Letter: Romney's track record not much to brag about

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To judge the legitimacy of Mitt Romney’s claim to the presidency, we have one measure — his 2003 to 2007 term as governor of Massachusetts.

During Romney’s tenure as governor, Massachusetts’ total job growth was less than 1 percent, significantly less than the national average of 5 percent for the same period. Massachusetts lost 14 percent of its manufacturing jobs during Romney’s time in office, double the rate that the nation as a whole lost manufacturing jobs.

While Romney was governor, Massachusetts lost a net total of 222,000 residents. Only hurricane- ravaged Louisiana saw a greater decline in its labor force than Massachusetts during Romney’s tenure as governor.

It is true that Romney balanced Massachusetts’ state budget just like every governor before and after him. Like Minnesota, the governor of Massachusetts is constitutionally required to balance the state budget. But, Romney left Massachusetts residents with $10,504 in per capita bond debt when he left office in 2007. That was the highest bond debt of any state in the nation at the time. Under Romney’s leadership, Massachusetts ranked second in the nation in debt as a percentage of personal income.

Like former President Bush, Romney is a proponent of supply-side economics. Romney’s implementation of this failed theory wreaked havoc in Massachusetts. Eight years of supply-side budgeting by the Bush administration brought a national economic disaster. This fall, tell Gov. Romney that we have been there, done that, and we aren’t interested in a repeat.

Tags: opinion, politics