Concerned about his legacy, or maybe just looking to get involved in politics again, former President George W. Bush on Tuesday took an unexpected step into the current economic debate: He released a book.
“The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs” features more than a dozen economic experts — including five Nobel laureates — weighing in on the stagnating economic recovery. The consensus? Like the title suggests, America’s economy needs growth in the 4 percent range, twice its current rate.
The Bush Institute published the book. The 43rd president of the United States wrote its foreword. The contributors’ belief is that “the solution to today’s problems is sustained and significant economic growth and that the surest path to that growth is free markets and free people,” Bush writes.
Bush was scheduled on Tuesday to deliver remarks in Dallas with several of the book’s contributors. James K. Glassman, executive director of the Bush Institute, told the Associated Press that ideas floated in the book include: extending the Bush-era tax cuts, lowering the corporate tax rate and expanding the tax base. For kicks, it also addresses immigration reform, so the U.S. can attract the world’s best and brightest.
Bush continues in the foreword: “One common theme of ‘The 4% Solution’ is that with the right policies America can be robust again, and the United States can continue to be the strongest economic power in the world … We’ve seen the resilience of this country before, and we will see it again.”
