“…Not for a second did I think that Ann
Romney got it. This has nothing to do with wealth. After all, the Kennedys were
rich. So were the Roosevelts. Someone who appreciated the plight of the poor
would not have trivialized it with campy stories from her let’s-pretend past.
The challenge is not the isolated person who has fallen on hard times who Mitt
and Ann have helped — I applaud that! — but the utterly impoverished, the
erstwhile homeowner, the financially precarious old and those who have flunked
out of the middle class. They too have stories about eating off an ironing
board and stuffing themselves with pasta and tuna fish. Only it’s not about the
past, but about the present and, worse, the future.”
“…This
is classic “weaponized Keynesianism” — the claim that government spending can’t
create jobs unless the money goes to defense contractors, in which case it’s
the lifeblood of the economy. And no, it doesn’t make any sense.
“What about the
argument, which I hear all the time, that Mr. Obama should have fixed the
economy long ago? The claim goes like this: during his first two years in
office Mr. Obama had a majority in Congress that would have let him do anything
he wanted, so he’s had his chance.
“The short answer is,
you’ve got to be kidding.
“As anyone who was
paying attention knows, the period during which Democrats controlled both houses
of Congress was marked by unprecedented obstructionism in the Senate. The
filibuster, formerly a tactic reserved for rare occasions, became standard
operating procedure; in practice, it became impossible to pass anything without
60 votes. And Democrats had those 60 votes for only a few months. Should they
have tried to push through a major new economic program during that narrow
window? In retrospect, yes — but that doesn’t change the reality that for most
of Mr. Obama’s time in office U.S. fiscal policy has been defined not by the
president’s plans but by Republican stonewalling.”
“…Don’t
worry, Romney says, he’ll make sure all Americans have the health care they
need and deserve. Someday. Somehow.
On one level, the confusion Romney generated Sunday
about his views simply reflects his willingness to say whatever he thinks
people want to hear. “Romney panders” is such a familiar story by now that it
hardly qualifies as news.
But health care is no ordinary issue. Bringing
universal health-insurance coverage to the citizens of Massachusetts — via the
individual mandate — was Romney’s greatest accomplishment as governor. This is
subject matter he truly understands.
He knows full well that if he fulfills his promises,
or threats, regarding Obamacare, there won’t be any affordable coverage for
people with preexisting conditions. He knows that if he follows through on
Medicare and Medicaid, seniors will have to pay more for their care and many
poor Americans won’t receive adequate care at all.
No wonder Romney has so much trouble sticking to a
consistent story
Cassi Creek: The
Romney-Ryan promise to immediately repeal Obama’s Affordable health care act
may not be worth the air time it has previously occupied. The teavangelists have apparently realized
that some of their base has begun to understand that they will be stripped of
healthcare items that they like and wish to keep. We’ve all got a pre-existing condition or two
out there in a chart in some medical office.
The insurance companies will happily pay a clerk-typist (pronounced “bureaucrat”)
to find them. That same clerk can send
out the notice to Medicare patients that the annual cost of caring for the
elderly has just exceeded the monetary worth of this year’s insurance voucher,
again.
Krugman’s
article is quite accurate. The lack of
jobs action by Congress was and remains part of deliberate obstruction by the
GOP/teavangelists. Whether or not enough
of the voting populace is able to accurately fix the blame for job program
failures on deliberate obstructionism remains to be determined.
Equally important
will be the ability of voters to avoid being taken in by the Romney-Ryan charade
of poverty while starting out in life. There
is no reason to believe that the Romney family suffered for lack of any
advantage. They may have eaten canned
tuna. If they did, so what. Canned tuna is a staple protein though out
much of the world. I doubt that the
Romney pantry tuna was labeled for felines.
Truly poor Americans know the difference. Truly poor Americans don’t have desks. They don’t have ironing boards. They don’t have the security of a job that
pays for housing and food. They do
understand shoehorning a family into a motel room or sleeping in a car in a
parking lot.
Truly poor
Americans don’t have the luxury of attending college. They don’t have the luxury of being able to
see a doctor, a dentist, or to get help to avoid pregnancy.
There’s
nothing cute about poverty in America.
It doesn’t sound any better if the tale is told wearing a tailored
suit. It doesn’t come with a family gym
membership, access to a golf course and tennis courts, smart phones or the
internet. There is no one running on the
GOP/teavangelists ticket for POTUS who understands poverty.
However,
Romney and Ryan, if elected, will do their best to continue to create poverty
in America.
They will
fire government workers while privatizing every government service they
can. They’ll preside over the off
shoring of millions of jobs. They roll
back the social and cultural condition to the days of no family planning and no
contraception. They will do everything
within their abilities to create a new pool of impoverished Americans. Tuna fish and pasta will not be served.
