Marco Rubio, the fresh young face of GOP right-wingery, has a new 12-point plan to grow the economy. It's virtually identical to the agenda of the George W. Bush administration. Every idea is to either pursue Bush's agenda or to return things to where they were when Bush held office.
In keeping with the theme, 8 of Rubio's points are either cutting taxes or halting tax increases:
Marco’s 12 Simple Ways To Grow Our Economy:
- IDEA #1: Permanently Extend The 2001 And 2003 Tax Cuts: Allowing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to sunset would be the largest tax increase in American history, and would fundamentally harm small businesses, which are the job creators in our economy. If we do not make these tax cuts permanent, the child tax credit will fall, the marriage penalty will be re-imposed, working families and small businesses will see their income tax rates jump, capital gains and dividends will increase, and the death tax will return to a prohibitive 55 percent.
- IDEA #2: Cut Taxes On American Businesses. More than any other tax, the corporate tax hurts economic growth and reduces living standards. Unfortunately, the United States has the second highest corporate tax rate of any advanced industrial economy. By cutting this tax, we can spur job creation in America and build a more competitive economic environment to attract businesses from across the world.
- IDEA #3: Permanently End The Death Tax. The death tax, which is set to rise from zero to 55% in 2011, will discourage saving and investment while undermining job creation and income growth, when we need them most.
- IDEA #4: Ending Double Taxation. Washington shouldn’t be able to tax the same income two or three times. That means no more job-destroying double taxation of capital gains, dividends or death.
- IDEA #5: Reform the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). If nothing is done to fix the AMT, taxes will spike dramatically for over 28 million families. Relying on yearly congressional action to keep the AMT current with inflation is risky and sends a message of uncertainty to millions of American families. The AMT is an onerous tax that we should repeal when possible but at the very least, we should immediately index it to inflation.
- IDEA #6: Fundamentally Reform The U.S. Tax Code. The current tax code hinders economic growth. Too many years of special interest lobbying and class warfare politics have cemented it as anti-family, anti-jobs and anti-competitive. The U.S. should have a tax system that is simpler, fairer and promotes economic growth. We should start moving toward being able to pay our taxes with a single rate on paper the size of a postcard.
- IDEA #7: Stop The Value-Added Tax. Democrats know they cannot fund their spending ambitions without a giant new tax. Some have sought to impose a valued-added tax in addition to the income and payroll taxes already in place. This would subject American taxpayers to European levels of taxation, depriving workers of a substantial portion of their take-home pay and further burdening the economy. For the U.S. to retain its vibrant and dynamic economy, we must block efforts to dramatically increase the government’s share of the economic pie.
- IDEA #8: Repeal And Replace ObamaCare. We must repeal ObamaCare and replace it with common-sense reforms that will actually lower health care expenses for American families and businesses like allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, encouraging the use of electronic medical records and requiring transparency in health care costs.
- IDEA #9: Prevent A National Energy Tax. The cap-and trade plan proposed by Democrats in Washington will substantially raise energy costs and result in countless lost jobs.
- IDEA #10: Oppose Efforts To Strip Away Workers’ Right To A Secret Ballot. By eliminating secret-ballot union elections, the deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or “card check,” would fundamentally violate the freedom of workers and result in lost jobs.
- IDEA #11: Halt Regulations That Are Hurting Job Creation. Too often, government regulation does not provide effective oversight and only hurts job creation in America. We should streamline regulations to help foster economic growth while providing proper oversight. We need to rein in out-of-control federal agencies, stop any effort by the Environmental Protection Agency to back door a cap-and-trade system and remove regulatory barriers to the flow of credit from community bankers to small businesses.
- IDEA #12: Promote Economic Growth And Job Creation Through Trade. We must continue reducing barriers to free and fair trade. We should adopt the free trade agreements that have already been negotiated with Colombia, Panama, South Korea and other nations around the world. We should also insist that other countries reduce their own barriers to trade so that American goods can find new markets.
I'd further note that most of Rubio's points involve either increasing the deficit or preventing measures to decrease it, and zero of them involve reducing the deficit.