updated 1 hour 28 minutes ago 2011-09-06T20:48:58
Print Font: ±NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, in a wide-ranging bid to create jobs, proposed Tuesday to reduce regulations and taxes on companies, sanction China over its currency practices and weaken the clout of labor unions.
Trying to hold off surging rival Rick Perry, Romney traveled to economically suffering Nevada to deliver his multi-point plan that was designed to position him as the GOP contender with the most comprehensive approach to job growth. It calls for reducing or eliminating several taxes, extracting more U.S. oil, coal and natural gas, expanding trade pacts and slashing federal spending.
Democrats called Romney’s plan wrong-headed and doomed to fail. Taxes already are near historic lows, they noted, and many employers say weak consumer demand is more troubling than taxes or regulation.
There is nothing here but Republican economic theology. This is a wish list of what Republicans want to do regardless of economic circumstances.
There is no reason to suppose that cutting taxes and government spending will reduce the unemployment rate. When Franklin Roosevelt cut government spending in 1937 unemployment rose to 19.0 percent in 1936 after declining to 16.9 percent in 1936. When Ronald Reagan cut taxes in 1981 unemployment rose to 9.7 percent after being 7.1 percent in 1980.
Since this is precisely the same economic plan as every other Republican in the nation, Romney did nothing to set himself apart. Since the candidates are interchangeable on economics, the Republican primary voter is going to be looking at social issues in making their pick. Spread some jelly on Romney, he’s toast.
Why is it that although most competent economists keep repeating that cutting taxes AND cutting spending at the same time is lunacy in a recession, the right just doesn’t seem to get it? Without revenue, programs, grants, contracts, etc. tend to be either postponed or cancelled. This means that the people who would work on those programs, contracts, etc. either get laid off or don’t get hired in the first place. Money dries up for states, which causes infrastructure projects to be put on hold, and unemployment rises. The federal government is a fucking HUGE contracting entity, the largest in the country and probably one of the largest in the world. What do these morons think is going to happen when money for contracts goes away because they’re intent on pandering to the Tea Party assholes?
Some of these ideas are no-brainers-more free trade and increased exploitation of domestic resources for example (yes we’ll probably have more oil spills here but its better to clean up here actually than for the Nigerians or whatnot to do it).
The domestic oil drilling is pretty much irrelevant. There just isn’t all that much oil in the US. If we’re going to risk spills, let’s at least do it someplace where we can get a significant amount of oil for our trouble.
Domestic energy production is just a sliver of what we use. It has the special appeal to some that it is not a foreign source so it is good. But it is a small amount and does not matter. And don’t you dare pass legislation forcing oil companies to assure it is used here and not exported. They will not allow such terrible restraints.
Romney is sticking to the mantra of the rich. Cut taxes to corporations and the wealthy and they will produce jobs. Since we have been doing that increasingly since Reagan ,over and over, we have plenty of data showing that it is wrong. Corporations are at an enormous profit level. Wages are dropping. The corps are sitting on over 2 trillion dollars and they are not hiring. That of course is due to lower demand. The right wing/Republican programs do not address demand. They actually decrease it, so it is easy to see where their programs will take us. greater power and money in the upper classes and sad and desperate times for the rest of us.
The intention of Romney, Perry, Bachmann et al. is to get elected President. Once that happens they’ll be fine. The President’s paychecks are still going to be good. Why do you assume their promises are meant to help YOU?
We’ve done all that before and it’s accomplished nothing.
Why is it always, “cut taxes and businesses will add to payroll!” when that never happens? Why can’t it be, “add to payroll and we’ll give you tax break”? And do people not realize more government budget cuts equals more people unemployed? Lack of regulations caused all this in the first place.
I must conclude, Romney’s a pandering idiot.
The Republican economic dogma that it is always a good idea to cut taxes, and never a good idea to raise them has become Republican identity politics. Rich Republicans do not need middle class entitlements, and do not want to pay for them. Christian conservatives do not want to fund a government that they consider to be hostile to their beliefs and values. White blue collar Republicans do not want their taxes to help blacks and Hispanics.
I love his idea to eliminate capital gains tax for the middle class. Because the middle class pay so much capital gains taxes, and it’s really putting people in the poorhouse. :rolleyes:
Romney has even less clue what “real life” is like than McCain did. He probably thinks that people making ‘only’ a few million a year are “middle class”. Cuz they’re such poor nobodies.
And exactly how is Romney’s plan worse than Obama’s given that we are at 9.1% unemployed and unenumerated numbers underemployed or given up?
Actually I think cutting taxes would help the economy if limited to low and middle class Americans. Let’s start by eliminating the Federal Income Tax on unemployment benefits.
http://www.advisorone.com/2011/09/07/us-european-austerity-will-doom-global-economy-un
The austerity programs that are being pushed around the world will result in a worsening of the global economy. It is a prescription for disaster.
We need to increase demand to get the economy humming. Cutting back on everything you can, will not help demand. It will hurt it.
The wealthy, who apparently think they will gather more power and money with these measures, are able to push them through in spite of the damage to the masses.
There is great ugliness in our futures.
We’ve done all that before and it’s accomplished nothing.