Republican Presidential Candidates Stray from the Free Market Reservation: Advice for Romney and His Critics
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Mr. Romney must realize that only one person in the history of this world has been successfully both for and against the same thing, at the same time: Bill Clinton
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Going into an election year with the worst economic recovery since the Depression, President Obama cannot believe his luck over how the Republican Presidential candidates have suddenly discovered the vicissitudes of capitalism that Mitt Romney practiced at Bain Capital. In short, Mr. Romney worked at an investment outfit that purchased various entities, usually in distress because of mismanagement. In return for its money, Bain would convert the failing entity into a viable business through paring back costs, often via worker cutbacks, and repositioning the operational, if not strategic focus. The implicit alternative was failure and dissolution of such businesses, which would have resulted in a 100% worker cutback.
Liberals, perhaps by virtue of their neurological plumbing, have never been able to jump the intellectual hurdle that some worker cutbacks are far better than all workers losing their jobs when a business fails.
But mainstream Republicans have always been able to understand that investment firms like Bain ultimately perform a wealth-creation function by freeing up resources that are being wasted on failing business plans and putting them to a use both needed and demanded by consumers. Republicans have understood this, that is, at least up to now.
As Mr. Romney looks more and more inevitable as the Republican Presidential nominee, the field of candidates has decided that they can out-do President Obama and Democrats in class warfare demagoguery and bashing the rich. Brilliant.
There can be no doubt that too early a coronation of Mr. Romney will only allow Mr. Obama to focus on and begin rallying his troops and fire power against him. And the sparring Mr. Romney will do with other Republicans will sharpen his game; far better for a fellow Republican to land a solid punch in the primaries which Mr. Romney can pick himself up from the mat and learn to recover from than in the general election when undecided voters will be watching him. But the debate and disagreement should be substantive and constructive and not just picking up whatever verbal rocks and dirt are lying on the ground and throwing such willy-nilly in the hope of winning a few votes that are not worth winning, if they even exist at all. It’s hard to believe that Mr. Romney’s primary adversaries truly believe that Mr. Romney did anything even remotely improper and when you align yourself with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz who asked his viewers “Should the country be run by a ‘vulture capitalist’,” you’ve got to step back from the cliff; free-falling does not have a pretty ending.
Which leads to the real issue that Republicans, and Mssr. Romney, should be laser-beamed on: Romney/Obama Care in particular and healthcare in general.
It is likely that capitalism of the brand that Mr. Romney practiced will survive long after the Obama administration is reduced to history books. But Obamacare is a different matter. The presidential election this year will decide if a major portion of the U.S. economy, as well as people’s health decisions going forward, will be changed permanently, and not for the better.
One of the great challenges this country, and its economy, faces is the spiraling cost of medicine, caused largely by market distortions created by government intervention via regulation as well as the infusion of vast amounts of money, through Medicare and Medicaid, amongst other intrusions. As Massachusetts governor, Mr. Romney oversaw legislation that was a mini prototype of Obamacare, for the Bay State. The results have not been impressive. Medical costs have increased and the state government is facing hundreds of millions of dollars of outlays that Romneycare has created.
Mr. Romney has refused to acknowledge any mistake in shepherding his health care plan to law as governor. In fact, he’s tried to distinguish his program from Obamacare, which he is against, but the two programs are indistinguishable. This leaves Mr. Romney prone to attack by President Obama for both flip-flopping and inconsistency, something that would hurt him as a candidate as well as his message that Obamacare is not good for the country.
But he must realize that in trying to be effectively on both sides of the Obamacare debate, he is attempting the impossible. Probably only one person in the history of this world has been successfully both for and against the same thing, at the same time: Bill Clinton. And while Mr. Romney is generally an adequate speaker, he’s no Bill Clinton, thankfully.
So Mr. Romney would do himself and the electorate a service if he came clean and admitted that his Massachusetts experiment was a mistake, and that Obamacare will be a mistake on a national scope if Mr. Obama is allowed to remain in office. And his Republican opponents would also be doing themselves and the public a service by abandoning the MSNBC carnival barking over Bain Capital and instead focus on one of the real major issues that affect us: health-care.
-I.M.Windee
