As I said during my live-blogging endeavor during the first presidential debates last Wednesday, Romney’s remarks about Spain were unfortunate and incorrect. Here is what was said:
“I don’t want to go down the path of Spain,” Romney said Wednesday night during the first presidential debate. He argued that government spending under Obama has reached 42 percent of the U.S. economy, a figure comparable with America’s NATO ally. “I want to go down the path of growth that puts Americans to work.”
One has to be quite ignorant of what is actually going on in Spain to attribute the country’s economic problems to high governmental spending:
But Spain’s level of government spending is actually low by European standards, and significantly less than Germany and Scandinavian countries with far healthier economic prospects. Spain’s woes were chiefly caused by the collapse of a property bubble that had fueled more than a decade of booming economic growth.
And more on this from another source:
That country has in fact imposed numerous measures of austerity in the recent past and do not blame their current recession on overspending. As the Washington Post said Sunday “the collapse of a property bubble that had fueled more than a decade of booming economic growth” in Spain is the culprit for their current woes. Spain’s government in fact spends less than other European countries with healthy economies like Germany.
Of course, the people of Spain are unhappy about Romney’s remarks:
“What I see is ignorance of what is reality, but especially of the potential of the Spanish economy,” said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.
Maria Dolores Cospedal, leader of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party, noted that “Spain is not on fire from all sides like some on the outside have suggested.” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo called it “very unfortunate that other countries should be put up as examples” when the facts are skewed.
I was quite shocked during the debate to hear Spain offered as some sort of an example of an economy suffering from high levels of governmental spending. In my course on the culture of contemporary Spain, I will be giving a lecture on the Spanish economy tomorrow. I normally hope that my students are politically engaged and exhort them to vote and watch the debates (without, of course, ever suggesting which party or candidate they should favor). Now, however, I hope they haven’t watched this debate because they would have ended with a completely skewed understanding of Spain as some sort of an ultra-socialist country where governmental programs are ruining the economy.
As you all understand, I have personal reasons to care deeply about Spain and any incorrect and hurtful remarks about this great and beautiful country bother me intensely.
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