GOP Blames Obama for "Ultimate Sin"

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 10, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

                  Democrats have no answer for vociferous 40-year-old Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, who now accused President Barack Obama of committing the “ultimate sin.”  Blaming the president for sending jobs overseas, Priebus hopes of counter Democrats’ contention that Romney, when he ran Bain Capital, outsourced untold numbers of American jobs.  “He has taken taxpayer money, sent it companies overseas with the promise that somehow it is going to come back to create jobs in places like Iowa and the Midwest and it didn’t happen,” Priebus told ABC News outside Obama’s Iowa, Kirkwood Community College campaign stop.  Priebus knows that Obama bailed out General Motors and Chrysler, saving autoworkers jobs in the very areas that Priebus claimed are outsourced.  Hoping there’s no fact-checking, Priebus completely ignores Obama’s auto industry rescue.

            Announcing June 28 that it’s hiring 12,000 laid-off autoworkers at plants in Ohio, Iowa, Michigan and Illinois, Ford Motor Co. told the real story about Obama’s economic impact on the Upper Midwest.  “That is the ultimate sin and that is what the president has done,” said Priebus.  “He is the outsourcer-in-chief,” turning tables on Barack’s attacks on Mitt’s track record on jobs at Bain Capital.  Priebus chooses pure propaganda over the real story behind Detroit’s stunning comeback   Were it not for Obama’s Feb. 17, 2009 $787 billion bailout bill, Detroit would have gone Chapter 11.  Republican presidential nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney opposed Obama’s bailout and would have let General Motors and Chrysler go under.  Priebus knows that Obama has not outsourced jobs in the U.S. auto industry:   He ponied up and rescued Detroit from almost certain bankruptcy.

            Midwesterners need to stop listening to right wing propaganda and pay attention to their brothers and sisters who have returned to work.  Romney finds himself on the defensive about his personal finances, with an estimated worth of about $250 million.  While his father former Michigan Gov. George Romney (R-Mich.) released 12 years of tax returns, Mitt has refused to itemize his investments in the Grand Caymans and Switzerland.  While there’s nothing wrong with Mitt’s wealth, there something very wrong about failing to disclose his offshore holdings.  GOP officials have practically said it’s un-American to question Romney’s finances, breaking the tradition of vetting presidential candidates.  Launching its counteroffensive, the GOP has done a good job of turning tables on Democrats.  Priebus blamed Obama for not ending tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas.

            Since losing the House in 2010, Obama has had little leverage to change any of former President George W. Bush’s economic policies, including his across-the-board tax cuts that have left the U.S. Treasury bereft of cash.  Priebus knows that with a Republican-controlled House, it’s impossible for the president to get any tax legislation through Congress.  “The President is intellectually distorting the truth about Mitt Romney.  He is doing it knowingly,” said Priebus, in a classic case of “the pot calling the kettle black.”  There’s nothing off-the-wall about questioning Romney’s finances and opposition to Detroit’s bailouts.  “He talks a lot but he doesn’t deliver, and we are going to start delivering that message to Americans everywhere,” said Priebus, knowing that Obama has grown the U.S. stock market by over 65%.  Priebus knows his message but nothing about the economy.

            When Obama took office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 8,000 with the nation running about a $1.4 trillion deficit.  Today’s Dow closed at 16, 653, a whopping 65% increase, dropping federal budget deficits to under $1 trillion.  “The president is playing games.  What he ought to do is start concentrating on the things he promised he would concentrate on which is better jobs for Americans, doing something about our economy, the debt and the deficit,” said Priebus, all of which have improved under Obama.  Priebus knows the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Obamacare would cost around $1 trillion over 10 years but eventually pay for itself through the thousands of new jobs created in the health care industry.  When Obama took office under GOP economic policies, the nation was shedding over 200,000 jobs a month, now making steady gains since March 2010.

            Voters need to wade through the thick propaganda fog, obscuring the reality about today’s economy.  Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that the 2007-08 economic meltdown was one of the worst financial events in U.S. history, much like the Financial Panic of 1906.  With help from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Obama pulled off the impossible:  Avoiding another Great Depression.  Instead of bashing Obama’s every move, the GOP would be more honest to give credit where it’s due.  Everyone wants a booming economy, but it’s been only two short years since the recession bottomed out and the country began adding jobs.  Economic recoveries take time and have expected fits-and-starts.  Last month’s 80,000 net gain in private sector jobs is far better than the massive jobs losses that prevailed under the last Republican administration.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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