Tarkanian releases economic plan focused on cutting taxes and federal spending

U.S. Senate candidate Danny Tarkanian is releasing his economic plan today and it’s based on core Republican principles of lowering taxes and cutting spending.

The plan focuses on four key areas, according to a draft copy obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

• Diversifying Nevada’s industry beyond gaming.

• Reducing taxes.

• Fixing the housing market.

• Cutting federal spending.

In the plan, Tarkanian calls for developing Yucca Mountain into a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant instead of a waste dump. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic incumbent who's defending his seat in the race, has made a career out of blocking the nuclear waste dump, although some rural Nevadans -- who are key GOP primary voters -- have long argued for its development.

Tarkanian, as part of his economic diversification proposals, calls for reducing federal corporate income tax rates and sales taxes in Nevada and making more of the state’s lands available for development. Now, 85 percent is federally owned.

Also on the tax front, Tarkanian proposes repealing the death tax for good and doing away with the capital gains tax or at least reducing it or indexing it for inflation. He also wants to lower income tax rates to Reagan-era levels.

To address the difficult housing market, Tarkanian -- a real estate businessman -- suggests streamlining mortgage refinancing so people can get lower interest rates and proposes expanding a first-time homebuyer credit to all potential buyers.

Finally, Tarkanian calls for passing a balanced budget amendment and cutting federal spending by enacting the CARFA Act, which would create the Commission on Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies to recommend which agencies and programs should be shut down. He also wants to target wasteful spending in entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid, saying that could save $100 billion a year; cut pork barrel spending; use leftover stimulus money to pay for tax cuts; return TARP funding that banks are repaying to the federal budget instead of spending it on other projects; privatize Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac so the federal government doesn’t compete with the private market; and limit the Education Department’s role, saving $5 billion a year by relying on states instead.

One of Tarkanian’s top GOP rivals, former state senator and businesswoman Sue Lowden, also has released an economic plan. And it, too, relies heavily on cutting taxes to put more money into the pockets of people and businesses to stimulate the economy.

Tarkanian economic plan (pdf)