Romney's 59 Point Economic Plan And Accompanying 160 Page Book

59 points? There were 9 that he just couldn't live without or they couldn't come up with 1 more to round things off?

Pro tip for Team Mitt: When voters say they want details, they are lying. People want to feel comfortable with a candidate and a basic understanding of their positions. That's it. The rest is just stuff people say to reporters so they don't look like slackers. In a world where 140 characters on Twitter has made reading a full length blog post like slogging through War and Peace, no one other than rival campaigns and political reporters are going to read all of that.

But since they went through all of the trouble to put it together, let me summarize a summary of it for you (slackers!). Here are 10 things, finally a nice round number, Mitt says he would do on the day he's inaugurated.

They would include five proposed bills that would: lower the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent; implement free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea; expand domestic energy exploration; consolidate worker retraining programs and turn them over to the states; and cut non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent. (Obama also supports those three trade agreements, although he has been accused of dithering to satisfy the demands of organized labor.)

If elected, the former Massachusetts governor said he would also issue five executive orders on Inauguration Day. They would roll back President Obama’s health-care overhaul; eliminate Obama-era regulations; issue new oil-drilling permits; sanction China for currency manipulation; and reverse a number of policies that favor organized labor.

Romney also said he would cut the size of the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition, possibly by hiring only one new government employee for every two who leave.

Romney says all of this will produce dramatic results.

According to his campaign, by the end of Romney’s first term, his proposals would lead to GDP growth averaging 4 percent per year over four years; 11.5 million additional private-sector jobs; an unemployment rate reduced to 5.9 percent and a reduction in spending of $1.6 trillion less than the projected amount under the current administration.

The Club for Growth gives Mitt a generally positive review except for his talk about China.
That strikes me much like Obama's promise to renegotiate NAFTA, (hey, how is that coming along?) a good primary talking point but in the cold light of actually governing, not so great.

The histories of campaigns are littered with plans and policy papers and most GOP candidates share the same broad outlines (cutting corporate taxes, cutting spending, reforming entitlements, etc.). The differences are within who has the record of doing what they say and their ability to make it happen if they are elected.

Related enough: Perry is reported to be attending tomorrow's debate in California.

posted by DrewM. at 07:38 PM

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