Forum Communications Editorial - Vote Romney to move nation ahead

Talk about it

Editor’s note: A longer version of this editorial appeared in the Duluth News Tribune. It was determined by the Forum Communications Editorial Board. The Echo Press is a Forum Communications newspaper.

There’s little argument President Obama has been aggressive, bold and willing to take chances in the name of returning our nation to a place of prosperity and security. Recall his stimulus bills, the bailouts, the Affordable Care Act and even the daring mission that took out Osama bin Laden.

But the president also has refused to change course when things weren’t going as he thought they would – or should. Instead, without selling them to the American people, he stubbornly held tight to policies and approaches that drove our country into recession and a recovery that has been slower to arrive than a Northland spring. Unemployment remains high. It stood at 7.8 percent when Obama took office, jumped up over 8 percent the following month and then stayed there for 43 long months until this September when it finally dropped back below 8 percent. But even that seeming success was tempered by the reality that more than 4 million Americans since January 2009 simply had given up looking for work.

Also, under Obama, more Americans went on food stamps (46.6 million Americans in June compared to 31.9 million in January 2009), median family incomes declined from $54,983 to $50,964, the poverty rate jumped from 12.5 percent in 2008 to 15.1 percent by 2011, the national debt went up from $10.6 trillion on Inauguration Day 2009 to more than $16.1 trillion today, and the federal government nearly defaulted. In addition, the annual budget deficit topped $1 trillion each year of the president’s term. And Guantanamo Bay remains open and active despite Obama’s campaign promise to shut it down.

Yes, Obama inherited a declining economy, a pair of expensive foreign wars and Republicans in Congress who shamefully vowed to obstruct rather than work with him. But his party was in the majority in both the Senate and the House his first two years

Romney has a bit of experience and a strong record of leadership. After being elected governor in 2002, Romney straightened out Massachusetts. He made tough decisions to rein in spending, restructured and consolidated government programs to emphasize efficiencies and to eliminate waste. He got government out of the way of small businesses, signed job-creating incentives, lowered unemployment from 5.6 percent to 4.7 percent, and eliminated a $3 billion deficit. Impressively, he did the latter without borrowing or raising taxes. Even more impressively, he did all of it while working with a state Legislature controlled by Democrats. American voters can ask him to continue to reach across the aisle to similarly move our nation forward.

Tags: opinion, editorials