Key issue: Economic Growth

In this post I am going to break down the differences between Blumenthal and McMahon on the most important issue in this election which is the economy and how we can create jobs in the United States. There are some similarities between the two candidates, but we find that both candidates stances fall along the stereotypical ideology of the party in which they are running for. Furthermore, I will explain why I believe that Mr. Blumenthal has the right answers to fix our economy.

Dick Blumenthal is hoping to stimulate the economy and job growth by focusing on the middle class. He wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for 95% of Americans who are currently making less than $250,000 a year. He wants to also help small businesses by giving them tax incentives that will allow them to have extra money to invest in their business in order to spur growth. Furthermore, he supports the recent legislation passed by the Obama administration that helps to protect consumers from unfair credit card policies. In doing this, small business owners won't have to pay extreme interest rates when they are forced to use personal credit cards for business expenses. The last point made on job growth is to open up loans to businesses so that they aren't in the position just discussed and don't ever have to use their personal credit cards for business purposes. Mr. Blumenthal also supports the Wall Street Reform Bill that holds Wall Street and Investment banks accountable for their actions so that the taxpayers never again have to bail out banks that are "too big to fail." Finally, Blumenthal supports spurring the economy through Green Technology innovation by providing tax breaks and loans to bring about new technology. Also, this will curb the amount of pollution and dependence on foreign oil that has skyrocketed over the past few decades.

Linda McMahon, on the other hand, has an approach to spurring the economy that rests in the hands of the wealthy to take care of the rest of the country, She claims that in order for our economy to grow there needs to be less government interference in the business sector as well as Wall Street. She believes that in regulating business, those corporations will not be able to provide jobs to the middle class. Mrs. McMahon also discusses how she would like to expand drilling for oil in Alaska and ANWR province as a way to help create jobs and produce oil so that we don't have to depend on foreign countries. However, she does discuss investing in renewable energies through tax incentives. She also talks about how President Obama has used Executive Orders through "policy czars" to enact some of the new regulations on some of these industries we have discussed. She cites archives.gov to note that Obama has passed 57 Executive Orders since becoming president and frames it to be an expanse of government interference in the corporate sector. However, she evokes Ronald Reagan at the beginning of her policy page and talks about how Reagan allowed business to take care of itself and because of this, the economy went from stagnant to booming. Yet, she failed to mention that Ronald Reagan passed 117 Executive Orders over the course of his first two years in office.

Overall, I would just like to note that Mr. Blumenthal is aiming to move the country in a new direction that focuses on the middle class picking themselves back up from this recession. Corporations have grown so large and wield so much power that the only way for them to not monopolize our economy is to regulate them in one form or the other. Mrs. McMahon on the other hand supports the same policies that were pushed by the Reagan and Bush administrations that have lead to a corporate-led economy. Furthermore, to frame President Obama as someone who is abusing his power to grow the size of government through Executive Orders is quite hypocritical being that Regan signed over 2 times the amount of Executive Orders in the same period of time to help build a culture that allowed big business to run wild with America's economy. The time has come to change this atmosphere and put the power of our economy back in the hands of the people who are the life blood of it: the middle-class. Dick Blumenthal understands this and that is why his vision for the economy is far more apt for this juncture in time than the policies supported by Linda McMahon.