Obama's Night-and-Day Contrast to Romney

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 26, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

          On the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, President Barack Obama contrasted himself with GOP presidential nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.  Barack wants Mitt to “own up” to his extremist ways when it comes to his social agenda and managing the economy.  “I can’t speak for Gov. Romney’s motivations,” said Barack, referring to Mitt’s positions that mirror the GOP platform calling for massive cuts in the federal government, especially on popular entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.  Romney runs on a platform to rescind Obamacare. Obama knows that his hard-fought legislative accomplishments would be in jeopardy under Romney.  “What I can say is that he has signed up for positions, extreme positions, that are very consistent with positions that a number of House Republicans have taken,” said Barack.

            Barack contends that those extreme positions are embodied in the GOP running mate House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).  Ryan has called for massive cuts in the federal budget to reduce the $1.2 trillion deficit.  Barack believes Mitt has signed onto Ryan’s budget plans that call for $700 billion in cuts to Medicare alone.  Ryan’s plan calls for privatizing Medicare and Social Security, something designed to save the government trillions of dollars.  “And whether he [Mitt] actually believes in those or not, I have no doubt that he would carry forward some of the things that he’s talked about,” said Barack, warning potential voters that life under Romney and Ryan would be vastly different than today.  Slashing the federal budget, as Ryan proposes, would undoubtedly involve massive layoffs to the federal workforce, casting federal employees into unemployment.

            Romney and Ryan talk of adding 12 million new private sector jobs during their first four years in office.  They offer no coherent way of stimulating the U.S. economy and generating jobs other than cutting taxes.  Both Romney and Ryan subscribe to Supply Side Economics, where the theory holds if you cut taxes the economy will boom.  Former President Ronald Reagan tried that approach in the 1980s, finding that tax cuts provide some stimulus but they also contribute to budget deficits.  Reagan was utterly convinced in 1980 when he debated former President Jimmy Carter that cutting taxes would balance the U.S. budget.  When he left office in 1989, the federal budget deficit was $226.8 billion, nearly quadrupling Carter’s $60 billion deficit in 1980.  Romney and Ryan complain of deficit spending but talk only of cutting taxes.  Marginal tax rates are already so low the government can’t pay its bills.

            Calling Romney and Ryan’s call for across-the-board tax cuts “extreme,” Barack insists it would cost the Treasury $5 trillion, exploding already bloated budget deficits.  More tax cuts for the rich wouldn’t trickle down to the middle class in the way of private sector jobs.  When tax rates for all income brackets are already at rock-bottom, it’s unrealistic to continue cutting taxes without slashing government spending.  Romney and Ryan can only cut the nation’s most coveted entitlement programs, like Medicare and Social Security.  With over 2.2 million federal employees, Romney and Ryan plan  massive cuts to the federal workforce.  There’s simply not any other place to cut the federal budget other than gutting entitlement programs.  You can bet your last dollar Romney and Ryan won’t cut the defense budget.  They never blame budget deficits on massive outlays for foreign wars.

            Romney and Ryan’s economic plan only point fingers at Obama but offer no solution other than cutting taxes.  Both subscribe to Party boss Grover Norquist’s “No Tax Pledge,” essentially forcing the government to slash entitlement programs and the federal workforce.  “We aren’t where we need to be.  Everybody agrees with that,” said Barack, who inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression.  Neither Romney nor Ryan wants to level with the American public.  Both know that the 2007-08 financial collapse took massive intervention by the Federal Reserve Board to save the U.S. banking industry.  They both know that Bush’s Feb. 13, 2008 $700 billion stimulus bill and Obama’s Feb. 17, 2009 $787 billion stimulus bill added to the national debt.  “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan agree,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.  “The American people know they aren’t better off than they were four years ago.”

                Blasting Obama for not fixing the economy fast enough, Romney and Ryan push the myth and failed theory that more tax cuts will create more private sector jobs and make the economy boom.  Both know that Wall Street’s better off than it was four years ago, including everyone with an IRA or 401(k) retirement plan.  Romney’s campaign doesn’t mention that when Barack took office, the Dow Jones Industrials stood at around 8,000.  As of the close Friday, it stood at 13,158, a whopping 70% increase.  While the nation’s federal budget deficit stands at $1.2 trillion, it’s only 7% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, three percent better than when Barack took office.  While not perfect, autoworkers now employed because of Barack’s 2009 bailout are better off than four years ago when General Motors and Chrysler faced bankruptcy.  Romney and Ryan want to tell a story—it’s just not a truthful one

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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