Mitt Romney’s Most Shocking Statement Yet?

THINK PROGRESS

Mitt Romney’s Most Shocking Statement Yet?

By ThinkProgress War Room on Jun 11, 2012 at 5:13 pm 

Mitt Romney’s Job Elimination Program

During the course of the primary campaign, Mitt Romney famously said that he “likes being able to fire people who provides services to [him].” Now Mitt Romney wants to fire people who provide essential services to all of us — specifically teachers, firefighters, and cops.

Here’s how Romney attacked the president’s call for action on his jobs bill, which would specifically save or create more than a million jobs:

Romney said of Obama,“he wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, 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.”

Unfortunately, this policy position is not a new one for Romney. He has repeatedly said on the campaign trail that, despite more than 600,000 public sector job losses under President Obama thanks to GOP austerity, more public workers should’ve been laid off over the last four years, not fewer.
Here’s a few key points on Romney’s shockingly out of touch comments.

• Even radical Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) doesn’t agree with Romney.

During an interview yesterday, even radical Gov. Scott Walker broke with Romney and defended teachers, firefighters, and cops:

“I know in my state our reforms allowed us to protect firefighters, police officers and teachers. That’s not what I think of when I think of big government.”

• Job-creating investments in teachers, firefighters, and cops are extremely popular.

The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent rounds up the polling and finds that the American people overwhelmingly disagree with Mitt Romney and instead support the president’s position:

* A CNN poll in October of 2011 found that 75 percent of Americans supported “providing federal money to state governments to allow them to hire teachers and first responders,” including 72 percent of independents.

* A New York Times/CBS poll in September of 2011 found that 52 percent, and 51 percent of independents, think it’s a “good idea” to “provide money to state governments to avoid layoffs.:

* A National Journal poll at around the same time found that 70 percent thought “providing funds to state and local governments to prevent layoffs of teachers, police officers, and other first responders” would be “very effective” or “somewhat effective” in creating more jobs.

• Economists agree that Romney’s austerity plan would make the economy worse.

Sargent also spoke with economists last week and, unsurprisingly, they agreed that the dramatic European-style austerity cuts proposed by Romney would make things worse:

“On net, all of these policies would do more harm in the short term,” added Mark Hopkins, a senior adviser at Moody’s Analytics. “If we implemented all of his policies, it would push us deeper into recession and make the recovery slower.”

Check out Sargent’s piece for a complete rundown on how Romney’s economic plan would harm the economy.

• Romney’s campaign doubled down on his comments.

And lest anyone think Romney’s remarks were somehow taken out of context, his campaign chairman went on MSNBC this morning to explain the “wisdom” behind Romney’s remarks, saying that “taxpayers really do want to hear that there will be fewer teachers.”

You can check out the video here.

IN ONE SENTENCE: Rather than offer a real jobs plan, Mitt Romney’s plan is to make the economy worse through European-style austerity spending cuts that would costs hundreds of thousands of Americans — including teachers, firefighters, and cops — their jobs.

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