Romney Touts Capitalism as Economy's Fix

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 29, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

          Starting an abbreviated opening to the Republican National Convention, 65-year-old GOP nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney distinguished himself from President Barack Obama as an unapologetic free market capitalist.  While it all seems too abstract for average voters, Romney’s message goes to the heart of defining Barack as a red-bellied socialist, as close to the Communist line as you can get.  Romney’s run on reversing Barack’s signature health care legislation, only recently ruled constitutional June 28 by U.S. Chief Supreme Court John G. Roberts Jr.  Romney and his Party hoped Roberts would strike down the legislation.  Calling himself a free market capitalist, Romney hopes to cast Obama as a radical leftist to prospective voters.  Romney, a Wall Street venture capitalist, made his fortune as CEO of Bain Capital, much to Democrats’ chagrin.

            When U.S. free markets collapsed in 2007-2008, all fingers during George W. Bush’s presidency pointed at unqualified borrowers defaulting on their “subprime” mortgages.  When the dust settled, the nation’s biggest banks ran out of cash, prompting his Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to fashion a $670 billion bailout bill.  Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan called the collapse the worst economic calamity since the Financial Panic of 1906.  While Romney and his Party want to blame Obama, the record proves the collapse occurred on Bush’s watch.  Risky trading schemes known as “derivatives” caused the epic collapse of U.S. and global financial markets.  Free market capitalism at its finest sent financial markets careening over the falls.  While Romney and the GOP like to blame lowly homeowners, the record shows it was unregulated Wall Street.

            Romney talks about free markets not to tout sound economic principles but to bash Obama as a socialist.  “In the campaign to come, the American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need a clear and unapologetic defense, and I intend to make it because I’ve live it,” said Romney, touting the fortune amassed as a venture capitalist.  Voters who work for a living don’t know what he’s talking about.  Since Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 70% to over 13,100.  Wage-earners with 401 (k) or IRA retirement plans have watched their investment portfolio improve.  Unemployed autoworkers in the Midwest know they’re working again not because of free market capitalism but because Barack bailed out General Motors and Chrysler Feb. 17, 2009, his first official act as president.  Romney’s free market capitalism would have let GM and Chrysler go broke.

            Mitt believes in an America in which the people don’t question Wall Street.  He subscribes to Supply Side Economics where tax cuts to the well-heeled somehow “trickle down” to the hoi polloi.  When GOP icon President Reagan took office Jan. 20, 1981, he promised to balance former President Jimmy Carter’s intolerable $60 billion federal budget deficit by 1983.  By the time he left office Jan. 20, 1989, with all his tax cuts and Supply Side economics, the deficit had nearly quadrupled to $226 billion.  Since Obama took office the nation’s dept-to-GDP ratio has improved from over 10% to a more acceptable 7%.  Yet Romney consistently says his free market ways would accelerate recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression.  “I am Mitt Romney.  I believe in America, and I’m running for president of the United States,” said Romney as a proud free market capitalist.

            Mitt and his running mate 41-year-old House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) rail against Obama’s health care overhaul AKA Obamacare.  Both believe it’s inappropriate for the government to buy citizens health insurance.  Ryan, as a Tea Party guy, believes health care is beyond the scope of the federal government.  His Path to Prosperity budget proposal, passed by the House of Representatives April 15, 2011, called for $700 billion in cuts to Medicare, with billions of other cuts to popular government entitlement programs.  Romney and Ryan seek to reduce the size and influence of the federal establishment.  They don’t like to admit that without Fed intervention in 2008, some of the nation’s biggest banks and car companies would be bankrupt.  Government intervention saved potential chaos and anarchy in U.S. and global financial markets

             Mitt promotes himself as a free market capitalist to present Barack as a red-dipped leftist.  Blaming Obama for today’s sluggish economy, Romney hopes to sell himself as the most logical free market fix.  His religious adherence to GOP anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist ‘s “No Tax Pledge” paints himself into a corner when it comes to reducing the budget deficit and fixing the economy.  Under Romney and Paul’s plan, the only way to reverse today’s massive budget deficit is to slash government entitlements and federal jobs.  Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned House Republicans against cutting back on government spending.  Romney and Paul’s approach would not create the 12 million jobs promised in their first term.  It would drive the federal budget deficit through the roof and promote unprecedented levels of unemployment by laying off federal workers.

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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