On the heels of a Washington Post-Bloomberg News poll showing that voters believe Rep. Michele Bachmann would do the most damage to the U.S. economy of any of the presidential candidates, the Minnesota congresswoman on Tuesday unveiled an 11-point blueprint for job creation that she says will “return America to a position of economic prominence in the world."
The plan, which Bachmann titled “American Jobs, Right Now,” pulls together many of Bachmann’s key economic talking points from the campaign trail into one document.
"My solutions are simple.” Bachmann said in a press release. “We need to cut government spending, legalize America's God-given natural resources, and stop taxing investment and productivity.”
Bachmann’s blueprint focuses on wiping out what she calls “job killing regulations” and reducing the size of government through tax and spending cuts. She also promises to repeal two of Obama’s signature legislative achievements: the Affordable Care Act (the health care law that opponents call “Obamacare”) and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (which Bachmann refers to as the “jobs and housing destruction act.”). Bachmann contends that both laws discourage employers from hiring.
Bachmann continues her push for a tax repatriation holiday, allowing American companies with overseas profits that total more than $1.2 trillion the chance to bring that money back to the United States without being taxed the 35 percent rate normally charged on corporate profits. The idea is currently being discussed in Congress as part of a smaller alternative bill if Obama’s jobs bill fails to pass, a near certainty. Recent studies by both left- and right- leaning groups have shown that a similar holiday in 2004-05 had little effect on job growth.
In addition, Bachmann’s plan calls for increasing exports and expanding the nation’s domestic energy production by “reviving the logging, timber, mining and metals industries, and bringing federal lands back into productive activity by repealing radical environmental laws that kill access to natural resources.”
Additionally, Bachmann wants to “unleash American investment” through reforming the tax code and “providing incentive for growth.” And citing the country’s drop in competitiveness worldwide, she calls for a “pathway to innovation,” although here she does not offer specifics as to how she might encourage or promote such innovation. Bachmann’s declaration that she would consider oil and gas exploration in Florida’s Everglades generated strong pushback by lawmakers from both parties.
Finally, tying her economic message to a hot-button topic in the GOP primary, Bachmann connected the need to enforce American immigration laws to the country’s ability to create jobs. “We must ensure U.S. immigration laws are respected and enforced not only to preserve our national security, but to protect federal, state, and local budgets, and to curb the unfair strain on our country's job markets,” her plan states.
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