Believe in America: Mitt Romney's Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth

by Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney will rebuild the foundations of the American economy on the principles of free enterprise, hard work, and innovation. His plan emphasizes critical structural adjustments rather than short-term fixes. It seeks to reduce taxes, spending, regulation, and government programs. It seeks to increase trade, energy production, human capital, and labor flexibility. It relinquishes power to the states instead of claiming to have the solution to every problem.Any American living through this economic crisis will immediately recognize the severity of the break that Mitt Romney proposes from our current course. He is calling for a fundamental change in Washington's view of how economic growth and prosperity are achieved, how jobs are created, and how government can support these endeavors. It is at once a deeply conservative return to policies that have served our nation well and a highly ambitious departure from the policies of our current leadership. In short, it is a plan to get America back to work.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

Mitt Romney is an American businessman and Republican party politician, who served as the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007. He is also the son of George W Romney (former Governor of Michigan) and Lenore Romney.

Romney earned an undergraduate degree at Stanford University and BYU where he was Valedictorian. He then earned a joint MBA/J.D. from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude from law school and in the top 5% of his MBA class. Romney shortly began working for Bain & Company where he rose to become the CEO. He then co-founded Bain Capitol, a private equity investment firm, which became one of the largest such firms in the nation during his time there.

Romney organized and steered the 2002 Winter Olympics as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, and helped turn the troubled games into a financial success.

He was a candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2008 United States presidential election and later the Republican nominee for the 2012 United States presidential election.

Romney has received honorary degrees from the University of Utah (1999), Bentley College (2002), Suffolk University Law School (2004), and Hillsdale College (2007).

In 2008, he shared with his wife Ann the Canterbury Medal from The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, for "refus[ing] to compromise their principles and faith" during the Presidential campaign."

Romney is married to Ann Romney and has five sons, five daughters in law and 15 grandkids.

For further details, see the author's Wikipedia page.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/mittro...

Reviews

[Jerry Landry · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, it's difficult to review an economic proposal in terms of readability. I read this as I'm trying to make myself informed on the economic proposals of all of the major candidates. Little in this plan should come as much of a surprise to readers of Romney's No Apologies. This takes those ideas and expands upon them, adding in figures as well as attacks of the current administration's record. Even if you don't agree with the policies, I think it's important to be as informed as possible about candidate's viewpoints in order to fulfill our duties and responsibilities as citizens.

[Matt Maples · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will admit up front that I was an extremely unlikely supporter for Mitt Romney. That being said I am an avid follower of politics and thought that I had a sort of duty to read the plan that was being proposed by the Romney campaign. I would recommend that everyone read it, you can download the ebook for free. I read it on kindle. I think that the most disappointing and confusing part of this plan is that almost nothing in it was written by Mitt Romney and the words that were from Romney seem to be almost entirely taken from his previous book "No Apologies." That being the case I guess it could be difficult to say that Romney believes these ideas since he didn't write them, but it is labeled as his plan so I'll take them for his words. The book says that growth for the nation comes from "(1) an emphasis on productivity growth, with policies to supper saving and investment, innovation and research, trade, education, and training; (2) a budget framework that does not threaten our fiscal health; (3) tax policy that enhances economic growth; (4) regulation that balances growth with concerns about safety and soundness; and (5) a healthy financial system that meets the needs of savers and borrowers." (Location 77 of 2532) These ideas nearly anyone who advocates with the free market could support, but as I expected they also don't really say anything about Romney's actual policy ideas. I continued on in the book to read, "Indeed, the crisis years of 2008 and 2009 pulled back the curtain on a problem: economic growth had been slowing." (Location 93) I cannot see how one can say that the lesson that we need to learn from 2008 and 2009 is that economic growth needs to continue forward. I would content that bad bank loans played the lead role in that economic disaster. This comment is also similar to several other areas in the text where President Obama is blamed for things that happened in 2008 and 2009. He is even blamed for things that happened in 2007, well before he was in office. The irony is that Romney argues over and over for policies that are very similar to President George W. Bush, but he also states that GDP growth averaged 3.3% in the 50 years before 2002 where it was only 2.6% until 2007. So it seems to me that Romney is inadvertently arguing that the Bush tax cuts (which took place in 2001, 2002, and 2003) actually may have caused the economy to slow. Ironically, Romney also speaks very favorably of the year he was born, 1947, when we had 3.9% unemployment and when he turned 21 in 1968 when the unemployment rate was 3.6%. (Location 142) The irony in this is that both of these dates where toward to the end of long periods of time with Democratic control of the government and especially the Presidency. In all this text seems to continually contradict itself and I am left at the end not really having gained a greater understanding of Romney's economic policy, which is essentially the only topic covered in this plan. I am left confused as to why a job working for the government is not a real productive job (Location 650). I do not understand why President Obama gets blamed for the budget deficit so much when nearly the entire deficit is the result of the 2 Bush wars, Medicare Part D, and the Bush tax cuts. All of these were President Bush programs that are becoming increasingly more expensive. If one is to blame President Obama I would suggest that blame should be on the fact that he signed an extension to the tax cuts and has increased our presence in Afghanistan. That being said, unfortunately there was very little in this book about Foreign Policy, which is a topic that I think is extremely important to the Presidency mostly because the President works largely without Congress in this area. But in the end I just simply did not find this book to be as serious of a proposal as I had hoped. Romney certainly had a few areas that I did agree with him on such as making government agencies not overlap in their work and overall efficiency improvements, but to honest every candidate talks about these things without careful consideration to how difficult these changes are to make, anyone every heard of Gitmo? But if you are interested in the political discourse of this presidential season I would recommend that you take a couple of days and read Romney's plan.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

My mother sent me a link to this. I didn't immediately recognize this wasn't written by Mitt Romney. Rather, this is campaign-speak. Yuck! "A President Romney will do . . . " grew tiresome.

There was one paragraph about Social Security. Yup, Romney is going to save the world and he had nothing to say about the largest entitlement there is. There was more written about Obama's $2 billion to Brazil for oil exploration than there was Social Security. The entire entitlement section was glossed over.

Vapid.

This book was written by Romney's handlers. It sounds just like his campaign . . . no passion, no voice. Controlled. It is the Ivan Drago syndrome all over.

There isn't much to dispute in this. Like all political literature, it is written in a style that sounds oh so plausible, but there is little meat.

On his first day in office, Romney will order all federal agencies to initiate repeal of any regulations issued by the Obama administration that unduly burden the economy or job creation.

Just like jobs created or saved, how does one determine "unduly burden"?

It was just a bunch of words without a whole lot of meaning.

I am impressed, however, that Romney actually released this as an ebook. That is a good strategy. That got me to read it. I will say, however, the charts included were near meaningless. That is solely because I could not read most of them. The Kindle didn't seem to be able to enlarge the text of the graphs. I am getting to the age that my bifocals can't handle minute text. This is probably more of a Kindle thing than a Romney, although perhaps they have the ability when building the file to do something. I am not certain.

Anyhow, if you want to read a rehash of everything the Obama term has done wrong, this is a fairly good place to begin. If you aren't interested in looking backwards, then I would avoid this as much as I will avoid Romney's name on the ballot; he's no reformer.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

With all the Republican debates going on, I checked out this free kindle read of Mitt Romney's plan for if he wins the nomination. It was okay. As with any politician (Democrat or Republican) there were things I agreed with, and things I disagreed with. No one person has every correct answer for every person, family, or situation.

So, since Mitt Romney did sound like a politician, but didn't sound like a total bone-head, I have to wonder why there is so much "anti-Romney" sentiment in the Republican party. In full disclosure, I usually lean to the other side, but my husband is very much Republican, and he can't stand Mitt Romney. And I've heard this from other Republicans I know too. I asked my husband why, and he says that Romney is too much a politician, looks and acts too plastic, and seems like a Ken doll to him. And then my husband is also concerned about him being a Mormon.

But personally, from reading this, the guy doesn't seem that bad. And from all the other negative stories that I keep hearing about many of the other Republican candidates, maybe Mitt Romney isn't that bad. I guess time will tell.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

The words "jobs" as a good thing and "regulation" and "taxes" as bad things are so prominent that they overwhelm the document. Contrary to some of the Primary criticisms of this plan, it is fairly specific, and it offers a fairly obvious contrasting vision to President Obama's. It's a fairly long and at times arduous book to get through.

There are a couple positives, beyond the bruising effect you can get if you are a glutton for punishment. One key one is that you can see just how much Obama has done. It's the knock-on effect of having a campaign based on doing the exact opposite of your opponent. You are forced to illuminate all of the achievements, including many that President Obama doesn't necessarily devote a lot of time to highlighting himself.

Of interest, also, the line "corporations are people" is not just included, but expounded upon. It amounts to something like -- corporations are made up of people, of course they are. And then one of the dozen or so character witnesses, which includes lawmakers and business people, attacks the media for considering the line a gaffe, and absolutely embraces it.

[Chi Pham · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick read for the afternoon, and it's just bleh. Nothing much. I honestly believe that Mitt Romney should provide more substantial evidence as to why we should undergo the policies he prescribes. Romney tells us the readers that Obama makes mistakes, and Romney is going to correct them, but eh ... Romney cannot even explain properly Obama's mistakes. However, one policy did catch my attention: Romney *might* raise visa caps for high-skilled foreign workers. I decided that I am going to understand this policy as "Romney is going to invite wealthy foreigners for citizenship". Or else, I do not think that his Americanism would allow for more mass migration of pure high-skilled workers than before.

Uh oh and Romney seems to be thinking of opening up more American energy reserves for private-sector exploration. Yup, believe in America he says. Let's see what he can do. For some reason, I support neither Obama nor Romney. But it's not like I can vote anyway.

[Douglas Audirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review has nothing to do with Romney's politics. It is about the book and it's structure. I don't consider myself a Romney fan. However, because he has a realistic shot at the GOP nomination and the presidency, I felt it was important to read up on his thoughts. The first section of this free ebook outlines what Romney thinks is wrong with Obama's presidential leadership. The second major section outlines Romney's leadership plan for America. On a side note, I thought it was a clever thing for the Romney campaign to do by putting his plan in ebook format and distributing it for free. It briefly cracked Kindle's Top Ten Free ebook list. The book was easy to read and I enjoyed hearing what he had to say and how he said it. I agreed with some of his thoughts and disagreed with others. But ultimately, I'm glad I read it.

[Steve Gibson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure what I expected, but this book reads like a long list of "coulda told you that wouldn't work" statements from Mr. Romney. Of the 59 proposals listed, not a single proposal that addresses any education, hunger, the poor, or how we should act in a global setting.

In the end, this isn't a book about America - or at least Americans -- its about turning America into a capitalistic Disneyland, where business gets a chance to run even more roughshod over consumers and workers and the little people all sit outside the Park hoping just for a chance to work inside the park sweeping up after Mr. Romney and his buddies...

Yikes!

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Romney's ghost writer does not convey the message in the most appealing and infatuating manner. There is clarity and succinctness, yet I was left wanting a few more details on some proposals. The policies seem to be a reversion to many Bush-era practices and do not necessarily have robust empirical evidence to support them.

Overall, I recommend it to political junkies and wonks because it provides valuable information on a major party candidate and forces one to consider another's opinions. That said, it can be a dry read, one written at an elementary level.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gets three stars only because the writing was actually decent. With that said, the policies in here are nothing new. It's essentially a massive head-nod to the center-right part of the conservative movement (the part that's going to fund his election campaign). I was hoping he would have some original ideas and that was sorely missing from this. If I was evaluating this book purely on the content it would have gotten 1 star because there is absolutely nothing new here.

[Jim Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was clear, easy to read and understand.

It provided concise, targeted bullet points of the policies that Romney would implement if elected as president.

The best part was that it was released for free so that anyone can read and understand his platform.

Even if you disagree with him, this is exactly the sort of thing every presidential candidate should have released to help inform the voters.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward and comprehensive, what more can one ask from a candidate who simply wants the country to be informed about his stance on different issues and subjects? I wished to be more informed and I liked what I read. And I got it--for free. Thanks, Mitt.

[Suzanne]

Got it free on Kindle! Need to start brushing up for 2012.....

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this to get a better understanding of the candidate. Not helpful.

[David McClendon, Sr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides some insight into what Romney believes and says he will do as President.

It would be very good if he would actually do what he says he will do.

[Kurt Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh politics....read it with hope that maybe there would be some insight...but just as bland as the last plan by every presidential candidate.

[Ryan]

I am reading this book because I want to learn more about the plans Mitt Romney has for our country in this time of desperate need.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't as difficult to read as I thought and does give an insight to what Mitt Romney plans are and compares his to what Obama has done.

[Fenixbird SandS]

**Added to "My Secret Santa wishlist"...