After last month's disappointing job numbers were released, and Republicans seemed a little too pleased, the Obama campaign argued that the GOP is, as Stephanie Cutter put it, is "rooting for failure." David Axelrod accused Republicans of "high-fiving each other" when bad economic news comes out.
On Capitol Hill, GOP leaders denied the accusations, but yesterday, Travis Waldron highlighted a clip of a Republican who was willing to be surprisingly candid on the subject.
For those who can't watch clips online, Rob Gray, a senior adviser on Romney's gubernatorial campaign, was asked whether GOP lawmakers might be dragging their heels when it comes to improving the economy. Gray responded:
"Well, I'm not buying that they're dragging their heels. I am buying that they're rooting against the economy somewhat because they think that, you know, the short-term pain of, you know, the next four months is much better than having additional four years of pain under Obama. They believe the government should spend less and that they have better economic ideas than the president does. So, you know, if we have to suffer between now and November to get a better president for four years, they're all for it."
Gray does not, as far as I can tell, have any role in Romney's presidential campaign, but he nevertheless offers a perspective that's rather remarkable. Here's a Republican media strategist who believes -- and is willing to admit on camera -- that he sees his own party rooting against the American economy.
Indeed, Gray effectively made the same point Democrats make all the time: that the GOP believes it's worth allowing Americans to suffer now, so that Republicans can try to help in their own way later.
For Dems hoping to push this argument between now and the election, it looks like they have a Republican ally in making the case.
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When have they ever really rooted for The American People.....never. They should comprise a list of all their accomplishments since they've taken over the Congress. 0. Not one piece of legislature has been passed that would have helped people get through this depression, yes, depression let's start calling it what it is. They are all playing footsie with each other and blindly leading the blind right into hell. If they think the American people can wait then they can wait to ever be re-elected again. Say goodbye to The Republican party. There's no more money to be had anyway. Now, they're relying on The Middle Class to pay their salaries they're supposed to be working for us not against us.
Mitt Romney and the GOP need to tell the 5 million Americans hired in the last two years that those jobs "aren't enough." The American economy is moving in the right direction. Contrary to the lies and exaggerations of an out-of-touch Mitt , Obama has not made the jobs picture "worse." Millions of new jobs have been added over the last three years and the needle continues to point forward. But America will never be able to fully recover until conservative lawmakers and Republican politicians stop their strategy of jobs sabotage and get on the page of helping this country, not just their own political aspirations. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Mittsywittsy has to know that Obama ha not made the economy worse, but Mittsywittsy obviously thinks that saying so is good propaganda.
You're right, Entropy, but here's the problem: "Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?" is a simple slogan that worked before. "We're better off now than we would have been if those crooks had stayed in power (even though we're not as well-off as we'd like to be)"is a complex idea, the proof of which requires analysis of complex data. It's the right question to ask, but you can't put it on a bumper sticker.
and, except for the people who read this blog, nobody in america is going to hear about what this man said.
TRMS can start the ball rolling
I honestly can't say that I'm surprised, but the funny thing is WE have done it their way for the last 30+ years! The result of their laissez-faire experiement:
1) deregulation has failed with numerous examples: S&L crises of the 1980's, Enron, Adelphia, WorldComm, the Wall Street gambling that almost took US over the edge..
2) tax cuts have achieved the greatest wealth inequality along with the redistribution of wealth to the top 1%!
3) trade policies that have hemorrhaged American jobs to low/no wage nations!
4) A corporate owned media that has mostly become a propaganda machine for their lies!
There are millions unemployed, have no access to health-care, and even as American worker productivity has increased, their wages have remained stagnant! Americans are afraid, and it is that fear that is being manipulated by a greedy, whoring, immoral bunch of selfish bullying liars! The only "plans & ideas" the GOP has is to further enable the Oligarchy and further remove our democracy!
Vote them out in November, they are the traitors to working Americans!
Bravo!
I can understand the people of my children's generation not remembering or understanding the S&L crisis since they were born in the 1980s but what in the world is wrong with the people of my generation that continues to give these guys power to continue to destroy this country. How can they possibly be this freaking blind? I have watched California turn from one of the most progressive and advanced states in the country with the best Universities in the world (not to mention roads, health care, high quality of life) become a sad shadow of itself startin with Ronald Reagan as Governor and Proposition 13. If you don't maintain your home, it becomes a rotting structure that is soon worth little to nothing. That is what is happening to our country.
And please don't forget to add that Republicans prefer to eat babies fresh, never frozen.
Actually this is pretty funny. Apparently the payroll tax cut never happened, and Taxmageddon won't hit Jan 1. Oh well, giving people money hasn't worked, so let's try raising everone's taxes.
After being show to be a clueless idiot not two days ago, one would think you'd understand everybody knows your sad act to be what it is. One would be wrong to think you'd learned anything.
Besides, we all know that Rape-Public-CONs don't object to frozen babies - just pop them in the microwave and they're ready to eat in minutes! Nom nom! Snowflakes! Catch one on your tongue...
;-D
Let's try austerity and give the extraordinarily wealthy more income from expanded tax benefits so that maybe they'll get so bored with income that they'll miraculously turn to creating "jobs-jobs-jobs"!
Genius, genius, genius..
Let's not raise every body's taxes; let's stick with the original idea of increasing the top bracket from 35% to 39.5%.
It just proves what every informed voter should already know - Politics 101; Republicans do not know how to manage the economy or the Federal government for that matter starting with the notion that it should be run like a business. No wonder they hate the government so much. It is one of the least recognized political paradox's in our country, or what will be left of it should the tea bagger Republicans take back the White House.
Gee Shooter , you forget your party wanted to let that expire , so obama and the dems had to cut a deal that included kicking people off of unemployment while the economy is still struggling , now they get full credit for it passing?, I don't think so
I see people addressing policy here , and your overly offended by it
"Well, I'm not buying that they're dragging their heels."
So passing zero jobs bills in 2 year does not constitute DRAGGING YOUR HEELS? What does then? He thinks passing vaginal legislation creates jobs I guess
Not good enough. This statement by a former campaign partner of Romney would actually be welcomed by Republicans. They would not shy from that at all. "Four months," they'd say, "sure, why go into all that Democratic debt when in four months we can provide a real solution -- austerity and the destruction of the safety net?
The Republicans have been obstructing and hoping for failure, in the good ol' sense we all know it for -- pain to the public, -- since Obama became President. That is what the public needs to know. And given the hormoneless Democrat of the last 20 years, that is what the public will not know.
The challenge has been to expose the fact that the GOP has believed this(Anything bad that happens to America is worth it to make Obama a 1 term president) since 2008.
Sorry, I misunderstood that.. "A better President"? And you believe that Mitt Rmoney will be a better President and that your team has better economic ideas? I'd say "do tell" but I'm still paying for the last reckless and inhuman clown from your "party" and suffering from PTSD to boot..
Seems to me that for some reason Dems expected a fair fight. How quaint.
I have to confess that I hoped that things would become so bad under President GW Bush that it would wake up the American people BUT I would have been and in fact was really angry when those in congress did not do their best to do what was best for America regardless of which party it made look good.
One thing no one who claims to be an electoral guru is counting on is the intelligence of the people.
Citizens United: the GOP says to itself, "Aha! Now we can just buy the election." The people: they are seeing clearly that this is the GOP plan -- now that Citizens United has revealed what the GOP has so successfully masked for years -- the extreme manipulation of the people by the biggest monied interests in the country.
GOP: "Obama's been in for 3 1/2 years: he's to blame for everything." The people: "We STILL know who caused the financial crisis and its painful aftermath."
I think it's more like Republicans are blocking Obama's bad policy and blaming him for trying to pass more stimulus that was already proven to be ineffectual. The CBO reported that that if laws remain unchanged the federal budget deficit for this year will be $1.1 trillion. Do we really want to get further into debt by spending taxpayer money on failed policy?
Yes, all those blocked bad policies have been ineffectual? I thought the bad policy had been blocked. What are you trying to say? Did we really want to go into unspoken amounts of debt seeking to useless wars? "We" spent >2 trillion dollars on war and we didn't even get any lousy oil! Too soon? It's still Bush's fault (citing demonstrable failed policy) and the people (including spineless idiots from both sides of the aisle) that enabled him. I would wager Scott from Amercia disengaged that you nor I would have the means to be arguing on the internet, much less be employed had the economic stimulus proved "ineffectual". It was the GOP that ultimately rendered the stimulus anemic, what did the GOP expect in doing so?
Trollop,
It's your dime - but Scott has already used his "The CBO reported that that if laws remain unchanged the federal budget deficit for this year will be $1.1 trillion. " line 3 times in April, 8 times in May and 3 times already in June. I'm sure there are others but I got bored. He has a couple of other lines he uses in multiple postings.
Adam_Selene
Unemployment stopped improving because Republicans want people to stop going to school.
Most people on unemployment are getting new jobs because they are getting a college degree.
That stopped last month when Republicans threatened to double the interest rate on education loans.
US Department of Labor Statistics indicates unemployment is 0.9% better for each Democrat presidential term and about 1.5% worse for each Republican presidential term.
Prime territory for TRMS.
I've been waiting for someone to do a piece on this.
Yeah, Reagan is the only Republican that bucked the trend and he's a saint (in their eyes only). In my eyes he is the President who began what I call "The Great Abyss." It widens with each Republican President and now, with the race baiting and disrespect they are showing Obama, the chasm widens. Nobody had a word to say about this reporter on the Republican side. Which tells you all you need to know about their "moral compass."
If I was curious I would look at which party was in control of congress since it is congress that really makes or breaks us.
Is anyone surprised that they're rooting for ruin so they can come into power? They know Mitt won't be a "better" president, unless "better" means a dummy who"ll say whatever they tell him ,and sign any ALEC bill they put in front of him. (I picture Jeff Dunham with Sheldon Adelson's face- can't get the image out of my mind!)
Do the Republicans ever read some of these Posts? If they did, they would realise how universally hated they really are and with reason.
The constant idiocy that comes out of their mouths is astounding. Of course, this only serves to confirm my theory: You have to be intelligent to be utterly stupid. And, OMG, they ARE!!!
What are they going to do if next month's numbers are up? Silence, total silence. These are not breathtakingly bad numbers as they were when Bush was asleep at the wheel and no one had the courage in his camp to tell him so. They want us to forget about 2008, but most of it got written down and they can't destroy all the records. This mantra that Bush was bad but Obama is worse is sickening and cowardly politics as well. They'd rather be in charge of a sinking ship than try to repair it. In a word, they are nuts.
A note to all fact-challenged Republicans. Look at the OMB reports, the employment reports, the military objectives accomplished in recent times. The Democrats are the work horses and you are the show horses. Whiny, balky show horses at that. You even accepted the Bush mantra, "Nobody has struck us since we were asleep at the wheel on 9/11. They were you know. President Clinton ( a hard worker) warned them. Even Condi didn't listen and she was by far the smartest of that bunch. By light years.