While President Obama is in Cannes, France at the G-20 Summit, the hovering Greek cloud is unmistakable. Obama says U.S. influence hasn’t diminished but the evidence suggests otherwise. Obama is no longer center-stage; he’s been sharing the limelight with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. World leaders know America is broke.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney knows the Greek cloud is headed our way, but not if he can help it. Ahead of his major fiscal policy speech today in New Hampshire, he’s written an op-ed on how he’ll tackle America’s spending and debt:
Romney: How I’ll tackle spending, debt
By Mitt Romney
November 3, 2011
I spent much of my 25-year career in the private sector turning around failing enterprises. With a great team behind me, I helped to turn around the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, and fix a badly broken state budget in Massachusetts. But I have never seen an enterprise as large, as poorly led, and as badly in need of a turnaround as our federal government.
President Obama inherited a severely imbalanced budget, and he made it much worse. Many now question whether we can ever return to fiscal sanity, let alone fiscal strength. A point of no return may well be approaching — a decade of huge deficits could drive our principal payments and interest rates beyond our reach while starving the economy of the capital it needs to grow.
We can still correct course because our economy retains tremendous capacity for growth. As president, I will bring to Washington the turnaround philosophy it so badly needs.
Any turnaround must begin with clear and realistic goals. By the end of my first term, I will bring federal spending as a share of GDP down from last year’s staggering 24.3% to 20% or below. This level is in line with the historical average and nears the tax revenue our economy generates when healthy. With economic growth of 4% a year, meeting this goal will require approximately $500 billion of spending cuts in 2016, and that would still allow us to undo the Obama administration’s irresponsible defense cuts.
There are three ways to reduce spending, which combined, will achieve a fiscal turnaround of this size.
First, eliminate every government program that is not absolutely essential. There are many things government does that we may like but that we do not need. The test should be this: “Is this program so critical that it is worth borrowing money to pay for it?” The federal government should stop doing things we don’t need or can’t afford. For example:
•Repeal ObamaCare, which would save $95 billion in 2016.
•Eliminate subsidies for the unprofitable Amtrak, saving $1.6 billion a year.
•Enact deep reductions in the subsidies for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Legal Services Corporation.
•Eliminate Title X family planning programs benefiting abortion groups like Planned Parenthood.
•End foreign aid to countries that oppose America’s interests.
Second, return federal programs to the states where innovation, cost management and reduction of fraud and abuse can far exceed what Washington achieves. I will block grant Medicaid and workforce training, saving well over $100 billion in 2016.
Third, sharply improve the productivity and efficiency of the federal government itself. Where we do want the federal government to act, it must do a better job. For instance:
•Reduce the federal workforce through attrition and align compensation with the private sector, saving over $40 billion by 2016.
•Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act, a union giveaway that artificially raises costs for government projects, and save taxpayers more than $10 billion a year in the process.
•Attack rampant fraud in government programs by enacting far stiffer penalties for those who steal from taxpayers. Cutting improper payments in half could save more than $60 billion a year.
•Consolidate, eliminate and streamline federal departments, agencies and offices following a stem-to-stern review.
(emphasis added ) Continue reading here.
► Jayde Wyatt
~NOTE from Rebel Ross
I bet Mike Pence is going to especially like the part of Mitt’s plan that says “Eliminate Title X family planning programs benefiting abortion groups like Planned Parenthood.” because he’s been leading that charge for quite awhile now. We’ve been fighting alongside with him for a long time, and it sure would be nice to pick up his endorsement.
This is a great article Mitt.
We are all going to have to sacrifice in order to balance the budget.
It is the only way to save America.
Sounds great to me. Real definable objectives. He is the man who can do this.