23 December 2008
Mitt Answers, but will anyone listen?
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: World Economy .
I thought I would share this opinion piece from USNews. I hope that Romney has a chance to come in and clean up in four years. At the end of the piece, I snagged a comment from their forum that I really liked:
Mitt Romney: The Man with the Stimulus Plan
December 22, 2008 08:44 AM ET | James Pethokoukis
Over at National Review, Mitt Romney offers up an alternative to Obamanomics …which basically looks a lot like his 2008 campaign agenda. Here is a bit:
We should lower tax rates for middle-income families and eliminate their tax on savings altogether — no tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. Let’s also align our corporate tax rate with those of competing nations. These actions will rapidly expand consumption and investment, and right now, time is of the essence.
On the spending front, infrastructure projects should be a high priority. But because infrastructure projects involve engineering, environmental studies, permitting and contracting, they can take a long time to actually boost the economy. … We should also invest to free us from our dependence on foreign oil, not by playing venture capitalist, but by funding basic research in renewables, material science, combustion, nuclear reprocessing, and the like. During the 2008 campaign, virtually every candidate agreed on the need for an “Apollo-like mission” to achieve energy independence. Now is the time to start. … There is a danger that new spending and deficits will lead to runaway inflation, flight from the dollar, and another economic crisis. It is essential, therefore, that Congress and the president commit to reform entitlement spending as soon as the economy recovers.
Me: Eliminating taxes on investment while at the same time fixing entitlements would be a powerful policy combo to improve the economy and confidence. It is also interesting to note that Romney-nomics remains probably the purest expression of the New Gingrich economic philosophy: Cut taxes but also spend big money on key basic research areas.
We did blow it…
…but it was just as well since the job Bush has done has certailnly paved the way to give rise to someone sans experience like Obama, and certainly handicapped whomever would’ve had the R by his name this time around. I in fact voted for Romney (Mitt) twice as, after the primary mess and McCain’s desperate VP pick, it was clear that the best odds to get Romney were for McCain to lose, so I wrote-in Mitt.
Anyway, now I’m not certain that Obama will be a bad President, or separately that he is a surefire one-termer, but what I am certain of is that the Republican Party will continue to suck if it’s being run by the culture warriors like Huckabee and Palin. Oddly Mitt Romney’s values were questioned by these types even though his family life and scandal-free business record are both exemplary. The point is we need a constructive, reasonable, articulate leader who is accomplished and knowledgeable about complex matters. We need to have someone like Mitt Romney lead by way of example and reason, instead of having these people who are critical of others who are different or who have fallen short of whatever moral measure.
So, that’s why I said that a lot rides on what we do as a rebuilding party over the next 3 years. All of us should be busy working on others of us on smoothing over the divide between factions of Republicans that was cracked open by, well, Mike Huckabee. We cannot win if we have cultural conservatives at odds with establishment types, nor though can we win if we have a (big C) Culturalist preaching down at people.
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