(Bloomberg News) In a campaign marked by voter anxiety over the economy, both presidential campaigns avoid promises of a quick jolt to boost job creation and focus on long-term policies.
The prescriptions offered by President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney are a departure from the typical election season vows of immediate relief.
"There's nothing waiting in January 2013 that either side has proposed that would really jump-start the economy," said Joel Prakken, senior managing director of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, a forecasting firm in St. Louis.
The budget proposals from Obama and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan both would start reducing the deficit next year, turning federal fiscal policy into a short- term drag on economic growth.
"The math in both their budget proposals has pretty significant tightening," said Alec Phillips, a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst in Washington. He calculated in an Aug. 14 report that fiscal contraction would be the equivalent of 1.4 percent of gross domestic product next year under the Obama budget and 2.6 percent of GDP under the Ryan budget.
Romney hasn't released enough detail on his budget plan to determine how it would affect the economy in its first year, said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research institute in Washington that has analyzed Romney's campaign positions.
Divergent Visions
The presidential campaigns have emphasized their divergent visions of how to achieve long-term growth. Romney said he would unleash the private sector with less government regulation and lower tax rates, especially on corporations and high-income "job creators." Obama would ask the wealthy to pay more in taxes while the government puts funds into infrastructure, education and clean energy technology.
The campaign debate reflects a shift in public attitudes toward the concept of economic stimulus following criticism of Obama's 2009 recovery legislation.
"Stimulus has gotten a bad name," said Martin Neil Baily, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 1999-2001 under President Bill Clinton. "The Republicans are running ads basically saying Obama wasted $800 billion of taxpayer money on the stimulus."
Skeptical Economists