Let's Try the Truth

Mitt Romney foolishly said, "I like being able to fire people."

Of course, that's not what he meant. He was saying that he likes to be able to fire his insurance company, for example, if they're not providing good service, in order to hire a different insurance company. But it was a poor choice of words for a guy who's already under attack--from his fellow Republicans--as a "predatory corporate raider" who bought up businesses and slashed payrolls to make them profitable.

So his competitors are attacking him as someone who likes firing people, when that's clearly not what he meant. There's plenty of ammunition to use against Romney that's true and accurate. The "predatory corporate raider" line is more honest than "He likes firing people."

Sadly, even Huntsman, who remains the lone voice of something resembling sanity in the Republican primary, has attacked Romney on the "firing" claim. I hoped for better from him. I continue to think that Republicans are missing a chance to dial back some of the hate rhetoric and lead the country toward a reasonable debate on important issues by ignoring Huntsman in favor of loudmouth lunatics like Gingrich and Santorum, and in favor of the frankly dishonest Mitt Romney (who, among other things, has recently pretended there was a time in his life when he was afraid of being fired, and pretended he hasn't been in office or running for office for at least the last 15 years).

Because we really do have critical issues facing the country, and if we go around pretending, as Mitt has, that President Obama is pushing for a European-style welfare state instead of being a slightly center-left capitalist, then we'll never deal with them.

Here's Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman on one of our country's biggest lies--that we are a "classless" society, or at least one in which class mobility is easily accomplished. In fact, we are one of the least class-mobile societies in the developed world. This is something that government can affect, and that would be good for the country as a whole if we do deal with it. Instead, the Republicans running for office pretend that our biggest problem is the deficit and the concern that we're turning Socialist.

Krugman writes, in part, "The failure starts early: in America, the holes in the social safety net mean that both low-income mothers and their children are all too likely to suffer from poor nutrition and receive inadequate health care. It continues once children reach school age, where they encounter a system in which the affluent send their kids to good, well-financed public schools or, if they choose, to private schools, while less-advantaged children get a far worse education.

"Once they reach college age, those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds are far less likely to go to college — and vastly less likely to go to a top-tier school — than those luckier in their parentage. At the most selective, “Tier 1” schools, 74 percent of the entering class comes from the quarter of households that have the highest “socioeconomic status”; only 3 percent comes from the bottom quarter.

"And if children from our society’s lower rungs do manage to make it into a good college, the lack of financial support makes them far more likely to drop out than the children of the affluent, even if they have as much or more native ability. One long-term study by the Department of Education found that students with high test scores but low-income parents were less likely to complete college than students with low scores but affluent parents — loosely speaking, that smart poor kids are less likely than dumb rich kids to get a degree."

These are, to a great degree, problems government could address in significant ways. President Obama, to his credit, is at least trying to address the issues of income inequality and class mobility. But those on the right are not engaging in the conversation, and instead are denying that there's a problem.

They're wrong. They're dishonest. And they're damaging the country when they behave that way.

So let's all try a little truth. Please.

 

Comments

[John_AKA_Becker]

I agree with all of this.

As you said, i's not that he likes to fire people, he just likes having the choice of who provides his services. So Romney is Pro Choice. Wait.... Nevermind.

I have also come to the realization that I have no idea about Huntsman other than he seems to be what Romney claims Romney is. I had thought he was Romney light, but Romney is deeply insincere about essentially all sound. Coming out of his mouth and Huntsman seems to mean what he says. He might be a real candidate in 4 years.

[Jeff Mariotte]

It doesn't look as if Huntsman is finishing in NH where he wanted to--he's behind the quite insane Ron Paul, instead of slicing into Romney's lead. What the Republicans do in this primary season might determine whether or not they're a viable party in the future, or an increasingly extremist minority. It would be nice if they'd deal with real-world issues instead of making up their own, and focusing on disenfranchising voters when they can't win the arguments on their merits. I guess we'll have to wait and see what direction they choose.