Readers respond: I’m voting for the pie-enlarger

Greg Stetson //October 16, 2012//

Readers respond: I’m voting for the pie-enlarger

Greg Stetson //October 16, 2012//

(Editor’s note: This is one of an occasional series of columns from readers about their perspective on which candidate, President Barack Obama or Gov. Mitt Romney, would be better for business.)

Should President Barack Obama be cut some slack regarding our economic malaise because he inherited the problem he campaigned against?  In 2009, we threw $1 trillion to stem an admittedly serious problem as the housing bubble, put on steroids by President Bill Clinton and continued by President George Bush, exploded.  Now consider the two years afterward.

Team Obama trumpets job growth after the recession ended in 2009, but it’s roughly matched eligible workforce growth.  Job shedding stopped, but we’ve flatlined:  23 million Americans are out of work or underemployed.  Unemployment stats improve only when frustrated people abandon their job search.

Widely viewed manufacturing indices reflect contraction of that sector, with its good-paying jobs. Sidelined investment money awaits leadership and some degree of economic certainty. Glimmers of housing sector improvement are too feeble to declare victory.

The latest Obama spin is that he’s responsible for just 10 percent of our exploding debt.  His own budget, for which no Democrat would vote, projects a decade of trillion-dollar deficits. The out-of-control spending problem buck stops at the President’s desk.  Adequate tax revenue would increase with a growing economy.

We’ve seen zero leadership on impending Social Security and Medicare bankruptcies, compounded by the greater financial Ponzi scheme of the Obamacare medical disaster.

Tax reform ideas for world competitiveness are dead-on-arrival at this White House, where tax reform means pure class warfare absent economic benefit.

International trade agreements from this Administration were inherited from the Bush Administration, without a thank you.

If administration policies are so consistently anti-business while they try desperately for re-election, think what a lame duck term could hold.  See clues in what’s already set to ensnarl business after the election from the EPA, NLRB, Obamacare and Dodd-Frankenstein.

Economic headlines over recent months, excluding major media Obama cheerleaders, scream 20-to-1 that Obama is over his head and needs to go.

Recovery summer?  We’ve already had three and our trajectory looks more like that of Greece than one to improve our children’s world.

An enormously successful Mitt Romney in far more demanding positions than the incumbent occupied previously is smart, dedicated, honest and humble to a fault.  See the love exhibited by his family. Look at what he’s done, especially working with people away from the spotlight. 

Inheritance from his wealthy parents was all donated to charity, plus much more money and time.  His leadership after co-founding Bain Capital scored phenomenal success despite the risky businesses needing private equity funding.  Turning the Utah Olympics from scandal to profit was a huge accomplishment.  As governor of Massachusetts, he demonstrated reaching across the aisle to better his state instead of throwing partisan salt on wounds.  This is a good man who deserves our votes.

Want a pie-slicer programmed to redistribute a pie shrinking by punishing success and government overreach, or a pie-enlarger expanding opportunities for everyone?  Rational business people know the answer: enlarge the pie, and vote Romney.