Government needs to learn from the business community byrelying more on analysis than instinct when tackling its problems, presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney told an audience in Virginia.
“Government is extremely wasteful,” Romney told an audience of about 400 at an event sponsored by the Northern Virginia Technology Council in McLean Tuesday. “It tends … not have the kind of dialogue and debate we have in the private sector.”
The speech was Romney’s first in Virginia since announcing his campaign for the presidency. Romney founded Bain Capital, a venture capital firm which helped start up companies such as Staples and the online advertising business DoubleClick.
“Then I went into government; what a shock that was,” Romney said. “Talk about a lack of interest in data-driven decision making.”
Remaining a technological superpower in the face of competition from Asia is one of the biggest challenges the country will face in the future, Romney said. He called for a government that invests more in aerospace, materials sciences and alternative energy sources.
“Federal spending in the basic sciences is not where it used to be,” Romney said.
The candidate stressed the need to cap discretionary, non-military spending while retaining tax cuts. He spoke out against the idea of a windfall profit tax, such as those discussed for oil companies following soaring energy prices.
“If you want to see a growing economy, the best news you’ve got is there are windfall profits out there,” Romney said.
To fight the problem of foreign knowledge workers being unable to obtain visas, Romney suggested involving states more in the process, letting them decide how many visas to award in differing categories, depending on each state’s economic needs. Additional research and development dollars, visa reform and math and science education improvements are all priorities shared by Romney and NVTC President and Chief Education Officer Bobbie Kilberg said Wednesday.
