The media had a field day on Friday, over the weekend and continuing into today about President Obama's remark that 'the private sector' is doing fine. By contrast, Romney's comments about the need to fire firefighters, police and teachers is getting far less media attention. As Media Matters pointed out:
During a campaign stop today, Mitt Romney suggested that "the message" to take away from Gov. Scott Walker's recall victory in Wisconsin is that the United States doesn't "need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers." The media largely ignored this comment in favor of amplifying Republican attacks on President Obama's remarks about private sector job growth.
A Google search on Obama's remark yielded over 80 million results while Romney's garnered about 20 million.
Mitt Romney does not care about the poor. Mitt Romney does not care about the people who will be adversely affected by these cuts.
Steve Benen argues that Romney's comment is one of the more important things he's said this campaign, that he sees it as an applause line for Republican audiences
The rules of the political discourse apparently dictate that the story that matters today is President Obama saying the private sector is "fine" relative to the public sector is The Scandal That Matters. It's a dumb story, and reporters obsessing over seem to realize it's a dumb story, but the train has apparently left the station.
If anyone's looking for more meaningful quotes from presidential candidates, Mitt Romney's line today on public-sector jobs is arguably one of the more important things the Republican has said in a very long time.
Let's be clear about this: Romney is rejecting the idea of saving the jobs of cops, firefighters, and teachers. He sees this as an applause line. The Republican nominee for president believes we can "help the American people" by laying off, not just public-sector workers in general, but specifically cops, firefighters, and teachers.
But will this position adversely affect Romney come November? There was a time when suggesting cuts to Social Security or Medicare would have been political suicide. Now, cutting the jobs of firefighters, policemen and teachers not only seems to no longer be a political third rail, but will play well to certain audiences. The right wing has succeeded in demonizing this class of workers, into the enemy of God-fearing, hardworking, tax-paying Americans.
There was a time when attacking these three groups would have been political suicide, but things have obviously changed, especially where teachers are concerned.
But what about police and firefighters? Aren’t they the “heroes,” the first responders who became de rigeur accessories for every post-9/11 politician? How can there be any advantage to kicking those guy in the teeth?
Maybe, maybe not, but the Republicans’s treatment of them thus far has shown that they don’t expect to pay a price for it. A closer look at what Romney said, though, might give a clue as to who this message is for:
Romney wants to 'cut back on government' to 'help the American people'. These public workers who would lose their jobs are protecting and educating people
Mitt Romney does not care about, and is not trying to get their votes.
No, they’re protecting and educating people that Mitt Romney doesn’t care about, at least from a political standpoint. When Romney says he needs to get 50.1% of the vote, he’s really only talking about pulling independent voters, who are overwhelmingly white and middle class.
Republicans like Newt Gingrich have already made clear who they think are most affected by failing schools, and Romney’s solution for them is to divert funding to those schools into vouchers to subsidize private schools.
Similarly, if you run a Google search on police layoffs, the results make clear who is being hurt most by Republican opposition to the President’s plans to help states keep cops on the job. The cities of Camden and Newark, New Jersey, have seen steep rises in crime following deep cuts to their police forces, including a 28% spike in homicides in Camden in 2011. The City of Paterson, New Jersey saw an explosion of gun violence when it shed 20% of its police force. These are not places where Mitt Romney ever hopes to pick up votes.
Mitt Romney has made a political calculation and it excludes anyone who isn't in the 1%, or white, suburban upper middle class.
Mitt Romney does not care about the poor. He has said so. He does not care about the people who will be most adversely affected by cut to the jobs of police, firefighters and teachers.