Romney on Europe

On October 16, 2012 Romney repeated his August 30 fourth step to his creating 12 million new jobs: “To assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish as those in Greece…And this I can tell you about where President Obama will take America…his assault on coal and oil and gas will send energy and manufacturing jobs to China…when nations cheat in trade there will be unmistakable consequences”.

We yell about what others do to us but it’s a 2-sided coin. The European Union (EU) did not accept our 2000 legislation as conforming to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and after a long series of hearings and appeals the WTO ruled definitively against us in late 2002. In the absence of a substantial change in the EIE, the EU filed a complaint with the WTO and the EIE was declared unacceptable. The EU prepared a list of US products on which it intended to apply sanctions in the form of countervailing duties and obtained the WTO's permission for such action which it finally put into effect in early 2004. The Romney/Ryan ticket keeps knocking the Europeans but on October 12 we heard the European Union received the Noble Peace Prize for 6 decades of promoting peace, democracy and human rights.

Now here’s a new issue-Obama sending jobs to China. This is probably said because Romney is affiliated with Bain Capital who is doing a fine job in overseas companies. Manufacturing in China and other areas has been profitable to a lot of companies (look at Apple) since the 1984 tax breaks implemented by Reagan and Bush in late 2004 repealing the Foreign Sales Corporations Repeal and Extraterritorial Income Exclusion (EIE) Act of 2000 in favor of broader tax relief to those doing business overseas; Romney’s 2010 tax return shows he got over $1.5 million in a credit.

Romney ticked off Spain with his October 3 comment saying they spend 42% of their budget on government. He continually strikes at others and does not accept that Republican policy has shipped jobs overseas and in part is guilty for the world financial crisis. He points out Greece’s failure but fails to say they followed the US’ lead in the 1980s and because of it the Europeans have raised tax rates and have terrible austerity plans to try and undo their mistakes of the past. Romney doesn’t tell you that his plan will take a toll on average Americans somewhat like what Europe is doing to its people. The thought that Romney can lead us is only for the rich and foolish.