Thursday, June 16, 2011

Romney tells unemployed people, he's unemployed too?!

Campaigning in Florida today Mitt Romney met with a group of unemployed people.  He said:
"I should tell my story, I'm also unemployed."  The  presidential candidate then let out a big belly laugh. 

 Matthew Yglesias had this to say to Mitt

Tone deafness aside, when Mitt Romney tries to say that he feels the pain of the jobless because he’s “also unemployed” it’s worth pointing out that he actually isn’t unemployed. He’s just not working. It’s not really the same thing.
An unemployed person is a person who’s looking for a job and not finding one.

DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz also had some succinct comments:
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, official photo portr...                                            Image via Wikipedia Mitt Romney’s comments today at an event with unemployed Floridians that he’s ‘also unemployed’ is inappropriate and insensitive to the millions of Americans looking for work. This comment shows that Mitt Romney – a man who wants for nothing and whose only occupation for more than four years has been to run for President - is incredibly out of touch with what’s going on in our country and around the dinner tables of those who are out of work.
Being unemployed, Mr. Romney, is not a joke – not to my constituents in Florida or to millions of Americans across the country. Folks in my home state and across the country, who are struggling every day to make ends meet, do not need someone making light of their situation. Equating his run for the presidency with the difficulties of these honest hard-working Americans is shocking and is a reflection of his inability to comprehend the struggles of the American people. The fact is, the failed policies of the past, that he is advocating for, got us into the situation we’re in the first place and Americans want neither a repeat of those policies or the type of out-of-touch and failed leadership Mitt Romney represents.
Think chair Schultz's "reflection of his inability to comprehend the struggles of the American people" comments were a little harsh?   How about this doozy from an editorial he wrote last year:
"The indisputable fact is that unemployment benefits, despite a web of regulations, actually serve to discourage some individuals from taking jobs, especially when the benefits extend across years."
Nick Romney column in USA today 


Romney is also a strong advocate of the failed policy of the past: tax cuts create jobs.  We have seen about 20 million instances where tax cuts do not create jobs over 10 years.  Romney is not only out of touch he must have been completely off planet for the last ten years when he wrote:  "In spending $56.5 billion to extend benefits, the deal is sacrificing the bedrock Republican principle that new expenditures be paid for with offsetting budget cuts." (USA Today)  I didn't see any of that "bedrock republican principle" of paying as you go during the 8 years of the Bush administration.  The Bush administration paid for everything except for the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the two Bush tax cuts, Katrina and medicare part d.  During the 8 years of the Bush administration while Romney was benefitting from the huge Bush tax cuts, I didn't hear about any, "pay as you go".  The republicans didn't build on bedrock they built on credit; ours and Romney wants to keep it up.  

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