Mittens can’t understand why younger voters support President Obama over him (or any other Republican).
“I joke, and I don’t mean to be flip with this — because I actually see truth in it — I don’t see how a young American can vote for a Democrat,†Romney said when asked what economic message he would have for young people.
“I apologize for being so offensive in saying that, but I catch your attention. But I mean, in the humor, there’s some truth there. And I say that for this reason: that party is focused on providing more and more benefits to my generation, and amounting trillion-dollar annual deficits my generation will never pay for.â€
He argued that while Democrats support “the greatest inter-generational transfer of wealth in the history of humankind,†the Republican Party is “consumed with the idea of getting federal spending down and creating economic growth and opportunity so we can balance our budget and stop putting these debts on you.â€
“These debts are not frightening to people my age, because we’ll be gone,†he said.
Jeff Jacoby wrote a standard SOB (Same Old Bullshit) article seconding Mittens. Jesse Singal responds.
Jacoby himself admits that the “debt wasn’t piled up without plenty of Republican help. During George W. Bush’s presidency, annual federal spending skyrocketed from $1.8 trillion to $3.4 trillion, and $4.9 trillion was added to the national debt.â€
Now, he goes on to argue that Obama ran it up even more, but we all know that Obama’s spending had a lot to do with recovery measures that were a response to the situation he inherited—not to mention wars he didn’t start an an expensive Medicare drug bill he wasn’t around to vote for.
Behold, the chart (click to enlarge):
Which President Caused the Deficit?
So I’m not sure where this leaves his argument. Young voters should support Republicans because… they run up debts, but not as quickly as Democrats? This actually hasn’t been true, historically.
Click to enlarge
But beyond the fact that it’s Republicans, not Democrats, who are the real big spenders, I suggest that Mittens and JJ try to put themselves into a young person’s shoes, so to speak. The evil federal deficit is an abstraction compared to the tangible effects of policy in their lives. Student loan debt is eating their economic future right now. And Mittens, and Republicans in general, have been colossally insensitive on the problems being caused by student loan debt. The basic Republican plan for student loans is shut up and pay up. Oh, and give the student loan business back to the sharks.
Jobs going overseas? Republicans refuse to address the issue but instead blame unions. And then if you ever do get a decent paying job and pay off your student loans, your parents will be finding that their Medicare vouchers aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, and you’ll be on the hook for their medical bills. Soylent Green, anyone?
Meanwhile, they foment culture war and show themselves to be utterly out of touch with younger people on social issues across the board. The question is not, why don’t more young people vote for Republicans? It’s, how stupid does a young person have to be to vote for Republicans?
But wingnuts are equally clueless about other demographic groups that don’t like them. They go on a hysteria-hate binge over female contraceptives and then wonder why there’s a gender gap. Their insensitivity on racial issues is legendary, but their explanation for why a huge majority of African Americans tend to vote for Democrats is that they’ve been “brainwashed” to stay on the “liberal plantation.”
Seriously, anyone who is not already a mega-billionaire has got to be brainwashed to vote for Republicans these days.
Yes, I continue to be surprised at the Republican deafness on these matters. At times, I really do think they believe their own BS, and can’t understand the negative reaction , which they then blame on Democratic “brainwashing”. (Oh, if only the Democratics were that persuasive.)
I won’t be the first to say this, but I don’t understand how their little brains work.
Look, guys, you’ve got to stop explaining all this to the Republicans! They already have a lockstep messaging system to repeat the same lie from every forum every day, and if they find out this other stuff, they’ll alter their lies to create even more distractions and smokescreens! Instead, we’ve got to spread the word that Cheney’s new heart was paid for by Medicare! That will cause their brains to implode from cognitive dissonance! Spread the word: Cheney got a Medicare heart paid for with money borrowed from China.
Gitt U’R-money:
“I joke, and I don’t mean to be flip with this — because I actually see truth in it — I don’t see how a young American can vote for a Democrat…â€
This sounds like something either Yakoff Smirmoff, or Mork, might utter – drunk, and on acid/meth – or a really badly misfunctioning Cyborg might utter, trying to sound human, would say.
I’m actually looking forward to Gitt U’R-money debating Obama on national TV – with, or without a teleprompter.
Stewart, Colbert, Maher, Leno, Letterman, and all of the other TV pundit’s can give their writers a week or two off.
“Stupid” Gitt, I don’t know how any young Americans can vote for Republicans.
You’re still the party of Harding, Coolidge, and, most recently, “Baby Doc” Bush.
You’re the party of the Gilded Age to the late 1950’s,
The rest of the country has moved on.
“Pity the Lonely Wingnut” – they cannot get lonely enough for me. I still read plenty of stupid bile on various message boards blaming “the left” for everything that’s gone wrong in this country over the last 30 years. To paraphrase Monty Python, “they’re (wingnuts) not dead yet”.
I recently saw The Hunger Games, and couldn’t help but mentally assign “Republican” to the wealthy, callous few that brutally lord over the impoverished rest of the country.
Moonbat, thanks for mentioning “The Hunger Games: because the plot really resonates with me now.
how stupid does a young person have to be to vote for Republicans?
Goping by the college Repukes at the institution where I work, you have to be bone-stupid, arrogant and dedicated to the proposition that politics is a cronyist con game for the privileged, and the highest purpose is to suck up to the powerful to maneuver yourself on the inside of the con and maintain your privilege.
Between FOX and “Six Flags Over Jesus”, the (R)’s have a powerful brain washing network.
Lather, rinse, repeat……
This ain’t no Shangri-La.
The other side of the debt question is one that Krugman points out. The debt isn’t like a mortgage and a car loan and credit card debts, where I owe money to creditors, and when I pay it back, it’s gone. The money is owed (in a huge majority) to other Americans. The debt payments are going back to America, where they will be spent or invested.
The danger of debt isn’t having a big number. The danger is in having to service it (potentially high interest rates), the lack of flexibility if something awful happens (in ten years, we might be *furious* that low tax rates have put us so deep in debt hat we have a hard time building water transport infrastructure fast enough to deal with new areas of drought), and, obviously if and when it gets too high to service, what the hell do you do then?
The other side of the danger is that the Republicans are willing to run up a huge debt to keep wealthy folks from paying as much in taxes, while sensible people might be willing to run up a huge debt to build up infrastructure, or improve education, or do something that will pay off in the long run. It’s not just debt – it’s whether or not you’ve got something useful for it.
Could it be that young people, at least those not too young now, remember the Bush, another Republican, who spent 8 years careening toward debilitating incompetence and terminal mendacity? Could it be they’re not overly anxious to return a Republican to the WH to further the careening?
Well, yeah, there’s that. I think people get “imprinted” with whatever is going on politically when they are entering adulthood, and that tends to shape their political views from then on.
I grew up in the Reagan-Bush Sr. years and was an economic conservative and social moderate though I never bought into the Reagan fanboy worship. But the Gingrich thugocracy, followed by the Clinton cock-hunt, followed by the Bush election theft in 2000 turned me away from the Repukes.