Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is urging that conservatives stick to free-market principles, saying President Barack Obama's policies are "enabling" the sky-high deficits the country faces today.
"We should let market forces, not crony capitalism, decide where to invest and how to incentivize citizens to conserve," Bush said in a speech Monday night after receiving the annual Jack Kemp Leadership Award,
Politico reports.
Bush, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, offered a healthy dose of criticism for the president's economic policies and for the new healthcare law.
"Our current policy rewards portfolio Americans at the expense of paycheck America while enabling the greatest sustained deficits in American history," he said.
"Conservatives need to advance economic freedom by working to repeal Obamacare and replacing it with a system that is consumer-directed, less coercive and significantly less costly."
To help the U.S. economy along, Bush also called for a new energy policy that includes
approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, "rational" regulations on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and permission to drill on federal lands.
"A real energy strategy could add an additional 1 percent growth over the long haul," Bush said.
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