Bachmann Slides Ideas Into 11-Point Economic Plan
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Searching for a campaign boost, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann attached a catchy slogan Tuesday for a newly packaged 11-point proposal for repairing the U.S. economy.
Her "American Jobs, Right Now" framework calls for tax accommodations that would give companies incentive to re-invest at home money that presently is earned abroad. She also would decrease government worker salaries, eliminate an inheritance tax and roll back a slate of federal regulations. That includes repeal of President Barack Obama's signature health law.
The Minnesota congresswoman has talked repeatedly about most of the ideas since entering the White House race in June. But she's done so in scattershot fashion. Meanwhile, rivals led by businessman Herman Cain have taken off with simple-sounding ideas, like his "9-9-9" plan for overhauling the nation's tax code.
"My solutions are simple," Bachmann said in releasing her blueprint. "We need to cut government spending, legalize America's God-given natural resources and stop taxing investment and productivity."
Bachmann has been trying to fight off a campaign slump since winning the Iowa GOP straw poll two months ago. She has lagged in most polls after being in the lead pack through much of the summer.
In pitching her plan, she cited the country's 9.1 percent unemployment rate and mounting debt as a need for changing course. Last month, she criticized Obama's jobs package as more damaging than helpful to the economy.
Her approach includes scrapping the law that put new controls on the banks and other financial services businesses after the Wall Street meltdown of 2008. She said a new consumer protection bureau lacks accountability to Congress and puts too much power in the hands of regulators.
Bachmann also said she would also scale back environmental laws, which she didn't identify specifically, to encourage greater domestic energy production and give a spark to logging and mining industries.
Bachmann's economic plan dives into social policy as well by promoting stiffer enforcement of immigration laws. She argues that current strategies have proven costly to state and local governments with "an unfair strain on our country's job markets."
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