October 26, 2012
By AnomalyWell this is unexpected. I joke. The third quarter GDP numbers were released today–and once more, the numbers are not good enough, according to Republicans. In short, the economy is showing positive signs, but President Obama is not cleaning up the mess he inherited fast enough. So, I suppose we should just vote for clones of the previous administration, in order to make an even more devastating mess. Well, that’s what Mitt Romney wants you to do.
Reuters tweeted: FLASH: US GDP rises 2 percent in third-quarter.
Mitt Romney responded:
Today, we received the latest round of discouraging economic news: Last quarter, our economy grew at only two percent, less than half the 4.3% rate the White House projected after passing the stimulus bill. Slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take-home pay. This is what four years of President Obama’s policies have produced. Americans are ready for change — for growth, for jobs, for higher take-home pay. Paul Ryan and I will deliver it.
Romney’s plan via NYT:
True to form, Mr. Romney has not proposed any specific cuts in specific programs. But his three main proposals – to cap federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, to boost defense spending to 4 percent of GDP and to repeal health care reform – would mean non defense cuts of some $6 trillion over the coming decade, compared with $5 trillion under the Ryan plan, according to a detailed analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“If they applied these cuts proportionally, the cuts in programs such as veterans’ disability compensation, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for poor elderly and disabled individuals, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), school lunches and other child nutrition programs, and unemployment compensation would cause the incomes of large numbers of households to fall below the poverty line. Many who are already poor would become poorer.”
(my bold)
Just after Reuters tweeted the report, comments came in from Romney supporters. I’ll leave you with this, and you can determine the veracity of their claims and whether it comes from ‘bullsthit moutain’ or from their own selective memory issues. When there is optimism in the economy, Republicans claim the numbers are skewed, just as they did with poll numbers. When the Gallup poll was released, Republicans claimed they were accurate. Go figure.
