MEMO from Obama for America

MEMORANDUM TO INTERESTED PARTIES
 
RE: Mitt Romney’s Appearance at the Univision “Meet the Candidates” Forum
 
TO: Interested Parties
 
From: Stephanie Cutter, Deputy Campaign Manager
 
Date: September 19, 2012
 
At his Univision forum this evening, viewers can expect to see another attempt by Mitt Romney for an “extreme makeover” with Hispanic and Latino voters.  But we expect that, like other makeover attempts, it won’t work.  Not only will he leave many critical questions about his policies unanswered, but for those that he does answer, he’ll expose just how out of touch he is with the concerns and challenges of middle class Americans. 
 
Just this week, we saw what kind of President Mitt Romney would be when he shockingly declared behind closed doors to a group of wealthy donors that nearly half of the American people—including seniors, veterans, and middle class families—view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts, paid no taxes, and unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives.  He even said that his “job is not to worry about those people.”   Those people include seniors, military families, people living with disabilities, college students, and middle class families struggling to make ends meet after the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.   When you are president, you are president of all the people, yet Mitt Romney has already declared his lack of confidence in half the nation.
 
But if anyone has shown a propensity for avoiding taking responsibility and contributing their fair share in taxes, it’s Mitt Romney, who has managed to pay a lower tax rate than many middle class families by taking advantage of tax loopholes only available to wealthiest Americans. 
 
That’s the philosophy that informs all of Mitt Romney’s policies. He doesn’t have a plan to strengthen the middle class; he only has a plan to redistribute hard-earned middle class income to those at the top.  According to the independent Tax Policy Center, to pay for his $250,000 tax cut for multi-millionaires, Mitt Romney will have to cut  deductions like those for mortgage interest, children and charitable contributions that middle class families rely on – amounting to a $2,000 tax increase for middle class families with children.   What’s worse is that he’s endorsed his running mate’s budget which, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, would likely “produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history.”
 
For all of his claims that his values align with those of the Hispanic community, Mitt Romney has proven time and again that he is on the wrong side of issues important to Hispanic families. More than that, he’s on the wrong side of history. A Romney-Ryan administration would undermine job security for the middle class and health security for seniors. And on immigration, Mitt Romney is the most extreme nominee in modern history. While many families continue to struggle, Romney doesn’t have a single idea to create jobs – just a rehash of the same failed policies that crashed our economy and punished the middle class. 
 
Here’s a snapshot of exactly why Mitt Romney needs an “extreme makeover”:
 
Taxes
 
To pay for tax breaks of $250,000 for multi-millionaires and billionaires, he would raise taxes on the middle class by cutting deductions like those for mortgage interest and charitable contributions. In fact, an independent study found that his plan would raise taxes on middle class families with children by an average of $2,000 a year.
 
·         Mitt Romney and Congressman Ryan have made clear they would roll back President Obama’s tax cuts for working families, resulting in a tax increase for 3.7 million Hispanic families with 8 million children. According to outside estimates, these provisions helped 677,000 Hispanics avoid poverty in 2010. [White House, CBPP]
 
·         Independent experts say that paying for Romney’s tax cuts would require raising taxes on an even broader group of middle-class families – by an average of $2,000 a year for families with children making less than $200,000. Nationwide, about 99% of Hispanic families have incomes below $200,000. [Tax Policy Center, Census]
 
Housing
 
What is the Romney-Ryan answer to homeowners facing foreclosures? To let the housing market “hit bottom” and turn away from the common-sense solutions President Obama has offered responsible homeowners.
 
·         Romney has no plan to help responsible homeowners, even as President Obama has put forward plans to boost the housing market that have enjoyed bi-partisan support. And Romney could actually raise the cost of buying a home by slashing the mortgage interest deduction for middle class families to pay for his $5 trillion tax plan. That’s the wrong policy for a time when home builders are finally getting back to work – especially as private housing starts are up almost 30 percent compared to last year, supporting a construction industry that employs over 2 million Hispanics. [BLS, Census]
 
·         Romney would roll back Wall Street reform – which is helping putting an end to the abuses that helped create the financial crisis and which had a disproportionate impact on Hispanic families. At the peak of the subprime lending boom, Hispanic homeowners were 2.5 times more likely to receive a subprime mortgage loan than non-Hispanic whites. [Federal Reserve 2006 and 2007]
 
Health Care
 
On the critical issue of health care, Mitt Romney and Congressman Ryan would end Medicare as we know it by turning it into a voucher program, pushing seniors to private insurance companies. If that voucher doesn’t cover your needs, Romney and Ryan say: too bad, you’re on your own. Romney has also pledged to repeal Obamacare and “kill it dead” on his very first day in office.
 
·         Nearly 4 million Latinos rely on Medicare for health care security in their retirement. [Kaiser Family Foundation]
 
·         Repealing Obamacare means 11.8 million Latinos could once again have lifetime limits on their coverage, 6.1 million Latinos could lose coverage for preventive care, and 900,000 young Latinos could be kicked off their parents plan.[HHS Data On Lifetime Limits, Preventive Services, Young Adults]
 
College Affordability
 
Romney would go back to giving big banks billions in taxpayer dollars to give out federal student loans, reversing reforms and savings that expanded Pell Grant scholarships, invested in community colleges and helped reduce the deficit. Romney has criticized financial aid for college students and even told students worried about affording college to just “shop around.” Ryan tells students that they should work three jobs instead of getting student aid for college.
 
·         If the cuts in the Ryan budget endorsed by Romney were applied across the board, 2 million Hispanic students could see their Pell Grants slashed by about $1,000 and 17,000 Hispanic students who are working to pay for school with lose Federal Work-Study scholarships [Calculations Based On OMB, National Center for Education Statistics Data]
 
·         The Ryan Budget would roll back President Obama’s $2 billion investment to strengthen America’s community colleges – which serve over 6.6 million Hispanic students nationwide. [American Association of Community Colleges]
 
Immigration
 
Mitt Romney has the most extreme position on immigration than any other Republican nominee in modern history. He has adopted the inhumane and unrealistic policy of “self-deportation,” believing that things can be made so bad for the 11 million undocumented  immigrants in this country that they will decide to leave on their own.  He vowed to veto the bi-partisan DREAM Act, calling it a “handout.”  He believes that those young people who were brought here by their parents and are in every sense Americans except on paper, going to school or serving our country, should not be given “favoritism.”  And just last week, he endorsed Iowa Rep. Steve King, a man who has compared immigrants to dogs and suggested we build an electric fence on the border.
 
So, this evening, Mitt Romney will offer a lot of sound bites and empty promises, but we must hold him accountable. He doesn’t share the priorities or values of the Hispanic community, and there’s too much at stake to let him take us backward.