Repealing ObamaCare, cutting taxes and gutting social programs is not pro-growth

As a business owner I’m enthusiastic about the idea of government policies that promote economic growth. But I’m disappointed to hear the term “pro-growth” used as a label for policies that reduce taxes, restrict social programs, and reject the Affordable Care Act. I’d like to see the country step back from the strong ideological rhetoric we’ve heard lately about the role of government and be open-minded about how to promote growth and prosperity. To me, pro-growth policies include: Ensuring economic mobility for the broadest possible swath of the population Encouraging immigration of hard-working people Making sure that basic needs, e.g., shelter, food, health care are met Investing in education Establishing and maintaining a robust, dependable system of governance Ensuring personal freedom Keeping taxes relatively low and progressive We should be willing to challenge ourselves on these points and to acknowledge when we don’t live up to our ideals. And although we have no need to blindly copy what other countries do, we should be open to benchmarking ourselves and to considering best practices of others. If we’re honest with ourselves we’ll admit a few unpleasant things: There are significant barriers to economic mobility, and those barriers are getting higher Immigrants –especially well educated ones– have been the key to innovation and job growth, and that we are making the US less hospitable to immigrant...
Source: Health Business Blog - Category: Health Managers Authors: Tags: Policy and politics affordable care act economic growth economic mobility government policies social services Source Type: blogs