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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Government needs to learn from the business community by relying 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.
melissa.frederick@dcexaminer.com
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11:04 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 14, 2008 re: "Brisbane to gauge baylands wind flow"
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Examiner Reader said:
Wind turbines certainly generate clean energy (preferrable), but I wish leaders would allocate some of their design engineers to study how to protect the wildlife (birds) fatalities. It seems easy enough to place a cage around the turbines, just like the smaller, domestic models that protect children from getting their fingers clipped by the fan blades. I'm sure there's a way to make this look attractive in a super-size turbine.
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Examiner Reader said:
The Dice Report. “Baltimore-Washington has the third-highest average salary for IT professionals at $81,750 a year, ahead of the national average of $74,570.” WOW and yet the jobs which I applied for are paying way below the average. Usually a company asked what salary range I'm looking for, and usually that's a sign of we can't afford you. I answered negotiable, they pursuit for a number. When I give them a number I don't hear from them. Most of the positions I come across are bombarded with responsibilities and has a failure of matching the pay.
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Terence said:
What the article failed to address is that if you have an a non-business major and have an engineering or computer science degree, it is advisable to pursue an MBA degree and as such you would tend to pursue something like an IT degree and in that case, the jump in salary is significant. If you have a business undergrad in IT and pursue an MBA, that jump is significantly less. I still do not understand why students would do both an undergrad and grad in business. Really the textbooks are almost the same, the delivery is the difference. In some cases, classes are cross-taught at both the undergrad and grad. Pursuing a masters of science in marketing, operations and IT is the appropriate route not an MBA for undegrad in business. Just IMHO
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Iconic Xer. said:
I find this story missing a critical and informative element. Sure, tech companies and institutions such as NASA may be losing *employees* to retirement. But that doesn't mean there aren't *lots* of tech professionals around. Quite the opposite. There's an abundance of them. Companies have got to change their cultures, compensation and engagement of workers to be in alignment with the preference of many tech professionals to work outside of organizations, to work for multiple companies, to be flexible, nimble and not dependent on one industry or company for survival. It's a generational thing, really, with your GenXers (27-47 in 2008) heavily leaning in this direction. Re: the lack of kids entering STEM. It has nothing to do with them not wanting to be cool. They are achievement, affluence and team-oriented. Sing their song and they'll come in droves. Sing *your* song & they won't hear you ... or even bother trying. And, mistakenly, you'll conclude they're not interested. What
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Examiner Reader said:
Possible health risk of cancer too! See international studies.
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Examiner Reader said:
You can't stop it now and usually there is a reason its done that way
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