Mitt Romney's Economic Plan

Today I listened to Mitt Romney's plan to restore our economy. Though I don't agree with all Romney said, I give Romney lots of credit for disclosing a plan to revive our economy so early in the campaign. It's high time all candidates for Congress and the Presidency campaigned on the issues instead of demonizing their opponents.

Romney wants to issue an executive order granting Obamacare waivers to all states.

He wants to issue an executive order putting all government regulations passed by Congress during Obama's presidency on hold. He wants new free trade agreements with nations that will not cheat, will not steal US technology and will not manipulate their currency value in order to maintain a competitive edge. He wants to expand drilling for oil and gas after removing government regulations impeding the progress. He wants to repeal all Federal jobs training programs. He wants to cut Federal discretionary spending by 5%. He wants to stop government growth and help us grow as a nation. He wants us to stop demonizing other Americans. He said that Obama made no trade agreements. He wants to go after nations that steal our intellectual property. He wants to remove regulations that impede energy development. He wants a long term balanced budget. He has published his 59 steps to update economic strategy on Amazon (and on his official site) downloadable on an e-reader. He claims that American business taxes are the highest in the world. He wants to end the repatriation tax on US corporate overseas profits coming into our nation. He wants a system whereby the introduction of one government regulation is accompanied by the repeal of another government regulation. He wants Congress to vote on each new government regulation. He promised an economic growth of 4% per year. He promised over 11 million new jobs.

Romney's speech about reviving our economy was a pleasant refreshing change from the persistent Republican attempts to gut our economy (via a default on the national debt payment) for the purpose of winning the 2012 elections.

An executive order putting all regulations on hold is a reckless irresponsible act that could trigger another US crisis. Many of those regulations are needed to protect our environment, prevent another total economic collapse, prevent another massive oil spill, prevent underground water contamination from destroying our agricultural industry, protect adults and children from diseases caused by contamination and protect consumers from unfair medical insurance policies. Giving Congress the power to vote on new government regulations is not less big government. To the contrary, it is creating a big government political nightmare. Expanding drilling for oil and gas without regulations is a recipe for disaster that may have detrimental effects on our fishing industry, our farming industry and our children's health. Cutting taxes without financing those tax cuts will drive us deeper into debt. Tax cuts are more big government favoring certain businesses over other businesses. A 5% cut in discretionary spending may be devastating depending on the particular discretionary spending being cut. My understanding is that Entitlement programs are not discretionary spending. Entitlement programs are mandatory spending. The appropriation of money authorized for entitlement programs cannot be blocked. However, massive cuts in entitlement programs will dramatically increase the number of uninsured people and hence cause a further increase in health insurance coverage to compensate for the expense of treating the uninsured in emergency rooms. One reason: Many states cannot finance their own health reform programs. Repealing Health Reform before states implement their own health reform plans is removing needed health care coverage like existing conditions and the insured person's rights.

An annual 4% economic growth is a promise Romney will not fulfill. Apparently, Romney has not learned from the 2008 Obama campaign that one should never promise more than one can deliver.