Industry-Led Economic Rebound: How To Get The Economy Back To Work
Are rumors over a Republican divide on how to get the economy back to work greatly exaggerated?
To stimulate the economy, President Trump could make it easier to access unemployment benefits. Or he could lower interest rates. Or he can invest in industry and jobs growth.
President Trump laid the policy groundwork for business and jobs growth with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). But rather than be divided, Republican governors are creating complementary policies to support job growth and higher-paying jobs.
Industry-led Growth
The Republican voters do not seem to be divided about how to tackle the economic recovery. In the Utah governor campaign to be decided on June 30th, of four Republican candidates, the most pro-industry candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. is in the lead.
The Huntsman 2020 governor campaign is promoting policies that stimulate growth in the biotechnology, defense technology, and financial technology industries. The former ambassador to Russia, China, and Singapore expects the advanced industries program to create a doubling of economic output over 10 years.
Higher Wage States
Not coincidentally, the U.S. city leading jobs growth is benefitting from growth led by advanced industries. Under Republican Governor Doug Ducey, the flagship of Arizona's economic rebound policy is economic policies that support high paying jobs creation. It is this policy that led Arizona out of the Great Recession in 2008.
And the same industry-driven economic stimuli has led to the early economic rebound for Phoenix. The city has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation during this recession. Notably, Phoenix enjoyed strong job gains in its advanced industry sectors, including financial, bioscience healthcare, aerospace, and computer.
Massachusetts, the high technology state with the highest wages, is stimulating small business growth as part of its recovery plan with a Small Business Recovery Loan Fund. The state with some of the strongest incentives for high tech workers is under pressure to show more support for smaller enterprises.
Federal Industry Incentives
A great divide? To the contrary, Trump policies are in place to provide states with more support for the promotion of advanced industries. The TCJA lowered the corporate tax rate below that of most developing countries. A handful of other tax incentives are stimulating business growth, including more favorable depreciation, expensing, and research expense amortization. The Bipartisan Budget acts, meanwhile, have provided an additional boost to defense spending and other industries.
As some states have already proven, these Trump initiatives together with state-enabling policies are already creating high paying jobs.