By Dale McFeatters
The just-concluded Republican convention was to focus relentlessly on jobs and the economy, specifically how Mitt Romney and the GOP would tackle those problems.
But the focus was largely on President Barack Obama and his perceived failings in helping the 23 million people who are either out of work or want better jobs and can't find them.
The Republicans propose, without going into any great detail, a combination of deregulation and tax cuts. As outlined in the party platform, the program is inherently contradictory. For example, the platform calls for significant reductions in government and its revenues but then calls for major and costly public investment in “infrastructure: roads, bridges, airports, ports and water systems, among others.”
A fine idea. But it takes money that the Republican economic program is incapable of raising.
In his acceptance speech, presidential nominee Mitt Romney pledged to create 12 million new jobs over the next four years, not a particularly high bar since that's how many jobs some analysts say the economy would create in a normal four-year period.
The economy is in fact finally improving, perhaps not fast enough to help Obama, but maybe enough of a recovery to enable a President Romney to fulfill his pledge without lifting a finger.
Nonetheless, he presented a five-point plan to achieve what may get achieved whether or he's in office.
First, by 2020 he promised to make North American energy independent, even though in most respects North America is already energy independent. The U.S. actually exported oil last year. He would take full advantage of our oil, gas, coal, nuclear and “renewables.”
Romney acts as if nobody had thought of this before, but each of those sources of energy present special environmental and regulatory issues that can't be ignored, not unless we want more flaming BP rigs, dead coal miners and runaway reactors.
Next, he promised to retool the education system to give citizens “the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow." That, too, is a fine idea and one that has eluded successive administrations. Romney's solution is school choice.
Third, he would aggressively pursue new free-trade agreements ― good idea but Congress has its own ideas. And when nations cheat in trade there would be “unmistakable consequences.” And those consequences would be what? Trade wars?
So the United States doesn't become Greece, a possibility that no sane, sensible person has raised, Romney would cut the deficit and balance the budget. His vice-presidential candidate has a plan that would take a meat axe to the deficit but ultimately would still not balance the budget.
Finally, he would champion small business. And how would he do that? By repealing and replacing Obamacare. This is an appealing slogan to the GOP faithful but actually doing so is both complicated and expensive, and such plans as have been presented to do so have proved wildly unpopular with the public.
If he's elected, Romney, like presidents before him, will find that his grand plans may not survive contact with Washington, a city where he has no experience.
Dale McFeatters is an editorial writer for Scripps Howard News Service.
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