Rendell Hits Back At GOP Rep For Pretending President Obama Hasn't Talked About The Economy
I'm not necessarily some fan of former Gov. Ed Rendell and I've watched him step all over some of the Democrats' messaging of late when it came to the attack ads we've seen from the Obama campaign for Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital. I was glad
BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me go down to Florida, now Congressman Diaz-Balart. First give us the situation down there and-- and also, what about this whole deal about the tax returns? Is this an issue down there? Should Governor Romney release his returns?
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIAZ-BALART (R-Florida): Bob, he's released his return. He's more than complied with the law. He's done more than Harry Reid by what he has done to this day. Let's talk about what the real situation is here in Florida, a couple of numbers that do matter. Gas is about twice as expensive as it was before President Obama swore in. President Obama's health care law raided Medicare in the tune of five hundred million dollars to create a new program. Medicare, by the way, according to the Medicare actuaries, is about to go bankrupt within a decade. The deficit has been, you know, trillionary (sic) deficit, even though he said he was going to cut it in half in his first term, he hasn't done so. We already talked about-- about the situation of the debt, but unemployment. The unemployment numbers are again forty-two months of over eight-percent unemployment. I believe it's a longest record of eight percent or above since those numbers have been kept.
And here's the irony: the President of the United States has been there now for three and a half years and he refuses to talk about anything that he's done. Why? Because unfortunately what he's done has been disastrous for-- for the employees, for people trying to get jobs, for middle America-- for middle-income America. So every time that the President speaks or some of his surrogates, they try to talk about anything except the real situation, and right now, people can't get jobs. Millions of Americans are either underemployed or unemployed. That's the real issue, Bob. And it's really sad that the President of United States, the most important elected official, in this country, refuses to talk about issues that are important because he is scared to talk about his real record, which has been dismal for the economy.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think of--
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: Bob, that's not-- simply that's not true.
BOB SCHIEFFER: What?
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: The President has talked about the fact that we've created four and a half million private sector jobs in the last twenty-nine months, twenty-nine straight months of gains. He talks about the auto bailout which Governor Romney opposed, which has been usually successful. He talks about the fact that we've created half a million new manufacturing jobs, twenty-five thousand new manufacturing jobs just in July alone. The President could do much more. He's cut small business taxes eighteen times. He could do much more if the Republican Congress agreed to pass things in the Jobs Act that the President proposed last October, like tax incentives for small businesses that create jobs--
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah.
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: --infrastructure development--
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: Bob, if I may--
ED RENDELL: --but the Republicans won't do that.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Let the Congressman back in.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: If I may, Bob. Look, again, where are those jobs? Unemployment above eight percent so-- so, no, it is true. It is true that unemployment has been above eight percent for forty-one months-- forty-two months. It is true that it's been a hundred and twenty days since he's even met with his own economic council. Here's a President who, again, the economy is in shambles where people cannot find jobs and yet he keeps saying, as the Governor who has just said, hey, things are great. The economy is wonderful--
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: He didn't say things are great.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: --we're doing, really, really well.
FORMER GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: But we're telling people the truth.
REPRESENTATIVE MARIO DIANZ-BALART: I did not interrupt you. I did not interrupt you. I did not interrupt the Governor. I did not interrupt the Governor.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Yeah, he's not. I don't think he is saying that Congressman. He-- he's saying we got to do a lot better. But let me-- let me move on here.