Believe: Part Three (Fiscal Policy)

Here it is! The end of Believe! Which ironically comes at the statistical end of Rick Santorum’s push to steal the nomination away from Willard. So here is the last chapter of Part Three: Fiscal Policy.

The intro for the chapter focuses mostly on the deficit (which really doesn’t matter at this point) and the battle for jobs between private and public sector; a valid point with the amount of government jobs being created to compensate for a weakened private sector. The Obama Approach for this chapter is sub titled Deliberate Disaster. Well, this should be interesting.  Mitt used a few different measurements to prove his point of overspending and overborrowing: one was federal spending as a percentage of GDP, the others were federal spending per household and federal indebtedness and a percentage of GDP. The first holds the most weight in my opinion. Under normal (non-war times) periods in our history, federal spending has accounted for approximately 20% of GDP. The three highest times were during World War I&II and the Great Depression; at that time, federal spending rested at 25%. It is at that level now. This averages out to $30,000 per household. Romney’s statisticians projected that this will raise to $35,000 in the next decade after adjusting for inflation. That is completely irrelevant because after Obama’s next term, he will be gone and in comes another Republican. The next statistic that Romney uses to support his claim in the indebtedness:GDP ratio. Historically, Mitt tells us, the rate is 44.5%, and immediately before taking office it was at 40.3%. By 2010, the ratio was 62.2% and now rests at 72%. According to Romney, “that no responsible family living on a tight budget would consider,” which might matter if the national government was a family on a tight budget. 

Romney did not wait long to start promising massive changes in spending. Willard wants to cut discretionary spending 5% “immediately”. What he does not explain is that that type of cut to spending would shock the economy into another recession bred by investor fears. This would cause a double-dip and push unemployment farther up. By gradually stepping our way off the cliff of massive government spending, we would be able to supplement the lack of spending with a culture shift in America. There is a sense of entitlement by the public right now that is completely off base. If you shock the system by immediately taking this away, there would be an economic collapse. Funny how Willard leaves that out while making unreasonable promises for shock value alone. That is a great way to wrap up an economic plan though; that plan will stick with the uneducated reader and help to push their bias towards Mitt. 

So there you have it: Believe in America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth. It was a well written, yet misleading... much like a good politician. One other thing that Romney has going for him in the upcoming November election: Obama can't Gymkhana.