Mitt Romney will win the presidential election and then must make deficit reduction and job growth his first priorities, outspoken businessman Ken Langone told CNBC.
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Ken Langone
The former New York Stock Exchange board member and Home Depot co-founder said he has no doubt the Republican Romneywill defeat President Obama in November.
But what happens after that will be what really matters, Langone said in a "Squawk Box" interview.
"This I believe: When he wins he will have a massive number of people with significant business experience going in and helping him address this overspending," said Langone, now chairman of Geeknet, which owns several tech Web sites. "We can't afford what we're doing as a nation. But you can't do it with a guy whose entire existence is making speeches."
Langone has long been an Obama critic and initially hoped that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would seek the Republican presidential nomination. He has since settled on Romney as his candidate of choice.
Before the former Massachusetts governor and Bain Capital executive takes office, Langone said Romney should call on Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, who engineered the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform report.
The document, which Obama commissioned but has not acted on, outlines a host of measures to bring the $1.2 trillion budget deficit and nearly $16 trillion national debt under control.
"Simpson and Bowles goes a long way towards demonstrating to the world that we're in the process of getting our house in order — a very simple thing," Langone said.
Along with that effort, Langone said Romney will need to address job growth. The U.S. unemployment rate stands at 8.1 percent but job creation has lagged in recent months as the level of Americans out of the work force has reached a 31-year high.
"I pray that the governor focuses on nothing but two things: Jobs and the economy," he said. "We need to get people back to work."
