June 14, 2012
In discussing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s statements on the economy, the Post told readers:
“Romney’s theory is that keeping tax rates low would spur investment in new businesses, thereby increasing economic growth and perhaps tax revenue itself. He believes that rolling back regulations would reduce the cost of doing business and make the United States more competitive.”
It is not clear that Romney has a “theory” about the economy, nor does the Post know what he really believes. Romney has said that he wants to have lower tax rates on the wealthy and corporations. This will put more money in the pockets of the wealthy, the Post does not know if he actually believes this will help the economy.
The quote that follows this assertion indicate that Romney does not believe what he is saying, since is obviously not true.
“The president’s team indicated that if we passed their stimulus of $787 billion, borrowed, that they’d hold unemployment below 8 percent. We’ve gone 40 straight months with unemployment above 8 percent.
…. If you look at his record over the last 31 / 2 years, you will conclude, as I have, that it is the most anti-investment, anti-business, anti-jobs series of policies in modern American history.”
The comment about 8 percent unemployment refers to a memo printed in early January of 2009 that badly underestimated the severity of the downturn. The memo estimated that the stimulus requested by President Obama would create between 3-4 million jobs. In order to get the necessary Republican support in the Senate, President Obama agreed to a less effective stimulus, which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated created betwen 2-3 million jobs.
The main mistake in this memo was in its projections for the economy, not its assessment of the effectiveness of the stimulus. Presumably Mr. Romney knows this.
The second claim, that President Obama has pursued the most anti-investment, anti-business, anti-jobs policies in modern American history is absurd on its face. Profits are at their highest share of GDP is almost 50 years.
Since Romney must know that these assertions are not true, they cannot reflect what he actually believes. In such cases, rather than trying to penetrate Mr. Romney’s thoughts for readers the Post would be better advised to just report what he says.
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