Rollingstone Magazine - Mitt Romney's Real Agenda (Good Read)

[TomCADem]

Here is a good article that does the best job of reconciling and explaining Romney's agenda if he were to be elected President. With the selection of Ryan, the heavy fundraising from right wing billionaires, and his refusal to describe his agenda in a manner that makes mathematical sense, it is clear that Romney is not suddenly an incompetent candidate. Instead, his incompetence is actually attibutable to his efforts to obscure his agenda as President.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/mitt-romneys-real-agenda-20120928

It was tempting to dismiss Mitt Romney's hard-right turn during the GOP primaries as calculated pandering. In the general election – as one of his top advisers famously suggested – Romney would simply shake the old Etch A Sketch and recast himself as the centrist who governed Massachusetts. But with the selection of vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan, the shape-shifting Romney has locked into focus – cementing himself as the frontman for the far-right partisans responsible for Washington's gridlock.

There is no longer any ambiguity about the path that Romney would pursue as president, because it's the same trajectory charted by Ryan, the architect of the House GOP's reactionary agenda since the party's takeover in 2010. "Picking Ryan as vice president outlines the future of the next four or eight years of a Romney administration," GOP power broker Grover Norquist exulted in August. "Ryan has outlined a plan that has support in the Republican House and Senate. You have a real sense of where Romney's going." In fact, Norquist told party activists back in February, the true direction of the GOP is being mapped out by congressional hardliners. All the Republicans need to realize their vision, he said, is a president "with enough working digits to handle a pen."

The GOP legislation awaiting Romney's signature isn't simply a return to the era of George W. Bush. From abortion rights and gun laws to tax giveaways and energy policy, it's far worse. Measures that have already sailed through the Republican House would roll back clean-air protections, gut both Medicare and Medicaid, lavish trillions in tax cuts on billionaires while raising taxes on the poor, and slash everything from college aid to veteran benefits. In fact, the tenets of Ryan Republicanism are so extreme that they even offend the pioneers of trickle-down economics. "Ryan takes out the ax and goes after programs for the poor – which is the last thing you ought to cut," says David Stockman, who served as Ronald Reagan's budget director. "It's ideology run amok."

And Romney has now adopted every letter of the Ryan agenda. Take it from Ed Gillespie, senior adviser to the campaign: "If the Ryan budget had come to his desk as president," Gillespie said of Romney, "he would have signed it, of course."

[freshwest]

1. If that 53% that Romney represents show up at the polls, that's exactly what they want, isn't it?

We'll see which way America...

And the rest of the World...

Decides to handle the challenges ahead.

[pamela]

3. I'm part of that 53% but he doesn't represent me.

And I will be showing up at the polls. With bells on. Big, blue, bells.

[freshwest]

5. Thank You! Prove him wrong, pamela!

[truebluegreen]

7. Just because 47% of Americans are allegedly moochers...

And 47% of Americans will most likely vote for Obama, doesn't mean they are the same 47%.

Which is why that statement is so bad for rMoney...he just insulted way too many people whose votes he needs.

Sure, 47% will vote for him anyway, but he just exposed his true self to the rest.

[CBHagman]

2. Years back The Nation said the GOP wanted to restore the Gilded Age.

I didn't doubt it then, but little did I know how moderate George W. Bush would look alongside today's GOP. They not only want to undo Obama's work, they want to wipe the Progressive Era out of history.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

4. Well it's clear that Republicans don't want a competent leader...

...they just want a robosigner. At least they admit it. Or, their little sniveling controller Grover does.

[Ikonoklast]

6. The Ryan Budget is a recipe for a revolution.

Starving people usually use whatever means necessary to find food.

[barbtries]

13. agree.

my boss and i were talking about that, as i mentioned that under romney she'd be doing much better money-wise whereas i would be squeezed like crazy, and she said, that will never happen. there will be an arab spring in the USA.

[DreamGypsy]

8. Norquist on Romney... a president "with enough working digits to handle a pen."

The response takes one working digit:



VOTE! Vote with whatever working digits you have. Otherwise they may not be working for long.

[Cha]

9. But, of course, Romney did some pandering on his

Massachusetts health care the other day..just to let us know he doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks.

And, Romney's running from Ryan on this now but, no doubt, he would sign it if we let his crazy ass in the white house. And, teabaggers retain the House and who knows about the Senate.

[oldbanjo]

10. If he dosen't comply he can easly be replaced be Ryan,

don't put anything past the Republicans.

[Cha]

11. I don't.

[barbtries]

12. i think what the republicans are planning

is known as dystopia.

yes, that's it: noun
a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.

i wonder how they sleep sometimes. there is a sickness throughout if they can promote this and still live with themselves.

[Martin Eden]

14. "It's ideology run amok."

For some, perhaps, but I think the biggest impetus behind Republican policy is the unmitigated greed of the 1%.

[stanchaz]

15. Trick-Em Economics

Trickle-Down economics? Let’s be blunt - and honest.
You want to know what "Trickle-down economics" REALLY is?
Trickle-Down Economics is -excuse my language- nothing but
the fuckin' super-rich PISSING on the rest of us.
And laughing all the way to their offshore banks.
Trickle-Down, Trick-Em economics is now, and always has been:
Crumbs for us -  Cadillacs , car elevators, ten houses
loopholes & lower taxes for them. That is ...if they pay ANY taxes at all.
Romney smirks and says TO HELL
with “47% of America” -- the “losers” and “parasites”
that he so easily dismisses and disrespects as “dependents”
-- all of us are struggling to stay afloat, all of us still in the
 middle-class, and all of us hoping to get there. 
Prince Mitt wants to be King. He doesn’t have enough. He wants it all.
But did the Big Flipper even MENTION the words
"worker" or "veteran" in his Republican convention speech?
This man Romney is SO out of touch ...that it's incredible.
He abandons the elderly, the students, the hungry, the homeless,
the helpless, and the hopeless  ...and all the biblical “least of these”.
Love thy neighbor?  Come on Mitt, let’s be honest:
YOUR REAL GOD IS MONEY.
YOUR saints are those who have the most money
..... those who want to BUY this ELECTION - and this COUNTRY
......and TO HELL with the rest of us.
Bottom line: When THEY get a break - hey, they deserve it. 
But if WE get a break, it’s a handout. BULLSHIT!
Tell me - who are the REAL “takers”?  Who are the REAL “makers”? 
Who are the TRUE workers and builders? Who are the REAL “victims” here? 
And who’s in the Cayman Islands, trying to avoid taxes,
and deducting his dancing horses?
Who gave their LIVES and limbs ...in unpaid and un-needed wars?
Whose sweat, .....on whose brows, has BUILT this great country?
Was it the Romney’s of this world ...or ...us?
They try to drown us out with their dollars.
But WE still have a voice. And it’s called our VOTE.
Loud and Clear -- we need to just say NO.
NO to Romney & Company.  NO to what they stand for.
‘Cause this is STILL our country. Our children’s country. 
And we mean to KEEP it that way. Period.
Romney should “self-deport”  HIMSELF back to Mexico,
where his grandpa fled to avoid the U.S. marriage monogamy laws. 
‘Cause Prince Mitt not only wants to kill the Dream Act,
but the American Dream as well. 
We need a President for ALL the people -
NOT a President of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.