ELECTION: 1 for president
October 28, 2012 at 3:00 am
The president elected on Nov. 6 should spend his term steering the nation away from fiscal catastrophe. That will take economic growth, reform of entitlements, curtailed federal spending — and bipartisan cooperation. Mitt Romney’s path in life could not have been better charted to lead him to this mission at this moment. Voters should send him to the White House to perform the biggest turnaround of his career.
Romney understands that the country’s most pressing issue is a stalled economy weighed down by huge annual deficits and accumulated debt, a mess that Barack Obama not only failed to clean up, but compounded.
The resulting predicament is stark. Americans are struggling as the percentage of adults in the workforce approaches record lows. The past four years have been the worst for employment since the Great Depression.
Meanwhile, annual deficits for every year of the Obama presidency will top $1 trillion, inflating the federal debt to more than $16 trillion. Just to service this debt — much less pay it off — the government will spend about $1 trillion a year by 2020.
Entitlement spending also drives the impending financial disaster. The Congressional Budget Office says that by 2049, entitlements will devour every dollar of tax revenue the economy generates. Obama has shunned all efforts to reform these programs, and has offered no plan to do so in a second term.
Strong economic growth would ease some of the burden of debt and entitlements. But under Obama’s stewardship, the economy has stagnated. According to public comments from an array of business owners and CEOs, Obama’s tax and regulatory policies, his costly health-care legislation, and his general hostility to business have deterred hiring and stalled the economy. But the second-term agenda the president published last week vows more of the same.
The nation’s prospects would improve markedly with Mitt Romney as president.
Romney’s fundamental priority is to get the economy growing and creating jobs again. And his record shows a proclivity for the job: The former head of Bain Capital, a venture capital company that helped build such companies as Staples and Sports Authority, understands how to help small business thrive, lifting the broader economy — an understanding that is lamentably missing in the White House today.
And a President Romney’s position on debt, deficits and entitlements would offer a welcome shift from that of the current chief executive. Romney made that clear with the selection of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. as his running mate. Ryan has built his career seeking solutions to the entitlement crisis.
Indeed, Romney places problem-solving above petty partisanship — another mark of a strong executive. He took office as governor of Massachusetts in 2002 facing a projected $3 billion budget deficit. He balanced the budget and left a surplus — and he did it in cooperation with a heavily Democratic legislature, and without raising taxes.
In 1999, Romney took over the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, at the time $400 million short of money and mired in a bribery scandal. Romney cleaned up the ethics morass, boosted fundraising, and guided the Olympics to success.
Obama, in 2008, promised his own rescue operation. He pledged to unite Blue and Red America. He vowed to fix the sputtering economy and cut the deficit in half. He promised hope and change.
Today, the president’s argument for re-election centers not on his record but on a bitter push to discredit his opponent. There is a reason for that. The Obama economic policies have stymied growth rather than encouraged it. His trillion-dollar stimulus program was a bust, leaving little but debt in its wake. His health-care initiative split the nation like no legislation in history. And he has governed not as a uniter, but with contempt for those with different views. At no time was this more obvious than in his condescending remarks at the final debate last week. America needs a president who will reach across the aisle to shake hands — not to inflict a slap.
Obama’s advocates say the problems he inherited were more severe than anyone could handle in four years. But the president himself, referring to the economy in 2009, said: “If I don’t have this done in three years, there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”
It has been nearly four, and it’s not done. The United States still needs a turnaround. Mitt Romney is qualified for the job, and has offered to do it. Voters should give him the chance, and not settle for more debt, decline and malaise.
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