This presidential election, the most central issue is the economy. And when voters go to cast their ballots in November, they’re going to vote for the candidate who, in their opinion, will be the best at creating jobs and stimulating economic growth. Mitt Romney is not that candidate. Last week during Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., the Republican presidential nominee verified his insanity by lying to the American people. “I am running for president to help create a better future – a future where everyone who wants a job can find one,” he declared, “and unlike the president, I have a plan to create 12 million jobs.” No president in history has been able to grow our economy by 12 million jobs in one term.  We all knew he was out of touch with reality, but if Romney really subscribes to this economic fantasy, I’ll take two of what he’s having. For one, Romney did not say how he would accomplish this fantasy of a goal in one term other than offering some vague right-wing platitudes and a dose of fraudulent arithmetic. Far be it for a humble college student like me to take issue with the great CEO of Bain Capital, but I have a hard time believing Romney can achieve such robust labor market growth, especially with the impossibly vague five-point plan he laid out in his acceptance speech. First, Romney says, he wants to make America energy-independent by 2020. The United States is already on a major upswing as an energy producer. Our natural gas production is at an all-time high and our domestic oil production is at a 14-year high. Boosting production further could undoubtedly mean hundreds of thousands of jobs for the U.S., but it’s nowhere near his goal of 12 million. Second, Romney proposed to improve our education system and expand school choice. He would essentially seek to overhaul our nation’s schools into a privatized, voucher-like system. Disregarding whether this would move our schools in a positive direction, education reform won’t pay off in a large number of better-trained workers anytime soon. Next, Romney said he will forge new trade agreements and that harsh consequences would be rendered when nations cheat in trade. This is where Romney really shows his economic ignorance – and even conservatives will agree. As Phillip Levy, a senior economist for trade at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote, “Trade agreements have no impact on overall employment. Trade substitutes better jobs for worse jobs, but leaves the job total unchanged.” Following trade, Romney asserts he will cut the deficit and put America on track for a balanced budget.   The Romney/Ryan ticket plans on doing this by dismantling Medicare, privatizing Social Security and savagely cutting spending to safety net programs that primarily benefit poor people, children and the elderly. A policy of austerity while our economy remains depressed will only further hamper growth and is nonsense if Romney is serious about trying to add any jobs to our economy. Romney’s fifth and final point is to champion small businesses by massively cutting taxes for the wealthy and rolling back regulations. Tax cuts are good ways to incentivize business investment and growth. However, economists have established that there are many other factors that contribute to economic growth, from productivity of the workforce to investments in public infrastructure. Tax levels matter, but they’re certainly not the only – nor the most important – instrument for creating jobs and growing the economy. But Romney has taken this small portion of economic policy and centered his entire agenda on it. Romney is willing to cut spending on education and kick millions of young children off of supplemental nutrition programs in order to reduce tax expenditures. Romney’s economic agenda is more of a radical vision for our society than a viable plan for job creation. Come November, ask yourself: Which candidate is going to leave me better off in four years than I am today? The answer is not Mitt.
Jay Meyers is a 19-year-old economics sophomore from Shreveport.
____ Contact Jay Meyers at [email protected]