Monday, November 21, 2011
Romney Blames President Obama For Current Defficit Problems
Mitt Romney spoke out to people explaining how he feels that President Obama is at fault for the collapsing deficit issues in America. He took direct shots at the President saying, Obama has done nothing to handle the situation and has completely avoided it. Romney went on to say that Obama has "been out doing other things — campaigning, and blaming, and traveling." Not things that he should be doing. Mitt also went on to bash and disagree with President Obama's plan to cut military spending saying that, “In a setting like this, the idea that we’re going to devastate our military is simply unacceptable.”
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10 comments:
I definitely don't agree with Romney. I think it's biased, especially given that as result of the collapsing deficit we begin to point fingers, wanting to blame someone. Republicans, like Romney are going say that it is Obama's fault based on the notion he has exploded government spending, but failed to fix the economy. In addition to Obama's stimulus that hasn't had a big impact on the economy, as he promised it would. While Democrats see it as a problem that was passed down to Obama. In some aspects Romney is right,though, based on the notion that Obama signed an $800 billion spending increase, and combined with the drop in revenue under his presidency, the deficit boomed to $1.4 trillion. However, an issue as big as the deficit takes time to fix; in fact it's possible that nothing would have fixed the deficit inherited by Obama. Also, under Obama in 2010 the economy and tax collections did in fact improve (however modestly) and the deficit shrank by one million. We also need to keep in mind that President Bush increased federal spending during his presidency by more than 2x as much as Obama has,and Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 reduced revenue too, so it's unfair to lay this problem solely on Obama.
Although I agree with Romney, we have to realize that Romney's attacks are nothing personal and they are just a political ploy to gain Republican support. At this stage in the campaign, Romney has been criticized for not differentiating himself from the field and his recent attacks could be seen as a way of showing Republican voters that he is in it for the long haul.
I would also have to say that as Tom put, Obama has "been out doing other things — campaigning, and blaming, and traveling." I am strongly against a man who is supposed to be leading our country making a political show while America is suffering.
While I personally don't agree with the way Romney is acting, Jacob has a point - mudslinging has been a key element to presidential and political campaigns since the beginning of the nation. That's only to be expected; it's easier to build oneself up if the opponent is torn down.
However, Romney's claims against Obama are not 100% accurate. As we discussed earlier this semester, the President is actually involved very little in running the economy. Technically, Romney should be blaming Tim Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the others directly involved with that governmental branch, for the majority of the country's continuing economic woes. Unfortunately, the majority of the
American people aren't aware of this. Romney's words will ring true for most citizens.
I also agree with Jacob, although I am not sure whether or not it is fair to place the full blame on anybody. As Allison said, many people are involved in policy decisions concerning the economy, and I'm sure that even after taking Economics not many of us fully understand all of the issues that we are blaming Obama for. Regarding Mitt Romney's stance on military spending, its kind of a given based on where he stands on the political spectrum. And in the President's defense, politics is a game and if he doesn't play it in the crucial coming months before elections, there won't be any way for him to attempt to help our country in the future.
I agree with Allyson. Obama shouldn't be blamed for every downturn in the economy because as she said, Obama really does not have as much influence as say the Federal Reserve. Now, He can make suggestions, which is why I say he can't be totally blamed. His jobs bill (though I know it is old news) seems to be a pretty good suggestion to me, the problem is getting it past republicans
In regards to Romney's actions and or political tactics, I 100% disagree with them. Mudslinging is an awful tactic. It sets Americans against Americans and in the current times, that is the exact opposite of what we want to be doing. We will always disagree because of our nature, but we can also at least try to get something done in the spirit of benefiting our entire country, not just adding to the pockets of the few up top. That said, I think the recent campaign adds run by both Romney and Perry should be struck down as pure mudslinging because they do exactly what Romney is cutting Obama for. The adds insinuate that Obama called Americans lazy when in reality, Obama was saying that the GOVERNMENT had to get its act together. That seems strangely Republican to me. So until Romney apologizes or takes down that campaign add, he has no right to call Obama anything. Being a lier and a hypocrite is much worse than anything Romney has accused Obama of (especially since most of what he cuts him down for, he really has almost no control over, like the economy. As a business man, Romney should know that).
Obama definitely does not deserve to be called responsible. Romney doesn't really have anyone else to blame. Bush started the war and kept it going on credit. If Mitt is going to criticize so much he should try pushing a plan for the rich to start paying more taxes for national security.
I think Romney's behavior hardly comes at a surprise. While it's hardly fair to blame Obama (or anyone, for that matter) for the current state of the American economy and lack of real change over the past four years, given the enormous deficit that Obama faced upon first stepping into office + Congressional inefficiency and so forth, Romney, or any other campaigning Republican, would have to be a bit of an idiot to not point that out in his campaign. Given the nature of [negative] campaigning in America and how oh-so-well Republicans and Democrats just love reconciling their views, any failure of either party is going to be exploited, regardless of whose fault it truly was. I'm not defending this tendency; rather, I'd just like to point out that it's an inevitability, unless there's some change to the system as a whole.
In my opinion, President Obama has nowhere near as much responsibility in collapsing deficit issues as Mitt Romney claims. Like Allyson and Patrick said, the president is not the one directly affecting the economy so much as the Federal Reserve. Contrary to public opinion, President Obama's ARRA has raised real GDP, lowered unemployment rate, and has created jobs according to the Congressional Budget Office Director's Blog, http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=2651. Obama has also proposed an American Jobs Act, which was designed to create more jobs in America and try to help America's economy. He also delegated a joint select committee on deficit reduction, commonly referred to as the supercommittee, which had the goal of reducing the deficit by $1.5 trillion. The bipartisan supercommittee ultimately failed due to the unwillingness of Republicans and Democrats on the committee to come to agreement. Clearly President Obama has been hard at work trying to lower the deficit,which he shouldn't even be blamed for. As to Mitt Romney's allegations that President Obama's plan to cut military spending would "devastate our military" is completely bogus."[E]ven the hugest cuts imaginable will mean the U.S. spends $4 trillion on the military over 10 years instead of $5 trillion." http://www.nsnetwork.org/node/2245.
It seems that Romney, too, has succumbed to the desperation debate tactics of criticizing his opponent instead of pointing out his own strengths. But in this GOP race, who hasn't? We can't take his words as especially offensive or truthful or perceptive because GOP debates seem to have devolved into Obama-bashing sessions wherein all candidates seem to forget that they must differentiate themselves from the largely mediocre pack of Republicans, instead of taking the easy route out and bashing the one thing they all can agree to hate: Obama.
Sabrina Imbler brings up a good point. During these debates, especially because they're Republican, who are they going to blame the recession on? I believe that those candidates main goals were to find a common enemy and therefore gain votes by listing off their solutions.
Even so, I don't think that Obama is completely to blame nor is he innocent, but despite what both parties agree or disagree on, America is in a recession and what we need now are solutions not finger pointing.
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