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IN BUSINESS THE ECONOMY Romney, Obama Both Focusing On Jobs By Karoun Demirjian contributing editor He says he can create jobs. He says he's focused on the middle class. He says he's got a plan to help the economy grow. He's both Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. In this recession-framed election, there's one top-line message that matters on the campaign trail: Jobs, and a plan to create them for the middle class. It's a potent issue, especially in Nevada, where the statewide unemployment rate is a nation-leading 12.9 percent—a factor that played no small role in Romney's decision to come to North Las Vegas last week to unveil his economic plan. Although Democratic and Republican presidential candidates may have settled on a common diagnosis about what's ailing the economy, they have different prescriptions for how to return it to better health—so different, in fact, that the choice could simply come down to whom voters believe. Although Barack Obama's "Believe 2012" campaign has focused on strategic government investments in infrastructure as a way to kick-start the economy, Romney's "Believe in America" campaign tells government to make way for the private sector. "Growth is the answer, not government," he told a small crowd of supporters at McCandless International Trucks of North Las Vegas. Obama and Romney both peg their vision on the experience of a particular slice of the past: The boom years of the 1950s and '60s, when the middle class expanded and America's dominance of the world economy was at its peak. Obama's attempts to replicate the economic growth of that era are inspired by economic initiatives from the time, such as President Dwight Eisenhower's unprecedented investment in the national highway infrastructure. Romney, however, is eschewing the paths of the past, because, he says, they simply won't work in the modern age. "President Obama's strategy is a pay phone strategy, and we're in the smartphone world," Romney said, calling Obama "a nice guy" who "just doesn't have a clue what to do." As a point of campaign rhetoric, it's a bold attempt by a politician who has at times appeared stiffly out-of-step to try to wrest the mantle of freshness and youthful innovation from a president who in 2008 personified it. As a point of contention, it allows Romney to sidestep that taxes then were higher than they are now. 14 NO TAX MAN: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney wants to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent and zero-out taxes on capital gains. A call for lower taxes, both for individuals and corporations, is first and foremost in Romney's economic plan because comparative tax rates matter in a globalized economy, he says. He wants to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent and zero-out taxes on capital gains, dividends and interest rates for the middle class—which, like Obama, he defines as individuals making less than $200,000 a year. Romney defines regulations in terms of tax policy, too. He noted an official government estimate that puts the annual cost of regulations at about 150 percent of all the taxes the government collects. Romney pledges to cap spending— balanced budget amendment style—at 20 percent of the gross domestic product, as part of keeping taxes low. But for Nevada, the plan leaves questions. Romney has said that he thinks the experience that recommends him best for the presidency is his tenure as CEO of venture capital firm Bain Capital. Although Romney sees a job- filled future in new initiatives and entrepreneurship, he's silent on where, aside from the energy sector, those new enterprises might spring up—or how Nevada may be able to partake in recovery that seems to be passing it by. Nevada doesn't have the sort of export market that could easily benefit from free-trade agreements that open other countries to American goods. And it's clear Romney does not share the Democrats' boosterism about green jobs being a ticket out of the recession: He appears ready to pull the plug on programs that could benefit Nevada's fledgling green-jobs sector. Even before Romney delivered his remarks, local Democrats had prepared a response that seemed to press on that. State Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, said Romney "has made a living killing middle-class jobs to increase profits for big corporations and CEOs," and charged that his policies would leave Nevadans as casualties. Neither Romney nor Obama brings a bit of an outsider's solution to the Nevada problem. Neither is a member of the middle class, and neither has ever owned a small business. Local small-business owners who came out to hear and support Romney were mixed, however, about how much they trust he can fix local problems. Joe Wyson, who owns three businesses, says a consultant's point of view is just what the local economy needs. "I paid $65,000 for a consultant to come and set me up, and I made a fortune in the next 10 years," he said of his construction business, which grew to 165 employees at its peak. "They got raises, they got commissions. We went crazy in this town." Darwin Rockantansky, whose consulting business fell apart in HIGHLIGHTS OF ROMNEY'S PLAN: n A call for no taxes on savings or dividends for middle-class Americans, whom he and Obama agree are individuals earning less than $200,000 a year. The corporate tax rate would be cut to 25 percent. n Limiting new government regulations by eliminating an old regulation when a new one is introduced. He did not say where he would scale back government oversight. n His most unusual proposal: creation of a "Reagan Economic Zone," a partnership among countries committed to free enterprise and free trade." The proposal is aimed at China, which he said steals our technology and intellectual property n Loosening restrictions on fossil fuel extraction. "We're an energy rich nation, but we're living like an energy-poor nation," he said. At the same time he attacked renewable energy, calling it in written materials the "unhealthy green-jobs obsession." To the crowd, he said, "Where are all those green jobs?" n Not allowing union dues to be used for any political purposes. n Creating personal re-employment accounts, which would, in effect, privatize all federal job retraining. n A balanced-budget amendment, capping federal spending at 20 percent of GDP. 2009 "because our insurance carrier doubled our rates when 'Obamacare' was announced as a possibility," wasn't convinced that the former governor's got the answers. "He moved up just a smidgen," Rockantansky said of Mitt Romney, whom he voted for in the 2008 Republican presidential caucuses, after he spoke. | 12 SEPTEMBER 2011 | JACQUELYN MARTIN