The Debate on the American Economy - "Montana First"

This week has seen some new developments in the economic debate. Today, economist Jeffrey Liebman published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal criticizing Republicans for blocking essential, job-creating public investments and lambasting Mitt Romney’s lack of a jobs plan. Indeed, Romney has not provided any specifics about how his budget proposal would put people back to work. Instead, he merely repeats that, as a veteran of the private sector, he "knows how jobs are created and how jobs are lost.” This Romney camp aphorism may be true in light of a Washington Post article from today documenting the movement of jobs overseas by firms Bain invested in under Romney's leadership. Mitt Romney apparently knows how to create jobs overseas and lose them at home.

As the economic debate escalates, interparty messaging has begun to fracture. Today’s ad “Montana First” depicts Republican Senate candidate Denny Rehberg as a Washington outsider and highlights his opposition to the Ryan budget proposal.

That the proposal is being attacked from within the Republican ranks is not good news for Mitt Romney. The Ryan budget has become a rallying point for Republicans and is a cornerstone of their economic plan. It embodies their economic philosophy that low levels of government spending and taxation will unleash the private sector and create jobs. Despite being proven ineffective, this philosophy is at the core of Romney’s economic message.