The Anger Blog, The National Economy for Dummies

Why is it that so many conservatives feel Mitt Romney is the person to get our economy on sound footing? They believe he can get businesses to start hiring if he can keep taxes low and cut government regulations. Apparently, millions of voters believe anything that conservatives espouse, without using logic and other reasoning skills, which at least a fair number of them must possess.

A quick review of history should be helpful in understanding why our economy is where it is today. George W. Bush inherited a surplus, and, after eight years, put the U.S. economy in a deep hole. Jobs were not being created, but being lost at about 700,000 a month when he left office. How could this have happened? A few things that may have contributed to this economic downfall are the following: trillions of dollars of tax breaks for the rich, two wars not being required to be funded (one of which he started against the wrong country), a prescription drug benefit that was not funded, and an abolishment of regulations on Wall Street and other corporate entities. The result was the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression. Where was the anger and outrage over the economy from the Republicans then?

In 2009, Barack Obama assumed the presidency and inherited this disaster. The first thing a select group of Republicans on Capitol Hill did was to develop a strategy, not to fix the economy, but to do whatever necessary to keep President Obama from being re-elected. The economy and the American people took a backseat to the Republicans' main goal of regaining the presidency after four years. They voted 'no' on everything Obama favored (even policies that they had previously championed themselves). They filibustered over 300 times (a new record, by the way), thus requiring a 60-vote majority in the Senate to pass legislation.

In spite of this, the Obama administration is turning the economy around … certainly at a slower pace than we would like but, considering the roadblocks put in his path and the record of the Bush administration, I would say he is doing a decent job.

The Republican economic plan for this upcoming presidential election is that we must keep the tax breaks for the wealthy and big businesses (who, they say, are the 'job creators') and loosen regulations on corporations and Wall Street. Isn't this the same approach that the Bush administration advocated and that got us in trouble in the first place? Haven't we kept his tax breaks for the wealthy for over a decade (including Obama's entire presidency)? Why haven't these 'job creators' created a lot of jobs over the past decade, while they have enjoyed the lower tax rate than they had under previous Republican administrations? These corporations are also sitting on trillions of dollars that they won't invest in this country. Their profits are at all time highs, yet they continue to outsource jobs. Are they able to create jobs in this country now or are they waiting until after the election? Incidentally, there are also fewer regulations under the present administration than under the Bush administration.

Republicans state that President Obama does not have policy ideas to put people back to work. The truth is, he does, but they cannot be implemented because of the obstructionist Republican lawmakers and party leaders. Why have they chosen to obstruct legislation? So that they can claim the Obama administration a failure. Their economic plan for job growth and the lowering of the national debt heralded by the GOP is exactly the same as the one enacted by the Bush administration, the plan that put the nation on the brink of disaster … even though a new Gallop Poll released today shows that a majority of Americans (68%) blame President Bush for our struggling economy. The only people who benefit from this plan are the top one percent, while it is said of the rest of us, "Let them eat cake."