Live from the Airport Diner in Manchester, NHJournal presents Diner Table Economics!
Want to hear the specific economic proposals from the people who want to be the next president of the United States? You’ll get it here, straight from the candidates themselves, over a cup of coffee at the iconic Airport Diner.
No “horserace politics,” no “politics of personality,” just a 25-minute conversation about jobs, inflation, taxes, and spending. The policy positions from regulation to tax reform that impact the daily lives of Granite Staters and all Americans.
In this edition, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie lays out his economic agenda. A few highlights:
An annual GDP growth target of four to five percent. How?
“We are about to reach another one of those economic moments of extraordinary innovation. Artificial intelligence is about to become a force multiplier for our economy. And I think if we have a president who understands that there’s an opportunity for enormous growth in this country, then you can take advantage of it.”
Significant cuts in federal spending. How?
“I want to do it by doing what I did in New Jersey, which was zero-based budgeting… You don’t assume a level of spending for every year based on the last year. You make people come in and say, ‘You’re starting at zero. Justify every dollar you want to spend.” And what that does is make people think about spending in a much different way. Rather than ‘How much more am I going to get?’ it’s going to be ‘How do I justify what I’ve already done right for the future?’
“What that led to in our first year was the complete elimination of 683 programs. We balanced the budget by cutting spending.”
Lighten the regulatory impact of the federal government.
“I think there’s a philosophical approach from the Biden administration that just says any business that is big is by definition bad. And there are some big government Republicans who want to control business. Ron DeSantis is a big government Republican. He’s saying, ‘Well if Disney opposes a bill that I like, I get to punish Disney by using the levers of government to do it.’ And some Republicans, in an unthinking way, are saying, ‘We’re okay with that.’ But what happens if that was Gavin Newsom? Doing that because someone opposed a liberal bill and Republicans would be up in arms. We need to be consistent on this.”
Bring down energy costs with expanded fossil fuel production and nuclear power.
Look at our state, New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the country. And 53 percent of our electricity is produced by nuclear. Now, if we can operate nuclear safely in the most densely populated state, anybody can do it anywhere.”
Diner Table Economics is sponsored by The Competitiveness Coalition.
