The Sununu Spin
by digby
I’ve always loathed this jerk, but he is always one of those guys who is wiling to come right out and defend the indefensible, so you have to give him a sort of credit:
Transcript via Think Progress:
SUNUNU: Let me respond as a taxpayer, not as a representative of the Romney campaign. There are municipalities, there are states where there is flight of population. And as the population goes down, you need fewer teachers. As technology contributes to community security and dealing with issues that firefighters have to deal with, you would hope that you can, as a taxpayer, see the benefits of the efficiency and personnel that you get out of that.
JANSING: But even if there’s movement to the suburbs, teachers and policemen are needed somewhere.
SUNUNU: But I’m going to tell you there are places where just pumping money in to add to the public payroll is not what the taxpayers of this country want.
JANSING: Do you think that taxpayers of this country want to hear fewer firefighters, fewer teachers, fewer police officers, from a strategic standpoint?
SUNUNU: If there’s fewer kids in the classrooms, the taxpayers really do want to hear there will be fewer teachers. […] You have a lot of places where that is happening. You have a very mobile country now where things are changing. You have cities in this country in which the school population peaked ten, 15 years ago. And, yet the number of teachers that may have maintained has not changed. I think this is a real issue. And people ought to stop jumping on it as a gaffe and understand there’s wisdom in the comment.
This is just utter bullshit, although I’m sure the right wingers will quickly incorporate it into their pack of lies. “Hey, we just think that we should stop hiring all those extra teachers who aren’t needed now that the population’s going down. And the tea partiers and their friends will nod their heads and agree that they’re just trying to cut the fat.
And, by the way, when they’re demonizing teachers as lazy parasites feeding off the hard earned dollars of job creators, keep in mind who they are talking about:
In 2007–08, some 76 percent of public school teachers were female, 44 percent were under age 40, and 52 percent had a master’s or higher degree. Compared with public school teachers, a lower percentage of private school teachers were female (74 percent), were under age 40 (39 percent), and had a master’s or higher degree (38 percent).
It’s a predominantly female profession. But then I guess I should give Mitt Romney credit because unlike Scott Walker, he went after the predominantly male police and firefighter professions (with whom he apparently has a longstanding beef) as well. I guess that’s what counts as feminism in right wing circles.
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