The basic theme of the Romney campaign seems to be boiling down to the retort of a 12-year-old. Democrats, they say, are just jealous of all the awesomeness money can buy. In this case, golf courses and swimming pools.
At a fund raiser held at the expansive estate of yet another pizza mogul, Papa John’s founder and CEO, John Schnatter, Romney shows a vast and intentional disregard for the actual beliefs of liberals by categorizing us as anti-wealth and anti-entrepreneur. As a Republican, his speech was heavily peppered with the words, “liberty,” “freedom” and “entrepreneurship,” which of course means the liberty to take advantage of all of the benefits this country offers to business people while having the freedom to destroy the environment and avoid paying for the privileges that were handed to them.
Ironically, his version of ”liberty,” “freedom” and “entrepreneurship” means that potential entrepreneurs are forced to stay in dead-end jobs so they can continue to have health insurance.
His speech opened with, “What a home this is, what grounds these are, the pool, the golf course. You know, if a Democrat were here he’d look around and say no one should live like this. Republicans come here and say EVERYONE should live like this. This is a real tribute to America, to entrepreneurship.”
Here’s the video:
Then there were the usual mischaracterizations of the President and of the economy:
He said that debt is the reason for the European recession, which is not exactly true. The bigger problem is deficit, which has largely been caused by austerity, which shrinks the tax base.
He claimed that the President wants to “dramatically” cut our military, which is actually true, to a point. The military budget has nearly doubled since the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001. Our budget is five times China’s. Obama put cuts of approximately $.5 trillion on the table over the next ten years (which will always be negotiated). Still, the military budget will remain much higher than in 2001, at about $560 billion a year for the next 10 years, despite the fact that we are no longer fighting in Iraq and we are winding down in Afghanistan. Considering that expenses are dramatically decreasing for the military, the proposed budget is a net increase, and will still free up money to be spent in our own country.
Romney also repeated the dubious claim that under President Obama, small business startups have decreased by 100,000 a year. Much of the reason for the decreases in startups can be traced directly to banks’ refusal to loan money.
As for his argument that Democrats want to take away all the golf courses and swimming pools? Other than it coming from the same place as the claim that Obama wants to take away all the guns (nowhere), it’s blatantly untrue. No one begrudges Romney or Schnatter their successes. We, as American people, would simply like them to acknowledge the role we had to pay in their successes by asking them to pay their fair share in taxes. And at least golf courses provide jobs.
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Hey, if Romney had his way, the entire National Park system would be converted into a series of country clubs and exclusive golf courses.