May 19, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Romney Says Obama’s Economic Policies Haven’t Worked — Romney’s Policies Would?
Mitt Romney is traveling around the country saying President Obama’s economic policies haven’t worked. Romney says we can have a more prosperous future with more jobs if we elect him in November. Let’s stop right there. The only way you can believe that is if you live in a vacuum or you are already against President Obama regardless of what he says or does.
Nobody thinks this economic recovery is happening as fast as it should, but for more than two years (out of three) of Obama’s first term there has been steady private sector job growth. This is a stark contrast to the final year of the last Republican president, George W. Bush. Mitt Romney has not proposed anything on taxes and the economy that would separate him from Bush’s policies. And for that matter, Obama has only marginally changed course when it comes to economy policies. We have yet to try anything liberal to fix this economy. So, Obama is Bush-lite when it comes to economic policies, hence the slow recovery, and Romney is fully equal to Bush when it comes to taxes and the economy. Which one is more likely to grow the economy, Romney or Obama? Well, neither are good choices in my opinion.
We need to be doing a lot more infrastructure investment. Yes, that means spending money. Just look overseas where they stopped spending and instead went with austerity. Now the UK is back in recession and several European countries may follow shortly. Here in the United States we have not (yet) gone the direction of austerity, but we have only spent just enough to crawl slowly out of the deep hole dug in the 2008-2009 Great Recession. The stimulus needed to be larger in size and have less focus on tax cuts and more focus on infrastructure spending that creates jobs.
So, when I hear Romney scold President Obama on the economy I’m thinking, “did Romney get the memo?” AMERICAblog has an article on this topic with similar sentiments:
AMERICAblog – Romney slams Obama for not fixing Bush/GOP financial problems
What part of the Great GOP Recession did Mitt Romney not see? Oh that’s right, he didn’t see it because nobody in his elite group has been touched by the Great Recession. Everyone would love to see the national debt reduced, including Obama. What is even more important now is improving the employment problem, which should dwarf all other discussions. Employment may not be an issue for the Romney class, but it certainly is for everyone else.
It’s important to note that what Romney is suggesting when he talks about cutting the debt is strict austerity. As the world has noticed, austerity is having a disastrous impact on economies across the UK and Europe. Austerity works when there’s an already growing economy but it deepens and extends a crisis when an economy is failing.
So if you want to cut government spending regardless of the negative effects it will have on the economy and job growth, and you are in favor of European-style austerity, than Mitt Romney is your man. President Obama’s policies are far from the best policies for our current economic situation, but the alternative would be a disaster.
dks
