Thursday, May 24, 2012

Short: Romney promises...

... 6% unemployment. Cheers and wailing of joy.

Except Obama promised no more than 8% unemployment. Gingrich promised $2.50 a gallon gasoline and a moon colony. Please, shelve the promises and show us a fiscal plan with plenty of specific numbers.

A plan that fits on a bumper sticker


 Photo: legalinsurrection.com


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Except Obama never "promised" 8% unemployment; that's simply a GOP talking point sent through the media-truth matchine. I note that your link goes to an Atlantic story which states:

"Setting benchmarks can be perilous. President Obama is still getting hammered over an early projection by his advisers, based on economic indicators that later were revised to be much worse, that a stimulus package would keep unemployment to 8 percent. It has finally fallen to 8.1 percent after reaching a high of 10 percent in October 2009."

In fact, the employment rate was already over 8% and accelerating up to 10%, based on massive layoffs in late 2010 and the first six months of 2011. That was before ANY of Obama's policies, including the stimulus, could have any impact. But the GOP hammered him anyway.

Plus, Romney's promise is hardly all that notable. It's a low bar. Chances are, just based on the economy's current trajectory, employment will be at 6% by the end of 2012. It's dropping about .1% every month, so 20 months from now it would be ... around 6%.

The fact is, projections and promises like that suck. It's no wonder the GOP wants to pretend Obama made such a promise so that they can hold it against him. So when Romney gets elected and runs for re-election after another recession (which he'll blame on having to reverse Obama's policies), and unemployment is at 8.2%, he'll start making excuses that he would NEVER allow Obama to make now.

So I suggest that you amend your post to discontinue the reflection of the false GOP talking point that "Obama promised 8%".

ModeratePoli said...

@Anon, Lighten up. I'm not enforcing anyone's talking points. I'm making fun of the promises politicians make even though they can't control the economy.

Read more of my work, like this post, if you ever come back.