Tech Policy 2016: What Presidential Candidates Should Be Talking About

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released an open memo to all Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns outlining a comprehensive tech policy agenda for 2016. The memo enumerates a series of measures to spur broad-based economic growth by supporting the fundamental drivers of innovation, productivity, and competitiveness. The memo is accompanied by a draft campaign speech on fostering 21st century enterprise, which ITIF encourages candidates to borrow from freely. The memo and speech are focused on three core policy goals:

1. Fostering innovation, including increasing federal funding for research, expanding the R&D tax credit, building a higher-skilled workforce, and promoting entrepreneurship.
2. Boosting productivity, including an investment tax credit, accelerated IT transformation in industries, raising the minimum wage, closing the digital divide, and expanding surface transportation funding.
3. Competing globally, including lowering the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, adopting a territorial tax system, and adopting new trade agreements while putting trade enforcement at the center of US foreign policy.