Mitch Daniels

Olivia Hathaway

polys.

5/17/11

Mitch Daniels

Although Mitch Daniels has not officially announced his candidacy for president, there is strong pull for him to officially announce his candidacy for the primaries. A new change in the possible candidates for the primaries has caused Mr. Daniels to be a much more promising candidate. Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee have both announced that they will not be running for the republican nominee, thus giving Daniels a smaller demographic of competition.

Daniels gave a speech on February 11^th at CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Committee) conference. In this speech Daniels explained what he would like to change in our country, among these are Social Security and Medicare, in which he would reserve funds for those most in need. He would also like to see the qualifying age increased to reflect increasing longevity and good health. “Medicare 2.0 should restore to the next generation the dignity of making their own decisions, by delivering its dollars directly to the individual, based on financial and medical need, entrusting and empowering citizens to choose their own insurance and, inevitably, pay for more of their routine care like the discerning, autonomous consumers we know them to be.”

Daniels is also trying to stop congressional earmarks, restoring impoundment power to the presidency, which is the refusal of a president to spend money that has been appropriated by congress. He also says “the red threat,”our debt, must be fought with faster expansion of the private sector.

Daniels puts a lot of emphasis on the private sector and has listed things we need to do to support that private sector: things such as reforming the tax system, making taxes lower and flater, and a reduction of existing federal regulations, even suggestion a moratorium on new federal regulations. Daniels specifically called out the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) saying it should be renamed the “Employment Prevention Agency.” Daniels also says he wants to increase focus on domestic energy production, “as an economic necessity and job creator.”

Daniels has not yet declared his candidacy so no one has been vying for him. But many seem hopeful that he will soon declare that he is running.