I wonder if either of the Romneys has ever pondered those numbers or come to terms with the laissez- faire, free market policies that have produced such a distorted economic outcome. Then again I doubt they are very much disturbed by the explosion in CEO salaries relative to average worker salaries, which hover currently at 230-1 compared to 25-1 just a few decades ago, another unhealthy indicator of economies “gone wild” unless one’s idea of a properly functioning economy is one that leads to plutocracy. Republicans will talk day and night about jobs - despite having the worst private sector job growth in modern times under George Bush and despite having achieved that honor in conjunction with the “job-creating” tax cuts demanded by Bush in 2001 and 2003 – but you’ll never hear them talking about the wage-benefit profile of these new jobs. Republicans hark back to America’s past, “let’s keep doing the things that made this nation great,” but that harkening does not include the restoration of a strong, well-compensated, middle-class earning wages that will enable “the pursuit of happiness” or the establishment of a secure future. Sorry if this sounds divisive, but American CEOs and the corporate elite, as evidenced by income and profit data, will continue their unprecedented climb to wealth because money will be made no matter who actually works for their corporations. I dare somebody to examine the percentage of American workers employed by the top 25 American corporations today compared to the top 25 corporations in 1960. Does saying “I’m pro-corporation” mean the same thing today as it did back then? If not, why then do Republicans continue with this particular drum beat, and what does that tell us about their priorities?
Given these economic realities, maybe the etch-a-sketch candidate and his wife can clean up their image in time for the election and dispel with their anti-worker bias, though that notion conceived earlier in Mitt’s career might have wiped away almost all of his hard-earned, corporate raider fortune. They could start with a good-faith gesture supporting President Obama’s tax increase on income above $250,000. I know the Romneys don’t believe that people earning over $250,000 are rich, but if that’s the case what does that make people earning the median annual family income of roughly $50,000, which is only 1/5th that amount? If $250K isn’t rich in America, then how would the Romneys describe the $50K crowd? Are they poor Annn?
We all suffered the infernal and eternal Republican Presidential debates (an incredible low-point in the great and ongoing American political conversation) with nary a mention of the Party’s most recent Presidential and Party leader – George W. Bush (the name that must not be spoken!). The name that was spoken, nearly 225 times, was Ronald Reagan, the guy from 25 years ago who dyed his hair and tripled the national debt while raising federal taxes 11 times – another set of truths that does not fit the fictitious Republican narrative, which relies on institutionalized untruth to achieve its murky goals. By all means America, this November let us return to the black hole of American life known as the Bush-Cheney years, and restore to national power the Party of unprecedented political, economic, foreign policy and job-creating malfeasance. Let us forget their recent truths, embrace their current lies and as Rick Santorum might say, “Forgive them Lord for they know exactly what they do.” Close enough was always good enough for Rick.
