The willingness to compromise on politically charged issues in Washington will be critical to producing stronger economic growth and employment, Business Roundtable President Engler said in interviews from Manchester, N.H., in conjunction with the No Labels Problem Solver convention.
The message was heard by eight presidential candidates of both political parties, and growth-supporting cooperation should also be a top issue for the five candidates who will appear on a Las Vegas stage tonight for the first Democratic presidential debate.
“We’re going to have a new leadership in 2017, but they’re running right now,” Engler said on a Bloomberg-TV program, joined by Andrew Tisch, co-chairman of Loews Corporation. “Let’s get them on record, let’s get them committed as candidates.”
No Labels is asking candidates to agree on four major goals, a national strategy consistent with long-standing priorities of Business Roundtable CEOs: Create 25 million new jobs over the next 10 years; secure Medicare and Social Security for the next 75 years; balance the federal budget by 2030; and make the United States energy secure by 2024.
“We also need some predictability and stability in things like the tax code, regulatory climate,” Engler continued. “We’re making some progress on trade, but we just don’t have the kind of stable governmental environment that we need to be really turbo-charging growth in this country.”
Business Roundtable has detailed its growth agenda at “Achieving America’s Full Potential.”
A USA TODAY op-ed also published Monday reinforced the need for candidates and policymakers to focus on growth, “A recipe for American success.”
“The post-World War II international order set up by U.S. and other key world leaders 70 years ago produced more economic growth in more places on earth, benefiting a far higher percentage of the human race, than had any previous global order in any period in history for which we have data,” wrote David Petraeus, chairman of the KKR Global Institute, a former commander of U.S. Central Command and director of the CIA, and Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“As policymakers and leaders establish priorities for 2016 and beyond, attention to economic fundamentals should play as big a role in their thinking as crisis management and domestic political maneuvering.”
It’s an important message, one candidates should be paying attention to not just at conventions, forums and debates, but every day of the year,’