Mitt Romney Releases Comprehensive Jobs Plan

Whenever Mitt Romney releases a plan, you know that he never goes light on the specifics. Today, the former govenor of Massachusetts has released his 150 page book that gives the American voter a comprehensive outline of his plan to turn our economy around and create jobs. 

The Washington Post has brief outline of his plan: 

They would include five proposed bills that would: lower the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent; implement free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea; expand domestic energy exploration; consolidate worker retraining programs and turn them over to the states; and cut non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent. (Obama also supports those three trade agreements, although he has been accused of dithering to satisfy the demands of organized labor.)

If elected, the former Massachusetts governor said he would also issue five executive orders on Inauguration Day. They would roll back President Obama’s health-care overhaul; eliminate Obama-era regulations; issue new oil-drilling permits; sanction China for currency manipulation; and reverse a number of policies that favor organized labor.

Romney also said he would cut the size of the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition, possibly by hiring only one new government employee for every two who leave.

In addition to proposing 5 bills to Congress and issuing 5 executive orders, Mitt Romney also has 59 concrete steps that he will implement that will spur the economy quickly and create jobs immediately. To see these 59 proposals, you'll have to read Mitt's book which you can also download for free on your Kindle at Amazon.com

No one has ever released a comprehensive plan of any kind in recent primary campaign history. No other candidate has released a sweeping and detailed plan as Mitt Romney. in this election. I think Mitt Romney has started a new trend that should be a permanent part of American campaign elections. Every candidate ought to release a detailed and in depth plan for the economy in every election.

In fact, this is a direct challenge to other candidates because they will have to come up with an equally detailed economic plan if they want to demonstrate to the American people that they are competent enough to be in the White House. 

My challenge for Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, John Hunstsman, Herman Cain and Thaddeus McCotter is this: Where is your detailed and comprehensive plan for the economy? 

If you don't have one, you don't deserve to be elected as President of the United States.

Mitt Romney Gives America A Sneak Peak Into His New Job Plan

Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed for USA Today giving us a sneak preview of his 59 specific proposals to create jobs for America that he will unveil tomorrow. A copy of his plan can also be found on his website. 

Here's what he had to say to the American people:

Barack Obama has had his turn at fixing the American economy. Millions of unemployed Americans can judge by their own experiences what he has done and failed to do.

For my part, I believe America can do better.

I have spent most of my career in the private sector starting new businesses and turning around ailing ones. Unlike career politicians who've never met a payroll, I know why jobs come and go.

Tomorrow, I will introduce a plan consisting of 59 specific proposals — including 10 concrete actions I will take on my first day in office — to turn around America's economy. Each proposal is rooted in the conservative premise that government itself cannot create jobs. At best, government can provide a framework in which economic growth can occur. All too often, however, government gets in the way. The past three years of unparalleled government expansion have retaught that lesson all too well.

Only the individual initiative of entrepreneurs, workers, investors and inventors enables companies, and our economy as a whole, to flourish. We must once again unleash the tremendous economic potential of the American people. The contrast between what the Obama administration has done and what I would do as president could not be starker.

First, President Obama has raised or threatened to raise taxes on both individuals and businesses. I would press hard in the opposite direction. Marginal income tax rates and tax rates on savings and investment must be kept low. Further, taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for middle-income taxpayers should be eliminated. Our corporate tax rate is among the world's highest. It leaves U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage and induces them to park their profits abroad, benefiting the rest of the world at our expense. I will fix these problems with permanent solutions. Ultimately, I will press for a total overhaul of our overly complex and inefficient system of taxation.

With scant regard for the costs imposed on consumers and businesses, President Obama has vastly expanded the regulatory reach of government. The federal government has estimated the price tag for its regulations at $1.75 trillion. I will pare back regulation, including eliminating "ObamaCare." I will direct every government agency to limit annual increases in regulatory costs to zero. The impact of any proposed new regulation must be offset by removing another regulation of equivalent cost. Every one of President Obama's regulations must be scrutinized, and those that unduly burden job creation must be axed.

Where President Obama left America's trade interests untended, I recognize the job-creating potential of international commerce. I will create the "Reagan Economic Zone," a partnership among countries committed to free enterprise and free trade. It will serve as a powerful engine for opening markets to our goods and services, and also a mechanism for confronting nations like China that violate trade rules while free-riding on the international system. I will not stand by while China pursues an economic development policy that relies on the unfair treatment of U.S. companies and the theft of their intellectual property. I have no interest in starting a trade war with China, but I cannot accept our current trade surrender.

The Obama administration has severely restricted domestic energy production. I will ensure we utilize to the fullest extent our nation's nuclear know-how and immense reserves in oil, gas and coal. By rationalizing and streamlining regulation, we will harness these resources everywhere it can be done safely, taking into account local concerns. A huge number of jobs is at stake. So, too, is the price of energy, which strongly influences economic growth. We are an energy-rich country that, thanks to environmental extremism, has chosen to live like an energy-poor country. That has to end.

Seeking to pay back political favors, President Obama has catered to the institutional interests of union bosses at the expense of both workers and businesses. I will fight against measures that deprive workers of basic rights, such as the secret ballot. And I will not tolerate federal intrusions of the kind that the National Labor Relations Board initiated when it filed suit against Boeing for opening a plant in a right-to-work state.

We also need a rational system for worker retraining, instead of the existing 47 separate programs run by nine federal agencies. America can have the world's most competitive workforce, and under my leadership, we will.

Finally, President Obama has engaged in a massive spending binge of choice. He threw dollars at every problem he encountered, running up the national debt and accomplishing worse than nothing in exchange. I will restore fiscal discipline by cutting the federal budget and placing an ironclad cap on spending. I will also press for a Constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Tellingly, while the private sector shed 1.8 million jobs since Barack Obama took office, the federal workforce grew by 142,500, or almost 7%. A rollback is urgently required.

As this catalogue of differences makes clear, our country has arrived at a fork in the road. In one direction lies the heavy hand of the state, indebtedness and decline. In the other direction lies limited government, free enterprise and economic growth. I know which direction is the American way. And I know in which direction lie the millions of jobs we need.

- Mitt Romney

Public Schools Have Gone From Education To Indoctrination

The best asset a nation can have is the quality of its education system. Education is what keeps society moving forward, makes businesses stay competitive, allows new technology to emerge and makes it possible for people to achieve their dreams and goals. 

Education is the engine to America's success. It is what creates hard working scientists, creative musicians, caring doctors, innovative engineers and brave soldiers who keep America safe.  Education is about teaching people what they need to know.  Its also about helping people to think for themselves and how they can analyze, digest and act upon the information that they come across. Most importantly, education should be a neutral zone in which people can learn about a wide variety of ideas, theories, philosophies and beliefs.

Public education used to be one of America's best asset. However, many of these public schools have stopped educating and are now indoctrinating our students. One liberal blogger is starting to see the light on what conservatives have known all along about public education. He now sees that many of these schools are really indoctrination centers for liberal politics. Here's an excerpt from his blog:

For most of my life I was what you might call an apathetic leftie — I didn’t particularly care about politics, but I always voted Democratic and if the conversation came up I would inevitably concur with my friends’ inevitably “progressive” opinions. And that most definitely included education. It was one of the few things I always had a strong opinion about: education was A Good Thing under all circumstances and maximizing everyone’s education level was ultimately the solution to all problems: unemployment, intolerance, ignorance, public health — everything.

In my youthful brain I couldn’t even conceptualize anything other than “public education,” so that’s what I imagined I was in favor of: Making public school, from pre-school up through graduate school, accessible to everyone and of the highest standards. I was like, Duh, how can you have any other opinion?

But then 9/11 happened and like many once brain-dead liberals I awakened to a new reality. I didn’t particularly like this harsh new world, but I could see quite clearly that I had been drifting in a haze before, unaware of what was really going on. Mostly, as with most 9/11 Newborns, my new political awareness at first focused primarily on foreign policy and American Exceptionalism, but little by little, once this end was tugged, the fuzzy yarnball of my former political self unraveled entirely.

(Now it just lies in a jumbled heap on the floor.)

But as I walked around the rally in San Francisco, and later scanned the pictures taken by Ringo at the L.A. rally, I found myself thinking uncharitable thoughts about the protesting teachers: I hope your funding gets cut even more! Your demands are futile because the state is bankrupt anyway and there’s no more money to give; but even if the economy were to eventually recover, I would still want to see funding for public education slashed to a minimum.

Horrors! I was taken aback by my own thoughts. How could I be so cruel? What evil right-wing influence was making me think this way?

Even so, it’s hard to discuss the issue because the general adult public rarely gets a chance to actually perceive in person the kind of indoctrination that goes on daily in our classrooms. And without visual or experiential proof of the detractors’ claims, the indoctrinators always have plausible deniability: You wingnuts are hyperventilating over nothing! The only indoctrination going on is in your fevered dreams.

In fact, the left-leaning teachers’ unions often claim the opposite: that standardized testing forces them to teach rote learning as neutrally as possible, because school funding is now tied to each school’s overall test results.

And that’s what these May 13 rallies were all about: funding. Money money money, give us more money.

And then it hit me why I had such an adverse reaction to the whole thing:

The very act of them asking for money is what made me not want to give them money, because it revealed their political bias.

To read the rest of the article, go HERE. 

I strongly recommend reading the entire article because he discusses how he came to realize that the public education system no longer educates our students but indoctrinates them and what citizens, parents, leaders and politicians can do to destroy the iron grip that teacher's unions have on our public education system. It is also worth reading to see the pictures and videos posted on the blog.

Once you read the blog, you'll never look at public education the same way again. Even if you already believe that there is a liberal bias in public schools, it will open your eyes even wider.

I highly encourage you to share that article with others. The first step to improving our schools starts with educating the public about what our children learn in schools. Once the public becomes educated, then they will be more likely to support policies and programs that actually teaches our kids what they need to know to be successful in life. There are many wonderful alternatives to public education that give our children the kind of education they deserve and that is available to everyone such as school vouchers, private schools, online schools, home schooling and even private tutoring. 

Just as the solution to our energy problems is to diversify our sources of energy by allowing wind, water, nuclear, coal, solar and other energy sources to be produced in America, the solution to our current education crisis is to allow a diversity of avenues to education. It will reduce the monopoly that unions have on our schools, increase competition which will reduce the cost of education which make it affordable to everyone and actually get our kids educated. 

The famous phrase to fight bad speech with good speech. The only way to fight poor education is with good education. And the best way to do that is to educate your friends, family, teachers and political representatives about what's really going on in our public education system.

The Grothman Rule of Protesting

Given that we are supposed to live in the age of civility after the Tuscon shooting and how dangerously close the protesters got to Senator Glenn Grothman which could have jeopardize his life, health and safety; I'd like to propose the "Grothman Rule" for protesting:

1. There shall be a buffer zone of fifteen feet from any protestee (the person who is the target of the protest) entering or leaving an place of worship, medical facilities, abortion clinics, government office, legal institutions, prisons, places for the preparing or burying the dead, or place of employment or place where they conduct business as long as the protestee is within 100 feet of the entrance.

2. Protests shall not be conducted at the protestee's home. That is an absolute, unconditional, unambiguous, mandatory rule. People's homes are absolutely and completely off limits. There are no exceptions. 

3. Protests shall not be carried out at a person's place of worship. There are only two exceptions two this rule. Protests are permitted if (a) the protestee is a religious leader of that religious organization or (b) the issue being protested is relevant to the religious organization.

4. Protesters shall not obstruct a person's access to their place of worship, medical facilities, abortion clinics, government office, legal institutions, prisons, places for the preparing or burying the dead, or place of employment or place where they conduct business.

5. There shall be no tampering, interfering, defacing, or destroying the protestee's property or the property of the place of worship, medical facilities, abortion clinics, government office, legal institutions, prisons, places for the preparing or burying the dead, or place of employment or place where they conduct business. That is an absolute, unconditional, unambiguous, mandatory rule. There are no exceptions.

Please distribute this article far and wide and post it on conservative, liberal, libertarian or any other website. It is ok to protest but it is not ok to put people at risk of life, health, and safety no matter how passionate you are about the issue or what the issue is.