"We should be well into a robust economy by now..."

[kentuck]

Do you agree with that statement?

That is what Mitt Romney said this morning, in criticizing Barack Obama's handling of the economy.

Personally, I think one of the biggest mistakes of the new Obama Administration was not being honest with the people about the extent of the damage done by the Republicans and the last Administration. It is understandable that they would not want to say anything too negative when the economy was on the verge of collapse but they are now paying the political price with an economy that is slow to recover from a very deep recession.

It was not your average recession. In my opinion, the President should have been honest with the American people. He should have said that we needed to do several things to keep the economy from collapsing. First of all, we will need a $2 trillion dollar stimulus. Second of all, we need to bring healthcare costs under control by initiating a new program with a single-payer system. Thirdly, we will cut spending by cutting the runaway military budget. Last of all, we will create jobs for those folks which the present system cannot create jobs for. We will rebuild the infrastructure of this country and get our economy going again. But it cannot be done overnight. It took us 10 years to get into this mess and it may take that long to get out of it. But we have faith in the American people to get our country going again.

.

[KG]

1. yes, but neither party will do what it takes to happen.

[ibegurpard]

2. Romney will crater the economy even more

with his stated plans to eliminate public sector jobs.

[rfranklin]

3. Absolutely...

Republicans have succesfully sabotaged efforts to bolster the economy by blocking legislation, turning away federal funds for infrastructure projects and creating a phoney deficit crisis. So is it any surprise that the economy is struggling?

[shcrane71]

4. It certainly didn't help that all the Repub/Tea Party governors refused

federal dollars to build passenger rail. That would have been fiscal policy dollars with a large multiplier effect.

[Wounded Bear]

5. "We should be well into a robust economy by now..."

but, thankfully we have been able to avoid that.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. How, pray tell?

Unfortunately, he probably won't ever be asked to explain how he would have done things different but there are clearly some things that could have been done (i.e. more stimulus, public investment)- had there not been so much obstructionism from the Republicans- that could have improved the outlook. And I can't remember for the life of me what THEIR ideas were about how to fix things other than give the wealthy (more) tax cuts, cut spending, cut entitlements, bust unions, fire public employees, nearly cause a default on our debt, and, of course, massively increase military spending (for what I have no idea)- all negative actions with no potential for stimulative effect on the economy.

I think that their basic idea is to let corporations get EVERYTHING they want in terms of regulations, wages, benefits, tax breaks, subsidies, etc. and *maybe* they *might* increase their hiring or do.................something. Republicans are basically acting like corporations basically have our whole economy over a barrel.

[Herlong]

7. "We should be well into a robust economy by now..."

Had the Obama administration been forthright from the start, he wouldn't have to sound like he's pointing fingers at congress for this mess on stump speeches.

[Ship of Fools]

10. Ruh roh ... Someone is about to get schooled ...

[OKNancy]

11. snopes

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=77592

also this old false email was debunked on kos http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/11/1044349/-A-little-help-please-

[Life Long Dem]

9. Not a "robust" economy.

Mitt is full of shit. We just pulled out from another Great Depression. We are on the right track, but we shouldn't be in a robust economy. I remember Hillary volunteering in her first term to clean up the mess left by Bush. Mitt would like you to think we should have cleaned up the mess and are into a robust economy.

[boxman15]

12. I agree with that statement.

I disagree with Romney's reasoning, though. More should have been done, and more would've been done if not for the Republican Party's unprecedented and incredibly cynical obstructionism. They decided it would be better to sit back and do nothing so that they'd have a better chance of winning in November. And we're all suffering because of it. They are keeping millions out of work so that they can get one guy out of a job. It's absurd.

Republicans have put forward absolutely nothing serious in an attempt to help the economy recover. Meanwhile, President Obama and Democrats have, only to have their efforts blocked by the GOTP because they put politics and party ahead of country.

Yet who's getting the blame in the MSM? Obama. How the fuck can anyone who's paying attention honestly say it's his fault things are moving slowly? If the American Jobs Act passed, around 1.3 million people would be employed, and the effects of that cannot be overstated. What have the Republicans put forward? Tax cuts for the rich? That'll do a lot. The only thing you can blame on Obama is about how misinformed Americans are about this recession. He didn't do a good job of explaining the depth and scope of the Great Recession. But he's done things that prevented the Great Depression 2.0 and has put forward ideas to put us into true recovery mode, unlike the GOP.

Fuck Romney, fuck Boehner, fuck McConnell, fuck Rove, fuck the Tea Party, and fuck the Republican Party. They're the ones holding this country back from a true recovery.

[paulk]

13. Romney opens his mouth

nonsense comes out

media repeats it as he said she said

rinse lather repeat

close election come November

ad revenue goes up

[fujiyama]

14. We should but we're not

thanks to Romney and his types that have no interest in actually investing their money within the US. They keep ranting about cutting taxes claiming that high tax rates are what dissuade hiring and investment. The reality is the demand isn't there and that's because the 1% decided that they could save a few bucks by outsourcing the work elsewhere. Now people see the effects of an industrial base that is weakened with the country's ability to manufacture goods to be remarkably lower. Eventually with only lower paying service sector jobs left, you lose the base that buys goods.

All this is going on, while at the same time they use faulty reasoning to "starve the beast". The problem is, austerity sounds great in theory (with simplistic reasoning that a government can be compared to that of a family budget) but has no basis in reality to correct an economic downturn. Cut the public sector jobs and you just have one more person on unemployment. How does that grow the economy in any meaningful sense? We're seeing it in Britain and anywhere else that has decided to go with levels of austerity. Krugman had a great article on this just the other day. If you're going to have these sort of cuts, the worst timing is during a downturn or recession.

But never mind proven Keynesian economics, it's all just an ideological battle to the republicans.

[bhikkhu]

15. I'd rather see zero growth, and be on the way to a healthy environment

a more balanced approach to fossil fuel use, and a realistic look at resource depletion and long-term sustainability. "Full speed ahead, burn it all as fast as you can" is not sane.

1 or 2% growth is a whole lot better for the planet than 4 or 5%, and its a dangerous delusion that what is good for the planet is irrelevant to humankind.

[dkf]

16. Why don't I ever see ideas on how government can help to grow the private sector?

The developing world is starting to produce a middle class that wants the stuff that we have. There is a cache to "made in the USA" as people understand its a safer product than "made in China".

I've been doing a lot of shopping lately, trying to outfit a new kitchen with good quality products that will last a lifetime and it's amazing how many of the reviews that used to be 5 stars are down to a single after production went to China. The quality isn't very good and people don't trust them.

We should be using our entrepreneurial brains to figure out how we re-grow our exports. That will be what puts Americans back to work and it's not a temporary job.

What good is a stimulus that hires people for a couple of years then at the end leaves them unemployed when the funds are gone?

[snot]

17. We shd have spent the bank bailout money on prosecutions & breaking up or liquidating bad banks,

. . . among other things. That wd have created jobs for good guys, instead of further enriching bad guys.

We needed more stimulus, and too much of the stimulus we did do went to the wrong people.

[kentuck]

18. I can't argue with that.

They were like the scorpion that hitched a ride on the back of the frog, in order to get to the other side of the creek, with the promise that he would not sting him. They stung our asses...

[Ready4Change]

19. We are in the Economy we were meant to be in.

This economy is no mistake, no accident, no misfortune. It is planned to favor the super wealthy, while driving everyone else down into needful desperation. We are to accept any hardship, any degradation, any robbery of our control over our lives, just for another daily dole of bread and shelter.

Romney won't improve things. Quite the opposite. Romney is a puppet, too mesmerized by his own footlights to recognize how he long ago become a totally owned commodity. Look at who he wants in his cabinet and advisers. Chock full of neo-con chess pieces. His owners created this economy custom made for themselves, and he is one of their bids for it's continuance.

[Egalitarian Thug]

20. We should, but none of Rmoney's ideas would make it happen, they've never worked even once.

OTOH, the path President Obama chose was just as certain to render what we have today. This was not unforeseen, an accident, or even unintended consequences, this was the blatant abuse of a manufactured crisis to further the Plutocratic agenda.

So, would you like your shit sandwich firm or runny?

[treestar]

21. What of the Republican Congress' handling of the economy?

Mittwit is full of shit.

[Curmudgeoness]

22. Well, this is a global economy now,

and don't you forget it. Actually, you can foget it when it comes to fixing the economy of the US in short order while the rest of the world is having problems too. The Repugs love to tell us all about the global economy reality when it suits them, but they refuse to admit that this economic crisis is global.

[spanone]

23. by now? wtf does that mean? romney can say anything he wants. and does.

he lies. that may be his strongest trait.