Presidential campaign rhetoric involves promising job creation in light of the recent economic downturn.

This issue pits a view of government that does not restrict anything about businesses against a government that taxes and creates laws to control job growth and spending for many voters.

Business administration distinguished professor Robert Newman debunked this idea.

“The government does not create jobs,” Newman said.

People may believe the government does, and they may vote with that assumption, but it’s not true, Newman said.

Newman said the government pays for job creation with taxpayer money that could be better used to make jobs in the private sector.

Environmental policy has thrust the issue of job creation into the national spotlight.

Doug Daigle, Coastal Restoration and Enhancement through Science and Technology director at the University is concerned the voting public will take catchphrases such as “job-killing regulations” for face value.

In fact, environmental regulations can create jobs in the private sector instead of destroying them, he said.

Daigle cited former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer and former University professor Paul Templet’s environmental policy reform that transformed Louisiana from a state with a 12 percent unemployment rate to one with 6 percent unemployment and much stricter environmental regulations.

This created jobs manufacturing new, more environmentally friendly necessities and attracted businesses to the cleaner Louisiana, Daigle said.

He said this could be applied on a national level.

A study conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported only 0.2 percent of those laid off in 2011 were let go due to “government regulations/intervention.”

“If you’re committed to democracy, you want the facts,” Daigle said.

In the cases of the presidential candidates, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said mandates about the environment would be “anti-growth and anti-jobs.”

President Barack Obama has created national standards for mercury emissions and supported other restrictions on environment-harming businesses and individuals.