Romney Shows His Economic Ignorance

The other day the Labor Department released the latest unemployment numbers. They showed that while not enough jobs are being created (only 115,000 in April), at least the unemployment rate is moving in the right direction -- down (albeit very slowly). The rate dropped by 0.1% and now rests at 8.1%.

That was not good news for Republicans, who had done their best to keep the rate from falling through their obstructing any efforts the president made to create jobs. And Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) was quick to add his voice to the Republican whining and howling.

Romney said anything less than 500,000 new jobs a month or more than a 4% unemployment rate was unacceptable, and showed President Obama had failed. Even putting aside the obstructionism of the Republican Party since 2009, that statement just shows Romney's economic ignorance. He may be good at firing workers and milking corporations dry, but he doesn't seem to understand the basics of economics.

Romney wants to return to the failed economic policies of Reagan and Bush II -- the policies that created the worst inequality of wealth and income since before the Great Depression. What he failed to mention is that neither Reagan nor Bush II had an unemployment rate of 4% (Reagan's was closer to 7% during most of his term and millions of jobs were lost near the end of Bush II's term).

He also failed to mention that creating 500,000 jobs a month is a gargantuan task and impossible to sustain on a month-to-month basis. In fact, there have only been 16 months with that much job growth since 1939 (73 years), and in the last 50 years there have only been four months when 500,000 were created. And returning to the Bush/Reagan policies certainly won't do that. The Bush II presidency only produced an average of 66,000 jobs a month (far less than during the Clinton presidency, the last time unemployment was at 4%).

To put it bluntly, Romney is either lying or he is incredibly ignorant about economics -- or both. The policies put forth by the Republicans (and which they still cling to) have resulted in economic disaster for this country twice -- the Great Depression and the current Great Recession. The only people these policies help are the super-rich. But then, that may well be the only people Romney is interested in helping.