“He (President Obama) wants another stimulus; he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.
Mitt Romney 06/08/2102
Mitt Romney likes to talk about how his experience in the business community gives him an understanding of how the economy works and how to create jobs. He believes that it is his business experience that qualifies him for the presidency. This quotation gives us the first real time example of how he would apply that business experience to an actual presidential problem.
The comment came in response to the President’s calling on congress to pass his jobs bill; a bill which would provide state and local governments with funding to rehire the policemen, firemen, teachers and other public safety workers that they were forced to fire during the recession due to a lack of federal funds. Here we see Romney using his Bain experience to advocate downsizing and the cutting of programs and expenses even if it means the firing of 700,000 government employees. He even seems to dismiss the value of these employees as if they are somehow NOT American: “It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.” Are these fired public employees not “American people.”
Naturally a number of Romney surrogates jumped in to support the Governor’s position. Most notable was a comment from the national voice of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh. “I have nothing against teachers, firefighters and policemen…but they are not part of the private sector. They contribute nothing to the economy. The idea police, teachers and firefighters contribute to economic growth is ignorance 101.” Apparently, according to Limbaugh, these public employees do not purchase well,…anything. Their food, clothing, electronics, automobiles, homes etc. all just magically appear in their households without their having to spend a dime. How nice for them!
This is the problem with Mitt Romney and the Republican Party’s view of our economy. It is the Bain Capital view that only the investors/job creators matter. Everyone else can be cast aside in order to make a profit…or in this specific case a government surplus.
According to the Federal Reserve the median US family in 2010 had no more net worth than it did in the early 1990’s. Median US families lost 39% of their net worth over the past decade. We don’t understand how Romney’s plan to slash “big government programs” reverses that trend. Because when you cut government programs you lay off the workers who administer those programs. Those workers no longer have an income to buy goods and services. Unemployment rises while demand for goods and services declines. If there is no demand then there is no incentive for the “job creators” to invest and hire.
How does any of that help the economy or the American people?
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