There are several ideas on the table for improving the economy that do not include more spending stimulus: some from the various GOP Presidential candidates, some in bills already passed by the House, others proposed by center-right economists.
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2011/10/31/5-good-ideas-from-4-gop-economic-plans"
USN said:
...Perry and Romney ... both favor changes to the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley accounting reforms (signed into law by President Bush, after the Enron and Worldcom meltdowns) that would exempt smaller firms and spare them loads of paperwork they often lack the staff to complete. Some of the Dodd-Frank reforms could have similar unintended effects on firms that had nothing to do with the 2008 financial crisis.
Romney has proposed a set of reforms including deadlines for the approval of various types of business permits and a fast-track process when safety or public health aren't an issue. ...
Eliminate corporate tax deductions, lower the corporate tax rate. The deficit committee, that was commissioned by Obama who then ignored its recommendations, came up with the same proposal:
USN said:
...General Electric, for example, earned more than $14 billion in 2010, but paid no U.S. tax on that income because much of it is parked overseas. GE's tax department alone, with a head count of nearly 1,000, is bigger than 99 percent of all U.S. businesses.
Virtually all the GOP candidates favor a lower corporate tax rate, and while Herman Cain's call for a 9 percent rate is probably too low to gain widespread support, Romney's preferred rate of 25 percent rate is more plausible. ... If done right, corporate tax reform would encourage U.S. multinationals to bring more of their overseas profit back home and invest it here, while giving other firms an incentive to set up shop in the United States instead of heading for other countries.
http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Roadmap2Final2.pdf
Ryan Road Map on business taxes said:
...The overwhelming majority of America’s competitors rely to some degree on consumption based taxes, which, according to World Trade Organization rules, can legally be rebated
on products leaving a country for export and imposed on products entering that country. The United States happens to be the only major industrialized country in the world thatdoes not use a similar tax system and therefore cannot engage in the same practice.Hence, when Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson makes a motorcycle it plans to selloverseas (to Japan, for example), the motorcycle is taxed once in the U.S. before beingshipped, and once again when it reaches the Japanese border. In contrast, when a Hondamotorcycle is shipped from Japan to the U.S., the Japanese government lifts the tax onthe motorcycle before export, and it arrives in the U.S. essentially tax-free.
Cut spending, balance the budget, as deficit spending equates to future taxes which people anticipate and react to today. Some Paul cuts:
USN said:
Ron Paul's plan calls for eliminating 5 of the 15 cabinet agencies (Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce, and Education) while slashing the budgets of most of the others. Such severe cuts are probably a non-starter in Washington, since those agencies all protect entrenched interests, including dozens of members of Congress who sit on oversight committees and direct spending toward favored constituencies. But Paul's general bent toward consolidating government has merit. At least new 5 Cabinet agencies have been created since 1945, and institutions that always grow and never shrink become bloated and inefficient by nature.
As a private-sector analogy, consider General Motors. For years, its leaders insisted that it needed all 8 of its divisions—an unwieldy and redundant structure that contributed to GM's descent into bankruptcy in 2009. In the aftermath, GM sold or killed half of its divisions—and is now nicely profitable [actually no it is not but the point is valid]...
Repeal and http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/Issues/Issue/?IssueID=8516" Obama Care. Employers fear additional health costs and/or compliance costs and consequently do not employ.http://thehill.com/video/house/190547-gop-calls-on-dems-to-back-house-passed-jobs-bills?page=3" and blocked or likely blocked by the Senate:
The Hill said:
...overwhelming bipartisan House passage Thursday of legislation to repeal the requirement that governments at all levels withhold 3 percent of payments to government contractors, a bill that has White House support.
The Hill said:
...The 15 bills include measures that mandate a major expansion of offshore drilling and faster permitting; block several recent or upcoming Environmental Protection Agency regulations; and thwart the Federal Communications Commission’s “net neutrality” rules, among other proposals.
List of bills passed by the House on jobs/economics:
"The Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act" (H.R.872)
"The Energy Tax Prevention Act" (H.S.910)
"The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act" (H.R.2018)
"Consumer Financial Protection & Soundness Improvement Act" (H.R.1315)
"Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act" (H.R.2587)
"Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation" (H.R.2401)
"Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act" (H.R.2681)
"EPA Regulatory Relief Act" (H.S.2250)
"Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act" (H.R.2273)
"Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act" (H.S.1230)
"Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act" (H.R.1229)
"Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act (H.R.1231)
"The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011" (H.R.2021)
"North American-Made Energy Security Act" (H.R.1938)
"Disapproval of FCC's Net Neutrality Regulations" (H.J.Res.37)
"3% Withholding Tax Repeal" (H.R.674)
