Mitt Romney’s Presidential campaign never lacks the necessary facts and figures. Perhaps, that’s because he invents them. Take the unemployment statistic that he employed against President Obama in the last debate. He claimed that the national unemployment rate may be 7.8%, but when you add all the people who stopped looking, it’s more like 10.7%. How does he know? How does anyone know? Do people call up the Dept. of Labor and say, “That’s it. I’m done. No more looking for me. Don’t try to change my mind. I’m stopping as of now.”
Suppose Mr. Romney contacted one of his offshore banks – you know, the ones he uses to avoid paying taxes – and instead of getting his balance, they say, “Don’t worry, it’s a lot. No, really, a bunch. You want a figure? How about, oh, $25,000? You want us to count it?” That, essentially, is the answer he gave to a woman at the debate, who asked him a very specific question about what deductions (mortgage, education, children, charities) would be sacrificed to pay for his proposed across-the-board tax cuts. He replied that a fixed amount of, “I’ll pick a number,” $25,000 may be deducted any way she chooses. First, that’s a “voucher” system, regardless of what he calls it. Second, why $25,000? Why not $10? Extreme tax cuts, as this woman clearly understood, require extreme measures to underwrite them. Even gutting middle-class tax deductions may not be enough. What’s surprising is not that a Republican President or other official is forced to raise taxes after promising he wouldn’t, that’s S.O.P. for the G.O.P. What’s surprising is that Mitt Romney won’t even admit the possibility. In his defense, though, he can’t.
If he allows the slightest amount of complexity to color his judgment of Obama’s performance, he’d have to admit that Presidents are not gods and that campaign promises are closer to prayers than to miracles. Then, faster than a day trader loses his shirt, his entire campaign is gone! Mitt Romney has nothing to offer except direct criticism of President Obama. Take “The last four years” out of anything he utters and see what’s left. Very little - except, what was it, another number, definitely not a fact, but a figure. Something about 47 %.
It began as the number of people who don’t pay taxes and became – in his head or maybe just in his mouth – the number of lazy slobs sucking at the public tit. The truth of it (that it includes retirees, working poor and servicemen on active duty) is almost incidental because he was saying it in private to an audience he believed already believed it. The other lies and imaginings were said in front of sixty five million people. They were intended not only to misinform us, but to mislead us. By insulting our intelligence in this way, Mitt Romney has extended his contempt for the 47% to the other 53% as well. Before, he was just a bad choice for President. Now, he’s 100% wrong.
