Huntsman visits WU

By Jonathan McFadden
mcfaddenj@mytjnow.com

Photo By Sarah Auvil -- auvils@mytjnow.comRepublican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman pushed for tax reform, regulatory reform and energy independence—three changes he said would reignite the nation’s economic engine—during an 8 a.m. meet-and-greet at Winthrop on Friday.

Making his last stop on a three-day swing through South Carolina at Winthrop’s Tuttle Dining Room, Huntsman told a crowd of close to 50 that the United States needs a candidate dedicated to “rebuilding our manufacturing muscle.”

With careful articulation, the former Utah governor said that the U.S. must “get our house in order” and adopt a “laser like focus” on getting right in the world.

To do that, the U.S. must be back on top economically, refocus on providing jobs for the unemployed and revamp the nation’s spirit, he said.

Touching on foreign policy, Huntsman said leaders in Washington don’t need to focus on “nation building” in Afghanistan or Iraq. Instead, he called for a complete removal of U.S. forces from these countries.

“Afghanistan is not this country’s future,” Huntsman said. “Iraq is not this country’s future.”

Basking in the Wall Street Journal’s endorsement of his tax policy, Huntsman said the country deserves a candidate who gives more than a “pie in the sky sound-bite.”

Some of his proposals include reducing corporate tax rates and ultimately repealing President Barack’s Obama’s health care reform package.

Huntsman argued that the U.S. could also harness domestic energy sources instead of conferring money to foreign nations for oil.

Once concluding his opening statement, Huntsman fielded a question from Winthrop economics professor Laura Ullrich, who congratulated him on a tax reform policy that “makes sense.”

But, as a mother of three and a witness to the disheartening unemployment rate for college graduates, Ullrich explained that she shudders at the amount of debt students are inheriting once leaving institutions of higher education.

Huntsman answered with a call to job and skills training for students that would help re-ignite the nation’s manufacturing backbone and strengthening its current “weak core.”

“When America is strong, the rest of the world is better,” Huntsman said.

For full coverage of Huntsman’s visit, make sure to pick up the Nov. 10 issue of The Johnsonian