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ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — n a new policy plan unveiled Monday, Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis is taking aim at China with a “Declaration of Economic Independence” that also targets taxes, regulations, spending and education.
Speaking in a New Hampshire warehouse, the Florida governor promised to boost the economy and fight for the middle class.
“We will take back control of our destiny — and ensure that our future is as proud, independent and free as our past,” he said at Prep Partners Group, which coordinates warehousing, distribution and other logistics for other companies.
DeSantis said he would wrest economic control from China by ending the nation’s preferential trade status, banning imports of goods made from stolen intellectual property and preventing companies from sharing critical technologies with China.
The 10-point economic plan is the third major policy proposal put forth by DeSantis, whose campaign has struggled in recent weeks. Although long seen as the top rival to former President Donald Trump, DeSantis shed more than one-third of his staff as federal filings showed his campaign was burning through cash at an unsustainable rate.
On Monday, he focused on the federal government's reckless spending, however. His plan describes him as a “new sheriff in town” who will veto wasteful spending and mandate work requirements for welfare programs. He also claimed he could achieve 3% annual economic growth by keeping taxes low, eliminating bureaucracy and incentivizing investment.
On the education front, DeSantis said he will stop incentivizing “useless degrees” by making universities responsible for the loans their students accrue. His plan also would promote vocational and apprenticeship programs that educate “artisans and engineers” instead of “politicized administrators and bureaucrats.”