Santorum Out - Romney In

On April 10, 2012 Rick Santorum dropped out of the Republican race (Paul and Gingrich said they’ll stay in). Here’s just a few things Santorum said about Mitt Romney before he dropped out (as he’s undoubtedly going to be the Republican nominee): March 23 – suggested Obama is preferable to Romney and because of his and Gingrich’s comments regarding Romney’s stand on the issues Etch-a-sketch sales went up 1500% in one week; March 26 – he called Romney ‘uniquely disqualified’ to be the Republican candidate for President and in April he said Romney is the worst Republican in the country. Republicans voters don’t even listen to their own representatives; they just want a Republican. Personally I find it non patriotic to vote according to any party as this indicates that the needs of the country do not come first.

The President had a news conference that included rich people that agreed with him and Warren Buffet that they (the rich) should pay the same tax rate as their middle class workers (on January 12 Billionaire Warren Buffet said he’d match any contribution made by Republican members of Congress in order to reduce the national budget; he got no takers). In this conference was hedge fund founder Whitney Tilson who made 39 times what his office manager made and paid 24.6% in taxes while she paid 33.4%; ABC calculated that she would have saved $9,300 in taxes if she paid the same rate as her boss. Although 60% of Americans agree with this thinking the Buffet Rule did not pass. I believe that any person, Republican or Democrat, against a tax increase for the 1% is violating Matthew (22:21), Luke (20:25) and Mark (12:17) (when Jesus was asked by the Herodians if it is lawful to give tribute to Caesar and he replies – Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s). This includes the Sovereign Citizens Movement (SCM) estimated to have 300,000 people that believes the laws of the country do not apply to them; they use obscure laws, the Constitution and the bible to justify flouting the laws (for example they don’t believe they need driver licenses) and avoiding paying debts and taxes; it was said that the FBI and other law enforcement are making this a top priority. This is nice but I’m pretty sure the SCM is not made up of Wall Street people having clout.

On April 12 things got side tracked because a Democrat (not Obama or anyone associated with his campaign) said Ann Romney didn’t work a day in her life. I don’t care if Ann Romney worked or not; most mothers would love to stay with the children, I have no jealously because she was able to do so nor should others and her ability to beat breast cancer and deal with multiple sclerosis is no more of an achievement than that of others that have done the same thing.

On April 14 the President released his 2011 tax return showing he made $789,674 and paid 20.5% taxes (he has released everything from 2000); Romney filed for an extension (February 2 blog shows Romney released 2 years of tax returns and paid about 14% in taxes and is planning on just adding the release of his 2011).

In an interview I heard on April 16 with Diane Sawyer Romney said the President doesn’t understand what it takes to get jobs for the American people; we don’t divide America based upon success and wealth or other dimensions of that nature – we’re one nation under God – we come together. Excuse me – this is exactly what we are doing; Romney wants to do away with the Dodd-Frank Act that punishes Wall Street, the Republican House wants to balance the budget on those needing assistance (if you need a reminder see the blogs of October 21, 2011 – Raising the Debt Limit, October 23 - 25 – The Jobs Act and November 27 - Wall Street Reform) and Republicans blocked the President’s job plan (they did throw you a bone on occasion) to slow down our progress and make it look like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. (On March 8 it was reported that when Obama took office unemployment was 7.8% and it’s now 8.3%; oddly enough hiring again slowed down.) Come on people – who do you think is manipulating the hiring market; if Democrats had the clout in this area they’d be helping the President not hurting him. Because Romney leads in male votes and Obama has a strong lead with women, Romney went on to say - I think that it’s unfair that 93% of the jobs lost were of women. (On January 2 it was reported that men were claiming two-thirds of the US private sector jobs created; per the Bureau of Labor Statistics 216,900 men, 9,000 women were hired in retail jobs usually dominated by women - men are taking jobs they normally wouldn’t). Romney said as far as tax returns go – he understands that the Democrats are going to do everything in their power to keep this election about the failure of President Obama to turn around our economy. To help get the female vote Romney picked Beth Myers to lead his VP search; per the Boston Globe . . . there remains a small circle of trust. . . having a prominent campaign woman heading such an important process is just another subtle jab at Democrats who criticize his policies toward women . . . that ignores Myers’s longtime association with Romney . . In sum, Romney knows that he can trust Myers to lead a search that will be comprehensive, tactful, and - perhaps most importantly to him - discreet. As the “decider,” Romney wants the first public expression of his presidential decision-making to be devoid of drama but acclaimed by would-be voters.