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Media finally pressing Romney on whether his plan would fix crisis
Media finally pressing Romney on whether his plan would fix crisis
By Jamelle Bouie
Mitt Romney’s claim to economic competence has little to do with his policies, and everything to do with his persona — he is a successful businessman who has the aura of being able translate that know-how into turning around the country’s economy. For most of the last year, few mainstream observers have questioned that presumption, but with fewer than four months before the election, reporters are beginning to question him on his plans for the economy. And on Tuesday, in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, the former Massachusetts governor came up short when trying to explain his plans for near-term economic growth:
At best, these are plans to improve long-term American competitiveness. As economists have already detailed, there’s nothing in these policies which would deal with the immediate economic problem — a significant lack of aggregate demand. Romney’s economic plan wouldn’t put money into ordinary people's pockets or increase consumer spending. If anything, when you consider yesterday’s vote on the Bush tax cuts, it would do the opposite.
<...>
Given the degree to which Romney’s plans are indistinguishable from the ones pushed by congressional Republicans, there’s a fair chance that — if Romney wins in November — that Republicans are likely to raise taxes on middle- and working-class Americans. Indeed, when you couple this with plans to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans and reduce spending on programs for the least well-off, you actually have a plan to contract the economy.
With regards to this interview, it’s also notable that Romney struggles to distinguish his policies from the ones pursued by George W. Bush. There’s a good reason for this — his advisors are nearly identical to the ones who staffed the Bush administration, and helped bring the economy to its knees in 2008. I wouldn’t be surprised if this fact made an appearance in the fall, as Obama moves from his more personal attack on Romney — which focuses on Bain Capital — to a broader attack on Romney’s plan to turn the clock back to the Bush years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/again-romney-has-no-plan-to-fix-the-short-term-crisis/2012/07/26/gJQAhoGQBX_blog.html
By Jamelle Bouie
Mitt Romney’s claim to economic competence has little to do with his policies, and everything to do with his persona — he is a successful businessman who has the aura of being able translate that know-how into turning around the country’s economy. For most of the last year, few mainstream observers have questioned that presumption, but with fewer than four months before the election, reporters are beginning to question him on his plans for the economy. And on Tuesday, in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, the former Massachusetts governor came up short when trying to explain his plans for near-term economic growth:
WILLIAMS: And let’s talk about the economy before we wrap things up. The major planks of your job plan, lower taxes, both corporate and marginal rates, and reduce regulation. Explain how that would be different from what George W. Bush tried to push through?
ROMNEY: Well, let me describe — actually, there are five things that I believe are necessary to get this economy going. One, take advantage of our energy resources, particularly natural gas, but also coal, oil, nuclear, renewables. That’s number one. A huge opportunity for us, and doing so is gonna bring manufacturing back, because low-cost, plentiful energy is key to manufacturing, in many industries.
Number two, trade. I want to dramatically increase trade and particularly with Latin America. Number three, take action to get America on track to have a balanced budget. Now those three things, by the way, are things which we have not been doing over the last few years, which I think are essential to getting this economy going again.
Number four, we’ve got to show better training and education opportunities for our current workers and for coming workers. And then finally what I call restoring economic freedom. That means keep our taxes as low as possible, have regulations modern and up to date, get health care costs down. These things will restore economic freedom.
ROMNEY: Well, let me describe — actually, there are five things that I believe are necessary to get this economy going. One, take advantage of our energy resources, particularly natural gas, but also coal, oil, nuclear, renewables. That’s number one. A huge opportunity for us, and doing so is gonna bring manufacturing back, because low-cost, plentiful energy is key to manufacturing, in many industries.
Number two, trade. I want to dramatically increase trade and particularly with Latin America. Number three, take action to get America on track to have a balanced budget. Now those three things, by the way, are things which we have not been doing over the last few years, which I think are essential to getting this economy going again.
Number four, we’ve got to show better training and education opportunities for our current workers and for coming workers. And then finally what I call restoring economic freedom. That means keep our taxes as low as possible, have regulations modern and up to date, get health care costs down. These things will restore economic freedom.
At best, these are plans to improve long-term American competitiveness. As economists have already detailed, there’s nothing in these policies which would deal with the immediate economic problem — a significant lack of aggregate demand. Romney’s economic plan wouldn’t put money into ordinary people's pockets or increase consumer spending. If anything, when you consider yesterday’s vote on the Bush tax cuts, it would do the opposite.
<...>
Given the degree to which Romney’s plans are indistinguishable from the ones pushed by congressional Republicans, there’s a fair chance that — if Romney wins in November — that Republicans are likely to raise taxes on middle- and working-class Americans. Indeed, when you couple this with plans to cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans and reduce spending on programs for the least well-off, you actually have a plan to contract the economy.
With regards to this interview, it’s also notable that Romney struggles to distinguish his policies from the ones pursued by George W. Bush. There’s a good reason for this — his advisors are nearly identical to the ones who staffed the Bush administration, and helped bring the economy to its knees in 2008. I wouldn’t be surprised if this fact made an appearance in the fall, as Obama moves from his more personal attack on Romney — which focuses on Bain Capital — to a broader attack on Romney’s plan to turn the clock back to the Bush years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/again-romney-has-no-plan-to-fix-the-short-term-crisis/2012/07/26/gJQAhoGQBX_blog.html
It's all a media-created persona, and now Romney is running away from Bain.
Love this translation found in the comments:
bls2011
1:14 PM EDT
Romney's Five Points: (Translated from Romney-Speak)
1. Take advantage of our natural resources. Translation: Give big tax breaks to the Koch Brothers and cronies and decimate environmental regulations.
2. Dramatically increase trade with Latin America. Translation: Export jobs and import cheap labor for the jobs you can't export.
3. Balance the budget. Translation: More tax breaks for the rich. Cut social security, medicare, medicaid and anything that helps the middle class and the poor.
4. Show better training and education opportunities for our workers and future workers. Translation: Tell your parents to take out a college loan because my interest in education is strictly for "show".
5. Restore economic freedom: Keep our taxes low, our regulations down and health care costs down. Translation: "Our taxes (the 1%)" will be cut and "you people" will have to make up the difference. Don't bother my banker friends with government regulations to protect "you people" and finally, replace the Affordable Health Care Act with my "I Don't Care Act" - meaning when it comes to healthcare, "you people" are on your own....
1:14 PM EDT
Romney's Five Points: (Translated from Romney-Speak)
1. Take advantage of our natural resources. Translation: Give big tax breaks to the Koch Brothers and cronies and decimate environmental regulations.
2. Dramatically increase trade with Latin America. Translation: Export jobs and import cheap labor for the jobs you can't export.
3. Balance the budget. Translation: More tax breaks for the rich. Cut social security, medicare, medicaid and anything that helps the middle class and the poor.
4. Show better training and education opportunities for our workers and future workers. Translation: Tell your parents to take out a college loan because my interest in education is strictly for "show".
5. Restore economic freedom: Keep our taxes low, our regulations down and health care costs down. Translation: "Our taxes (the 1%)" will be cut and "you people" will have to make up the difference. Don't bother my banker friends with government regulations to protect "you people" and finally, replace the Affordable Health Care Act with my "I Don't Care Act" - meaning when it comes to healthcare, "you people" are on your own....
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Ummmm, George W. Bush and his rubberstamp....er....Republican Congress DID push all those kinds of things through and what they didn't push through, he achieved by putting industry cronies in all of the major regulatory agencies to sit on their hands and let corporations do pretty much whatever they wanted for 8 years........and WHERE did we all end up by 2008-2009? 
Please sir.........may I/we have some more? 
Why the hell did Brian Williams wait to the end to start asking for specifics? All during the 2008 election season, every single media outlet obsessed on "When is he going to seal the deal?", "Who is Barack Obama?" "Where are the specifics?"
Meanwhile, like they did Mclame and Pallinaround, they give the rethug a complete pass.