97. These are 2009 numbers, but I'm sure that there isn't much difference from then to now.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040.pdf

In fiscal year 2009 (which began on October 1, 2008, and ended on September 30, 2009), federal income was $2.105 trillion and outlays were $3.518 trillion, leaving a deficit of $1.413 trillion.

So Romney wants me to get excited about trimming $20 billion from a $3.5 trillion budget? Politicians really don't have a lot of respect for the American people's intelligence. They know if they just throw out the word "billions", the average mind will actually think there are some significant cuts being made.

 

[n_huffhines]

Understand all but the Open Markets act.

You no like free trade?

 

[VolsNSkinsFan]

The good:

The rollout is billed as Mr. Romney's "plan for jobs and economic growth," and it rightly points out that to create more jobs requires above all faster growth. This may seem like common sense, but it's a notable break from the Obama Administration's penchant for policies that "target" jobs rather than improving overall incentives for job creation. So we have had policies for "green jobs," or construction jobs, or teaching jobs, or automobile jobs, or temporary, targeted tax cuts for jobs—even as the economy struggles.

Mr. Romney seems to understand that the private economy will inevitably produce millions of new jobs—in industries and companies we can't predict—when it resumes growing at 3% or more. This is an important philosophical distinction that drives most of the Romney agenda.

The Bad:

Mitt is playing a bit too coy about what his taxation policy will be.
He also has some language in there about China's currency manipulation that may be simply a nod toward the votes he needs in the hollowed-out manufacturing regions of PA and OH.

He doesn't have any core beliefs anchoring the plan other than a belief in "his own ability to manage the economy" as the board puts it

the good far outweighs the bad

 

[BigPapaVol]

You no like free trade?

not arguing with the principle of free trade, but not seeing how it helps the US job market. Clearly the free trade agreements we have in place have hurt the job market. Have helped in some cheaper goods, but the main beneficiaries have been Canada and Mexico.

 

[volinbham]

WH reaction:

Following Romney's remarks today, the president's campaign team came back swinging.

"Governor Romney repackaged the same old policies that helped create the economic crisis: boosting oil company profits and allowing Wall Street to write its own rules, more tax breaks for large corporations and more tax cuts for the wealthiest while working Americans are forced to carry a greater burden," campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement.

Seriously? They believe that the Romney plan is what created the financial/economic problems we face today?

 

[BelAirVol]

It should, but won't. Romney has an advantage here in that he can just make crap up while Obama has to live down a record. Romney's business record is absolutely top shelf when compared with Obama. In fact, the two shouldn't be spoken of in the same sentence.

Totally agree

 

[n_huffhines]

not arguing with the principle of free trade, but not seeing how it helps the US job market. Clearly the free trade agreements we have in place have hurt the job market. Have helped in some cheaper goods, but the main beneficiaries have been Canada and Mexico.

Totally disagree. For a good stretch of NAFTA there was virtually no unemployment*. Employment issues today have nothing to do with NAFTA, IMO. Fighting free trade (not saying that you are) in the name of jobs is like fighting technology in the name of jobs.

*Unemployment steadily dropped from 1994-2001, indicating that free trade may be correlated and possibly causal in creating jobs.

 

[TennTradition]

$20 billion is not even 1/10 of a percent of the Federal budget.

Well, when we are talking non-security discretionary spending, the total effect on spending is going to be muffled. I think it is a reasonable reduction of discretionary spending.

The bigger question is how do we attack spending on things like Medicare. How do we reduce the inflated cost of other non-discretionary spending? Cost reductions are a must...
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[volinbham]

Well, when we are talking non-security discretionary spending, the total effect on spending is going to be muffled. I think it is a reasonable reduction of discretionary spending.

The bigger question is how do we attack spending on things like Medicare. How do we reduce the inflated cost of other non-discretionary spending? Cost reductions are a must...
Posted via VolNation Mobile

I'd add on the discretionary point that if Romney is talking about an actual cut then that is significant progress. Generally, we are talking about slowing the growth rather than freezing or cutting spending.

 

[superdave1984]

Bet Obama won't be publishing his...

He did. Here's everything he thought up.

It's Bush's fault .

 

[dreVol]

WH reaction:



Seriously? They believe that the Romney plan is what created the financial/economic problems we face today?

The Obama reelection team is already a broken record. It's going to be a long year if all they do is replay these tired talking points. I guess the gameplan is GOP = economic calamity. I say, good luck with that.
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[n_huffhines]

Love that this made his agenda.

An Order to Pave the Way to End Romneycare
• Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services and all relevant federal
officials to return the maximum possible authority to the states to innovate and design health care solutions that work best for them

 

[Weezy]

Romneycare is a state orgnaized healthcare plan which fits right into that agenda.

 

[n_huffhines]

Romneycare is a state orgnaized healthcare plan which fits right into that agenda.

Yeah, but Romney doesn't oppose the nationwide implementation of his HC plan because he has a sense of federalism. It's not out of principle...he's just trying to win votes.

 

[gsvol]

Not a bad plan, would get some things moving in the right direction anyway.

$20 billion is not even 1/10 of a percent of the Federal budget.

So Romney wants me to get excited about trimming $20 billion from a $3.5 trillion budget? Politicians really don't have a lot of respect for the American people's intelligence. They know if they just throw out the word "billions", the average mind will actually think there are some significant cuts being made.

The good:

The Bad:

the good far outweighs the bad

To all:

Mitt Romney announced two prominent New Keynesian academics, Greg Mankiw and Glenn Hubbard, as the heart of his economic team. So if you loved how Obama has managed to continue and enhance the flawed economics of the Bush administration, you’ll feel pretty safe with Romney.

 

[VolsNSkinsFan]

Greg Mankiw's Blog: Is Joe Biden disingenuous or misinformed?

In a TV interview last month, Vice President Joe Biden said the following:

"Every economist, as I've said, from conservative to liberal, acknowledges that direct government spending on a direct program now is the best way to infuse economic growth and create jobs."

That statement is clearly false.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Hubbard_(economist)

Hubbard was Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 1991 to 1993.[7]

From February 2001 until March 2003, Hubbard was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President George W. Bush. A supply-side economist, he was instrumental in the design of the 2003 Bush Tax cuts[8] -- an issue which split the economics profession on ideological lines, with those leaning left opposed and those leaning right supportive.

So you are against the Bush Tax cuts?