comMITTed to Romney!

4 Responses to ““It is the economy, stupid””

1. Norm Says:
   
   February 28th, 2007 at 10:02 am

   This article should not imply that under Mitt Romney’s leadership the DOW Jones will never drop, or never drop substantially. My conservative view of government is that the free-market system should be supported but not manipulated. I view one day and even one quarter swings to be part of the free market system. Some markets rise and some decline. If stockowner get nervous, bail out and sell low, it is a great opportunity for me to step in and make some bargain buys. I do not want governmental leaders doing anything to prop up bad markets and I do not want government to prevent buying opportunities. If you prevent every down turn, you will also be limiting up turns.

   
   
2. myclob Says:
   
   February 28th, 2007 at 10:45 am

   Mitt Romney is the one person who understand this. Mitt ROmney is the one candidate who can understand the first chapter of an econ 101 book. Who else knows anything about the economy? Hillary (lawyer), Obama (lawyer), Rudy (lawyer), McCain (Military)? They are all great people, but Mitt Romney graduated with honors from Harvard Law, and Business school, was a CEO of a strategic business consulting firm, and was one of this nations most successful venture capitalist… Who else but Romney is even qualified of thinking about becoming president?

   
   
3. Nate Gunderson Says:
   
   February 28th, 2007 at 11:22 am

   Romney understands the law of cycles. Near the end of his term he vetoed more than $400 million from the state’s budget because it would require the use of the rainy-day funds. The problem was that is wasn’t a rainy day - they were coming off a record tax revenue year! Romney said no.
   Here is part of the story in his own words taken from a Op-Ed he wrote to the Boston Globe. You can read the whole thing here .

   Over the last three years, Massachusetts has come back. Businesses are hiring again, and we even read stories of employers creating incentives to retain older employees in the face of worker shortages. Our state and local tax revenues have gone through the roof. In fact, state tax receipts have exceeded forecasts by over a billion dollars for each of the last two years. A year ago, we refilled the rainy day fund.

   Which brings us to today. When things are up, it’s easy to forget the law of cycles, and to spend like “up” is the only direction the economy will ever go. That’s just what happened in this year’s budget debate. On June 30, the Legislature passed a budget that spent not only all of the record tax revenues and all of the billion-dollar surplus, but also $500 million from the rainy day fund. The Legislature’s bet must be that if the Massachusetts economy keeps booming next year, no one will be the wiser. But there may already be signs that this is a bad bet: Tax revenues are below forecast for each of the last two months. And the law of cycles will not go away. Sooner or later, a downturn is inevitable. The spending spree will lead to deep cuts, big borrowing, a call for higher taxes, or all of the above. The fingers of blame will be pointed in many directions, but spending– runaway spending– will be the real culprit.

   I wish I could say that all of the excessive spending at least went to necessities. While we did address some of our critical infrastructure needs relating to state roads, bridges, and our system of public higher education, the budget included line item after line item of less-than-essential projects, such as merry-go-rounds and gazebos.

   Every legislator and politician knows this spending can’t be justified, so why do they do it? Because it gets politicians praised — and re-elected. There’s no courage involved in spending more money. Drawing a line on spending is hard and fraught with criticism. When I vetoed $458 million of excessive spending in the budget this spring, I knew that community newspapers across the Commonwealth would decry my elimination of local pet projects. And, I knew that the Legislature would over ride most of my vetoes. In fact, they over rode all of them, to a chorus of community acclaim. But someone has to say “no.”

   He is the one who will say no, even when it’s unpopular, and bring back fiscal responsibility to Washington.

   
   
4. Richard P Says:
   
   February 28th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

   Excellent article, Nate. I hadn’t seen this one.

   
   

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