Last updated on September 11th, 2012 at 01:29 am
When a person who is guilty of certain actions blames someone else of doing precisely what they are doing, psychologists consider it a defensive strategy and not always conscious hypocrisy. In psychological terms, if a person denies their own actions and ascribes them to the outside world or other people, it is projection because it involves projecting the belief that others originate the guilty person’s feeling or actions. It is usually dumbfounding to hear someone else blame another person for doing what they obviously do as a matter of course, and for most people, the guilty party is a hypocrite. Americans who follow politics closely recognize that Republicans are notorious for projecting their actions on their opponents, and a prime example is John Boehner accusing the President of killing jobs in early 2011 when the GOP spending cuts threatened to kill millions of jobs.
Yesterday, Willard Romney was answering questions from reporters and extolling the virtues of his still-secret economic plan, and in attacking President Obama for not standing up to China, he had the temerity to say because of the President’s policies, “China has taken Americans’ jobs.” Now, whether Romney was in his pathological liar mode, or failed to think about what he said, he was clearly projecting on President Obama and China what he did while at Bain Capital. After the President’s remarkable acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Willard must have felt dazed and confused because he obviously forgot that Democrats and the President have been successful exposing his practice of outsourcing Americans’ jobs to China.
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Romney was reacting to reporters’ questions about the jobs report that unemployment dropped to 8.1%, but he revealed that he is as clueless about the economy as he is prone to prevarication and mendacity. Republicans have proffered the opinion that the American economy is on life support and dying, but the truth, as usual, tells a different story altogether. It is true that the economy is not fully recovered, but it is in recovery according to real economic experts using something anathema to Republicans; facts. There was job growth in August in the food and drink, professional services, and healthcare sectors, but the manufacturing sector lost 15,000 jobs no thanks to outsourcers like Willard Romney. However, besides outsourcing Americans’ jobs, there are reasons outside the control of the President for why, although demand is high in America, there is a slowdown in export growth and it is due in part to flagging demand on the global market.
For one thing, China’s economy is retracting, and European countries that imposed harsh austerity measures are preventing nearly every country in Europe from experiencing any growth in their GDP, and preventing consumers from spending on American goods. America is one of the only countries in the world experiencing economic growth solely because the President and Democrats have resisted Republican attempts to follow Europe’s austerity measures that are causing economic contraction and less consumer demand for American exports. Remember, Romney and his vice-presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, are staunch advocates for imposing harsher austerity measures than those in Europe to fund massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that are doing extraordinarily well as Americans lose their jobs to outsourcing to China. In fact, corporations are hoarding trillions of dollars in cash instead of investing in American manufacturing jobs as well as to avoid paying taxes Romney claims are prohibitively high and preventing them from investing in America. Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have fought tooth and nail to promote outsourcing jobs by blocking efforts by Democrats and the Obama Administration to rescind tax breaks for companies that send jobs to China. It is a never-ending loop of tax-free wealth for corporations that outsource Americans’ jobs that should be used in America to improve the economy, create jobs, and generate tax revenue to reinvest in America. However, investing in America is not the purview of Willard Romney and the Republican Party because their goal is assisting corporations and the private sector to continue hoarding their cash.
One might understand why the private sector is sitting on trillions of dollars because of the global economic slowdown, but it does not explain why they are not investing and hiring in America where demand is growing. One factor businesses cite for not increasing production and hiring is that Americans are not buying because of job losses, decreasing wages, and increased expenses. It is a vicious cycle that is attributable to outsourcing living-wage jobs and particularly since Republicans have made massive job cuts in the public sector. The public sector has lost over 800,000 teacher, firefighter, law enforcement, and construction jobs that are the drivers of the economy and crucial to a vibrant middle class. Those jobs in turn provide the private sector with customers to buy durable goods like automobiles, refrigerators, televisions, and homes that manufacturing requires to begin hiring. Those jobs not only put money into the economy, they are a major source of revenue to pay down the debt and invest in repairing the nation’s highways, bridges, airport runways, schools, and hospitals.
America’s economy is doing much better than Romney lets on and the markets are nearly at 2007 peak levels, and the Gross Domestic Product is above the peak in 2007. Retail sales are higher than in 2007, and auto sales are up from 9 million units sold last year to 14.1 million units as of August. The economic picture is certainly improving, but it cannot grow faster until manufacturing jobs return from China, South Korea, and India and that cannot happen until corporate tax breaks are eliminated and men like Romney stop sending Americans’ jobs to China.
It is the height of hypocrisy for Romney to even insinuate that “China has taken Americans’ jobs,” or that it is in any way the President’s responsibility. This President and Democrats have spent no small amount of time and energy pushing legislation to bring jobs back to America and the only obstruction has been Republicans and men like Willard Romney and Paul Ryan. Romney is a hypocrite for projecting his outsourcing practice on China or the President, and by the way, he has gotten filthy rich sending Americans’ jobs to China, and still paid a lower tax rate on his wealth than the Americans whose jobs he sent to China. It is no wonder he is projecting his guilt on China, and it makes sense because it is where he has projected so many Americans’ jobs.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
