Romney campaign compares unemployment insurance to the iceberg that sank the Titanic

[ProSense]

Romney campaign compares unemployment insurance to the iceberg that sank the Titanic

by Laura Clawson

According to Romney campaign spokesperson Andrea Saul (referring to unemployment insurance, not joblessness):

(O)ne of President Obama’s top advisors said that unemployment stimulates the economy. That’s like saying an iceberg stimulated the Titanic. Only in White House fantasy world do debt, unemployment, and higher taxes stimulate the economy.”

Oh, snap. That's a very clever analogy, there, with the Titanic thing. Completely untrue, but, you know, what passes for a zippy and memorable utterance by a desperate campaign flack. The Obama campaign's AttackWatch site does to that statement what—wait for it—the train does to the cow on the tracks:

• An independent study found that every dollar the U.S. spends on benefits for the unemployed offers an overall return of $1.61 for the economy. The return on tax cuts like the Bush tax cuts, however, give a much smaller rate of return—32 cents’ worth. [...]
  
  
• The Council of Economic Advisers estimates that, without unemployment insurance, the economy would generate 478,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2014.
  
  
• Unemployment insurance kept 3.2 million Americans from falling into poverty in 2010, increased GDP by $315 billion overall from the start of the recession through the second quarter of 2010, and kept an average of 1.6 million people on the job each quarter during the recession.

But what good are facts when your opponent has the awesome power of a Titanic analogy?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/28/1069137/-Romney-campaign-compares-unemployment-insurance-to-the-iceberg-that-sank-the-Titanic

Better analogy:

The Romney campaign is like the Titanic
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002361173

[Walk away]

1. Romney appears to most Americans as a "W" who is better at finances.

A doofus who won't screw up the country's bank account like George did. But really... he is a dangerously cold hearted man who will gladly let the worst elements of his party run him and this country as long as he can be President.

[ProSense]

2. Good word

A doofus who won't screw up the country's bank account like George did. But really... he is a dangerously cold hearted man who will gladly let the worst elements of his party run him and this country as long as he can be President.

I have every confidence he'd screw it up. There's a reason Mass was 47th in job creation. Then there is Bain.