BEFORE YOU VOTE LOCALLY REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 2016

R E P U B L I C A N P L A T F O R M 2 0 1 6
Restoring the American Dream
Rebuilding the Economy and Creating Jobs
We are the party of a growing economy that
gives everyone a chance in life, an opportunity to
learn, work, and realize the prosperity freedom
makes possible.
Government cannot create prosperity, though
government can limit or destroy it. Prosperity is the
product of self-discipline, enterprise, saving and investment
by individuals, but it is not an end in itself.
Prosperity provides the means by which citizens
and their families can maintain their independence
from government, raise their children by their own
values, practice their faith, and build communities
of cooperation and mutual respect. It is also the
foundation for our nation’s global leadership, for it
is the vigor of our economy which makes possible
our military strength and our national security.
Pundits and Democrats tell us that we should
accept the new normal of a slow-growing economy.
The consequences are too dire to ever accept that:
President Obama and his party
H H H H H
Republicans consider
the establishment of a
pro-growth tax code a
moral imperative.
will set a record of being the first
modern president ever to leave
office without a single calendar
year of three percent economic
growth. As a result, the number
of Americans living in poverty
has increased by 7 million, our
nation’s economy has lost nearly
$8 trillion of cumulative output compared with an
average recovery, and the economic growth shortfall
has left a cumulative real after-tax per person
personal income shortfall of nearly $17,000 compared
with an average recovery.
Under President Obama and the Democrats,
new private-sector jobs are three million below
where they should have been with just average
modern post-recession growth. Our labor force
participation rate has plunged to at or below 63
percent for far too long, lows last seen two generations
ago before President Reagan was elected
in 1980. Business closures have exceeded business
startups throughout the Obama Presidency. Strong
growth, more jobs, increasing incomes, and expanding
opportunity are all in short supply under President
Obama and the Democrats.
We repudiate the absurd idea this is the best
America can do. The American people rejected that
nonsense the last time it was offered, in the historic
election of 1980, and we ask them to join us now
to again repudiate the false gospel of America’s diminishment
and retreat. We offer instead our vision
of an opportunity society based on the economics
of inclusion.
Fair and Simple Taxes for Growth
Republicans consider the establishment of a
pro-growth tax code a moral imperative. More than
any other public policy, the way government raises
revenue — how much, at what rates, under what
circumstances, from whom,
and for whom — has the greatest
impact on our economy’s
performance. It powerfully influences
the level of economic
growth and job creation, which
translates into the level of opportunity
for those who would
otherwise be left behind. Getting
our tax system right will be the most important
factor in driving the entire economy back to
prosperity.
The current tax code is rightly the object of
both anger and mockery. Its length is exceeded
only by its complexity. We must start anew. That
will be an enormous undertaking and, if it is to succeed,
it must command the attention and approval
of the American people. It cannot be engineered
from the top down, but must have a common sense
approach, and be simplified.
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