Steve Sink: Obama, Romney lack credible economic plans
Pub Date: Oct 07, 2012
Written by: Steve Sink
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — Hey, there’s a presidential campaign going on here.
Unlike New York, where the outcome on Nov. 6 is a given, Florida is a battleground state — actually it’s the battleground state because of its size — with the latest Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald poll showing a virtual tie between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
As a result, political ads abound on TV, in the newspapers, on websites. After Wednesday night’s debate — both the Times and Herald described Obama’s performance as flat but stopped short of declaring Romney the victor — the president’s campaign launched a TV ad asking, “Why won’t Romney level with us about his tax plan?”
I’m worried about Romney’s tax plan, too. I’m also worried about where’s Obama’s fiscal policies are taking us. We simply can’t afford an increase in federal borrowing that amounts to $55,000 per household over the next four years, as has occurred over the past four, according to Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Romney was right to take the president to task over his failed promise to cut the deficit in half.
But can we believe Romney, either, when it comes to taxes and spending? Obama was right to question’s Romney’s arithmetic. He has said he won’t go for even $1 of tax increases in exchange for $10 of spending cuts, a strident position that puts Tea Party politics above national interest. Romney seems to be putting almost all of his eggs in the basket of economic growth to cut the deficit, though robust growth in the U.S. might still be years away.
Frankly, after listening to the debate, I don’t believe either candidate has a credible plan to balance the budget and reduce the debt.
I’ve written on more than one occasion that Obama let the country down when he failed to embrace the debt- and deficit-cutting recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles commission. But in the height of hypocrisy, Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, had the gall to criticize the president when, as a member of the Simpson-Bowles panel, Ryan voted against the final report.
The thing is, there are plans out there to effectively tackle this critical problem. I encourage you to go to www.taxpayers.org, the website of the nonpartisan budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, and read its report “Sliding Past Sequestration,” which lays out detailed plans for reducing federal spending without taking a meatcleaver approach.
The report is likely to irritate both conservatives and liberals, but that’s the point. Shared sacrifice is needed, whether it’s certain “green” programs favored by Obama or certain defense programs favored by Romney.
Original Publication URL: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20121007/BUSINESS0107/310070006/Steve-Sink-economy
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