Last updated on February 9th, 2013 at 01:12 am
President Obama leveled Mitt Romney today by calling out the Republican nominee for trying to sell trickle down snake oil to the American people.
Here’s the video:
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Transcript of Obama in Dubuque, Iowa,
THE PRESIDENT: The centerpiece of Governor Romney’s economic plan is a new $5 trillion tax cut — a lot of it going to the wealthiest Americans.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Now, keep in mind, $5 trillion is a lot of money, even in Washington. Our entire defense budget is a little over half a trillion dollars a year, so this tax cut would be like giving the equivalent of the entire defense budget in tax cuts — a lot of it going to very rich people — every year for 10 years.
Now, these folks say they want to reduce the deficit and the debt. So the question is, well, how do you give away $5 trillion and then reduce the deficit? Well, recently we found out. Governor Romney expects you to pay for it —
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: — expects middle-class families to pick up the tab. Governor Romney’s tax plan would actually raise taxes on middle-class families by an average of $2,000 for families with children.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I don’t have $2,000 —
THE PRESIDENT: You don’t have $2,000 to spare. I didn’t think so.
And, by the way, don’t take my word for it. This is based on independent studies that have been done by folks who analyze this stuff for a living. They say, look, this will cost middle-class families with children an average of $2,000. And they’re asking you to pay an extra 2,000 bucks not to reduce the deficit, not to help our kids get educated, not to help kids go to college, not to rebuild our roads or our bridges or our ports — they’re doing this to give another $250,000 tax cut to folks who are making $3 million a year or more.
AUDIENCE: Booo —
THE PRESIDENT: Now, have you heard this before?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
THE PRESIDENT: They have been trying to sell this trickle-down snake oil before. (Laughter.) And guess what, it didn’t work then. It won’t work now. It’s not a plan to create jobs. It’s not a plan to reduce the deficit. It’s not a plan to move the economy forward.
And, secretly, I think they know this. I think they know their plan is not very popular. You can tell that because they’re being pretty dishonest about my plan — especially, by the way, when it comes to Medicare. Now, this is something I’ve got to point out here, because they are just throwing everything at the wall to see if it sticks. (Laughter.)
What Romney and the Republicans are tying to sell voters is a conservative billionaire funded big con. Republicans have been selling this snake oil for more than three decades, and every time they gain power and implement these policies the results get worse and worse for the American people. Ronald Reagan’s trickle down left America drowning in debt. By the time George W. Bush left office debt was the least of America’s problems. Trickle down had crashed the economy.
Mitt Romney wants to double down on this failed policy. But unlike the trickle down acolytes of yesteryear, he expects you to pay for it. Mitt Romney isn’t interested in just trickling down, he wants to fundamentally transform America by redistributing wealth up and the financial burden down.
Romney can try to create scandals and distractions, but Obama keeps bringing the debate back to who Mitt Romney is and what direction he wants to take the country in if he is elected president. Unlike other Democrats in the past, Obama sees trickle down as a moral issue. This president has been able build a sizable public support by turning trickle down into a question of fairness.
President Obama is not allowing Republicans to sell their trickle down fantasy. Obama doesn’t just say that trickle down doesn’t work. He reminds them of what these polices did to the economy in 2008. Obama has taken the Romney economic fantasy, and turned it into a nightmarish reminder for voters.
Mitt Romney’s desperate personal attacks against this president can’t hide the fact that he is the man with no plan, and Barack Obama is not about to let the greed fueled failures of the past become America’s future.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
