False Prophets #2

False Prophet #2

    "Unemployment will remain stuck at over 8%"

        In September 2012, Mitt Romney predicted that "If  Barack Obama is reelected “you’re going to see chronic high unemployment continue four years or longer.”  At the time, the unemployment rate was 8.1% and had been between 8.1% and 8.3% for the entire year. So we ask ourselves, what would breaking out of “chronic high unemployment” look like in a Romney presidency?

        First and foremost,  let's reflect on the unending  bullshit storm of undeterminable claims by Far Right politicians that things like Gasoline prices and Jobs are simply a matter of electing the right (Right) person to the presidency.  Many Republicans followed (in 2012, and still do)  the  fiscally conservative University of Chicago School, which argues that Keynesian stimulus can’t heal a sick economy — only time can. Chicagoans believe that economies can only truly recover on their own and that policy interventions only slow the recovery. It’s one of the  wonders  of modern politics that Republicans have had electoral success with a policy that fundamentally asserts there is nothing the government can do to create jobs any time soon!  A second, and equally discredited (by all but the wealthy) is the beloved "trickledown theory" which has been likened by one wag to, "The rich pissing on the poor."

        Of course, Romney, Perry, Herman Cain and the rest were loathe to  directly state their position as , “If elected, I will tell you to wait this thing out.” Instead, Republican candidates filled (and fill) their "jobs plans"  with Chicagoan ideas that have and had  nothing to do with the then current crisis, like permanent cuts in taxes and regulation. These policies might (or might  not) make the economy healthier in 5 years or 10, but the immediate 2013 impact would have meant  firing a large number of America’s roughly 23 million government workers.

        As for his predictions of  2012, Mitt Romney, that canny businessman,  pledged that, if elected, he would bring the unemployment rate down to 6% by January 2017. Read that again. If only we gave ol' Mitt 8 years, added to Obama's four from 2008, a span of nine years,  since the economy receded in 2008, he would, by virtue of his personal economic savvy, bring unemployment  (see paragraph above regarding the time frame if nothing was done!) below 6%!

        Wowser, why didn't  we choose him?  Oh, but wait, the unemployment rate currently stands at 5.8% and has been under 6% since September 2014. Since January 2013, the economy has created nearly 5 million new jobs. had we elected Romney, and had he even been dead on in his predictions, and assuming he really could affect the economy, we'd still be two years from his promised 6% unemployment!  Do you need any more reason s to ignore him and his far more obnoxious clones?  The next time you hear any Republican say the words "economics, job creation, or "trickle down" put your fingers in your ears and say "La La La, not listening."