Republican presidential candid Mitt Romney delivers remarks on the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's health care reform bill, after the Supreme Court upheld a majority of the law, in Washington, D.C. on June 28, 2012. (photo: Kevin Dietsch/UPI)
09 September 12
ear Mitt Romney:
Your so-called Medicare reform is just a way of
shifting health expenses from millionaires (whose taxes you want to
lower) to middle class and working people (with whom you want to stick
the bill). A 48-year-old today, who starts getting Medicare in 2030, would have to pay an extra $124,600 under your plan!
Meanwhile, your running mate's tax plan would reduce your own income
taxes, as a multimillionaire, to less than one percent a year. You don't
get to say that!
You and your running mate are blaming Barack Obama for high gasoline prices. But you demand a stricter blockade on Iranian petroleum! Given that the present blockade has taken perhaps a million barrels a day off the market at a time of increasing demand in Asia,
you don't get to slam President Obama for causing high gasoline prices.
Prices, as your MBA courses might have informed you, Mr. Romney, are
based on supply and demand. If you reduce Iran supply, and demand stays
the same or rises, then prices will go up. Since you want to tighten the
blockade, you don't get to say that!
After campaigning for months on repealing Obamacare, you suddenly say you want to keep "parts" of it,
including preventing insurance companies from declining to cover people
for pre-existing conditions. The way Obamacare allows that provision,
however, is to make all the healthy young people get insurance or face a
fine, thus increasing the pool size so as to allow those with known
health conditions to also join the pool without bankrupting the
companies. I mean, this is flip-flopping on an epic scale. First you
invented Obamacare in Massachusetts, then you repudiated it as a
national program, now you are embracing the key "parts" of it while
pledging to repeal it! You don't get to say that!
You defend yourself for not mentioning the Afghanistan
War, in which US troops are fighting and dying, in your acceptance
speech, by saying that people should focus on policies, not on words. But, you didn't mention Afghanistan policy, either. What is your position on the US branding the Haqqani Network a terrorist organization?
How will that affect US-Pakistan relations, given that we think the
Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence has links to the Haqqanis? What
about the the US halt to training Afghanistan policemen because so many turned out to be … Taliban?
But training up local security forces is the pathway the US has
announced to exit from Afghanistan. Where do you stand on this policy,
since you like policy? In fact you haven't told us what your foreign
policy will be on almost any issue, except that you have managed for no
good reason to anger Russia by branding it our number one enemy? I mean,
I know Mormons don't like Vodka, but still… You don't get to say that!
Your running mate Paul Ryan all of a sudden says states should have the right to legalize marijuana
for medical purposes and not be bothered by the Feds. But you've been
campaigning for years on a 'war on drugs' platform. As with 'parts of
Obamacare,' your campaign is now speaking out of both sides of its mouth
to muddy the waters and perhaps attract some votes. You don't get to
say that!
READER COMMENTS
+132
#
2012-09-09 12:20
Wow! My head is
spinning just reading this, hes for something, then against, then for,
then for parts. He is walking talking contradiction, he would make the
scariest president ever! After GWB thats something I never thought I
would ever say. Bush was frightening, Mitt is down right terrifying. He
has such a low moral compass, and just spins which ever way the wind
blows. Damn! No wonder the teabaglicans want him in there so bad, they
could make him do whatever they want, no matter what he actually says.
His word means nothing...in a few days it will change, his approval and
disapproval of something means nothing...his opinion changes more then
most people change their underwear, meaning daily.
+110
#
2012-09-09 14:44
I KNOW! If Rove
thought GW was compliant what a time he'll have with Mitt. They want him
in there because he is a CEO. What are CEO's known for the ability to
delegate, delegate, delegate. Who will be in his cabinet? That scares me
too. Like everyone says, he doesn't actually want to do the president's
job he just wants the title. He'll leave petty little things like
details to everyone else to iron out.
+57
#
2012-09-09 20:10
It gets lots scarier
when you learn of who the Mittster is actually considering for his
cabinet positions...we will have no friends in the civilized world and
will be at constant war..and have absolutely no middle class
left...welcome to the world of Mittster.
+24
#
2012-09-09 21:12
I think Romney has
very definite ideas, and he likes to do things his way ... obviously ...
somewhat like a dictator. There can be benevolent dictators ... South
Korea grew into an industrial powerhouse increasing the average wage 8
times in a generation and transforming the nation - the problem is we
have no idea what he really thinks or wants to do, and who can trust him
after the etch-a-sketch remarks.
Maybe I'm deluded, and I would not under any circumstances vote for Romney, but at this point I do not fear a Romney administration as much as I did the George W. Bush first administration. GWN scared the hell out of me, and still does, I tried to tell people at the time they did not listen to me. Seeing that guy get elected was an 8-year-long bummer.
Maybe I'm deluded, and I would not under any circumstances vote for Romney, but at this point I do not fear a Romney administration as much as I did the George W. Bush first administration. GWN scared the hell out of me, and still does, I tried to tell people at the time they did not listen to me. Seeing that guy get elected was an 8-year-long bummer.
+13
#
2012-09-10 10:57
Yes, the GOP (Greedy
oligarchs and polluters?) keeps harping on the few jobs that Obama has
created and how THEIR tax policies and deregulation policies will help
'create' jobs....
Trouble is, their polkcies have been in effect for the last 12 years!! --so, where are the jobs?
Trouble is, their polkcies have been in effect for the last 12 years!! --so, where are the jobs?
+15
#
2012-09-10 12:41
He wasn't elected.
The buzz alleging voter fraud was in its early stages back then, but
they managed to steal just enough electoral votes in 2000 (Florida's
botchery via Katherine Harris) and 2004 (Ohio's shenanigans via Kenneth
Blackwell) to succeed at their new enterprise. They're a lot more
advanced now at their game and their gaming.
+6
#
2012-09-10 16:54
We need this incarnation of the GOP to go away for good and beware in the future of global corporate corruption
+53
#
2012-09-10 01:02
Just a reminder: Grover Norquist said something to the affect:
It doesn't matter who the GOP candidate is, as long as he can sign his name. Pernsey has it right, they just want a figurehead there so that the Cheney's etc, can still do whatever they want. It worked out so well for them with GWB that now they want more, so that they can finish ruining the country.
It doesn't matter who the GOP candidate is, as long as he can sign his name. Pernsey has it right, they just want a figurehead there so that the Cheney's etc, can still do whatever they want. It worked out so well for them with GWB that now they want more, so that they can finish ruining the country.
+10
#
2012-09-10 10:58
Sounds lime Grover wants to be the neo-fascist dictator [behind the curtain] of the country, doesn't it?
+26
#
2012-09-10 05:51
Kelly, You are
correct in the analysis of Willard (Willie) Romney as a CEO. Of course,
he never worked as a CEO of a company that made stuff, his role has been
as a CEO that gave ultimatums at best and usually just made decrees.
For example, any company that Bain took over, would have to show a
profit for both Bain and itself or the dissection and work reassignments
to China would commence.
But there is one this as a Bain CEO that he he did not have to deal with that a CEO of a company that makes stuff does deal with. Shareholders.
As President the shareholders that would be responsible for hiring him are the extreme right wing of American politics. They are extreme in both fiscal and social policies. These are the people that Willie will be indebted to, and they don't like being double crossed.
I know many would say that President Obama is also controlled by the same group, or at least the fiscal faction. Their control and influence over Obama is a fraction of how tightly Romney has tied himself to them, both fiscally and socially.
Right now, he has free rein to say anything to get elected; remember the etch-a-sketch? If he wins, the free rein gets replaced by puppet strings made of steel.
But there is one this as a Bain CEO that he he did not have to deal with that a CEO of a company that makes stuff does deal with. Shareholders.
As President the shareholders that would be responsible for hiring him are the extreme right wing of American politics. They are extreme in both fiscal and social policies. These are the people that Willie will be indebted to, and they don't like being double crossed.
I know many would say that President Obama is also controlled by the same group, or at least the fiscal faction. Their control and influence over Obama is a fraction of how tightly Romney has tied himself to them, both fiscally and socially.
Right now, he has free rein to say anything to get elected; remember the etch-a-sketch? If he wins, the free rein gets replaced by puppet strings made of steel.
+8
#
2012-09-10 11:02
He also 'managed' to
'downsize' GST Steel, making himself and his cronies millions, while
TAKING TAXPAYER BAILOUTS. (cf. 'The Bailout Brothel' by Paul Begala in
June's Newsweek)
+36
#
2012-09-10 03:36
but remember the
primaries? the t-baggers didn't want romney. he's the "choice" forced on
them by the wall street elite. ryan is an attempt to reconcile with the
ultra extremist wing of the party. and besides, the gop core has been
whipped into far more hysteria over a black "socialist" than reality.
it's not the t-bags that are controlling. it's the rich ultra-elites.
the t-bags are just their barking dobermans (at best their brown
shirts).
+13
#
2012-09-10 09:41
I was Stanford Class
of '57 and then my masters degree from Stanford was in 1960. Mitt
graduated from Stanford with a major of "unspecified" in 1969. One of
the required courses at Stanford was, "History of Western Civilization"
which presents the history of Western civilization from the Greeks
forward. How can Romney take his present positions with the foundation
he should have gotten at Stanford? Was he asleep in class or out
partying and hazing innocent students?
I have a constructive suggestion for moving jobs back to America. Companies like Costco could have a "Kirkland #" on the products that they sell. the "#" is the percentage of the product that was made in the USA. The containers that bring Chinese goods to the USA, probably return empty. These empty containers could be carrying things like the bolts in the chair I just bought from Costco. If the nuts and bolts were made in the USA, taken to China and installed in the chairs and they were 5% of the parts in the chair... the chair would be a "Kirkland 5". I would be happy to pay a dollar or two more for a chair that had 5% USA parts. This could be the start of bringing jobs back to America.
I have a constructive suggestion for moving jobs back to America. Companies like Costco could have a "Kirkland #" on the products that they sell. the "#" is the percentage of the product that was made in the USA. The containers that bring Chinese goods to the USA, probably return empty. These empty containers could be carrying things like the bolts in the chair I just bought from Costco. If the nuts and bolts were made in the USA, taken to China and installed in the chairs and they were 5% of the parts in the chair... the chair would be a "Kirkland 5". I would be happy to pay a dollar or two more for a chair that had 5% USA parts. This could be the start of bringing jobs back to America.
+52
#
2012-09-09 13:19
I am only guessing,
but from what I have read Mormon young people do not get the oportunity
in their twenties to differentiate from their parent's belief
system...and, as a result many grow up with only the word view they have
been taught....which is basicallt to live acording to very strict rules
laid out by their church. Kind of like a programmed life. I could be
wrong, but possibly Romney never got had the opportunity to fom his own
beliefs. The only thing he may know how to do is say whatever is
necessary to become the "success" that was carved out for him by his
family. Possible that is why he seems robotic...and may I add
self-involved.
+66
#
2012-09-09 15:01
That may be. But
Harry Reid is also a Mormon. And don't forget that during his twenties
he was in France, squandering a chance to become worldly in order to
convert the French to his way of thinking. Just because you are a Mormon
doesn't give you a pass to stop thinking for yourself...once you become
an adult, that's a decision you make on your own.
+34
#
2012-09-09 20:14
The Udalls are
Mormons as well, I believe. Their family has given us excellent public
servants: Morris Udall, a progressive for many years in the House;
Stewart Udall, who served in JFK's cabinet; and the present Senator Tom
Udall.
+28
#
2012-09-10 07:39
My husband went to
school with Harry in Searchlight Nevada. That boy and his family had it
HARD. Searchlight was a rough mining town and my husband, like Harry,
lived in houses made of rail road ties and their fathers worked the
mines. Harry's dad committed suicuide and, thanks to the brothels, his
mother supported the family by taking in laundry from those brothels. To
attend school, Harry had to hitch hike to Henderson to attend school.
He arranged to stay with the boxing coach during the week. In his books
Harry describes his life and values and as a politican he's both fair
and ruthless. Softspoken he can seem a bit wimpy but I was gald to hear
him at the DNC. Give em Hell, Harry!
+17
#
2012-09-09 21:07
Super rich people
like Romney do not really fit into the normal rules everyone else has to
follow. That can be good, like say JFK/RFK, or bad like GWB ... most
change by necessity is driven by people who come from the upper classes,
not all, but these are the people who have the opportunities for power
... like FDR ... the so-called traitor to his class.
