Job creation

At least half of tonight’s presidential debate will focus on the country’s top priority: improving the economy. Nevadans will want to pay close attention.

How badly does this state need jobs? Personal income in Nevada has declined 10.6 percent, adjusted for inflation, since the Great Recession began in December 2007, USA Today reported Thursday. That ranks 51st among the states and the District of Columbia. The next-worst states – Illinois, Arizona and Connecticut – tied for 48th with an inflation-adjusted decline of just 1.8 percent. Only five other states suffered declines.

This is critical context in tonight’s debate. President Barack Obama believes he can put millions of Americans back to work by raising taxes on wealthier households, raising taxes on investment income, and pouring billions more borrowed dollars into government jobs and green energy subsidies that make electricity more expensive. To borrow a favorite Democratic phrase, he’s doubling down on ideas that didn’t work during his first term: punishing job creators and empowering government to pick winners and losers.

Republican challenger Mitt Romney, on the other hand, favors pro-growth policies driven by tax reform that encourages investment and rewards risk-taking entrepreneurs, and by developing traditional energy resources to create permanent jobs and reduce fuel costs. The president’s claim that Mr. Romney will raise taxes on the middle class? It’s not true.

Which vision do you think will lift Nevada’s fortunes? Which approach will give more Americans the income to vacation in Las Vegas and thus drive job growth here?

Much of Nevada’s economic woes are rooted in its housing collapse, which pre-dated President Obama’s election. But that fact is another indictment of Mr. Obama’s administration. Nevada and the rest of the country should have seen a strong recovery by now.

It will be instructive to see how Mr. Obama sells his economic agenda tonight – and why he expects the same ideas to produce different results.