President Obama Lays Out The Choice In November

by Stuart Shapiro

In a joint appearance with President Clinton, President Obama made clear the two different visions competing this November.

What’s changed is the Republican Party.  They have gone from a preference for market-based solutions to an absolutism when it comes to the marketplace; a belief that all regulations are bad; that government has no role to play; that we shouldn’t simply be making sure that we balance the budget, we have to drastically shrink government, and eliminate those commitments that have ensured a middle class had a chance to succeed and to thrive for several generation.

And so if you look at Paul Ryan’s budget or you look at Governor Romney’s proposals, what they’re talking about is something that is fundamentally different from our experience in growing this economy and creating jobs.  And so that’s going to be the central issue in this campaign.  And we’re going to do everything we can to clarify that choice.

In the months ahead, Governor Romney will walk back on all the conservative positions he voiced during the primaries (maybe he will even confess to requiring people to buy health insurance).  One of the primary tasks of the Obama campaign is to make sure people remember what Romney has supported over the past year.  Conservatives want this election to be about the role of government.  The President is right to want that as well.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.