(Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)
During the previous administration, the mood in the country — and around the world — was we couldn’t wait to get somebody else in the White House. The economy was in free-fall because nobody was minding the store, and those in charge were giving it away. When Pres. Obama stepped into office we wanted him to first stop the bleeding, second, stop sending our jobs overseas and third, stop gutting our civil rights.
We also wanted him to reign in the banks, do something about the 45 million or so (give or take a few thousand) people who died each year because of lack of health insurance. We wanted him to stop health insurers from dropping customers when they got sick causing 62 percent of bankruptcies filed in a given year, and turning the American dream into an unstoppable nightmare. We wanted our troops to come home from the wrong war. We wanted him to fix the housing crisis so that the value of our homes would rise again.
We wanted Pres. Obama to do away with the obscene No Child Left Behind that is, in fact, designed to create a caste system in this country. We wanted him to fix our broken schools and support those teachers who excel at their job and encourage those who blame their charge as the problem to seek work elsewhere.
Despite total disruption from Republicans in Congress, the bleeding stopped as the President and his administration began successfully dealing with these issues and much more. Remember when the buzz was all about Pres. Obama was moving too fast? Commentators on television and radio mused over whether the President was taking on too much too soon. Meanwhile, the American people were saying if not now, when?
Even though the numbers are not moving fast enough, we continue to witness job growth in the private sector. We would see the same in the public sector if Republicans would stop trying to gut public services such as teachers, firefighters and police. The only problem with the economy now is the determination by Republicans in Congress to make the President look bad by trying to make him fail … at fixing the economy, fixing our broken school system, fixing our infrastructure, namely addressing the issues we sent him to Washington to deal with. Really.
So here we are once again facing a presidential election and who do Republicans select as the next head of their party and the person they hope Americans will vote for? Mitt Romney, the man who made millions at the expense of others.
It’s okay to make money but not at the cost of someone else’s ability to take care of their own. Mother Jones reported last week that:
Last month, Mitt Romney’s campaign got into a dustup with the Washington Post after the newspaper reported that Bain Capital, the private equity firm the GOP presidential candidate founded, invested in several US companies that outsourced jobs to China and India. The campaign indignantly demanded a retraction, claiming that these businesses did not send jobs overseas while Romney was running Bain, and the Post stood by its investigation. Yet there is another aspect to the Romney-as-outsourcer controversy. According to government documents reviewed by Mother Jones, Romney, when he was in charge of Bain, invested heavily in a Chinese manufacturing company that depended on US outsourcing for its profits—and that explicitly stated that such outsourcing was crucial to its success. [....]
Mother Jones also delves into the issue of when Romney departed from Bain Capital and why.
Last month, Mitt Romney’s campaign got into a dustup with the Washington Post after the newspaper reported that Bain Capital, the private equity firm the GOP presidential candidate founded, invested in several US companies that outsourced jobs to China and India. The campaign indignantly demanded a retraction, claiming that these businesses did not send jobs overseas while Romney was running Bain, and the Post stood by its investigation. Yet there is another aspect to the Romney-as-outsourcer controversy. According to government documents reviewed by Mother Jones, Romney, when he was in charge of Bain, invested heavily in a Chinese manufacturing company that depended on US outsourcing for its profits—and that explicitly stated that such outsourcing was crucial to its success. [....]
I cringe to think of the remote possibility of having a corporate hatchet man in control of our economy. I’m talking about someone who thinks its okay to send our jobs overseas. Romney’s economic plan is fewer firefighters, teacher and police. President Obama’s American Jobs Act doesn’t put people out of work. Instead, the AJA has a series of tax cuts for businesses that would ease their bottom line and allow them to hire much-needed extra help. There’s a host of ways to grow jobs that include fixing our aged infrastructure and modernizing old buildings. There’s Pathway back to Work for those who have been unemployed for lengthy periods. This is exactly what the American people want. We don’t want to see any more folks being fired because Romney’s trying to get a high-profile gig.
We’ve come too far, gained too much to turn back the clock to policies that were never designed to work for all Americans.
Related articles
- Mitt Romney ‘Retired Retroactively’ From Bain Capital, Whatever The Hell That Means [Election 2012] (gawker.com)
- Romney Adviser: Romney Not Responsible For Bain Because He ‘Retired Retroactively’ (thinkprogress.org)
- Video: Fmr. Bain partner: ‘Legally’ Romney was CEO of Bain until 2002 (msnbc.msn.com)
- Dem aide on Bain: If Romney wasn’t in charge, who was? (cbsnews.com)
- Romney “Retired Retroactively” from Bain (politicalwire.com)
- Cutter: Romney is ‘not going to get apology’ (thehill.com)
- EXCLUSIVE: Romney Invested Millions in Chinese Firm That Profited on US Outsourcing (motherjones.com)
- Mitt Romney Calls 2012 Election A ‘Battle’ Over What’s In His Heart, And He’s Losing (huffingtonpost.com)
