Would You Buy a Used Car From This Man: Why Romney’s Sketchy Deal is Shady

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:18 am

Governor Martin O’Malley was on CNN Wednesday morning saying the President “dominated the debate.” He said that the “crystallizing moment” was when President Obama said, “if a business person presented the sort of sketchy plan that you’ve presented for our economic recovery, or these massive tax cuts for corporations, and the wealthy, you wouldn’t invest in that…”

Watch the clip from CNN’s Starting Point here:

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O’MALLEY: What’s very clear is that President Obama dominated the debate last night and you know that because both sides are talking about the President’s performance. I thought he drew very sharp and clear contrasts between policies that are actually causing us to recover jobs, versus the policies of the past that Governor Romney wants to take us back to because of the job losses in the first place. And the crystallizing moment, at least as I was watching it, Soledad, came when President Biden (sic) turned to Governor Romney and said to him, if a business person presented the sort of sketchy plan that you’ve presented for our economic recovery, or these massive tax cuts for corporations, and the wealthy, you wouldn’t invest in that because there aren’t the details to back up the plan. And so I thought it was a very strong performance for the president last night.

O’Malley is right to reinforce the message of the sketchy deal, because no businessperson would invest in what Romney is selling. It’s as if he’s trying to sell an entire corporation, not just shares, without disclosing the financials. Instead, he’s offering a topsheet signed by his wife and his lawyer that says he’s a great guy who does nice things for the members of his church. That’s great, but back to this trillion dollar investment, he won’t even let us see the basic financials because he says we would “attack” him if we did. If that’s true, if we would attack him, then the financials must not be what he says they are.

We also can’t see his tax returns, so we don’t know where his other interests might be but he says to trust him. We can’t see his tax plan, but he says trust him. Do you want to put down a trillion on this deal? Republicans fear monger about the deficit but they’re the ones who drove it up from Clinton’s surplus because they didn’t think they had to pay for anything, and so far, Romney is no different. His “plan” involves $5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich and $2 trillion in new military spending the Pentagon isn’t asking for with no plan to pay for it.

But then, Romney ran a business that made money by running up debt that he then didn’t pay off. Is he going to bankrupt the USA? If so, it would be wise to sell the welfare sucking red states first — just saying, they aren’t profitable and they are bleeding the rest of the country dry. If the USA were run like a business, they’d be the first to go under a corporate buyout debt leveraging specialist, right after Big Bird and Planned Parenthood.

Given Romney’s business history and no financials or specifics, are we going to hand him a trillion dollars, our access to healthcare, and decisions about going to war and say sure, we trust you because you do nice things for the people in your church, you have “binders full of women”, and you’re a businessman?

Sketchy deal. Most people wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it first and knowing what it cost, but Romney wants to sell us a presidency without telling us anything. He’ll just show us beautiful drawings by the engineering team, but no details on how they’re going to actually make this thing. Does it really work? How much will it cost? Just trust him, because he’s a businessman. A businessman is not an engineer or an auto assembly team but trust him. Businessmen can do anything.

Contrary to Republican myth, businessmen do not have a great track record as presidents because America is not a business and government has larger responsibilities than the profit motive.

Never mind all of that, just trust him. It’s great. The clouds are all the right height.

Sarah Jones

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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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