Analysts shrugged off its large budget and trade deficits; business-friendly, free-market policies would, they insisted, allow the country to grow out of all that.
"With the risks we see elsewhere in the world, there may be bumpy times ahead – so here in the UK we must stick to the plan that's cutting the deficit, attracting business investment and creating jobs".
Katja Hall said the Lib Dems and Tories deserve credit for cutting the deficit, but business did not like "some of the rhetoric on immigration" and immigration targets.
Avoiding a fiscal tightening when the recovery is still fragile would help bolster economic growth, he said, which would help bring down the deficit as businesses and individuals make more money and as a result pay more in taxes.
Nearly half (48percentt) of Republicans believe the tax cuts will actually reduce the deficit as businesses reinvest capital, and another 27percentthinknk it will have no impact on the deficit.
By contrast, a larger scale program to support living expenses as well as tuition for community college students would spook deficit-averse business groups.
Romney's economic plan, which revolved around an underwhelming set of policy ideas that would do little to spur job creation (trade agreements, school choice, cutting the deficit, boosting small business and energy independence) was remarkably threadbare.
"In an emergency it was right to accept large-scale deficit financing," the business secretary said.
The fact that members of a campaign to cut the budget deficit have deep business ties makes it easy to see where their recommendations will fall.
"Between the deficit and the business manager leaving and the flurry of resignations from the board, we couldn't get behind the theater," Ms. Rodriguez said.
