Jobs and Business Policy

Donald Trump

Trump's Jobs and Business Policy (section page):

• “I have created tens of thousands of jobs" (RD3)

• "I'll bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places. I'll bring back our jobs, and I'll bring back our money." (The International Economy)

• Claimed that the real unemployment rate is 42%(DTI)

• Tariffs on Mexico and China
  • 35% tax on Ford cars made in Mexico and sold in the US (DTS)
    • WSJ states this tax would violate NAFTA treaty. [1]
• Tax Chinese goods by 45% (DTI)

• Increase Infrastructure Spending
  • "The only one to fix the infrastructure of our country is me - roads, airports, bridges. I know how to build, pols only know how to talk!" (DTT)

Rand Paul

Paul's Jobs and Business Policy (section page):

Jobs

Help the unemployed through lowered taxes:

"Well, you know, there are competing influences in the Republican Party. We've lost two presidential elections in a row. So some people say we need to dilute our message, we need to become Democrat-lite. And then there are some like myself who say, No, no, we need to be more bold with our message. We need to be the party that's not for revenue-neutral tax reform, we need to be the party that actually wants to lower taxes to stimulate the economy and be proud of that, and that it will help poor people, it'll help the unemployed if we lower taxes dramatically. And I think that's being more bold, and I think that actually will bring more people to our cause." (OTI - J)

Unemployment benefits are okay in short-term if paid-for; long-term unemployments/extensions to unemployment benefits do workers a disservice

"I do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks that they're paid for. If you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers. There was a study that came out a few months ago, and it said, if you have a worker that's been unemployed for 4 weeks and on unemployment insurance and one that's on 99 weeks, which would you hire? Every employer, nearly 100%, said they will always hire the person who's been out of work 4 weeks. When you allow people to be on unemployment insurance for 99 weeks, you're causing them to become part of this perpetual unemployed group in our economy. And while it seems good, it actually does a disservice to the people you're trying to help. You know, I don't doubt the president's motives. But black unemployment in America is double white unemployment. And it hasn't budged under this president." (OTI - J)

Introduced the National Right-to-Work Act, S.204, subtitled "A bill to preserve and protect the free choice of individual employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, or to refrain from such activities."

"Every American worker deserves the right to freedom of association--and I am concerned that the 26 states that allow forced union membership and dues infringes on these workers' rights."

• Right-to-work laws are essentially government intervention into what used to be private matters between employers and employees, but they lift the most onerous parts of labor union agreements which demand either the complete exclusion of non-union workers from being employed by a union shop or requiring any non-union workers to support the union with their dues anyway. (OTI - J)

Business

Combatting Regulation

"Counteracting excessively burdensome government regulations has become a centerpiece of my tenure in Washington. All my actions seek to find a balance between environmental, safety and health protection, without compromising the ability of family businesses to flourish." (RPW - TR)

"As President, I will cut regulations and take power away from unelected bureaucrats who are trampling our freedom and rights. I will place common sense and reasonable limitations on a bureaucracy that seeks to target well-intentioned businesses with burdensome regulations." (RPW - TR)

Lowering Tax Rates

"Most important, a smart tax system must turbocharge the economy and pull America out of the slow-growth rut of the past decade. We are already at least $2 trillion behind where we should be with a normal recovery; the growth gap widens every month. Even Mr. Obama’s economic advisers tell him that the U.S. corporate tax code, which has the highest rates in the world (35%), is an economic drag. When an iconic American company like Burger King wants to renounce its citizenship for Canada because that country’s tax rates are so much lower, there’s a fundamental problem." (RPW - TR)

"The plan is an economic steroid injection. Because the Fair and Flat Tax rewards work, saving, investment and small business creation, the Tax Foundation estimates that in 10 years it will increase gross domestic product by about 10%, and create at least 1.4 million new jobs." (RPW - TR)

Bernie Sanders

Bernie's Jobs and Business Policy (section page)

Business

• Increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by 2020. (BSWII)
• Favors the Employee Free Choice Act, a reform that would protect workers' rights to unionize and make it harder for management to threaten unionizing workers. (BSWLW)
• Clean Energy workforce would create 10 million jobs. (BSWCC)
• Claims that the separation of health insurance and employment allows entrepreneurs and businesses to move forward without health insurance being an issue and at lower costs. (BSWHC)
• Provide more loans for small businesses to grow (FTBBE)
• Proposes patent system reform that would ensure less stifling of innovation across industries (FTBBE)
• Visa reform to allow highly-skilled foreign workers to stay and work in the United States (FTBBE)
• "And in my view what we need to do is create millions of jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure; raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour; pay equity for women workers; and our disastrous trade policies, which have cost us millions of jobs." (DD1)

Wall Street

• Too big to fail, Too big to Exist Act which would break up big banks and prohibit organizations that are too large from accessing using uninsured deposits for risky activities (BSWWS)
• Supports reinstating legislation similar to the Glass-Steagall Act. (BI)
• Tax on Wall Street Speculation that would fund tuition-free college. (BI)
• Wants to end subsidies to big business and end offshore tax havens (FTBCR)
• End subsidies to large corporations and make sure they pay the full corporate tax (FTBCR)
• "Check the record. In the 1990s — and all due respect — in the 1990s, when I had the Republican leadership and Wall Street spending billions of dollars in lobbying, when the Clinton administration, when Alan Greenspan said, "what a great idea it would be to allow these huge banks to merge," Bernie Sanders fought them, and helped lead the opposition to deregulation." (DD1)

Ted Cruz

Cruz's Jobs and Business Policy (section page)

Reform and Regulation

• "When it comes to jobs and growth and opportunity, the two most effective levers that the federal government has to facilitate small businesses creating new jobs, are tax reform and regulatory reform." (WERR)
• Cruz is a co-sponsor and heavy supporter of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act (ACOM)
• Advocates for the elimination of the IRS, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Housing and Urban Developmen (TCWRW)
• Plans to reinstate the Grace Commission of the Reagan Era which will in (TCWRW)
• Opposes raising the minimum wage (WPSB)

Internet Regulation and Entrepreneurial Freedom

• "The Internet is the great equalizer when it comes to jobs and opportunity." (WPOPED)
• "We must promote growth in the technological sector, a consistent bright spot for the U.S. economy. But we won’t realize more of that dynamic growth unless we keep the Internet free from the kind of unnecessary regulation that is strangling our health-care, energy and banking industries... one of the biggest regulatory threats to the Internet is “net neutrality.” In short, net neutrality is Obamacare for the Internet." (WPOPED)
• Opposes net neutrality on the basis it stifles innovation (WPOPED)

Government Jobs

• Freeze on new hires in the federal executive branch, including no new job creation, no automatic position filling, no hiring of contractors (TCWJ)
  • Fill necessary vacant positions would be at a max ratio of one new hire for every three that leave (TCWJ)
  • Reduce the size of the federal government (TCWJ)
• Eliminate at least 25 Agencies, Bureaus, Commissions, and other programs (TCWJ)

Ben Carson

Carson's Jobs and Business Policy (section page)

• "We last year there was an additional 81,000 pages of government regulations. If you stack that up it would be a three-story building" (RD7)

"Small businesses provide the entrepreneurial spirit that can make our economy thrive."

• Believes the current regulatory climate has harmed the ability of small businesses to grow and create jobs. (BCWSB)

Proposes abolishing Affordable Care Act to reduce burden on small businesses

• "Small businesses cannot expand beyond 50 employees without facing significant economic consequences from Obamacare. [Carson believes] removing such burdensome regulations would boost small businesses and help jumpstart the economy." (BCWSB)

Increase entrepreneurship and job growth through flat tax rate

• [In response to question on Carson's preference of a flat to a progressive tax rate] "What we have to think about is, 'How do we fix the economy so that it encourages entrepreneurial risk taking and capital investment? How do we create a ladder that allows those people in the lower income brackets to move up that ladder?' That's what we need to be concentrating on. Not how do we make them comfortable in that situation. That's not what America was all about. And we can do that." (BCEWJ)
• "In recent years, our economy has stagnated. I believe restoring free market policies, implementing a simpler, flat tax system, reducing the regulatory burden on businesses and reducing government debt will rapidly increase economic growth and jobs, allowing more people to achieve the American dream." (BCEWJ)

Carly Fiorina

Fiorina's Jobs and Business Policy (section page)

Fiorina's background at HP

• "I was recruited to HP to save a company. It was a company that had grown into a bloated bureaucracy that cost too much and delivered too little to customers and shareholders. As an outsider, I tackled HP's entrenched problems head-on, I cut the bureaucracy down to size, reintroduced accountability, focused on service, on innovation, on leading in every market and every product segment. It was a difficult time. However, we saved 80,000 jobs. We went on to grow to 160,000 jobs. I had to make tough calls in tough times. I think people are looking for that in Washington." (RD3)

Fiorina's two fundamental problems with the American economy

1. "We have tangled people up in a web of dependence from which they can't escape" (FOX)
2. "We're crushing small businesses now" (FOX)

Her solution:

• "if we want the middle class growing again, we've got to get small and family-owned businesses going and growing again." (Fox)
• Fiorina "recognizes the importance of increasing access to capital so that small businesses have the resources they need to succeed, reducing the cost of doing business so that home-grown entrepreneurs have the opportunity to thrive, and eliminating barriers to job creation to put Americans back to work." (CFCW)