Romney’s Catch-22

05 June 2011 |permalink | email article

New Yorker staff writer Ryan Lizza, in the June 6 issue, has a must read, suggesting that Mitt Romney’s greatest achievement as Massachusetts governor was signing a law in 2006 requiring every citizen to buy health insurance. Aside from President Obama, Romney may be the man most responsible for the national law.

Lizza: “That honor is not one that Romney is entirely happy with. As the Boston Phoenix pointed out, when “No Apology” was issued in paperback, in February, Romney made a notable change from the original version. In the hardcover, published in early 2010, after reviewing the success of health care in Massachusetts, wrote, “We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country. In the paperback, the line has been deleted.”

Notable

President Herbert Hoover in June of 1930, relying on anecdotal evidence of an upturn, announced “The Depression is Over.” In his State of the Union address that December Hoover said two and a half million Americans were out of work but acknowledged that the number was eight months old. In fact, at the time of his speech, five million people were out of work, and a hundred thousand more were losing their jobs every week.

“On the fiscal side, Republicans are demanding immediate spending cuts as the price for raising the debt limit and avoiding a U.S. default. If this black mail succeeds, it will put a further drag on an already weak economy.” Economist Paul Krugman, noting in his New York Times column the “mistake of 1937.” and the premature fiscal and monetary pullback that aborted an ongoing economic recovery that prolonged the Great Depression, raises questions about whether today’s policy makers will make the same mistake.

“When the Europeans were in trouble economically, they spent more money and they borrowed more money. That’s just what (Obama) did. He’s been awfully European. You know what? European policies don’t work here.” Romney, in his latest thinly veiled attempt to portray Obama as anti-capitalism.

   

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