So Much for the Massachusetts Miracle

The real miracle is that Romney backers have any shred of credibility remaining:

“Our analysis reveals a weak comparative economic performance of the state over the Romney years, one of the worst in the country,” the researchers wrote in the July 29 Boston Globe. Specifically, they found:

As U.S. real output grew 13 percent between 2002 and 2006, Massachusetts trailed at 9 percent.

Manufacturing employment fell 7 percent nationwide those years, but sank 14 percent under Romney, placing Massachusetts 48th among the states, by this measure.

Between fall 2003 and last autumn, U.S. job growth averaged 5.4 percent, nearly thrice Massachusetts’ anemic 1.9 percent pace.

Romney responded August 12 on Fox News Sunday that Massachusetts eventually will harvest his new-business-development seeds. “You’re going to see the product of that generate great results for years to come,” he predicted.

Romney now campaigns on his staff reductions, telling voters: “One commentator said I didn’t just go after the sacred cows; I went after the whole herd.” In fact, as the Boston Globe’s revealed June 29, Romney cut just 603 jobs from the 44,582 positions that he controlled in the state bureaucracy. William Weld, Massachusetts’ Republican governor from 1991 – 1997, used such policies as redundant-hospital closures and privatizations to shrink his tax-funded payroll by 7,700 positions — in his first term alone.

Romney’s vaunted healthcare plan also disappoints. It forces individuals to purchase medical coverage and fines those who refuse. Businesses with at least 11 employees either must offer health insurance or pay penalties. (Democrats overrode Romney’s veto of this provision). The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector, a government panel, defines every health policy’s “Minimum Creditable Coverage.” So far, the Pacific Research Institute’s Sally Pipes reports, monthly premiums average $380, not $200, as Romney forecast. The program may cost taxpayers an extra $276.4 million this year, more than double its original $125.4 million estimated expense.

Romney blames tinkering Democratic state legislators.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen down the road as the Democrats get their hands on it,” Romney told a National Review Institute audience. “I was a little concerned at the signing ceremony when Ted Kennedy showed up.”

Romney’s Pontius-Pilate-like hand washing is thoroughly unconvincing.

Taxachusetts is an absolute disaster. The vaunted Romney management expertise resulted only in socialized medicine on top of the other woes.

Mitt Romney will say or do whatever it takes to become President.

That is reason enough for me not to vote for him.