Monday, June 11, 2012

Romney Rules, cont.: blame Obama for effects of policies I advocate

I want to add a footnote to Jonathan Bernstein's challenge to the media to spotlight the substance of Obama and Romney's opposing stances regarding public sector layoffs, which Romney publicly advocated  on Friday, claiming the US doesn't need more firemen, police or teachers. Bernstein:
There’s clearly a major gap between the candidates on this issue. Moreover — and this is a tricky one for the press to get right — on the question of state and local government jobs, it’s very clear that it’s Romney’s policies, not Obama’s, which are being followed right now. The Romney campaign is trying to obscure this fact. Note, for example, that Soledad O’Brien on CNN this morning raised the issue with Romney campaign adviser Bay Buchanan, who made the audacious claim that Obama should be faulted for public sector layoffs.
Here's my footnote: remember when Romney was running around two months ago charging that 92% of job losses under Obama belonged to women?   Why was that? Because women have suffered disproportionately from the 600,000 public sector job cuts implemented during Obama's term -- cuts that Romney supports and Obama is trying to counteract with federal aid to states that the GOP is blocking. According to an Economic Policy Institute study, women account for 70% of 765,000 state and local government job cuts between 2007 and 2011 (and the bulk of those cuts have taken place during Obama's term).

Today, Romney surrogates are simultaneously blaming Obama for those public sector cuts, as Bernstein notes, and arguing that taxpayers shouldn't be burdened with paying for more teachers

Chalk up Romney Rule #11: I may simultaneously level mutually exclusive charges.

No comments:

Post a Comment