I'm not necessarily some fan of former Gov. Ed Rendell and I've watched him step all over some of the Democrats' messaging of late when it came to the attack ads we've seen from the Obama campaign for Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital. I was glad to see him jump on Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart with his attempt to deflect from Romney not releasing his tax returns with the standard Republican talking point, which is the fantasy that President Obama refuses to talk about his record on the economy and job creation.
As Rendel pointed out, President Obama has talked a lot about what he's done to try to get Americans back to work and sadly what wasn't hit on here enough is the amount of Republican obstruction he's had to deal with in the process. The fact that Schieffer had on so many guests at once on this week's Face the Nation, on top of him insisting that the topic be changed probably had a lot to do with no follow up in that regard being part of the conversation.
Our horrid "mainstream media" and the beltway Villagers love the he said, she said back and forth, but rarely want any real analysis of who's telling the truth and who's lying, as we just got right here from Schieffer. He barely admits that the GOP Rep is probably full of it and then is ready to move on, because we all know more arguing between the rest of his guests is so much more important than whether one of them just lied to the audience.
Progressives may not like that we got a watered down health care law instead of Medicare for all or that President Obama hasn't done enough to brow beat Republicans in public for the fact that they really don't care about governing this country and would rather obstruct than make sure our government functions. That said, despite what a lot of his base thinks about how he's governed, President Obama has spoken often about what he managed to get accomplished regardless of the record amount of obstruction he's had to deal with.
This GOP Rep has his talking points down pat, but he refuses to accept any responsibility for his own party and how they've failed to govern and failed to cooperate in making sure our country functions and that jobs are created. Someone just coming home to take a month and a half off after they refused to pass a farm bill when there are massive droughts across the country should be disqualified for having anything to say about anything when it comes to how someone else in government is going their job.
I'd also really love to see that talking point about Romney debunked for once and for all and that talking about the economy just has to be "good for" his campaign. Why? What evidence is there that anything he wants to do would help our economy? But we hear that repeated over and over by the beltway media. "If we're talking about the economy, it's good for Romney." I say tell me why, because I see no evidence of that being remotely true.
Transcript below the fold.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me go down to Florida, now Congressman Diaz-Balart. First give us the situation down there and-- and also, what about this whole deal about the tax returns? Is this an issue down there? Should Governor Romney release his returns?
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIAZ-BALART (R-Florida): Bob, he's released his return. He's more than complied with the law. He's done more than Harry Reid by what he has done to this day. Let's talk about what the real situation is here in Florida, a couple of numbers that do matter. Gas is about twice as expensive as it was before President Obama swore in. President Obama's health care law raided Medicare in the tune of five hundred million dollars to create a new program. Medicare, by the way, according to the Medicare actuaries, is about to go bankrupt within a decade. The deficit has been, you know, trillionary (sic) deficit, even though he said he was going to cut it in half in his first term, he hasn't done so. We already talked about-- about the situation of the debt, but unemployment. The unemployment numbers are again forty-two months of over eight-percent unemployment. I believe it's a longest record of eight percent or above since those numbers have been kept.
And here's the irony: the President of the United States has been there now for three and a half years and he refuses to talk about anything that he's done. Why? Because unfortunately what he's done has been disastrous for-- for the employees, for people trying to get jobs, for middle America-- for middle-income America. So every time that the President speaks or some of his surrogates, they try to talk about anything except the real situation, and right now, people can't get jobs. Millions of Americans are either underemployed or unemployed. That's the real issue, Bob. And it's really sad that the President of United States, the most important elected official, in this country, refuses to talk about issues that are important because he is scared to talk about his real record, which has been dismal for the economy.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think of--
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: Bob, that's not-- simply that's not true.
BOB SCHIEFFER: What?
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: The President has talked about the fact that we've created four and a half million private sector jobs in the last twenty-nine months, twenty-nine straight months of gains. He talks about the auto bailout which Governor Romney opposed, which has been usually successful. He talks about the fact that we've created half a million new manufacturing jobs, twenty-five thousand new manufacturing jobs just in July alone. The President could do much more. He's cut small business taxes eighteen times. He could do much more if the Republican Congress agreed to pass things in the Jobs Act that the President proposed last October, like tax incentives for small businesses that create jobs--
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah.
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: --infrastructure development--
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: Bob, if I may--
ED RENDELL: --but the Republicans won't do that.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Let the Congressman back in.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: If I may, Bob. Look, again, where are those jobs? Unemployment above eight percent so-- so, no, it is true. It is true that unemployment has been above eight percent for forty-one months-- forty-two months. It is true that it's been a hundred and twenty days since he's even met with his own economic council. Here's a President who, again, the economy is in shambles where people cannot find jobs and yet he keeps saying, as the Governor who has just said, hey, things are great. The economy is wonderful--
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: He didn't say things are great.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: --we're doing, really, really well.
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: But we're telling people the truth.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: I did not interrupt you. I did not interrupt you. I did not interrupt the Governor. I did not interrupt the Governor.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah, he's not. I don't think he is saying that Congressman. He-- he's saying we got to do a lot better. But let me-- let me move on here.
