The Romney Plan

 

So, now we have it. Romney’s plan to save the economy and restore America’s greatness. Every economic indicator shows, and most experts agree, that the major impediment to recovery and job creation is lack of consumer confidence. That lost confidence manifests itself in reduced spending which leads business owners to defer expansion and suppress production.

Romney’s solution; lower taxes on the wealthiest while ending the tax deductions that most benefit the middle-class, such as mortgage interest, local tax payments child care expenses, etc. The result, more money in the hands of the top 2%, whose expenditures least impact the economy and higher taxes and less spending money for the middle-class, whose purchasing power most influences the economy.

In furtherance of this strategy, Romney would slash the programs that enable poor Americans to have and spend money, thus drying up their contribution to the economy even as it puts their well-being at the mercy of private and religious charities.

Romney’s plan is to remove regulation and put Wall Street and the Big Banks back in the business of pursuing enormous gain by issuing exotic securities and taking huge gambles on transactions that have no economic justification and add nothing to the creation of goods or services.

Romney’s economic vision is that reduced government spending, on roads, bridges and infrastructure and on the maintenance of a social safety net, will somehow be offset by increased spending on armies and armaments. In his universe the deficit will not be increased by the revenue lost in giving tax reductions to the wealthiest, by lowering or ending taxes on capital gains and by excusing corporations from the payment of taxes. Instead, the deficit will be magically reduced by greater economic activity and by closing the “loop-holes” that most experts agree will serve only to increase the tax burden on the rapidly disappearing middle-class.

And American greatness around the world will be restored and enhanced by substituting threats for negotiations, bluster for reason and the restoration of cold-war tensions with Russia and China.

So let the oceans rise and the climate deteriorate. The important work is to return America to those days of yesteryear when government did not grant civil and voting rights ( only God and Nature did ), women’s rights and choices rested in the capable hands of mostly male legislatures, unions were weak or non-existent, robber barons ruled and every hand could hold a gun.

Gerald Harris

August 31, 2012