Romney's Plan to Shift Programs To The States

Romney in the October 3, 2012 debate didn’t deny that he would add $2 billion to the defense budget to get this money he made in clear that he would cut PBS. To me this just shows we are getting further behind the world – every developed country supports public broadcasting and he’ll head us in a direction similar to undeveloped countries – they don’t care about the things that people want or need. He’ll have to take away more than PBS so what will it be – veteran care, Social Security, or Medicare. Or perhaps because he said he would send health, food stamps, housing, and education to the states the interest on the national debt would be reduced. In any case let’s talk about this burden the President said the states couldn’t afford.

The food stamps numbers have increased because they now include people with 2 jobs and the elderly because wages are down and costs are up. This is not because of the President’s policies but because of corporate greed. For example there are 4 or 5 individuals on the current Forbes list of billionaires.

Romney’s plan to send health programs to the states will shift a $283 billion burden, non health programs like food stamps and housing will shift $466 billion, and education will shift about $36.6 billion for a total of $785.6 billion. Perhaps Romney will provide a government allotment that will most likely be insufficient to handle the costs as his intent is to reduce the federal deficit. The federal government already withholds money from the states when it gets into a bind and the states never know what the reduction is until it’s too late. What does this really mean – the states will have to increase its tax on its population. So in reality the average American will probably pay what the President speculated to be about 30% more in state taxes to cover the loss of funds from the federal government. Romney may be reducing the deficit and may be lowering federal taxes but in the long run your overall taxes will increase. If you think the states aren’t going to raise the tax they collect you’re out of your mind.

Because Romney doesn’t want to increase taxes on the rich, the bottom line is he wants to shift or eliminate every program that helps an American in need.