Better or Worse

In the words of Sherlock Holmes, It is a big mistake to theorize before one has data – because one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of finding theories to suit facts. To that end one must question the accuracy of Mitt Romney when he says, “Obama did not cause the recession, but he made it worse. According to the following press report: “NEW YORK (AP) -- Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs. The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm. That was up more than 6 percent from the previous year, and is the second year in a row of increases. The figure is also the highest since the AP began tracking executive compensation in 2006.” Would the CEOs mentioned in this article agree that things are worse now? Compare the stock average when Obama was inaugurated to today’s average...it is anything but worse. When Obama took office the country was losing jobs at a rate of 850,000 a month and for the past 26 months there have been 4.5 million private sector jobs created...what would Romney consider doing better? Corporate profits are at an all time high...worse according to Romney. Ask the families whose children now are covered by their health insurance if they agree with Romney. What has Romney done to make things better for Americans during the past 3½ years? As the De facto head of the Republican Party, has he taken the lead to encourage Congress to enact any legislation that would make things better? His only encouragement in this area has been the Ryan budget plan which would eliminate Medicare as we know it, reduce funding for food stamps and school lunches, have other negative effects on the safety net for the needy and poor. Of course, the top 1% would claim that the Ryan budget would make things better, but the economic policies in the Ryan plan mirror those of Bush 43 which did cause the recession. While better or worse can be a subjective judgment in the eye of the beholder, the actual facts of the past 3½ years do not support Romney’s claims.