Mitt Romney Has a Plan

Hot off of his latest policy proposal, Sen. Mitt Romney joins the podcast to discuss ...

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Hot off of his latest policy proposal, Sen. Mitt Romney joins the podcast to discuss his and Sen. Tom Cotton’s plan to raise the minimum wage, a proposal that also mandates that businesses use E-verify to prevent the hiring of undocumented workers. Sarah asks him about partisanship in the Senate, what he thinks of the current state of the Republican Party, and whether he’ll start a third party. He said, “There’s no question I’m in the minority of the Republican party these days. … A lot of people talk about ‘Why don’t you start a third party?’ That’s just not realistic.” Then, the gang breaks down the interview. Everyone agrees that it’s nice to finally be talking about policy again. They also explore why Romney (and some others) is committed to staying in the Republican Party.

Show Notes:

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  1. Avatar photo
    RandyMc

    Just want to drop a quick note - Because of the special nature of this podcast, we got Six Days Of Jonah:

    Three Remnants
    Two Dispatch Podcasts
    A newly dropped Glop

    Along with this weekend's Snow Moon, and J&J shipping out 4 million new doses of Back To Normal, this is the best week of 2021.

    So far.

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      RandyMc

      Whoa!

      Another Glop just dropped.

      That's SEVEN Days Of Jonah!

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  2. DocHeartless

    One of my favorite moments of Dispatch history was when Sarah talked about her initial take on Jen Psaki back in her DoS days. Sarah said that she was struck now by how "ungracious" were her comments back then toward her. I have always admired changes in perspective and opinion, and even honest admissions of error. They evidence a critical mind that is unicorn-esque rare these days. Thinking back on my own goofs, my absurdist resistance to Mitt Romney's presidential bid is high on the list. He has his flaws, but I can't believe how ungracious I once was toward him.

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      RandyMc

      I said many times the past year that I wished we were electing Mitt Romney's successor in the White House.

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    Simon Dodd

    David, I understand why Mitt Romney, former nominee of the Republican Party, professional-lifelong-haver-of-an-R-after-his-name, is falling for the sunk cost fallacy. But the fact is that it doesn't matter who *should* leave. We can't do anything about that. They won; the pirates took the ship, and the longer people spend crying about that, the longer their refusal to face facts will empower the pirates to use the ship's guns for bad things. Scuttle. The. Godsdamned. Ship.

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      Simon Dodd

      David of all people should know the story Bill Adama tells Saul Tigh about the time the Cylons boarded the Galactica during the war, planning to vent the 02 and turn the ship's guns on other ships in the fleet. Well, if they had succeeded, it would be INSANE if other ships refused to fire on Galactica because of some sentimental attachment to what the ship was in the past. That's where we are now, David: The Cylons have boarded, they have taken aux fire control, they've taken life support, they have vented the oxygen, and they're already firing. Sink the ship now, no matter how much sentimentality we have have for what she once represented, because now she is the enemy.

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  4. Token Liberal

    I love Mitt Romney. But this excellent pod reminded me why I didn't vote for him.

    First, 10 dollars an hour is inadequate, even in Mississippi. I assume it's just an opening bid, but still...

    Second, a strict everify will be a nightmare. First, to the extent it works, it will give the government total control over all Americans. It's a libertarian nightmare. It's also a totalitarian dystopian nightmare.

    But, to make matters worse, it won't work that well. Identity fraud is rampznt. Check out all the articles about the IRS and unemployment insurance as they relate to identity fraud. Honest people are denied tax refunds and unemployment benefits because crooks have filed using their names. Now imagine being denied employment because illegal workers are using your identity.

    It's a bit shocking that the party of small government would support this. How much liberty are we willing to give up for this supposed, but still unlikely benefit?

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    1. Mathew A

      "10 dollars an hour is inadequate"

      inadequate for what?

      Moreover, what do you think happens when you raise the minimum wage? The money to pay that wage has to come from somewhere. It's not magic money.

      When you raise the cost of labor the employer will either

      fire the employee if the new cost is higher than the value the employee generates

      or replace that labor with technology

      or if they have to keep the employee they will raise prices (or go out of business)

      IE you are causing inflation.


      I'm sympathetic to the ID of not using e-verify, but I don't know of any other way to get illegal immigration under control. I'm open to other ideas if they would actually work

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      1. Brett C

        There's also other costs. Staff break rooms stop having free coffee, your manager starts expecting more productivity and hovers over you, the snack machine prices increase from $1 to $2. Your hours start getting cut, and overtime is no longer an option, etc.

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  5. Avatar photo
    CVS

    I'm not sure I'm for Romney's proposal.

    But I very much like the fact that he's talking about actually making better policy, or less bad policy, given plausible alternatives. I like the fact that he's actually trying to legislate, not just grandstand like others do on issues they damn well know aren't happening anytime soon.

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  6. Avatar photo
    John D. Wright

    I'm a lifelong Republican. From 6th grade, I knew where I belonged. So I will not surrender this party to as Jonah says "The Morons".

    I will fight them every step of the way. On the beaches, in the woods, in the streets, yeah even at the steps of whitehall (or in this case the steps of the U.S. capitol).

    And Sarah, no. You are not required to vote for a particular onerous candidate even if that candidate is the Republican nominee for President in order to be a Republican. There are a lot of elected offices out there. Are you going to claim I am not a Republican because I did not vote and will not vote for Trump? I voted for McConnell and Massie. I voted for my local Republican state representatives and senator. I'm a Republican because I hold to the ideals of conservatism with a health dose of libertarianism on the home front for good measure.

    David, do not despair. We win and we win big. All we are asked to do in this life is fight the good fight.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Simon Dodd

      I can't fathom how one might fault the Tr*** people for living in a fantasy world predicated on nothing more than their own desires and beliefs, and yet concurrently believe that the Republican Party can and will be taken back from "The Morons" based on nothing more than sentimental desires about what the party has been to us in the past.

      The war's over. We lost.

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    2. Avatar photo
      Aylene Wright

      I believe Sarah herself is no longer a registered Republican (she mentioned something about it on AO a couple weeks ago).

      However, I actually wish she hadn't IMO wasted time pressing Romney on the third party question. This has really become a question she asks every elected Republican guest, why they don't just quit the party. And the replies she gets are usually not anything substantive. I understand asking it of a guest who has the usual hour to spare for s podcast. But Romney wasn't even on for 20 minutes.

      What I actually found much more interesting was that Romney's recent policy prescriptions, & even his comment that Republican policies aren't just benefitting the rich, but are *better* for the working class than those of Democrats, actually seem to be taking some pages out of the populist books. Cotton himself can be described as doing so as well, and Romney is willing to work with him. Yet he identifies himself as far apart from the populist wing of the party & hoping for its eventual defeat or at least decreased influence.

      So I certainly would have been interested to know what Romney's own definition of "populism" is.

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      1. Avatar photo
        CVS

        I also don't get the third party talk. Not because I'm automatically opposed, but because it doesn't take much to look back at US history and realize that it is much, much, much easier for a faction to gain a dominant position in one of the two major parties, than it is to form a third, which, in any event, will inevitably fail.

        Other than the very odd fall of the Whigs/rise of the Republicans, which I seriously doubt will ever duplicate itself, every even remotely successful third-party still lost, and was gone within a cycle or two. The structural incentives in the Constitution alone, let alone state laws and such, are overwhelming, to just take over one of the existing parties.

        I'm no longer very partisan. I don't care what party is pushing for good values. But I do care if good policy gets sacrificed to a dream.

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        1. Avatar photo
          Simon Dodd

          The point of a third party is that it swiftly becomes the second party. Otherwise there's little point. But even if that fails, we may not be able to win, but by leaving, we can ensure that the people who now control the GOP lose, or at very least escape complicity in and culpability with what they do. History is watching, and I for one have no intention of being looked back upon as the 2016 version of the people who opposed desegregation, which is precisely how history will see anyone still aligned with the GOP, Romney included. You know how many people we now let off the hook because they were only *moderate* racists? How many people escape culpability because they were only for *pragmatic* Jim Crow laws? How many people pull off "I was in the Klan my whole life, why should I leave, the racists are the ones who should leave"? I can't think of a single one.

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  7. Ryan King

    I gave this a listen on my way home from work today! Well done Sarah on the interview, and great insights from you and the guys after the interview.

    My takeaways. We need more people like Mitt Romney who are willing to debate policy and get things done instead of simply wanting to be on MSNBC or FOX.

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    Cornelius O’Brien

    Quite a get. I'll listen tomorrow

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    Jaliranchr

    I just don't see E-Verify as viable. Get away from the urban areas where you have lots of service industry jobs. The kids grow up and move away because most of the jobs are service industry and low pay. So when you are driving down the highway and see that fast food sign or the mom & pop gas station, the chances are good they employ an undocumented worker. But it all went through the system and it was ok, right? There are a number of feedlots, livestock growers or dairy farms who struggle keeping any kind of help. In come the undocumented workers who really work. I saw paystubs showing 60 or 70 hr. workweeks. The overtime was paid. The taxes for federal and state as well as Medicare were taken out, but those people can never file for any return for obvious reasons. They could not, except in an extreme medical emergency situation, apply for state medical assistance. They could buy private medical insurance, but most don't make enough money for that because they were supporting multi-generational families.
    Now, instead of this endless tail chasing, like E-Verify, why doesn't the system allow for more work visas for these diligent workers? That would make it legal.
    At least Sen. Romney is looking at options, but I think he and other legislators and their staffs need to look harder. Turn over some stones. Climb some steep hills. There's got to be a reasonable compromise out there that will ensure the law can be observed, jobs can be filled with diligent workers and people get paid a fair wage. E-Verify *sounds* good, but I don't see how it can be implemented and meet the needs of employers or employees.
    https://www.cato.org/blog/serious-problems-e-verify#:~:text=An%20audit%20of%20the%20system,because%20of%20rampant%20document%20fraud.
    Slowly raising to $10 would affect 20 states that don't seem to give a hoot unless they are forced to do it. The other states are handling it themselves and are already to the $10/hr, exceed it, or are moving toward it.
    https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/minimum-wage-by-state

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    1. Mathew A

      I'm not opposed to more immigration (if managed properly), but it would need to be tied into something like e-verify

      and immigration needs to be at a slow enough pace to allow immigrants to assimilate.

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      Narwhal

      “The taxes for federal and state as well as Medicare were taken out, but those people can never file for any return for obvious reasons.”

      Do you know of any analysis on what would happen to those programs if they could and did?

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        Jaliranchr

        You mean how much they pay into the system and get no benefit from? That would be buried deep in some budget that I'm unaware of.

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          Narwhal

          Ok. I’m guessing someone has studied it, but if you aren’t aware of any such study then no worries I’ll look it up and see what I can find.

          It might not have a significant impact on the programs, but since those programs are headed towards shortfalls on their current path it is likely that more beneficiaries who are typically low-income and who do physical work would have a measurable impact.

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            Jaliranchr

            They don't get benefits from the government, Narwhal. They are paying in and getting nothing out. I'd guess a guy that throws 100 lb bales of hay all day is probably a bit healthier than the average tweeker who goes on disability at an extremely early age. I have no idea other than totals of unclaimed tax returns what kind of figures you could come up with. Even that might not mean what you would want it to prove.

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    CynthiaW

    Interesting discussion.

    I don't know if it was good taste or a blind spot, but I was a little surprised that none of the talk about Senator Romney and the future of the Republican party - or the future of anything - brought up his age.

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