Aug 6, 2015
Even with a full two hours, it’s difficult to imagine tonight’s first official Republican presidential debate can produce any in-depth discussion of the most important issues facing the country. It’s inevitable when you have to share time with 10 candidates on stage, three Fox News moderators, and various interactions via Facebook, a debate cosponsor.
How best to maximize the time available? How to effectively inform the public? Our suggestion: Keep a tight focus on one topic above all – the policies required to generate stronger economic growth.
The U.S. economy continues to underperform. Annual GDP growth has not topped 3 percent since 2006, before the financial crisis and Great Recession. Growth in Q2 2015 was just announced at annual rate of 2.3 percent, prompting The Wall Street Journal to editorialize on “The Six-Year Slough,” the weakest recovery in 70 years.
While the economy has been adding jobs at a respectable clip – 223,000 in June – and the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent, millions of Americans have left the job market altogether. There are nearly 0.5 million fewer full-time workers in May 2015 than before the recession in 2007. As Fortune recently summarized, “The number of people in the workforce dropped by 432,000 in June, to just over 157 million. That translates to 62.6% of the overall population, the lowest the labor force participation rate has been since 1977.”
We can do better, and presidential candidates of both parties have an obligation to spell out their plans for promoting growth, high-paying jobs and the private investment that generates both.
So here’s the single question that the debate moderators should pose to each of the 10 candidates in Cleveland tonight (and to the other candidates participating in the earlier debate): What one policy change would you advance that could do the most to reinvigorate the U.S. economy?
There is more than one good answer to that question, and the responses would shed insight into the candidates’ views of their economy and their policy priorities. Business Roundtable this year released, “Achieving America’s Full Potential: More Work, Greater Investment, Unlimited Opportunity,” that stressed six major areas for action:
- Restoring fiscal stability
- Enacting pro-growth tax reform
- Expanding U.S. trade
- Reforming the immigration system
- Investing in physical and digital infrastructure
- Adopting a smarter approach toward federal regulation
In addition, Congress and the Obama Administration should key in on supporting a skilled workforce, creating a more dynamic, consumer-oriented health care system, and adopting a national strategy that takes advantage of North America’s great advantage in energy.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing if all 10 candidates chose to talk about modernizing the antiquated U.S. tax system, which last underwent major reforms in 1986 – before the Internet, technology and globalization reshaped the world economy.
Business Roundtable CEOs consistently cite business tax reform as having the greatest potential for generating more domestic growth. The U.S. corporate tax rate remains the highest among developed economies, even as other countries lower their top rates to become more competitive and attract more investment.
Meanwhile, our system of taxing earnings from U.S. companies operating around the world discourages the return of profits to the United States, where they could be invested or otherwise put to good use.
A recent hearing by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations drove home the point. As Chairman Rob Portman of Ohio observed, “What’s happening is that the current tax system increasingly drives U.S. businesses into the hands of those best able to reduce their tax liabilities, not necessarily those best equipped to create jobs and increase wages here at home. That is, of course, bad for American workers and bad for our long-term competitiveness as a country.”
Of course many subjects are worthy of candidate discussions, including the perils that threaten the United States and U.S. citizens around the world. We’re confident those issues will be addressed by Republicans and Democrats alike through the lengthy debate schedule, primaries and caucuses.
But, with the economy now failing to live up to its full potential, a debate focused on investment, growth and jobs would be the best way to get a sense of how the candidates would lead America.