Beneath the Romney/Ryan Lies Is an Austerity Plan that Spells Economic Doom

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Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 01:26 pm

The organization, identification and interpretation of information in order to represent and understand conditions is perception, and it can be influenced by controlling information dispensed to large numbers of people. In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, understood that the public would accept fallacies if “you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth,” and it is a favorite tactic of America’s version of Goebbels, Willard Romney and his Republican cohort. Romney has spent the past eight months telling the American people the economy is in such dire shape that unless he is elected and gives trillions of dollars in tax cuts to the rich while instituting harsh austerity measures on 98% of the population, the nation is doomed. It is true the economy is still recovering after 8 years of Republican malfeasance that Romney intends to repeat, but it is moving forward and whether Romney and Republicans admit it or not, under President Obama, America’s economy is the “sole bright spot in a sluggish world economy.”

There is little doubt unemployment is still elevated and the middle class is being squeezed by lower wages as the wealthy get richer, but according to the Financial Times and Brookings Institution, America is faring much better than other developed nations against the threat of a renewed recession and is still “the brightest spot in the world economy.” The news contradicts Romney’s contention that President Obama’s economic policies are not working, and eviscerates their contention that greater tax cuts for so-called “job creators,” coupled with the harshest austerity measures, are necessary to save America from financial ruin. The truth Romney is mortified of the people learning is that in the developed world, America’s economy is performing much better than every other developed country on Earth, and it is because of President Obama’s economic policies.

The group known as TIGER (Tracking Indices for the Global Economic Recovery) employed statistical methodology illustrating simultaneous movements of indicators that are measured very differently in various countries, but the results, according to the Financial Times front page headline, are that the “US defies threat of global recession.” The statistics demonstrate that momentum in the global economy is dissolving, but in the United States the economic momentum remains reasonably robust. Romney favors austerity similar to that of Germany, which is not experiencing growth or robust employment, but the comparisons end at harsh cutbacks. Germany, which is faring slightly better than countries like Greece, promotes regulating the financial sector and a financial transaction tax to boost revenue and prevent another catastrophic recession. Romney promises to “get government out of the way” of Wall Street and investment banks and promises to repeal Wall Street reforms like Dodd-Frank. The Great Recession of 2008 was caused by unregulated risks in the financial sector that caused countries like Germany, France, and Great Britain to pay for America’s folly, and yet Romney pants to return the same conditions that tanked the global economy.

The only reason America is experiencing job growth, positive GDP, and financial sector strength is because President Obama and Democrats stimulated the economy and did not make drastic cuts like European austerity ideologues. If Republicans in Congress were the least bit interested in strengthening America’s economy further, unemployment would be under 5% and revenue would increase, but their single goal for the last four years was retarding economic growth and keeping Americans unemployed. America’s economic recovery is even better when one figures that President Obama and Democrats faced an obstructive House of Representatives for the past two years, and still managed to stimulate the economy during the President’s first two years in office.

Romney and Ryan’s economic austerity plans are slated to slash government spending on social safety nets like food stamps, Veteran’s benefits, and aid to seniors and the poor, but their Draconian cuts will not reduce the deficit or create jobs. Romney’s mystery tax plan includes a 20% cut in tax rates that will reduce revenue and give wealthy Americans like Romney a negative tax liability with elimination of capital gains and investment taxes. The cuts to government programs like education, construction, police, and fire fighters will increase unemployment and decrease tax revenue, and slashing social programs may save money for a fraction of Romney’s tax cuts for the rich, but creates more lost jobs and millions of sick and hungry children and seniors.

America’s economy is not ideal and no-one in their right mind would disagree, but to real economic experts at home and around the world who see the stock market back to pre-recession levels, retail sales near peak 2007 numbers, and rising employment agree President Obama’s economic policies are working. Romney’s greatest offense is going around the country lying that the President’s agenda has made the economy worse to convince ignoramus voters that harsh austerity measures and more tax cuts for the richest Americans will create a booming economy, when the reality is playing out across Europe and the developed world with economies stagnating and teetering on the verge of another recession.

If there were no evidence that austerity measures were destructive in a fragile economy, one might be inclined to give Romney and Ryan a pass for proposing something novel, but there are real-world examples of nations that fell into the austerity trap that are struggling to prevent their economies from coming to a crashing halt in the global recession. And yet, there is a shining city on a hill that is the “brightest spot in the world economy,” and as real economic experts survey the rest of the developed world, they have come to a universal conclusion that under President Barack Obama, the “US defies threat of global recession as the sole bright spot in a sluggish world economy.” All the while, Willard Romney lies often to earn the right to repeat Europe’s austerity mistakes and give massive tax cuts to the rich that will deny America’s exceptional economic recovery and doom this country to wallow in global recession with the rest of the developed world that makes Romney either incredibly stupid, or exceedingly evil.

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Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.