With the majority of Americans, it comes down to the economy, debt, deficit, and unemployment. This is where Obama falls flat with the American people and why Obama is losing grip. Make no mistake about that.
And Romney's plans are what?
Champion small business...how exactly?
If you look at that point in his plan...it's the same old stuff. Reduce regulation (many at the state level he has no bearing on). But there is also a tax cut for small business (which will add to the debt of course). Repeal Obamacare...yet again it shows up here....
...and protect workers from labor unions....
Other than the tax cut none of that is going to do anything.
Increase trade. Tto Central America? The same people who are coming here to escape poverty in their homeland? Not going to work. Get tough on China? Sure...and that may actually save a few pennies but it's hard to get tough on someone who owns your debt. Try to get tough with Visa and tell me how that goes. Create a Reagan Economic Zone and open more markets...
It's funny if you look at his website; you can look at what they call the "One Pager" and get a synopsis. But if you want to look at the full plan, you can click on a different link that has almost no mention of the items in the One Pager.
Mitt's Plan to Create 12 Million New Jobs | Mitt Romney for President
But you wanted to talk about spending issues...Lets look at the Governor's plan. Lets look at the Governor's Spending plans from his own website:
Spending | Mitt Romney for President
1. The Federal Government Should Stop Doing Things The American People CanÂ’t Afford, For Instance:
o Repeal Obamacare — Savings: $95 Billion. President Obama’s costly takeover of the health care system imposes an enormous and unaffordable obligation on the federal government while intervening in a matter that should be left to the states. Mitt will begin his efforts to repeal this legislation on Day One.
o Privatize Amtrak — Savings: $1.6 Billion. Despite requirement that Amtrak operate on a for-profit basis, it continues to receive about $1.6 billion in taxpayer funds each year. Forty-one of Amtrak’s 44 routes lost money in 2008 with losses ranging from $5 to $462 per passenger.
o Reduce Subsidies For The National Endowments For The Arts And Humanities, The Corporation For Public Broadcasting, And The Legal Services Corporation — Savings: $600 Million. NEA, NEH, and CPB provide grants to supplement other sources of funding. LSC funds services mostly duplicative of those already offered by states, localities, bar associations and private organizations.
o Eliminate Title X Family Planning Funding — Savings: $300 Million. Title X subsidizes family planning programs that benefit abortion groups like Planned Parenthood.
o Reduce Foreign Aid — Savings: $100 Million. Stop borrowing money from countries that oppose America’s interests in order to give it back to them in the form of foreign aid.
If pursued with focus and discipline, MittÂ’s approach provides a roadmap to rescue the federal government from its present precipice. But that respite will be short-lived without a plan for the looming long-term threat posed by the unsustainable nature of existing entitlement obligations. Learn more about MittÂ’s proposals for entitlement reform: Medicare and Social Security.
2. Empower States To Innovate — Savings: >$100 billion
o Block grants have huge potential to generate both superior results and cost savings by establishing local control and promoting innovation in areas such as Medicaid and Worker Retraining. Medicaid spending should be capped and increased each year by CPI + 1%. Department of Labor retraining spending should be capped and will increase in future years. These funds should then be given to the states to spend on their own residents. States will be free from Washington micromanagement, allowing them to develop innovative approaches that improve quality and reduce cost.
3. Improve Efficiency And Effectiveness. Where the federal government should act, it must do a better job. For instance:
o Reduce Waste And Fraud — Savings: $60 Billion. The federal government made $125 billion in improper payments last year. Cutting that amount in half through stricter enforcement and harsher penalties yields returns many times over on the investment.
o Align Federal Employee Compensation With The Private Sector — Savings: $47 Billion. Federal compensation exceeds private sector levels by as much as 30 to 40 percent when benefits are taken into account. This must be corrected.
o Repeal The Davis-Bacon Act — Savings: $11 Billion. Davis-Bacon forces the government to pay above-market wages, insulating labor unions from competition and driving up project costs by approximately 10 percent.
o Reduce The Federal Workforce By 10 Percent Via Attrition — Savings: $4 Billion. Despite widespread layoffs in the private sector, President Obama has continued to grow the federal payrolls. The federal workforce can be reduced by 10 percent through a “1-for-2” system of attrition, thereby reducing the number of federal employees while allowing the introduction of new talent into the federal service.
o Consolidate agencies and streamline processes to cut costs and improve results in everything from energy permitting to worker retraining to trade negotiation.
Add up the savings HE says he will get and you come up with $319.6B in supposed savings. Hardly a drop in the bucket compared to his increases in Defense.
So if it's the savings debt and deficit you want to tackle, it would seem that Romney isn't your guy--if you go by Romney's numbers.
The uptick in Military spending has to come from somewhere....the money to balance the budget is going to come from somewhere...the money to pay off the deficit is going to come from some where.
Can you--a Romney supporter--tell me how the math adds up? I don't see where it does.
He's on record as saying he's not going to raise taxes:
And I will not — I will not under any circumstances, reduce the share that's being paid by the highest income taxpayers. And I will not, under any circumstances increase taxes on the middle-class.
Read more:
Presidential debate transcript, questions, Oct. 16, 2012 (text, video) - Politico Staff - POLITICO.com
So it's all on the spending side.
Please show me how he's going to cut taxes on small businesses, increase the defense spending, and balance the budget while paying off the debt. Would you, please?
