Thompson Jumps on the Economy Bandwagon
AIKEN, S.C. -- While the economy and fears of a recession continue to dominate the discussion with most of the Republican candidates in Michigan, Fred Thompson stuck to his stump speech today in South Carolina, talking about national security, immigration reform, and the appointment of conservative judges.
It wasn't until Daniel Williams, a firefighter from Augusta, Georgia, asked him what he would do about the blue collar jobs lost in this part of the country that Thompson tackled the issue.
"If you're precisely talking about getting those particular jobs back, that's probably not going to happen," Thompson said. "What we ought to do is come up with new jobs. When you lose one over there, you got to gain two over here."
When Thompson was asked to on how he would stimulate the economy, he suggested a part of the solution could be an income tax suspension.
"One proposal that's on the table is eliminating the lower tax bracket for a year and increasing the child credit for a year, from $1,000 to $1,500," he said. "That would put money immediately into the economy."
Williams was convinced. "I was very satisfied with his answer," he said. "He understands that we've lost jobs to other countries. We have many opportunities here, and the tax cuts he mentioned, those are the issues he'll have to address to move this forward."