There is an eerily similar scenario playing out now: tough talk on Iran, Syria, China, coupled with the promise of an additional 20% tax cut. Militancy up, tax income down – without increasing our national debt, balanced out by eliminating loop holes in the tax code, Romney/Ryan assure us. But which? The mortgage interest deduction? Charitable deductions? Employer-provided health insurance? They can’t say. Economists believe that all tax deductions (loopholes) combined wouldn’t be enough to pay for the 20% tax cut. Still, the snake oil is being advertised, and there are willing buyers.
Mitt Romney itemizes his accomplishments in his four years as governor of Massachusetts. If Romney did such a bang-up job in Massachusetts, why is he 20 points behind in the pollings there? Romney says he knows how to create jobs. The truth is he knows about making a corporation ‘lean’ – good for stockholders and CEOs. The truth is that he and Paul Ryan are bottom line men, numbers people, not people people. Which is why they both advocated that Chrysler and General Motors go bankrupt, and then presumably rise from the ashes. Maybe; maybe not. In the meantime, what about the auto industry workers, the auto supply people, and all the auxiliary businesses? That large pebble thrown into the unemployment waters would have made rings that rippled out across our nation. If GM ever reopens that plant in Ryan’s home town in Wisconsin it will be because there is a GM, alive and kicking!
Note: In a few weeks, Bain Capital, the company Mitt Romney founded, and from which he continues to make millions as a “passive retired partner”, will close the doors of a high tech auto parts factory in Freeport, Illinois and ship 170 good, high-paying jobs to China! Sensata Technologies is a profitable company, income last year up 16% from 2010.
