Speaking in Pittsburgh yesterday, Mitt Romney said that “anything over 4% [unemployment] is not cause for celebration.” The United States last achieved a sub-4% unemployment rate in December 2000, the end of President Clinton’s term.
On Twitter, Robert Reich, a Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, reminded Romney how America got there:
Rom says unemp shld be 4%. I was Sec of Lab last time it was 4%. We got there by raising taxes on rich and investing in ed and infrstructre.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) May 5, 2012
Romney, on the other hand, is proposing the exact opposite. His tax plan would give massive tax cuts to the rich. (The top 0.1%, for example, would recieved a $264,000 tax cut.)
Meanwhile, in a closed-door fundraiser, Romney revealed he planned to make massive reductions in education spending. He is also proposing cutting funding for infrastructure, including the possible elimination of the Department of Housing and Urban development.
Romney’s comments also don’t reflect well on Ronald Reagan, who Romney now says he wants to emulate. The average yearly unemployment rate exceeded 7% for most of his presidency and never dropped below 5.5%.
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