Posts by AB

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Housing

Romney Does Not Support Helping Homeowners In Need

Romney Wanted Foreclosures To Hit The Bottom

Romney Believed The “Cure For Foreclosures” Was Getting Government Out Of The Way And Letting The Process Run Its Course. According to a New York Times editorial, “Since the housing bubble began to burst six years ago, prices nationwide have fallen by a third… As home prices fall and more homeowners sink underwater, there will be more foreclosures and more price declines. So what is Mitt Romney’s response? Bring it on. In interviews and in the Republican presidential debates, Mr. Romney has said that the cure for foreclosures is for the government to get out of the way and let the process run its course… The argument might have some red-meat appeal, playing off the notion that any owners who lose their homes are getting what they deserve. It is wrong on several counts…Mass foreclosures are a rotten way to stabilize the market…Who does Mr. Romney think will buy up millions of foreclosed properties? Borrowers who lose their homes to foreclosure or who sell their homes for less than the balance on their mortgages can be denied credit for years; many will never be homeowners again… With the economy still weak and vulnerable to shocks, more foreclosures and the resulting price declines would only weaken the economy further…The let-it-crash argument conveniently ignores that the housing bubble was the result not only of overborrowing but of reckless lending too.” [New York Times, Editorial, 11/26/11] Romney Opposed Trying To Stop The Foreclosure Process, Wanting It To “Run Its Course And Hit The Bottom.” According to The Huffington Post, “Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney suggested he doesn’t support foreclosure relief for the millions of Americans struggling with underwater mortgages, untold numbers of which have been the victims of fraudulent lending or foreclosure practices. In a filmed interview with the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a newspaper serving the hardest-hit foreclosure state in the union, Romney criticized President Barack Obama for not foreclosing on American families fast enough. ‘Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom,’ Romney said when asked what he would do to jump-start the floundering housing market. ‘Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up and let it turn around and come back up,’ he continued. ‘The Obama administration has slow walked the foreclosure process ... that has long existed and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang.’” [The Huffington Post, 10/18/11] Romney Opposed Housing Relief Programs, Saying The Market Must Repair Itself By Collapsing. According to KLAS-TV 8 News Now, “Romney says he doesn’t support President Obama’s relief programs HAMP and HARP. Instead, he believes the housing market must bottom out to repair itself. ‘If you start having government starting to tax people so they can give money to people who need help in their homes, you’ll just bring the market down, down, and down, and you’ll never see an end to it.’” [KLAS-TV 8 News Now, 2/2/12] Read the full report after the jump.

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Higher Education

Romney Does Not Care About College Affordability

Romney Said “College Is Not Right For Everybody.” According to Fox News, during an interview on “Hannity,” Romney was asked by Sean Hannity: “Do you think that it’s in everybody’s best interest to get a degree or are people better off going to specialized schools to become a mechanic or an electrician or a plumber? What do you think?” Romney replied “Not everybody is going to go to college, of course. And people have different courses in their life they want to pursue. College is not right for everybody. Some folks have other ambitions and want to go in different directions. So, we want people to have freedom in this country and opportunity to pursue their happiness and the way they think.” [Fox News, 2/28/12] Romney Suggested Students Facing Rising Tuition Costs Should Get A Scholarship Or Join The Military. According to a New York Times op-ed, “There wasn’t a word about the variety of government loan programs… There wasn’t a word urging colleges to hold down tuition increases… And there wasn’t a word about Pell Grants, in case the student’s family had a low enough income to qualify… Instead, the advice was pretty brutal: if you can’t afford college, look around for a scholarship (good luck with that), try to graduate in less than four years, or join the military if you want a free education.” [New York Times, 3/5/12] Romney Told College Students To Borrow Money From Their Parents, Rather Than The Government, To Pay For Higher Education. According to KSL, “Personal responsibility has long been the backbone of many conservative principles, so when Romney told students to borrow from their parents rather than Uncle Sam, it doesn't come as much of a surprise. ‘Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business,’ Romney told college students in Ohio. The statement is in context of a story where a friend of his borrowed $20,000 from his parents.” [KSL, 4/30/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Wall Street Reform

Romney Wanted To Repeal Wall Street Regulations – Has Not Been Specific On What Would Replace It

Romney’s Financial Regulation Plan Was To Have “Something” Replace Dodd-Frank After It’s Repealed. According to The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, “On financial regulation, Romney would ‘repeal Dodd-Frank and replace with streamlined, modern regulatory framework.’ That is literally his entire plan. Three years after a homegrown financial crisis wrecked the global economy, the likely Republican nominee for president would repeal the new regulatory architecture and replace it with … something.” [The Washington Post, Ezra Klein, 8/6/12] Romney Adviser Lanhee Chen Said Romney Would Get Rid Of The Dodd-Frank Law And Would Seek To Replace The Law’s Volcker Rule. According to CBS News, “In talking about financial regulations, Chen reasserted Romney’s desire to get rid of the Dodd-Frank law, and disputed the assertion that repealing the law would lead to ‘a dog-eat-dog kind of situation where there’s absolutely no regulation.’ ‘Governor Romney has made clear that we do need some regulation of derivatives trading, that we do need to have some kind of consumer protections in place, that we do need to look seriously at things we can do to ensure that the financial services industry is regulated in a reasonable way,’ Chen said. ‘But Dodd-Frank is really not the answer. And so I think we have to resist the temptation to caricature what a post-Dodd-Frank world looks like.’ He also said Romney would seek to replace the Volcker rule, one part of Dodd-Frank that restricts the ability of banks to make certain kinds of speculative investments that do not benefit their customers.” [CBS News, 6/1/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And The Environment

Previously said Carbon Was Not A harmful Pollutant And Questioned The EXISTENCE Of Global Warming

July, 2011, Romney Said Carbon Is Not A Harmful Pollutant To Human Bodies. According to Mitt Romney says he doesn’t think carbon pollution threatens human health and would not green-light EPA climate regulations if he were in the White House. The GOP presidential candidate signaled the reversal to one of the Obama administration’s top environmental policies during a town hall meeting Thursday in Derry, N.H. This came about six weeks after he acknowledged during a campaign stop that global warming is real, a statement that won him praise from Al Gore. ‘I think we may have made a mistake,’ Romney said Thursday in response to a voter’s question about EPA regulating air pollution from coal plants under the Clean Air Act. ‘We have made a mistake is what I believe, in saying that the EPA should regulate carbon emissions. I don’t think that was the intent of the original legislation, and I don’t think carbon is a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies.’” [Politico, 7/18/11]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Energy

Romney Opposed Wind Energy Tax Credit Benefitting Iowan Farmers

Romney Opposed Renewing Wind Energy Tax Credits Set To Expire Despite Program’s Popularity In Iowa. According to Talking Points Memo, “The Romney campaign on Monday signaled the Republican nominee is against renewing a tax break for wind energy, a potentially dangerous position since the program is popular in the swing state of Iowa, reports the Des Moines Register. The position distinguishes Romney from President Obama who wishes to extend the tax credit and says it has saved jobs in Iowa. It also puts Romney at odds with some Iowa Republicans who support the tax break. ‘He will allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits,’ Shawn McCoy, a spokesman for Romney’s Iowa campaign, told the Register Monday. ‘Wind energy will thrive wherever it is economically competitive, and wherever private sector competitors with far more experience than the president believe the investment will produce results.’” [Talking Points Memo, 7/31/12] Gov. Branstad Said Wind Energy Tax Credits Proceeded Obama And The Stimulus And Made A Difference. According to Radio Iowa, “The Romney campaign is running a TV ad in Iowa which suggests part of the 2009 economic stimulus package sent taxpayer dollars to ‘windmills from China.’ ‘I understand why they are very critical of the whole thing that was done by the Obama Administration with regard to the stimulus and some of the money that was wasted on Solyndra and some of these green energy projects didn’t make sense,’ Branstad said. ‘The tax credit, however, is a much different thing and it way proceeded Obama and it was actually something that Senator Grassley authored and has made a real difference over time.’” [Radio Iowa, 8/2/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Sequestration

Romney Showed No Leadership On Debate Leading Up To Sequestration

Romney Refused To Comment On Debt Ceiling Negotiations

Romney Was Criticized By Other Republican Presidential Candidates For Staying On The Sidelines During Debt Ceiling Talks. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Romney, who has been criticized by fellow Republican candidates for remaining largely on the sidelines during the recent debate over the nation’s debt ceiling, defended himself by saying that he had maintained a consistent, if quiet, position throughout the partisan bickering in Washington, favoring the ‘cut, cap and balance’ plan passed by the House and defeated by the Senate. ‘I didn’t react day to day to every negotiation because my position was clear,’ he said. ‘Cut, cap and balance was the right way for America to deal with this financial distress.’” [The New York Times, 8/8/11] Romney Was Criticized By Santorum And Pawlenty’s Campaign For Showing No Leadership On The Debt Ceiling Fight. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Republican presidential candidates have used the debate over raising the nation’s borrowing limit to score points with conservative voters and insert their views into Washington’s thorniest political dispute. But Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, has taken a subtler tack, avoiding the issue of the debt ceiling as he presses a more general assault on President Barack Obama’s economic record. That has attracted the attention of his GOP challengers, who have begun to accuse him of ducking the most vital issue of the campaign so far. ‘The current debate is about what kind of leadership you’re going to show,’ former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said in an interview Monday. ‘If you’re running for president, you’ve got to show how you would handle a situation like this.’ ‘The debt ceiling is a gut-check time for all Republicans on spending and size of government,’ said Alex Conant, spokesman for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. ‘Apparently, Gov. Romney is still checking his gut to figure out where he should stand.’” [The Wall Street Journal, 7/12/11]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney’s Poor Jobs Record In Massachusetts

Massachusetts Job Creation Ranked Poorly Under Romney

In Romney’s Four Years As Governor Massachusetts Ranked 47^th Out Of 50 In Jobs Growth. According to Marketwatch, “The Republican contender was the governor of Massachusetts from January 2003 to January 2007. And during that time, according to the U.S. Labor Department, the state ranked 47th in the entire country in jobs growth. Fourth from last. The only ones that did worse? Ohio, Michigan and Louisiana. In other words, two rustbelt states and another that lost its biggest city to a hurricane. The Massachusetts jobs growth over that period, a pitiful 0.9%, badly lagged other high-skill, high-wage, knowledge economy states like New York (2.7%), California (4.7%) and North Carolina (7.6%). The national average: More than 5%.” [Marketwatch, 2/23/10]

In Romney’s First Year In Charge, Massachusetts “Ranked Dead Last In America In Job Growth.” According to Marketwatch, “So far Obama has been in office for just one year. How was Romney’s performance by his first anniversary? Fiftieth out of fifty. That’s right. In Romney’s first year in charge, Massachusetts ranked dead last in America in jobs growth.” [Marketwatch, 2/23/10]

Massachusetts Unemployment Rate “Showed Little Movement During Romney’s Tenure” And Went From Below The National Average When He Took Office To Above The National Average When He Left. According to the Associated Press, “The state’s unemployment numbers also showed little movement during Romney’s tenure. In December 2002, as Romney prepared to step into office, Massachusetts unemployment rate stood at 5.6 percent, slightly lower than the national unemployment rate of 6 percent. By December 2006 - Romney’s last full month in office - national unemployment had fallen to just 4.5 percent while Massachusetts unemployment numbers had inched down to 5.2 percent. ‘We’ve had a very slow economic recovery and we’ve trailed most of the rest of the nation,’ said Michael Widmer, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. ‘It’s not the turnaround he’s advertised.’” [Associated Press, 2/4/08]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Debt

Massachusetts Had The Highest Debt Per Capita Debt Of Any State Under Romney

Under Governor Romney, Massachusetts Had The Highest Per Capita Debt Of Any State. According to Think Progress, “According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (compiled by Connecticut’s chief analyst in 2009), Massachusetts had $10,504 in per capita bond debt in 2007, the highest total in the nation. No other state had more than $10,000 in per capita debt, and only one had more than $8,000. Massachusetts ranked second, behind only Alaska, in per capita debt as a percent of personal income, with debt making up more than 21 percent of each resident’s income.” [Think Progress, 5/16/12] Under Romney, Massachusetts’ Long-Term Debt Increased By 16.4 Percent Or $2.6 Billion. According to the Massachusetts Office of the Treasurer, Massachusetts had $16,063,162,000 in long-term debt as of January 1, 2003. As of October 1, 2006, shortly before Romney left the Governor’s Office, Massachusetts had $18,697,240,000 in long-term debt. This was an increase of $2,634,078,000 or 16.4%. [Massachusetts Office Of The Treasurer, p. A-22 , 2/28/03; Massachusetts Office Of The Treasurer, p. A-24, 11/10/06]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And Women

Romney Would Not Say Whether He Supported Equal Pay For Women

Romney Initially Refused To Say Whether He Would Have Signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act. According to ABC News, during an interview, Diane Sawyer asked: “I want to talk about a couple of issues relating to women. This 19-point difference between you and the president on women. Here are some specific questions. If you were president -- you had been president -- would you have signed the Lilly Ledbetter Law?” Romney said “It’s certainly a piece of legislation I have no intend -- intention of changing. I wasn’t there three years ago ...” Sawyer interjected “But would you have signed it?” and Romney replied “I’m not going to go back and look at all the prior laws and say had I been there which ones would I have supported and signed, but I certainly support equal pay for women and -- and have no intention of changing that law, don’t think there’s a reason to.” [ABC News, 04/16/12] Romney Said He Would Not Change The Current Lilly Ledbetter Act Which Ryan Voted Against. According to The Huffington Post, “In April of this year, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign had a devil of a time explaining what exactly the presumptive Republican nominee’s position was on the Lilly Ledbetter Act, the first bill signed into law by President Obama. At first, aides to the Massachusetts Republican said they’d get back to reporters with respect to the bill, which expanded the timeframe to bring forward equal pay lawsuits. Eventually, the campaign clarified that Romney was ‘not looking to change current law’ -- a line that suggested he supported it now but didn’t explain whether he would have signed it to begin with. The Lilly Ledbetter Act has since receded as a campaign issue. But with the selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as Romney’s vice presidential nominee, it has the potential to once again resurface. The Wisconsin Republican’s position on the bill isn’t vague. He voted against the measure when it came to the House floor in January 2009.” [The Huffington Post, 8/13/12]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney And The Auto Rescue

Romney Opposed Government Involvement In The Auto Industry

Romney Wanted To “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” And Said The Demise Of The Auto Industry Would Be “Virtually Guaranteed” By A Government Bailout. According to Romney, “If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed. Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.” [Romney Op-Ed, New York Times, 11/19/08] Romney Opposed The Bailout Of The Domestic Auto Industry. According to the Detroit News, “On the federal ‘bailout’ in 2008 of the domestic auto industry, Romney writes he opposed the billions provided ‘because it enabled GM and Chrysler to avoid the restructuring and productivity improvements essential for their success.’ The federal government has provided the auto industry with $86 billion, including $50 billion for GM and $12 billion for Chrysler. Romney urged a managed bankruptcy, a step the Obama administration eventually took to help stabilize GM and Chrysler Group LLC. ‘The managed bankruptcy that I proposed ultimately occurred,’ Romney writes, ‘but only after tens of billions of taxpayer money had been wasted, and only after sweetheart deals and paybacks for favored interest groups had been engineered with the public’s money.’” [Detroit News, 2/24/10] Romney Believed Automakers Should Have Had Private Bankruptcy Without Federal Aid. According to the Associated Press, “Romney told a diner at the Senate Coney Island restaurant Thursday morning that the automakers should have gone through a private bankruptcy without the federal aid. The businessman and former Massachusetts governor says he believes ‘in the process of law’ rather than bailouts.” [Fox News, Associated Press, 6/9/11] Romney Believed Things In Detroit Would Be Better Without Intervention.  According to a Detroit News op-ed, Romney wrote “The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better.” [Detroit News, 2/14/12]