Comments for Romney Has Claims About the Economy, the Post Does Not Know If He Has a Theory at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 5 out of 5 comments http://www.cepr.net Fri, 24 May 2013 11:51:55 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/romney-has-claims-about-the-economy-the-post-does-not-know-if-he-has-a-theory#comment-16875 In January 2009, the estimate was that the economy shrank at a rate of 3.8%. By the end of February the revised estimate showed the economy shrank at a rate of 6.1%. The next release indicated a 6.3% contraction. The most recent revision, issued in July of 2011 estimates that GDP contracted at a rate of 8.9%. Based on estimates in hand in January 2009, an estimated max unemployment rate of 8% was not unreasonable. But reality was far worse, as became obvious over the next few months as the economy shed over a million jobs. The economy was much weaker, we would shed many more jobs, and the hole we would need to dig out of would be much deeper. That chart that everyone waves around, showing us what Obama "promised" was based on the (very preliminary) official data available at the time that turned out to be drastically wrong. - BH in MA Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:18:24 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/romney-has-claims-about-the-economy-the-post-does-not-know-if-he-has-a-theory#comment-16868 But this constant explanation of the failure of the stimulus as being that Obama [i]"badly underestimated the depth of the downturn,"[/i] is wearing thin on me. It's like justifying a bank robber by saying that [i]"he didn't know that it was real money."[/i] If Obama did not [i]"know the depth of the downturn"[/i] one has to ask why the hell did he not? Certainly many did, and many were screaming at the top of their lungs long before it passed that the stimulus was far too small, and that far too much of it was tax cuts rather than stimulative spending. - Bill H Thu, 14 Jun 2012 04:18:12 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/romney-has-claims-about-the-economy-the-post-does-not-know-if-he-has-a-theory#comment-16862 That honor would go to FDR: "They are unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred." Pres. Obama doesn't even come close. Mitt is just the village idiot now. - Paul Thu, 14 Jun 2012 03:40:27 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/romney-has-claims-about-the-economy-the-post-does-not-know-if-he-has-a-theory#comment-16857 Even better was this morning's Morning Edition, wherein we learn that Mr. Romney hates Obamacare, trots out the patently false idea that it's bad for business, and relates how he'll be focused on replacing it as soon as he's ensconced in the white house. As an afterthought, the piece admits that the candidate does not actually have any ideas about what he might like to replace it with, but they leave out the fact that he hasn't been uninvolved in forming public health care policy, and the idea that he has no ideas is literally incredible. - jhm Thu, 14 Jun 2012 02:46:04 +0100 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/romney-has-claims-about-the-economy-the-post-does-not-know-if-he-has-a-theory#comment-16854 From the article: "Romney argued that raising taxes to spend more is counterproductive —"     Romney supports the Ryan plan which is touted as reforming the tax code in a revenue neutral way while generating more revenue to reduce the deficit over time.      The numbers Ryan uses to balance the budget aren't revenue neutral, they increase net taxes as a percentage of GDP by a lot.  The Ryan plan predicts revenue as a percentage of GDP will increase from 15.8% in 2012 to 18% in 2014.  A net 14% increase in revenue over just 2 years.    Raising revenue by raising taxes makes sense but raising revenue absent increased taxes means that somehow, someway a whole bunch of Americans will need to start making so much more money that they'll move up into higher tax brackets.    The evidence shows that the jobs created during the last few years are paying less than the jobs lost which isn't likely to change if the Ryan plan passes. - Robert Salzberg Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:39:17 +0100