The following memorandum was issued by Lanhee Chen, Policy Director for Mitt Romney’s Presidential Campaign:
Lanhee Chen, Policy Director
This Sunday marks 100 days until Election Day. Poll after poll shows us that jobs and the economy are the most important issues on the minds of the American people. Voters will be asking themselves a simple question: Which candidate is best equipped to finally get our economy back on the right track?
Under President Obama, the economy continues to weaken. Today’s GDP estimate, which revealed that our economy grew by a paltry 1.5% last quarter, is only the latest sign that we are moving in the wrong direction. Some economists have expressed fears that we are heading toward a period of zero growth – or worse. America’s jobless rate has been over 8% for 41 straight months and is likely to remain chronically high for the foreseeable future. The number of Americans living in poverty is at record levels. China has overtaken the United States in manufacturing for the first time ever. All the while, our national debt climbs higher and higher, leaving a multi-trillion dollar unpaid bill for future generations.
President Obama has no one but himself to blame for the state of our economy. Shortly after taking office, he promised to turn things around in three years or he’d be looking at a “one-term proposition.” He said he welcomed the responsibility of solving the serious problems our country faces. But he has not solved them. Now, instead of solutions and substance, the Obama campaign will offer little more than diversions and distractions over the next 100 days. Since the President can’t run on his record, this is all his campaign can do.
Americans are too smart – and too tired of politics as usual – to be fooled by this. They know President Obama has had enough time to live up to the promise of his last campaign. They know they aren’t better off than they were four years ago. Most importantly, they know they have the final say – and a clear choice.
In Mitt Romney, the American people will find someone who has the kind of personal strengths and professional experience they are looking for. As a businessman, and later as governor, he compiled a record of promoting innovative solutions, turning around struggling enterprises, and creating jobs. Unlike President Obama, he has a comprehensive plan to unleash the potential of the American economy and give hope to middle-class families that are struggling. He knows the power of free enterprise and free people – and he believes small-business owners and entrepreneurs deserve every last bit of credit for serving as the backbone of America’s economy.
From Day One of his presidency, Mitt Romney will be focused on job creation and economic growth. He will lead where President Obama has not, and he will succeed where President Obama has failed. Just over 100 days from now, the change we need will finally arrive.
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Wow, he’s very young. I read, heard comments before, but i didn’t know he’s a policy director for Gov Romney. I was expecting bold, older guy :=) The media portrays this guy as another “James Carville”. Awesome! If the media don’t like him, he must be doing something great. Keep doing whatever you’re doing.
And I can’t wait! Romney wins in November.
Now choose Rubio and let’s get the party started.
Africans for Romney: Did you mean you expected a bald guy? Chen looks bold to me!
A great post Luke! Chen’s comments of course are spot on. It cracks me up that Obama talks about the recession he inherited as the worst since the depression. It doesn’t even compare with the recession Reagan inherited.
Vic, i meant bald. Thanks
Disagree.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-26/breaking-up-banks-won-t-make-them-safer-ex-senator-says.html
Former U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who warned in 1999 that repealing Glass-Steagall could lead to “massive taxpayer bailouts” in 10 years, said in a telephone interview that the so-called firewalls that exist between regulated banks and affiliates are like “tissue paper.”
“It’s just absurd for anybody now to make the case that having these entities under the same corporate umbrella doesn’t pose substantially greater risk,” said Dorgan, who retired from the Senate in 2011 and is a senior policy adviser at law firm Arent Fox LLP. “Phil is just wrong about this. He was wrong 13 years ago and he’s wrong now.”
The mess we are in now was carried over from the Bush years and it will take a long time to resolve these problems even beyond whoever becomes president for the next four years. But the problem is much more strategic than anyone thinks. What is causing this economic stagnation and will continue to cause it down the road is the shrinking supply of oil. Energy is the juice of the modern economy. Without a sufficient supply (which has been increasing less), it can’t run well. Modern civilization should have done it a long time ago. One of the biggest mistakes it ever made was not balancing the energy spectrum. We use too much energy by developing technological products from light bulbs to cars to to i-Pads over the last 150 years, but did relatively little to advance the supply side of the energy spectrum. So much so that it has been said that if Thomas Edison came back, he would recognize today’s power system. One reason why is that petroleum has been historically cheap with the exception of the 1970s and in the last 10 years or so. It is also very reliable and relatively easy to implement into an energy source like through the internal combustion engine. But we are running out of them. There has been little profit incentive for private industry to create alternatives.
How did this current crisis come about and affected our economy today? In the 1950s, the U.S. government created incentives to expand energy usage. Title 1 made it easier for suburban communities to be built and middle class families rushed out into them. The new suburban homes used up more power and people started to drive more as the new suburbs were complemented by the construction of the National Highway System under the Eisenhower administration, perhaps the biggest man-made project in history. This led to the biggest economic expansion and the biggest expansion of the middle class in American history. But this all came at a price. Energy usage spiked like never before. Furthermore, growth in polymer-related industries like the wider usage of plastic and rubber in the 60s and 70s caused further demand for petroleum. In 10-15 short years, the United States hit its peak in the domestic production of oil in the 1970s. An energy crisis hit which was further exacerbated by the Arab oil embargo.
In the late 1970s, an alternative energy program was created by the U.S. gov’t under the Carter administration that included renewable energy in respone to the energy crisis. That program was scraped in the 1980s in favor of importing more oil under the Reagan administration. The economic stagnation (or stagflation) of the 1970s and the subsequent Reagan’s years of the 1980s also changed the political culture of the United States which it become gradually institutionally conservative. Liberal economic policies of “taxing and spending” were discredited and blamed for the economic downturn of the 1970s by conservatives like Reagan. He and others misidentified or overlooked the real problem that caused the downturn: SHORTAGE OF ENERGY RELATIVE TO DEMAND. Namely, oil. Energy is the juice of the modern economy. It was no coincidence the stagflation in the 1970s happened during the time of the energy crisis when the U.S. hit its peak in domestic production in the the “black gold” and started to rely more on foreign oil during the time of heightened world tensions. Instead, conservatives MOSTLY wrongly blamed it on liberal policies of too much government. When it was clear that oil was not for the far future (like in the 21st century), Reagan scrapped the alternative energy programs in the 1980s and decided to rely more on imported oil.
Admittedly, the problem with alternative energy like solar and wind is that the current technology is not capable of providing enough BASE POWER to supply society with energy 24/7. Speculatively, government wasn’t given much of a chance to develop better storage technology for alternatives after its program was scrapped in the 1980s. It could have been done. After all, this is the same government that built the Panama Canal, the Hoover Dam, the Alaska Pipeline, the National Highway System, and helped build the Erie Canal, Transcontinental Railroad, and the suburbs. Putting a man on the moon was a comparatively more difficult task which by the way helped lead to the development of solar power. So was the Manhattan Project that led to nuclear energy. However, because of the polarized political atmosphere in the United States in which conservatism has become gradually extreme since the 1980s and ignorant and dismissive of climate change and alternative energy and even what government has done in the past and can do presently as well as the current budgetary problems due to reckless government fiscal policies in the first decade of the 21st century, little as has been done. Ironically, the institutional conservative movement of the Reagan Revolution that started with conservatives mostly falsely blaming the economic crisis in the 1970s on liberal policies has culminated in the political polarization we have today that is hindering efforts to stem global warming and find alternative energy solutions.
Anyone can look at it for yourself. Every time the economy is showing growth, oil prices rises higher disproportiately in response to growing demand because of higher economic activity. It would knock down growth; continuing economic stagnation. It’s like the 1970s all over again, except it is more gradual, unlike the 70s when it was a sudden shock because the Arab oil embargo (remember the long gas lines?), but this time it much more perpetual because we can’t simply import our way out of high oil prices like we used to. The last 50 years witnessed much turbulence because of dependence on oil. Imagine what the next 50 years would be like if we continue this current course.
Who GOT us in this Energy Mess? Start with Ronald Reagan …
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/07/08/202854/who-got-us-in-this-energy-mess-start-with-ronald-reagan/?mobile=nc
Why did Reagan kill off alternative energy programs and research in the 80′s? Why didn’t Bush/Clinton revive?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080822195459AAwL1yQ
From Bloomberg News:
“”"Former U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who warned in 1999 that repealing Glass-Steagall could lead to “massive taxpayer bailouts” in 10 years, said in a telephone interview that the so-called firewalls that exist between regulated banks and affiliates are like “tissue paper.”
“It’s just absurd for anybody now to make the case that having these entities under the same corporate umbrella doesn’t pose substantially greater risk,” said Dorgan, who retired from the Senate in 2011 and is a senior policy adviser at law firm Arent Fox LLP. “Phil is just wrong about this. He was wrong 13 years ago and he’s wrong now.””"
The Bush administration and the congressional GOP from 1997-2007 have left one of the worst legacies in government in American history. We are left with the worst economic recession since 1930s and perhaps the worst fiscal crisis since the 1790s thanks to increased expenditures due to two mishandled wars and an insensible tax cut policy that carried over to the Obama presidency.
We are still living with the Bush legacy more than we are living with Obama’s presidency. This mess is so great that it will take more than the next four years to clean up no matter whoever becomes president.
Yes, it is fair for Obama to blame the Bush years for today’s problems and those of the immediate future. People can’t see this are very much unaware of the larger issues.
President Obama knows that it would take more than the next four years to fix Bush’s mess of the worst economy since the 1930s and the worst fiscal crisis since maybe the 1790s. The Bush years and the GOP Congress from 1997-2007 left one of the worst legacies in American history by any gov’t. Not to mention the current energy crisis is going to take a lot longer. Of course, Obama is not going to say that aloud in public
. If he does, it will demoralize the populace even more so coming from the top and discourage people from voting, especially those who would vote for him and not for Romney. He has to keep up with appearances. In this case, he is playing politics.