We know what we’re going to hear from the Democrats this week at their convention, and for the next nine weeks until the election. They clearly are having trouble making the case for their tenure, not even being able to articulate a consistent and coherent answer to the question of whether we’re better off than we were four years ago.
So they are going to have to somehow make the voters fear the unknown over their recent bitter economic experience. We’ve already heard the talking point from the president himself: that Romney is proposing that we go back to the bad, old, failed Bush policies that created the mess we’re currently in. In fact (like much of the Obama campaign strategy), it is a retread from 2008, when (on zero basis) the theme was that a McCain victory would be a continuation of the Bush administration.
Accepting this argument requires that two premises be acknowledged: First, that it was the Bush policies that created the mess; and second, that Romney’s proposals are a return to them. Both of these premises are false, but the Republicans have done a poor job of pushing back against either of them. If they don’t do a better one, there is some danger that they will actually gain traction with swing voters.
The first premise is not just false, but actually turns things on their head.
While a lot of the Bush policies (e.g., expansion of Medicare, an indifference to the deficit and spending, letting Ted Kennedy write the education bill, an attempt at amnesty for illegal immigrants with no serious attempt to control the border, taxpayer subsidies for energy companies, etc.) were regrettable, and in fact part of the reason that the Republicans lost the Congress in 2006 as a result of anger about them among his own base, they were not the cause of the downturn in 2007 and the financial meltdown of 2008. In particular, to attempt to claim that low tax rates caused an economic downturn is economic insanity.
I have yet to hear any Democrat explain how this can occur, yet they continue to claim that the Bush “tax cuts” (which were not tax cuts, but relative tax increases resulting from the economic growth created by the lowered rates) are one of the causes of our current problems.
But it’s not enough to simply defend against the nonsense that Bush policies created our current problems. The Republicans need to go on the offensive and take back control of the narrative with the truth — that the downturn occurred as a result of policies primarily promulgated by the Democrats.
The real cause of the current mess (ignoring the upcoming fiscal disaster caused by uncontrolled spending and deficits) was the housing boom and bust. The boom was caused by policies going back decades to encourage people to buy houses they couldn’t afford and to coerce and extort banks to lend them the money to do so. While this had some support from Republicans, it was a policy primarily driven by Democrats.
TAB 2 MONTHS AGO:
OBAMA AND THE LEFT WANT YOU TO BELIEVE THAT DEREGULATION CAUSED THE CRASH.
AS IF GOP POLICIES AND BY EXTENSION MITT ROMNEY CAUSED A PHONY AND DOOMED GILDED AGE. HERE'S A RECENT COVER FROM THE SOCIALIST RAG "THE NATION":
THIS IS WHY THEY CHOSE THE SLOGAN "FORWARD". IT HIGHLIGHTS THE IDEA THAT VOTING GOP IS GOING BACKWARDS TO THE CRASH AND WHAT CAUSED IT.
THIS IS BULLS*IT. TOTAL EFFING DECEITFUL PROPAGANDA.
DEMOCRAT AND LIBERAL REGULATIONS AND NOT REPUBLICAN AND CONSERVATIVE DEREGULATION CAUSED THE CRASH.
THAT'S RIGHT.
WHAT INFLATED THE BUBBLE THAT LED TO THE CRASH WERE THE REGULATIONS ON THE BANKING INDUSTRY THAT FORCED THEM TO UNDERWRITE SUB-PRIME AND ALT-A LOANS AND THE REGULATIONS THAT PERMITTED FANNIE MAE TO BUNDLE THEM AND CREATE DERIVATIVES WITH THE IMPLIED GUARANTEE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
REGULATIONS - SOCIALIST REGULATIONS - CAUSED THE BUBBLE WHOSE BURSTING LED TO THE CRASH.
WITHOUT THOSE REGULATIONS AND THE MALFEASANCE AT FANNIE MAE (A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF THE LIBERAL ESTABLISHMENT), THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO BUBBLE AND VERY VERY VERY FEW BAD LOANS ISSUED TO PEOPLE WHO REALLY DIDN'T DESERVE THEM - AND NO CRASH.
THE POLICIES OF OBAMA AND REID AND PELOSI AND DODD AND FRANK AND GEITHNER AND CARTER ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BUBBLE AND CRASH, NOT GOP POLICIES.
VOTE ACCORDINGLY. VOTE ROMNEY.
AND AGAIN LAST MONTH:
IF YOU WANT AMERICA TO GET OUT OF RECESSION AND MOVE FORWARD, THEN YOU HAVE TO VOTE AGAINST THE LIBERAL POLICIES THA TGOT US INTO THIS MESS.
AND VOTE FOR THE POLICIES THAT ALWAYS CREATES MORE PROSPERITY FOR ALL.
LESS REGULATIONS, LESS TAXES, LESS GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONISM.
LOOK AT IT THIS WAY:
- UNSHACKLING THE FREE-MARKET IS NOT "TRICKLE DOWN".
- THE FREE-MARKET IS THE ONLY THING THAT PROMOTES BOTTOM-UP AND MIDDLE-OUT GROWTH.
- GOVERNMENT EDICTS ARE TOP-DOWN. GOVERNMENT EDICTS ARE TRICKLE DOWN.
AND GOVERNMENT EDICTS DO NOT CREATE GROWTH.
IF AN ECONOMY RUN BY GOVERNMENT DECREE WORKED, THEN THE USSR WOULD BE THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH, INSTEAD OF A HEAP OF FOUL FLOTSAM AND JETSAM WASHING OUT ON THE SEA OF HISTORY.
VOTE ACCORDINGLY.
VOTE ROMNEY-RYAN.
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