Mitt Romney Says We Don’t Need More Firemen, Policemen, or Teachers
Posted: June 8, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, jobs, Mitt Romney, private sector, public employees, public sector, unemployment 34 Comments
This afternoon Mitt Romney was in Council Bluffs, Iowa mocking President Obama for saying at a press conference earlier today that the private sector of the U.S. economy of the U.S. economy:
“The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government”
Of course, he shouldn’t have said it that way, but it actually is true that employment in the private sector has improved greatly, and overall unemployment wouldn’t be that bad except for cutbacks in state and local government workers. Here’s the private vs. public employment data, via TPM.
After Republicans crowed loudly about Obama’s “gaffe,” he “clarified” his remarks. Frankly, I would have preferred that he or a staffer had simply shown the above chart and explained what it means.
Here’s what Romney said at his campaign appearance in Council Bluffs, Iowa this afternoon:
“he wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”
How could that be the “message of Wisconsin?” Scott Walker exempted police and firefighters from laws banning collective bargaining? Walker at least understood that Americans want people to show up if their homes catch fire. People also want someone to protect them from crime. And certainly most people want teachers to help educate their children.
Romney claims Obama is “out of touch,” but how out of touch do you have to be not to understand the importance to communities of firefighters, police and teachers? Does Romney think these people are not Americans? What exactly is he proposing: that groups of people band together and raise funds to pay for these services outside of government?
peej
Carissa
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Romney probably doesn’t know that the unemployment rate is only about 3-4% in Iowa. Their economy is booming.
He probably doesn’t care either. One place is as good as any other to spout a few more lies.
Do you think the media is going to let him keep getting away with such blatant lies?
Dog I hope not!
BB, I certainly would like to see the media get on it, but the only place we will probably see anything about this is on Maddow or the Daily Show.
Romney also doesn’t care about the inconsistency of his speeches. When he was saying Obama deliberately hurt the economy to pass ACA, it was because it left no room for more stimulus. Now he’s criticizing him for wanting more stimulus. It doesn’t make sense but no one is calling him on it in the press.
Why if one needs teachers just shop around for a nice private school for your offspring. Police, hire Blackwater, I’m sure they would protect you for a price or maybe kill you for a better one. Wealthy neighborhoods will always have firefighters, who cares about the poor. Their shacks can burn and make room for more McMansions.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. But it’s not a real good message if you’re running for president and need votes from people who aren’t rich.
That’s also my read on it. It doesn’t help Romney at all.
My guess is the charter school program. Aren’t privatized schools a biggy for the GOP?
Don’t they have teachers in charter schools though? Don’t charter schools need protection from crime? And what if a charter school catches on fire? Don’t they want the fire department to come?
I doubt charter school teachers are unionized. Plus if moms stayed home like they should, they could just home school the kids. And there are always volunteer fire departments & all those stand your ground vigilantes. What is there really to worry about?
It’s all about union busting. First ship the private sector union jobs overseas, then dismantle the private sector unions. Then repeal minimum wage. Who do these a$$holes think is going to have the money to buy the products being produced? Seriously, I think the Koch Brothers and Repugs in general want to turn us into China – warehouse the workers, pay them as little as possible and get them in debt, like indentured servants, paying the company for their housing & food. And with abortion illegal, there will always be plenty of indentured servants to produce the products the 1% want.
The current big talking point with the wingers is that the people who do the critical, difficult, and often dangerous work that’s necessary to sustain society are social parasites who are picking the pockets of real Americans whose taxes pay their salaries. If you get paid out of MY pocket, you greedo, you have a damn nerve trying to negotiate for better pay or better working conditions or no cutbacks. Forget that you’re performing an invaluable service and deserve compensation and think about me as if I’m your personal employer, struggling away without any benefits, like the mom-and-pop shop owner foregoing a salary while handing over every cent to enable her employees to live high on the hog. It’s got the benefit of being at once sentimental and faux-populist.
This is really bad. That preacher down in Florida who burned the Koran has now hanged Obama in effigy.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/obama-hung-in-effigy-678923
He is also one of George Zimmerman’s strongest supporters.
I despair to say this but I think race is gonna be a really big deal in this election. The morons have all been turned loose this time around.
But I thought Romney had a good relationship with The Blacks. Was I mistaken?
How could I forget? 😉
Oh, well, that’s downright Xian of him. /s
What happened to Thou Shalt Not Kill? That preacher wouldn’t recognize a carpenter’s son teaching “do unto others” and “you without sin, cast the first stone” among the poor.
Jesus was a liberal.
No wonder he was crucified! Sorry, couldn’t resist.
bb, I’d start feeling put upon since I live in Florida, but then I realize that most of these crazy folks came from some other state. I’m not a native, but I’ve been here for 2 months shy of 60 years.
The Repugs have created an army of Frankenstein monsters and all of them are attacking us poor unsuspecting villagers. I’m thinking it’s time for pitchforks & torches.
Does Obama not read his speeches before he does them? Is he trying to lose?
Ya’ll need to watch last night’s Daily Show if you haven’t already seen it. His piece on “fair game” – he truly nailed that. And for kat, you might want to skip the interview with Conard from Bain about his new book. If this is where the Rombot is coming from, out of touch doesn’t even cover how those guys think. I couldn’t make it all the way through the extended interview – but Jon kept hammering the guy, and Conard kept laughing nervously. Squirming is good & this fool refused to believe he’d wouldn’t prevail.
I think it was the answer to a question and he left out “in comparison to” between the private and public sector.
Okay, that makes more sense. I was under the impression, from the NPR report, that he was making an announcement of speech. He’s much better at being funny than speaking off the cuff. And his singing is pretty good.
Actually, I thought it was pretty clear what he meant.
Looking at the private sector economy in the US, as far as the multi-national corporations are concerned, I’d have to say Obama was fundamentally correct and they are doing fine. Record profits and low indebtedness, all while hoarding billions in cash makes for a nice day. They are making oodles of money in developing economies and just socking it away, largely overseas to escape taxes, But even if repatriation taxes were lower, they are investing overseas so it doesn’t make much sense to bring the money back here first unless you want to do some large stock buyback or the like.
Small business is having problems but that’s due to lack of aggregate demand. Demand is down because consumers, government, and those big corporations are not spending in the US. More stimulus, even for government workers, would increase overall demand and help everyone. Good luck in getting it.
Check out some twitter traffic of the political press during Obama’s press conference. No wonder the MSM sucks so bad!
Chuck Todd Is Super Bored, You Guys
Chuck Todd is an idiot.
I am not surprised Mitt does not need more teachers, firefighters and policemen. But Since when does he think they aren’t American people?
That’s what I want to know.
Wow, I missed this : E-Mails Highlight Extent of Obama’s Deal With Industry on Health Care – NYTimes.com
Digby’s take on it: Hullabaloo
Oh, Big PHarma has a lot riding on the “Affordable” Care Act. But what they gave up they’ll undoubtably make back, or even more, I think.
There’s not a damn single problem out there about health care that couldn’t be fixed or reduced by getting the leeches out and bringing single-payer in. {shouting in the wilderness of sanity again.}
I think it is important to understand that Romney isn’t just a “small government” Republican. He also operates totally within a Mormon mindset.
If Mormons need assistance – with food, housing, a new job, whatever – they don’t go to the government. They go to their bishop. And if they are Mormons in good standing ( i.e., they believe and do whatever the church requires of them ), they receive a great deal of help from their church. Mormons generally distrust government ( the early history of US government persecution of Mormons is drilled into LDS members from the cradle onward ) and they pride themselves on self-reliance.
So it’s just a small jump for a Mormon like Romney to believe that any government provided service – firefighting, policing, teaching, whatever – could easily be done privately. And this very conveniently meshes with the current Republican privatization, union-busting agenda.
I once lived in an almost completely Mormon neighborhood and you are absolutely correct.
I wonder how many of the private sector positions on that St. Louis Fed chart are part-time or temp?
As far as gaff’s go, it’s not much of one when compared “with the private sector doing just fine”, ehe econmy stinks and solution to that isn’t coming out of D.C. these days… That being said Romney should clarify considering the amount of FF & Police jobs that have been lost in many / most of the large municipalities / big cities… Do any of these guys think before they just read off scripts??? Don’t they pay people to proof read prior to foot in mouth comments? In a country of over 330 million plus…, you would think there would be a better choice in candidates…