Mitt Romney:
Another week’s gone by and we still have 4 Republicans in the Race for the Nomination for President of the United States. This week will bring the Republican candidates to an end. Our last candidate is Mitt Romney who definitely has ties to Michigan since his father served as Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969.
People: Unemployment has been one of the most difficult issues for our nation over the past several years. Governor Romney proposes that we have Personal Reemployment Accounts for unemployed individuals. These accounts would facilitate programs that place individuals directly into companies that provide on-the-job training. He believes that the federal government is ill-equipped to handle this task. On healthcare, Mr. Romney states that he would allow states to apply for a waiver regarding the new federal healthcare legislation. He believes that each state should have the responsibility to draft its own plan based on the needs of its own citizens. He pledges to repeal the existing federal law. His belief is that the federal government should simply pave the way and level the field for those state plans.
Planet: Governor Romney states that he will make every effort to safeguard the environment, but he will be mindful at every step of also protecting the jobs of American workers. One of the key areas he is interested in is energy policy. Mr. Romney points out several steps he would take to protect the environment while expanding our access to energy. These include: establishing fixed timetables for all resource development approvals; creating a one-stop shop approach to streamline the permitting process for approval of common activities; implementing a fast-track procedure so companies with established safety records can conduct pre-approved activities in pre-approved areas; ensuring that environmental laws properly account for cost in regulatory process; amending the Clean Air Act to exclude carbon dioxide from its purview; expanding NRC capabilities for approval of additional nuclear reactor designs; streamlining NRC processes to ensure that licensing decisions for reactors on or adjacent to approved sites, using approved designs, are complete within two years.
Profit: Mr. Romney is pushing for a fundamental redesign of our tax system. He recognizes that the system needs to be simplified. He also states that we need both to lower rates and to broaden the tax base so that taxation becomes an instrument for promoting economic growth. He goes on the say that we need to find a way to keep the tax structure stable so investors and entrepreneurs are not confronted with a constantly shifting set of rules that makes it impossible for them to plan ahead. It is Governor Romney’s concern that excessive government spending is also harming the economy by creating high levels of uncertainty. Mr. Romney says “as federal funds slosh through the economy, they lift up some enterprises at the expense of others. In an environment where the government is picking winners and investing huge sums in projects of questionable value, private entrepreneurs across the economy cannot have confidence that their own investments will pay off.”
