Romney's Campaign Depends Upon Blaming Obama For The Bush Recession

Mitt Romney appeared at a drywall factory in Ohio that was closed during the Bush Administration. He blamed the closing on the Obama Administration's economic policies. In this article, Paul Krugman points out all of the reasons why the Romney campaign depends upon the forgetfulness of the American public. Even though he believes that Obama could have done more to restore economic growth, he points out that the GOP blocked almost all of his efforts to deal with our economic problems. Moreover, the policies that they advocate are primarily a return to policy's of the Bush Administration that produced many of our economic problems. The Bush tax cuts, for example, have been a major source of our budget deficit problems. The rise in transfer payments, in response to the Bush recession, is the other major source of federal budget deficits.

I have been intrigued by the ways in which the GOP reconstructs history to their advantage. We had an economic boom, and budget surpluses in the Clinton administration. The GOP claims that this was the result of changes made by the Reagan Administration. Clinton's policies had nothing to do with the economic growth and budget surpluses. On the other hand, the recession and deficit problems, that Obama has been faced with, have nothing to do with the 8 years of Bush Administration policies. If you scratch a Republican, most of them will agree with the GOP version of history. They will not accept any view of history that is inconsistent with their belief system. Of course, they receive a steady diet of historical revisionism from the conservative propaganda machine that reinforces their belief system.