Readers respond: Put spending power in middle-class pockets

Ed Knox //October 9, 2012//

Readers respond: Put spending power in middle-class pockets

Ed Knox //October 9, 2012//

The simple truth is that businesses always thrive when middle class people have money to spend. 

If the question is which regime would be better for business, the answer is:  The one which will stimulate business through economic stimulation. 

I know that sounds too simplistic.  But here’s a point:  The Cash for Clunkers program created an environment in which 750,000 new automobiles were sold in the United States in a matter of around 50 days.  That was a definite shot in the arm for our domestic economics.  However, think what could have been accomplished if there had been a simple requirement that every new automobile sold under the Cash for Clunkers program had to have been — at the very least — assembled in the United States. 

Now we’re talkin’ economic stimulation! (Some reports found that 80 percent of those 750,000 new autos were not domestically assembled).

Gov. Mitt Romney’s platform did not then – nor will it ever – favor an economic stimulus that comes from middle class people. Conversely, President Barack Obama’s platform has favored – and continues to favor – putting spending power into the pockets of the middle class.  Economically, the majority of the country is better off today than four years ago, and there is an upward slope of economic opportunity for the middle class that hasn’t been matched since President Bill Clinton’s administration.

Obama is simply the better choice for business.