Jon Huntsman will unveil his jobs plan at an event in Hudson, New Hampshire on Wednesday. The plan, called “Time to Compete: An American Jobs Plan,” will include positions on tax reform, regulatory reform, energy independence, and free trade.
Huntsman will also take the opportunity to blast his former boss, President Barack Obama, for his handling of the economy and job creation. But the former Utah Governor will attempt to rise above partisan politics by taking a middle road, of sorts, criticizing those who were willing to let the country default during the debt limit debate.
“The President believes that we can tax and spend and regulate our way to prosperity,” the former U.S. Ambassador to China will say. “We cannot. We must compete our way to prosperity.”
The tax reform Huntsman’s plan proposes is sweeping for individual tax brackets, capital gains and corporate rates. It includes three individual tax brackets of 8 percent, 14 percent, and 23 percent.
It also eliminates capital gains and dividend taxes, and the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Finally, and finally allows for a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent.
“We need American entrepreneurs not only thinking of products like the iPhone or Segway; we need American workers building those products,” Huntsman will say. “It’s time for Made in America to mean something again.”
“It’s time for America to start working again; It’s time for America to start building things again; It’s time for America to compete again,” he’ll add. “I believe with a new administration we can do just that.”
With his speech, which will take place at the Gilchrist Metal Fabrication, Huntsman will officially become the first Republican presidential candidate to offer a detailed jobs plan. And he knows what he’s talking about. During his tenure as Governor of Utah, the state was number one in job creation, and in 2007, the unemployment rate dipped below 3 percent.
Mitt Romney will reveal his own jobs plan on September 6 in Nevada. President Obama will also unveil a plan sometime next week.
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