I was really hoping Jon Huntsman would be a rational Republican candidate, but after reviewing his "Jobs Plan" I can see he is just another tool of the 'privileged' class of wealthy elites to get special breaks and leech even more money out of the economy - out of the hands of working people - and into their coffers.
Here it is, with commentary :
Here it is, with commentary :
DEBTOkay, he wants to be different, but starts off with another republican talking point. I agree that we cannot restore our nation's economic strength by cuts alone - but cuts and more cuts will not make it, we need revenue increases to cover our necessary spending. Huntsman plans to give away even more breaks to the already obscenely wealthy and take it out of our hides.
* Let me start by saying that debt is a cancer that if left untreated will destroy our economy from within. I have been an outspoken supporter of the Ryan Plan, which I believe begins to address the long-term problems that make our current course of spending unsustainable. I also support a balanced budget amendment. Our debt is immoral and it should be unconstitutional as well.
But we cannot restore our nation’s economic strength by cuts alone. We must compete.
TAX REFORMHe had me up until "revenue-neutral" - we can not gut our revenue stream and expect to cover our bills.
* Over the last few decades, our tax code has devolved into a maze of special interest carve-outs, loopholes and temporary provisions that cost taxpayers more than $400 billion a year to comply with.
* Rather than tinker around the edges of a broken system, I’m going to drop a plan on the front steps of the Capitol that says, “We need to clean house.” Get rid of all tax expenditures, all loopholes, all deductions, all subsidies. Use that to lower rates across the board. And do it on a revenue-neutral basis.
Individual Rates
* For individual taxpayers, I propose a version of the plan crafted by the Simpson-Bowles Commission, known as the “zero” plan. We will eliminate all deductions and credits, in favor of three drastically lower rates: 8, 14 and 23 percent.
* We will eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is unfairly penalizing a growing number of families and small businesses.
* We will also eliminate taxes on capital gains and dividends, which will lower the cost of capital and encourage investment in the economy.
WOAH! Zero on capital gains and dividends? So, people who are obscenely wealthy and make their living by simply making more money will not have to contribute ANYTHING to running our country?? Seriously? Hedge Fund Managers and Stock Brokers and Billionaires will be able to make money tax free?? Seriously? Not just no, but HELL NO.
Corporate RatesMore "Pamper the Rich" CRAP. Now, if we eliminate all loopholes and breaks and subsidies, then perhaps we can afford to lower the rate. In reality, our corporations pay one of the LOWEST Actual tax burdens because of all those loopholes. Now Huntsman wants to give them a tax-free ride on all the money they shipped off in order to evade taxes? They are flush with cash - they are NOT reinvesting in anything! We've given them tax breaks, loopholes and all kinds of incentives and the ONLY thing they have done with them is to pay CEOs big bonuses to cut U.S. Jobs.
* The United States cannot compete with the second-highest business tax rate in the developed world. So I propose lowering it from 35 to 25 percent – 1 point lower than the OECD average.
* A tax holiday for repatriation of corporate profits earned overseas should also be implemented immediately, making between $400 billion and $600 billion available to companies to make capital investments.
REGULATORY REFORMOkay, I kind of agree that NLRB shouldn't be blocking a plant. Its not a "right-to-work" state, its a "right to get fired with no warning and for no reason" state, but semantics aside, we need plants and jobs.
* Our creative and entrepreneurial class is being strangled by a complex and convoluted web of misguided and overreaching regulations.
* One of the most indefensible examples is the National Labor Relations Board’s ongoing effort to prevent America’s largest exporter, Boeing, from building a new plant in South Carolina in an effort to block investment in right-to-work states. If elected, I will immediately instruct the NLRB to stop pursuing this politically motivated attack on free enterprise, and if they fail to do so I will replace them.
* An equally chilling regulation we must repeal is Dodd-Frank. Rather than true financial reform, the American people were handed a 1600 page monstrosity that gives unelected bureaucrats unprecedented and unreviewable power over our financial system.
* Another fundamental problem with Dodd-Frank is it perpetuates “too big to fail.” Taxpayers must be protected from more bailouts. Yet we must reconsider whether increased competition between smaller entities is more efficient than a vast new regulatory apparatus that will almost certainly produce more bailouts.
Apparently protecting people from business malfeasance is "bad." I don't think so. They have proven, rather consistently, that they are incapable of doing the right thing without adult supervision. We need regulations to protect the public from predatory corporations.
* We also must repeal Obamacare, a $1 trillion bomb dropped on the taxpayers that only hampers businesses and job creation.
Absolute delusion and lies. We MUST reign in the growth of health care expenses and insurance costs. They are nowhere near in relation with actual costs and only go to profit, profit, profit.
*We must end the EPA’s serious regulatory overreach, exemplified by its current effort to pass a new ozone rule, which would effectively halt new construction. And we must also reform the FDA’s ridiculous approval process that increases development costs and unnecessarily delays new products.
We have to live on the planet and we can not tolerate any business destroying our environment for a quick buck. Future generations must live and work here too. Again, they have proven they will not be responsible on their own, they need supervision and regulation.
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
* To free ourselves from OPEC’s grasp and create American jobs, we must end our heroin-like addiction to foreign oil. Every year America sends more than $300 billion overseas for oil – to unstable and unfriendly regimes.
* We need to expand and open up new sources of domestic energy, thus lowering costs to businesses and improving our global competitiveness.
* We must start by expediting the approval process for safe, environmentally-sound projects – including our oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska and appropriate Federal lands and supporting the Keystone Pipeline Project in cooperation with Canada.
Yes, Yes and Hell No! Oil and Gas are NOT 'new sources' they are the same old, dangerous, much too risky sources. They cause all kinds of problems - poisoning our soil and water for years upon years. We need energy sources that are much less likely to kill us. The Keystone Pipeline is a disaster waiting to happen. Our lives and environment are worth a lot more than a few quick profits for private enterprise that will do nothing to help the majority of U.S. Citizens.
* We must eliminate subsidies and regulations that discourage domestic energy sources and technologies such as natural gas, biofuels and coal-to-liquids.
* Here is just one example. The U.S. has more natural gas than Saudi Arabia has oil. Yet the Obama Administration just issued fuel economy regulations that effectively bar heavy-duty trucks from converting to natural gas.
You can not be innovative while stuck in the past. Oil, Coal and Gas cause more damage to the environment and the health of those working to extract them than they are worth. We need to move AWAY from those types of energy and toward the future.
* Simply said, we can and must begin producing more energy right here at home.
Yes, we do. But not your way, Huntsman.
FREE TRADE
* As a former diplomat, trade official, governor and business executive, I’ve witnessed firsthand the tremendous economic opportunities of free trade.
* 95 percent of the world’s customers live outside our borders, and with the U.S. party to only 17 of more than 300 trade agreements worldwide; opening more markets for American businesses should be a commonsense tool to spark immediate growth.
* For 2.5 years, the President has failed to act on three trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama – I’d make them a top priority.
* Washington must also immediately start discussions with India to end in a bilateral free trade agreement strengthening our relationship with a friend who will prove to be critical to America’s success in the 21st century.
So, to create jobs, Huntsman proposes giving businesses more areas to find cheap labor and ship our jobs out to?? Goes with the standard Republican agenda of seeking to accomplish something by doing the exact opposite.
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