Romney Tells Obama "Talk Is Cheap"

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 16, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

             Speaking to a skeptical crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, President Barack Obama got some boos, warning the audience that a vote for Romney was a vote for former President George W. Bush.  “If you want to give the policies of the past decade another try, then you should vote for Mr. Romney,” said Obama.  From the day Barack took office, he’s been blamed for the country’s economic woes by the right wing establishment.  Comparing the economic disaster of 2007-08 to the 1907 Financial Panic, Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that the recovery could take years.  While unemployment’s still too high and good jobs are less than abundant, the nation no longer sheds over 100,000 jobs a month as it did in the waning days of the Bush presidency and early days of Obama’s term.  “Talk is cheap,” Romney told a partisan crowd in Cincinnati.

            Bashing Obama on the economy has been the GOP’s main strategy to gain eventual traction against a popular incumbent in 20012. “But actions speak very loud.  If you want to see the results of his economic policies, look at Ohio and look around the cournty . .  . What he say and what he’s done are most always the same exact thing,” Mitt said at his campaign rally.  What Mitt doesn’t say is that Barack has nothing to do with Europe’s sovereign debt problems that have left Wall Street and global markets selling off.  Mitt never says what he’d do differently if elected president.  Based on his government-bashing rhetoric, Mitt would like to do what he did while working leveraged buyouts for Bain Capital:  Slash jobs.  When Obama took office he faced an economic calamity of epic proportions.  Banks were out of money.  General Motors and Chrysler were under water.

            Romney treasures the chance to rip Obama about his $787 billion bailout to supply banks cash and keep GM and Chrysler from going broke.  Barack gave many states the needed cash to keep state governments, colleges and universities and local school districts from massive layoffs.  Romney blasted Obama’s bailout but said zip when Bush and his Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson launched their $687 billion bailout Oct. 3, 2008.  Many of Romney’s conservative friends urged Bush to let GM and a number of major U.S. to go under.  Romney now tells his audience “talk is cheap.”  Obama made the gaffe last week that the private sector was doing “fine.”  He knows that there ‘s much work to be done before the economy’s out of the woods.  Romney’s lack of details about what he’d do differently hints that he doesn’t want the public to know he plans massive government layoffs.

            When Obama suggest that Romney would repeat Bush’s economic blunders, he really doesn’t have a crystal ball.  Based on Romney and his GOP backers’ words, he might do something far worse:  Layoff thousands of government workers to reduce U.S. budget deficits.  Romney’s only economic plan calls for more tax cuts.  Even conservative U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) questioned recently whether or not the GOP could continue to support Party boss Grover Norquist’s “no tax pledge.”  Romney has swallowed Norquist’s “no tax pledge” hook, line and sinker.  Mitt has no way to reduce government expenses or raise revenues other that slashing government jobs.  That would be far more catastrophic to the unemployment rate and U.S. economy than anything Bush did over his two terms.  Romney also leans toward backing more costly Mideast wars.

            Starting another foreign war would start the nation back on a reckless fiscal path.  Nobel-winning Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz said the Afghan and Iraq wars essentially broke the U.S. Treasury.  Romney hopes the Supreme Court overturns Obamacare, despite the potentially lucrative benefits predicted by the Congressional Budget Office.  Romney cautions about the program’s $1 trillion in estimated cost over 10 years but overlooks the billions in added revenues from expanding the U.S. health care and pharmaceutical industry.  “Go check on that,” said Romney, talking about whether businesses are better off today than four years ago.  “Go talk to small employers and big employers in your community . . . Talk to people you know,” failing to see that Obamacare would save small, medium and large businesses billions in health care costs over the next 10 years.

            Obama’s message about the economy fails to acknowledge the progress made on the jobs front since Bush left office.  While not enough, over 4.27 million jobs have been added since March 2010.  More than May’s 69,000 private sector jobs are needed to assure economic recovery.  But adding 69,000 is better than shedding jobs at the end of Bush years.  If Romney has any intellectual honesty other than playing partisan politics, he’s have to admit that the Dow Jones Industrials close of 12,651 is better today that its 8,000 close on Barack’s Inauguration Day.  Would Mitt really say of GM workers in Ohio are worse off today?  It’s time for Ohio voters to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh and start looking at real improvements, whether or not Obama can articulate them.  With the U.S. auto, airline and banking industries improving, now is not the time for more foreign wars and slashing government jobs.

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