The temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts that President Barack Obama and Republican members of Congress agreed to will not translate into large job growth or investment, and Congress should come up with a better deal, says former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Uncertainty “is not a friend of investment, growth and job creation,” Romney contends in an opinion column in
USA Today.
Romney, who sought the presidency in 2008, wrote that “with only a two-year extension, investors know that before their returns are realized, tax rates may be jacked up to the levels favored by President Obama. So while the tax deal will succeed in temporarily putting more money in the hands of consumers, it will fail to deliver its full potential for creating lasting growth.”
Romney also argued that it is time to come up with a different model of unemployment insurance such as “establishing individual unemployment savings accounts over which employees would exercise direct control when they lose their jobs, or putting in place financial incentives for employers to hire and train the long-term unemployed.”
Romney concluded that President Obama has reason to celebrate because deal delivers short-term economic stimulus before the 2012 elections. “But the long term health of our great engine of prosperity will remain very much in doubt,” he wrote. “To the twin inevitabilities of death and taxes, we may now have to add persistent high unemployment.”
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