Supporters laud him as a reformer, as the lionhearted budget-cutter, as the Republican Party’s only hope of regaining power in D.C. His name is Mitt Romney, and he may become the next president.
Critics, however, see the truth behind Romney. His behavior and attitudes render him unfit to lead the nation.
One of the things he’s gotten the most criticism for is consistency—rather, his lack thereof. As Romney himself put it, he switches his positions “as circumstances change.” For abortion alone, he first supported it, then denounced it, then supported it again. And then, he condemned his own medical plan from when he was governor of Massachusetts.
How does do voters depend on him, then? People desire decisiveness in their leader. With Romney taking every stance on every issue, he gives off an air of unreliability.
Unfortunately for him, he’s not only unreliable in his stances on issues, but also in his money management, both future and past. Perhaps that isn’t too much of a surprise, since the majority of past Republican financial plans didn’t work, and only made the country’s economic situation worse. See George W. Bush et al. for more details.
What makes Romney think that he will be any different? He’s got no solid evidence to back him up, and his track record isn’t exactly stellar. Take, for example, his tenure as Massachusetts governor in 2003.
During his time in office, Massachusetts became 47th out of the country in terms of job growth, which was only 0.9 percent, well behind other high-income states like California (4.7 percent) and New York (2.7 percent). Then, it experienced the second-largest labor-force decline in the country, second only to Louisiana, which Hurricane Katrina had ravaged. Finally, in 2007, Romney left Massachusetts residents with about $10,504 in per capita bond debt.
If Romney becomes president, this is what the entire country could face.
The Republican nominee has stated that he “favors keeping the Bush-era tax cuts, and then adding some more.” However, if he does that, how will he pay for the cuts?
A large part of his campaign has been running on his supposedly miracle-working economic plan, the details of which still aren’t clear because he refuses to disclose them. What we do know, however, is that his tax plan is based on that of Bush’s.
The price tag on Bush’s cuts became one of the biggest factors in the recent recession, contributing about $1.3 trillion to the debt. Now, Romney wants to enact even more cuts, when our economy is still recovering. He claims that his own plan will be “revenue-neutral” because he says that he will end tax breaks and loopholes.
However, he has never identified those tax breaks or loopholes.
The rest of his economic plan is much like his tax plan. Romney says that he will cut non-defense spending by 5 percent, but won’t say which programs it will affect. He claims that he will repeal all of President Obama’s regulations that burden the economy, but he won’t say which ones. Plus, he says that he will eliminate the health care reform, but won’t discuss how.
The only consistent aspect of his campaign so far is his inconsistency—in his policies, his proposed plans, and his opinions.
Right now, the U.S. requires a leader who is reliable, who has policies that have been put to use and proven to work, who supports one thing firmly and not another when it benefits himself.
Mitt Romney, sadly, doesn’t meet those requirements.