Romney's Shifty Economic Plan - The First Challenge Is Believing It

Mitt Romney and the Republicans are being shielded from accountability for their economic plan, because the plan is so extreme that many people just won't believe you when you tell them about it. They think that you have something wrong with you for saying such things! This week I am going to look at the Romney economic plan [1] and the Republican budget [2] that passed the house [3] and Romney has endorsed.

People Don't Believe It

Many people just can't believe that the Republicans have become as extreme as they have become. As described in a NY Times Magazine story [4] on SuperPacs last month,

For example, when Priorities informed a focus group that Romney supported the Ryan budget plan — and thus championed “ending Medicare as we know it” — while also advocating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the respondents simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.

This disbelief, combined with a powerful ability to take their own message to the public through FOX News, talk radio, FOX-owned newspapers and their allies, right-wing blogs and many other channels, provides Republicans with cover to advance their plutocratic agenda.

For example, people have been taught to believe that Republicans are the tax cutters. But, in fact, the party has shifted to protecting the interests of the 1% at all costs. (It's called dancing with the ones that brung 'em [5].) Last week, for example, Senate and House Republicans voted [6] against a tax plan that keeps taxes lower for people making $250,000 or less, and voted for a tax plan that cuts taxes for people making more than that.

For example, Republicans voted to terminate Medicare [7], replacing it with a "voucher" plan -- and Romney has endorsed that plan. Even the so-called "fact checkers" decided Democrats must be lying when they said Republicans voted to end Medicare, because no one sane would do that. Even though the plan is there in black and white, and even though every Republican voted for that plan, they just would not believe what the plan says. To back up Republicans, the "fact-checkers" had to say things like they aren't terminating the plan because it would still be named Medicare, or they aren't terminating the plan because it only terminates it for people currently under 55.

A Shifty Plan

So this week I will be examining the Romney plan. (I wrote about the energy component of the plan Friday, in Romney's Energy Plan To Heat The Planet [8].)

Summary: The Romney/Republican plan shifts the things We, the People (government) do for each other on to each of us on our own, alone against the wealthy and powerful.

The Romney plan is a plan for the Walmartization of our economy. It is a plan to shift people out of good, well-paying jobs into low-paying jobs with few benefits and no recourse, while shifting that wage difference into the pockets of the 1%. It shifts us from smaller, locally-owned businesses by giving competitive advantages to giant multinationals. It shifts more of our jobs and factories out of the country while providing even more tax breaks to companies to do that. It shifts the tax burden away from the very-wealthy and on to the rest. It shifts the functions of government into private for-profit hands. It shifts the burden of medical care onto each of us, alone.

The Romney economic plan is a plan to shift the benefits of our economy into the hands of an already-wealthy few. Stay tuned.

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