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| We kept waiting for Romney's pants to burst into flames during the debates, but, alas, they never did. (100% asbestos suit, I'll bet...).... |
Chronicling Mitt’s Mendacity
by Steve
Benen*
*Steve Benen is a contributing
writer to the Washington Monthly,
joining the publication in
August, 2008 as chief blogger
for the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal.
for the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 1- January 06, 2012
After catching Mitt Romney repeating another
obvious falsehood, Greg
Sargent noted this afternoon, “I know this risks getting boring and predictable, but we really should document
them all.”
That’s a good idea. In fact, I’m thinking about
starting a new feature for Friday afternoons, highlighting the Republican
frontrunner’s most offensive falsehoods from the previous week. I’m thinking
about making it a Top 5 list, but I suppose some weeks, it might be a Top 10
list.
Let’s take a look at this week’s contenders.
1. Romney campaigning in Iowa on Sunday: “[W]hen the
president went around at the beginning of his term and apologized for America
around the world, it made us just heartsick.”
He’s lying; the president never apologized for
America.
Romney knows this, but he keeps making the claim anyway.
2. Romney on Fox News on Tuesday: “I’ve still got
the same positions on the issues I had four years ago. My record as governor
and my positions are pretty darn conservative.”
3. Romney talking about his jobs record on Fox News on Tuesday:
“[At Bain Capital], we helped create over 100,000 new jobs.”
4. Romney in New Hampshire on Wednesday said President Obama seeks “a
‘European-style welfare state’ to redistribute wealth and create ‘equal
outcomes’ regardless of individual effort and success.”
5. Romney in a new campaign ad airing in South Carolina:
“The National Labor Relations Board, now stacked with union stooges selected by
the president, says to a free enterprise like Boeing, ‘You can’t build a
factory in South Carolina, because South Carolina is a right-to-work state.’
That is simply un-American. It’s political payback of the worst kind.”
Honorable mention: Romney continues to make
wildly misleading comments about the president’s
jobs record, too.
The hosts of CBS’s “The Early Show” this week seemed
taken aback when Newt Gingrich called Romney “a liar,” prompting the disgraced
former House Speaker to say they shouldn’t be “shocked” given Romney’s constant
dishonesty.
As lists like these help demonstrate, Gingrich has
a point.
Postscript: I plan to have another installment
next Friday afternoon, but if you come across Romney whoppers and want to share
them, feel free to email me.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
_______________________________________
Volume 2- January 13, 2012
Paul Krugman noted
this morning that Mitt Romney tells so many falsehoods so often, he seems
determined to rehabilitate George W. Bush’s reputation “by running a campaign
so dishonest that it makes Bush look like a model of truth-telling.”
Krugman added, “I mean, is there anything at all
in Romney’s stump speech that’s true?”
Well, no, not really.
Last week, I launched
a new Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the Republican frontrunner’s most
offensive falsehoods from the previous week. Last week was a Top 5 list, but
thanks to two debates and a victory speech, we had enough examples to fill a
Top 10 list.
Let’s get started:
1. Romney told voters in New Hampshire,
“I know what it’s like to worry whether you’re gonna get fired. There were a
couple of times I wondered whether I was going to get a pink slip.”
2. Romney argued in a debate, “[W]hat unfortunately
happens is with all the multiplicity of federal programs, you have massive
overhead, with government bureaucrats in Washington administering all these
programs, very little of the money that’s actually needed by those that really
need help, those that can’t care for themselves, actually reaches them.”
3. After winning the New Hampshire primary, Romney
said of the president, “He lost our AAA credit rating.”
4. In the same speech, Romney said of Obama, “He
apologizes for America”
5. Romney told a debate audience why he didn’t seek
re-election as governor: “That would be about me. I was tryin’ to help get the
state in best shape as I possibly could. Left the world of politics, went back
into business.”
He’s lying — Romney didn’t re-enter the private
sector after leaving the governor’s office; he transitioned to a presidential
campaign.
6. Romney talked about
savings he’d find in the budget: “[T]he number one to cut is Obamacare. That
saves $95 billion a year.”
Actually, that’s backwards. Repealing the Affordable
Care Act would cost the nation billions and increase the deficit.
7. Romney argued that the Dodd-Frank financial
regulatory bill “makes it harder for community banks to make loans.”
8. Romney argued during a debate, “[I]n the business
I had, we invested in over 100 different businesses and net-net, taking out the
ones where we lost jobs and those that we added, those businesses have now
added over 100,000 jobs.
9. After being pressed on ads being run by his Super
PAC, Romney said, “With regards to their ads, I haven’t seen ‘em.”
Romney then proceeded to recite the attacks in the ad,
almost verbatim, making clear he’d both seen and memorized the ad.
10. Campaigning in New Hampshire, Romney insisted
“European-style welfare” countries end up with a system that “creates poverty.”
Not only is that wrong, but when asked to support
his statement, Romney lied and pretended he never
said it.
So far, the political world has been reluctant to
call Romney out on his dishonesty, and some even seem
taken aback when others, including Republicans, accuse the former governor
of being deceitful. I’m afraid we may be moving deeper into an era of “post-truth
politics.” Steve Benen is a contributing
writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the publication in August, 2008 as
chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 3- January 20, 2012
Two weeks ago, I launched
a new Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most offensive Mitt Romney falsehoods
of the week. Last Friday’s installment
was well received, so let’s keep this going with a third.
1. “The president is planning on cutting $1 trillion
out of military spending.”
2. “This president has opened up no new markets for
American goods around the world in his three years, even as European nations
and China have opened up 44.”
3. “We’ve got a president in office three years, and
he does not have a jobs plan yet. I’ve got one out there already and I’m not
even president, yet.”
4. “Our navy is smaller than it’s been since 1917.”
5. “[D]on’t forget who it was that cut Medicare by
$500 billion. And that was President Obama, to pay for Obamacare.”
6. “I went off on my own. I didn’t inherit money
from my parents.”
7. “While we’ve got $15 trillion of debt, [the
president] said, ‘Look, I’m going to put another $1 trillion of debt for
Obamacare.’”
That’s demonstrably ridiculous. The Affordable
Care Act doesn’t add to the debt, it cuts the debt by hundreds of billions
of dollars.
8. “I stood as a pro-life governor and that’s why
the Massachusetts Pro-Life Family Association supported my record as governor,
endorsed my record as governor.”
Actually, Romney was a pro-choice governor until
late in his term (right around the time he decided he’d run for president as a
culture warrior), and when he was endorsed by the Massachusetts Pro-Life Family
Association, Romney forcefully rejected their
support.
9. “I’m concerned about the poor in this country. We
have to make sure the safety net is strong and able to help those who can’t
help themselves. I’m not terribly worried about the very wealthiest in our
society; they’re doing just fine.”
In reality, Romney wants to slash spending on
programs that benefit the poor, shred the safety net, and give the very
wealthiest in our society another generous tax cut.
10. Romney described himself as “someone who’s lived
in the real streets of America.”
It’s unclear what constitutes a “real” street in
Romney’s mind, but given his wealth and background, this is, at a minimum, entirely misleading.
So far, the political world has been reluctant to
call Romney out on his dishonesty, and some in the media even seem
taken aback when others, including Republicans, accuse the former governor
of being deceitful.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 4- Feb 3, 2012
Several weeks ago, I launched
a Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most offensive Mitt Romney
falsehoods of the week. I was off last week, but let's get it started again
1. Romney claimed President Obama "went before
the United Nations" and "said nothing about thousands of rockets
being rained in on Israel from the Gaza Strip."
2. Romney said Democrats "passed
Dodd-Frank," which "has made it almost impossible for community
banks."
3. Romney continues to insist, "Our Navy is now
smaller than any time since 1917."
4. Romney boasted, "I did not inherit what my
wife and I have, nor did she. What I was able to build, I built the
old-fashioned way, by earning it, by working hard."
5. Attacking Newt Gingrich, Romney said of House
Republicans, "They also took a vote, and 88 percent of Republicans voted
to reprimand the speaker, and he did resign in disgrace after that."
6. Romney said, "We have $15 trillion of debt.
We're headed to a Greece- type collapse, and he adds another trillion [dollars]
on top for Obamacare and for his stimulus plan that didn't create
private-sector jobs."
True or false? Our debt problem has no resemblance to Greece's; the
Affordable Care Act reduces the debt; and the stimulus added millions of private-sector jobs.
7. Describing his state-based health-care law,
Romney said, "At the time we crafted it, I was asked time and again, 'Is
this something that you would have the federal government do?' I said
absolutely not. I do not support a federal mandate."
8. Going after Obama, Romney said, "[W]e
shouldn't forget that for two years, this President had a Congress that could
do everything he wanted."
9. Again commenting on Obama's record, Romney
argued, "If you want to get the economy going, lower corporate tax rates.
He's raised them."
10. Asked about his investments in Freddie Mac,
Romney told Fox News, "My investments, of course, are managed not by me.
For the last 10 years they've been guided and managed by a trustee, they're in
a blind trust. And the trustee invested in mutual funds and so forth and
apparently one of the funds had Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac bonds."
11. Romney argued, "I didn't get involved in
politics early in my life," adding he didn't "politically involved"
until after he ran the 2002 Olympics.
True or false? Romney ran for the U.S. Senate in
1994. He might remember spending $7 million of his own money on the race.
12. Asked to explain his 1992 vote in a Democratic
primary, Romney said, "I've never voted for a Democrat when there was a
Republican on the ballot."
13. After winning the Florida primary, Romney argued,
"On one of the most personal matters of our lives, our health care,
President Obama would turn decision making over to government
bureaucrats."
14. After receiving Donald Trump's endorsement
yesterday, Romney, commenting on President Obama and the economy, said,
"He's frequently telling us that he did not cause the recession, and
that's true. But he made it worse."
True or false? Not only is the economy much stronger than it was, even Mitt Romney
himself has repeatedly said the economy has improved since Obama took
office.
Jon Chait noted
last week that Romney appears to be "an audacious liar," adding,
"Even by the standards of politicians, Romney seems unusually prone to
dishonesty."
Given recent events, I'm hard pressed to disagree.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 5- Feb 10, 2012
Several weeks ago, I launched
a new Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most blatant Mitt Romney
falsehoods of the week. It moved to Maddow Blog last
week, and here's this week's installment. (It does not include mendacity
from Romney's CPAC speech this afternoon.)
1. Romney claimed, "We are the only people on
the earth that put our hand over our heart during the playing of the national
anthem. It was FDR who asked us to do that, in honor of the blood that was
being shed by our sons and daughters in far-off places."
2. Romney argued in a speech, "You know, like
his colleagues in the faculty lounge, who think they know better, President
Obama demonizes and denigrates almost every sector of our economy."
Asked to back that up, the Romney campaign pointed
to President Obama's criticism of Wall Street recklessness, insurance company
abuses, and oil companies. If those three represent "almost every sector
of our economy," then Romney doesn't understand the private sector as well
as he thinks he does.
3. Romney claimed, "Just this last week, this
same administration said that in churches and the institutions they run, such
as schools and let's say adoption agencies, hospitals, that they have to
provide for their employees, free of charge, contraceptives, morning-after
pills -- in other words abortive pills and the like at no cost."
4. Romney argued, "More Americans have lost
their jobs during President Obama's term than during any other President in
modern history."
That only makes sense if Romney holds the job
losses from early 2009 -- before Obama could
even begin governing in earnest -- against him. If you blame the president for
job losses that occurred 11 days after his inauguration, then Romney's claim is
sort of true. If you're willing to be fair, then Romney's being deliberately
misleading.
5. Romney once again insisted this week, "This
is a president who began his presidency by apologizing for America."
That's a lie. It never happened.
6. Romney claimed, "Three years ago, a newly
elected President Obama told America that if Congress approved his plan to
borrow nearly a trillion dollars he would hold unemployment below 8
percent."
7. Romney told supports in Las Vegas that the
president told Americans "to skip coming here for conventions and
meetings."
No, Obama actually said, in reference to Wall
Street recklessness, "You are not going to be able to give out these big
bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can't get corporate jets. You can't
go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers'
dime. There's got to be some accountability and some responsibility."
8. Romney argued, "[O]ne of the most important
and personal matters of our lives are our health care, is our health care.
President Obama would turn the decision-making over to government
bureaucrats."
9. Romney claimed, "President Obama is
shrinking our military."
Obama has increased defense spending three times in three years. The
Pentagon budget is poised to shrink, but Republicans have backed the cuts, and
the reductions are to be expected after one war ends and another scales back.
10. Romney told Fox News' Neil Cavuto he tried to
"remove" the contraception mandate in Massachusetts, but the state
legislature wouldn't let him.
Paul Krugman, noting Romney's dishonesty, recently
said
the Republican presidential candidate "seems confident that he will pay no
price for making stuff up." Given the frequency with which he repeats
falsehoods, it seems clear Krugman was right.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 6- Feb 17, 2012
Several weeks ago, I launched
a new Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most offensive Mitt Romney
falsehoods of the week. It moved
to Maddow Blog a couple of weeks ago, so let's keep this going with this week's
installment.
1. At CPAC, Romney vowed, "I will finally
balance the American budget, and as I'm sure you know, that will start with the
easiest cut of all: I will eliminate Obamacare."
This is just bizarre. The Affordable Care Act cuts the deficit considerably; trying to
balance the budget by killing the law is ridiculous.
2. Also at CPAC, Romney promised, "I will cut
off funding for the United Nations Population Fund which supports China's
barbaric one-child policy."
This is a common lie on the right, but UNFPA does not support the one-child
policy, and cutting off funding for the fund -- a fund that enjoyed broad,
bipartisan support as recently as Bush's first term -- would be a real example
of barbarism.
3. In trying to lower expectations, Romney claimed
he won the Michigan primary in 2008 "by two points," adding,
"[I]t was pretty darned close."
4. In a statement, Romney claimed, "This week,
President Obama will release a budget that won't take any meaningful steps
toward solving our entitlement crisis. The president has failed to offer a
single serious idea to save Social Security and is the only president in modern
history to cut Medicare benefits for seniors."
Not only does the second sentence contradict the
first, but Obama didn't cut Medicare benefits for
seniors.
5. Complaining about the auto industry rescue,
Romney claimed, "While a lot of [GM] workers and investors got the short
end of the stick, Obama's union allies -- and his major campaign contributors
-- reaped reward upon reward, all on the taxpayer's dime."
6. Romney claimed this week, "My campaign
hasn't run any negative ads against Rick Santorum."
7. Trying to take credit for the
auto-industry-rescue policy he opposed, Romney claimed "the course I
recommended was eventually followed."
8. Romney said the "real unemployment
rate" is actually 15%.
9. On contraception access, Romney's campaign
published an online petition arguing, "The Obama administration is ... now
using Obamacare to impose a secular vision on Americans who believe that they
should not have their religious freedom taken away."
Jon Chait argued
recently that Romney appears to be "an audacious liar," adding,
"Even by the standards of politicians, Romney seems unusually prone to
dishonesty."
The former governor doesn't appear eager to change
this perception anytime soon.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 7- Feb 24, 2012
'A campaign of almost pathological dishonesty'
Paul Krugman argued
today that Mitt Romney "is running a campaign of almost pathological
dishonesty." That need not be considered hyperbole.
Indeed, Greg Sargent added
this morning that Romney's "falsehoods and all around dissembling"
may be designed to "simply wear reporters and commentators down by
trafficking in them so heavily that they throw up their hands and give up on
trying to track or debunk them."
But I remain undeterred. A couple of months ago, I
launched
a Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most offensive Mitt Romney
falsehoods of the week. It moved
to Maddow Blog a few weeks ago, so let's keep this going with another
installment.
1. Romney told an audience in Arizona
this week, in reference to President Obama, "He said he'd cut the deficit
in half. He's doubled it. He's doubled it."
For an alleged numbers guy, Romney is either lying
or he's bad at arithmetic. When Obama took office, the deficit was about $1.3
trillion. Last year, it was $1.29 trillion. This year, it's on track to be
about $1.1 trillion. Does Romney not know what "double" means?
2. On health care, Romney argued, "Our bill
[Romneycare] was 70 pages; his bill [Obamacare] is 2,700 pages."
3. On foreign policy, Romney said, "[T]his
president should have put in place crippling sanctions against Iran, he did
not."
4. Romney claimed that Syria is Iran's "route
to the sea."
5. Romney boasted, "I also served in the
Olympics, balanced a budget there."
Well, that's not entirely right. He hired
lobbyists to get a taxpayer bailout for the Olympics and then
balanced the budget.
6. Romney claimed, "You can't be, I don't
believe, anything but a fiscal conservative and run a business, because if you
don't balance your budget, you go out of business."
That's both untrue and ridiculous. Businesses
operate in the red all the time, and take out loans for capital improvements,
expansions, acquisitions, etc. If Romney's background is in the private sector,
how could he not know this?
7. On contraception access, Romney argued, "I
don't think we've seen in the history of this country the kind of attack on
religious conscience, religious freedom, religious tolerance that we've seen
under Barack Obama."
8. Also on contraception access, Romney said,
"[The Obama administration is] requiring the Catholic Church to provide
for its employees and its various enterprises health care insurance that would
include birth control, sterilization and the morning-after pill.
Unbelievable."
Yes, it's literally unbelievable, because he's
lying: churches are exempt. (He's also contradicting his own previous
position.)
9. On the Affordable Care Act, Romney said, "I
will repeal Obamacare for a lot of reasons. One, I don't want to spend another
trillion dollars... Number two, I don't believe the federal government should
cut Medicare by some $500 billion."
One, the ACA saves money and reduces the deficit.
Number two, the Medicare claim continues to be wildly misleading.
10. On Pentagon spending, Romney claimed, "This
is a president who is ... cutting our military budget by roughly a trillion
dollars."
11. On international affairs, Romney argued about the
president, "He decided to give Russia their number one foreign policy
objective -- removal of our missile defense sites from Eastern Europe -- and
got nothing in return."
12. Romney's new attack ad says Rick Santorum voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Santorum left the Senate in 2006 -- three years
before Sotomayor's confirmation. [Update:
It looks like the Romney camp played fast and loose on this one,
showing Sotomayor with President Obama in 2009 when she was nominated for the
Supreme Court, but counting Santorum's vote when Sotomayor was a
lower-court nominee. The implication for viewers is that Santorum backed
Sotomayor for the high court, which is not true, when he and other Republicans
did support her confirmation to a lower court.]
Foreign Policy columnist Michael Cohen noted
yesterday that he understands that "politicians mislead and occasionally
fib," but added, "[H]onestly, I've never seen anyone do it as
brazenly as Mitt Romney."
With each passing week, I find it harder to disagree
with such a sentiment.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 8- Mar 2, 2012
A couple of months ago, I launched
a Friday afternoon feature, highlighting the most offensive Mitt Romney
falsehoods of the week, and it moved
to Maddow Blog a month ago. Let's keep this going with another installment.
1. Going after President Obama, Romney told voters
this week, "Did you hear this? He believes he ranks among the top four
presidents in American history. Can you believe that? I'd find a different spot
for him."
2. Romney told Michigan voters about his presence at
Detroit's Golden Jubilee, celebrating the American automobile's 50th
anniversary. Romney said he "probably 4 or something like that" when
his dad "had a job being the grandmaster."
3. Referring to the president, Romney argued,
"He also promised he'd cut taxes for middle-income Americans. Hasn't done
that, either."
Actually, Obama has cut middle-class taxes several times over the last three
years. If this is supposed to be one of Romney's key areas of interest, how
could he not have noticed this?
4. After winning the Michigan primary, Romney
boasted, "[T]here are a lot of people who were saying that if you are
running for office you really can't speak honestly to the American people.
Well, we did."
Given how often Romney lies, at an almost pathological level, this is one of those fun
meta-falsehoods.
5. Romney also argued, "This president, by the
way, he likes to remind us that he inherited an economy that was in crisis. But
he doesn't like to remind us that he also inherited a Democrat [sic]
Congress. He had majorities in both the House and the Senate. He was free to
pursue any policy he pleased."
Mitt Romney, after nearly two decades in electoral
politics, has apparently never heard of the filibuster.
6. Romney claimed this week about Obama, "He
lost our triple AAA credit rating."
7. Romney also argued in Michigan, "This
president wants to raise your taxes. I'm going to cut them."
Well, not exactly. Obama only intends to raise taxes
on those making more than $250,000 a year, so when Romney says the president
wants to raise "your" taxes, unless he's talking to an audience
filled exclusively with the 2% of all income earners -- at a Romney event, I
suppose that's possible -- he's lying. As for his vow to "cut" your
taxes, the very poor would see their taxes go up under Romney's tax plan.
8. Romney claimed about the president, "Do you
realize after saying that Medicare and Social Security were in trouble, he has
yet to offer a single serious proposal for saving Medicare and Social
Security?"
Ironically, Romney has also attacked Obama for doing too much to scale back
entitlements. He can't -- or at least shouldn't -- have it both ways.
9. Romney boasted this week, "I have a plan to
save both [Medicare and Social Security], and unlike [Obama], I have the
courage to put my plan on the table."
No, actually, he doesn't -- at least not yet.
Romney has presented no details about his "plan" for Medicare and
Social Security.
10. Romney also claimed this week, "My plans
will ... will not add to our deficit. They will abolish it."
11. Romney argued yesterday, in reference to oil
production, "This is a president who`s not been helping the situation. And
then he takes his EPA and uses them to try and stifle the development of oil
and gas in this country."
12. Romney argued this morning, "You know how
many trade agreements this president has negotiated? Zero."
Newt Gingrich argued
this week that Mitt Romney "has a near Pavlovian reflex of lapsing into
falsehoods in order to rearrange reality to his liking." That's harsh, but
hardly unfounded.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the publication
in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog, Political
Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 9 Mar 9, 2012
There may come a point at which the issue of Mitt
Romney's propensity for falsehoods reaches some kind of critical mass. In fact,
we may have already reached that point.
David Bernstein argued
persuasively this week, "I think we've seen, over the past couple of
months, an important tipping point where much of the national political media
now recognizes ... that, in the Romney campaign, they are dealing with
something unlike the normal spin and hyperbole. They are realizing that Romney
and his campaign simply cannot be trusted, in any way, about anything."
I thought of Bernstein's piece on Tuesday when
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" did two segments on Romney
lying, rather blatantly, about his record on health care. It came the day
before Rick Santorum also began targeting Romney as someone willing to "not
tell the truth" to win.
Once a candidate earns a reputation for being
shamelessly dishonest, it's awfully tough to reclaim a degree of credibility.
And with that, here's this week's installment of Romney's biggest falsehoods of
the week.
1. Commenting on his health care reform law in
Massachusetts, Romney told voters in Ohio this week, "Early on, we were
asked if what you did in Massachusetts should be something you'd have the
federal government do? I said no from the very beginning. No. This is designed
for our state and our circumstance."
2. Romney said of President Obama and veterans'
health care, "He's going after TRICARE. Saying, 'Ok, we're going to raise
the co-pays. We're going to cut the benefits.' Why is it we go after military
families?"
3. Romney said of Obama this week, "He gave a
speech the other day at his State of the Union address. He didn't even mention
the deficit or the debt."
4. Pretending to understand U.S. policy in Iran,
Romney said Obama "failed" to place sanctions on Iran.
5. Also on Iran, Romney said this week that Obama
"failed to communicate that military options are on the table" with
regards to Iran's nuclear program.
6. On Tuesday night, Romney said Obama has
"doubled" the deficit.
It's amazing Romney keeps saying this -- he's
either lying or he's bad at arithmetic. When Obama took office, the deficit was
about $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was $1.29 trillion. This year, it's on track
to be about $1.1 trillion. Does Romney not know what "double" means?
7. In the same speech, Romney said Obama "lost
our AAA credit rating."
8. In the same speech, Romney argued,
"President Obama wants to raise your taxes; I'm going to cut them."
Actually, Obama only wants to raise taxes on those
making over $250,000 a year. Romney proposes massive tax breaks, except for
those struggling most -- their taxes would go up under Romney's plan.
9. On Social Security and Medicare, Romney claimed,
"I have a plan that saves both of them, and I have the courage to put that
plan on the table."
No, actually, he doesn't -- at least not yet.
Romney has presented no details about his "plan" for Medicare and
Social Security.
10. Romney told AIPAC that Reagan's philosophy of
"peace through strength" is why "the Iranians released the
hostages on the same day and at the same hour that Reagan was sworn in."
Paul
Waldman wrote this week, "So here's my question: Just what will it
take for reporters to start writing about the question of whether Mitt Romney
is, deep within his heart, a liar?"
With each passing week, I find myself asking the same question.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 10- Mar 16, 2012
On Tuesday, Mitt Romney decided to give Rick
Santorum some curious advice. The former governor said that
"misrepresenting the truth is not a good way" to boost one's
campaign, and candidates looking to gain ground should "use truth as one
of the pillars of your strategy."
After tackling the challenge of cataloguing
Romney's audacious falsehoods, and watching this guy lie repeatedly (and at
times even unnecessarily), hearing the candidate decry "misrepresenting
the truth" was so jarring, I almost took it personally.
Perhaps the former governor has forgotten just how
often he's failed to use the truth as one of the pillars of his strategy. To
help remind him, here's the 10th installment of my weekly series, chronicling
Mitt's mendacity.
1. Romney told voters in Mississippi this week,
"Don't forget by the way that this President, how many months ago was it,
37 months ago, told us that if he could borrow $787 billion, almost $1
trillion, he would keep unemployment below 8 percent."
Putting aside the fact that $787 billion is not
"almost $1 trillion," the "below 8 percent" canard just isn't true.
2. Romney also told Mississippi Republicans about
the president, "He was going to cut the budget deficit in half. He's
doubled it."
This is one of Romney's favorite lines, but it's
simply absurd on its face -- he's either lying or he's bad at arithmetic. When
Obama took office, the deficit was about $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was $1.29
trillion. This year, it's on track to be about $1.1 trillion. Does Romney not
know what "double" means? (Even if we believe Romney is confusing the
words "deficit" and "debt," it's still wrong. The only
modern presidents to double the debt on their watch were Reagan and George W.
Bush. Obama inherited a $10 trillion debt, and it's nowhere near $20 trillion.)
3. Going after Rick Santorum this week, Romney said,
"This is the guy that voted to fund Planned Parenthood."
This is wildly dishonest. Not only did Romney fund
Planned Parenthood as governor, but during his Senate campaign, Romney attended
a Planned Parenthood fundraiser (his wife even dropped off a $150 check).
4. Romney argued in a press statement this week that
Obama plans to "end Medicare as we know it."
This is both dishonest and ironic. Obama's Affordable Care
Act strengthens and protects Medicare, while Romney has endorsed Paul Ryan's
House Republican budget plan, which ends Medicare and replaces it with a
voucher scheme.
5. Romney mocked Obama this week by arguing,
"This is a president who thinks America is doing better."
6. On energy policy, Romney said Obama blamed higher
gas prices on Republican presidential candidates who "are talking in a
very muscular way about Iran and their nuclear program."
7. As Paul Krugman noted, Romney also argued that
gasoline prices are high because President Obama won't allow unrestricted
drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
8. Romney told Fox News' Megyn Kelly, "Time and
again, I pointed out I'm not in favor of a health care plan that includes a
national mandate."
Time and again, Romney has said he's in favor of a health care plan
that includes a national mandate.
9. In the same interview, Romney told Kelly, "I
believe we should get rid of Obamacare. It's a disaster. It's going to cost a
$1 trillion-plus."
10. Romney told Fox News this morning about the
president, "It's hard to create a job if you never had one."
The economy has created 3.4 million jobs in the
last three years. As for Obama "never" having held a job, he's
actually held several -- one of which happens to be serving as president of the
United States during a time of several crises.
This week, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell explained
to viewers, "[T]he political media have a problem. It's a problem the
press has always had and has never solved. When should they call a lie a lie?
When a candidate like Mitt Romney, who lies much more than most candidates,
says something that is utterly false, the press will say, it's 'not accurate.'
They might even use the word 'false.' They might use the word 'untrue,' but
they will never, ever use the word 'lie.' And that is what lying politicians
like Mitt Romney count on every time they try to get away with one of their
ridiculous lies.... In the silly rules of politics and political coverage, the
word 'lie' just can't seem to find its place."
Romney is testing this thesis in a rather dramatic
way.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 11- Mar 23, 2012
It was heartening that Mitt Romney's habitual
dishonesty generated far
more attention than usual this week, but the scrutiny doesn't appear to
have discouraged the Republican frontrunner, who had an incredibly mendacious
week.
Indeed, Jamelle Bouie noted
the other day, Romney "is running against policies that haven't happened
and an Obama that doesn't exist. Exaggeration is normal in politics, but this
goes beyond garden-variety embellishment."
To help drive the point home, take a look at the
11th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
Unfortunately, it's one of the longest editions to date.
1. Romney argued this week, "There's no
question that when [President Obama] ran for office, he said he wanted to see
gasoline prices go up."
2. Romney told Fox News, "[President Obama]
said that energy prices would skyrocket under his views and he selected three
people to help him implement that program: the secretary of energy, the
secretary of the interior, and the EPA administrator."
3. Romney also told Fox News' Bret Baier this week
about President Obama, "This is a president [who] simply does not have
experience in tough situations."
That's ironic coming from a coddled
multi-millionaire from a powerful, wealthy family, but it's also blatantly
untrue. Obama has experience leading the nation during a time of multiple
ongoing crises. Love him or hate him, the economic crisis, the war in Iraq, the
war in Afghanistan, the strikes on bin Laden and al Qaeda, and the offensive in
Libya count as "tough situations" -- tougher than anything Romney has
ever seen in his entire life.
4. In reference to Iran, Romney told Fox News,
"It's quite clear that the president wants to avoid in any way a
discussion about a military option."
It's quite clear Romney's not telling the truth.
Obama recently told AIPAC, in a speech Romney heard
and critiqued, "I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from
obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean
what I say. That includes all elements of American power: A political effort
... a diplomatic ... an economic effort ... and, yes, a military effort to be
prepared for any contingency."
5. In making the case against the Affordable Care
Act, Romney said, "Now we find out from the Congressional Budget Office
that [Obama administration officials] underestimated its costs -- multiple
trillions of new federal spending is simply not something people can
afford."
6. In the same appearance, Romney said his first
problem with the health care reform law is the "$500 billion cut in
Medicare."
7. In his University of Chicago speech, Romney
said, Obama administration "bureaucrats" are telling "farmers
what their 15-year-old sons and daughters can and can't do on the family
farm."
8. In the same speech, Romney said, "Under
Dodd-Frank, [entrepreneurial pioneers] would have struggled to get loans from
their community banks."
9. In the same speech, Romney promised,
"Instead of raising taxes, I will cut them."
Well, he'd cut taxes for most folks, but for those
working families struggling most, the Romney plan calls for a tax increase.
10. In his victory speech in Illinois after the
primary, Romney said, "The government would have banned Thomas Edison's
light bulb. Oh, that's right. They just did."
11. Romney told voters in Maryland, "[O]ne of
the things that just broke my heart was watching the president go around the
world apologizing for America."
12. Romney told a Wisconsin radio show this
morning that Paul Ryan's budget plan "does not balance the budget on the
backs of the poor and the elderly."
13. In the same interview, Romney said the Ryan
plan "preserves Medicare."
14. Romney argued in a separate appearance this
morning, "The Catholic Church is being told that they have to provide
insurance that covers morning after pills, sterilizations, and contraceptives.
Despite the fact that these very features violate the conscience of the
Catholic Church itself.
He's lying. That's not what the
Catholic Church -- or any other house of worship -- is being told at all.
Rachel argued this
week that Romney lies "all the time, really easily," adding, "He
says things that are not true with unnerving frequency, arguably more than any
modern candidate for major office, and there are a lot of creeps among them.
Some dishonesty in national American politics is frankly routine. It's too bad,
but it's true. Romney-style dishonesty is a sight to behold. It's different.
He's bending the curve."
And as this morning's lies help demonstrate, the
candidate doesn't even seem to care about being caught. I've never seen anything
like it.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 12- Apr 6, 2012
1. Campaigning in Wisconsin, Romney complained, "The president put
an ad out yesterday, talking about gasoline prices and how high they are. And
guess who he blamed? Me!"
That's not true; Obama's ad does not
blame Romney for gas prices. It simply tells voters that the oil companies are
supporting Romney's campaign.
2. In an ad, the Romney campaign
argued that Obama "has managed to pile on nearly as much debt as all the
previous presidents combined."
3. In the same ad, Team Romney claimed, "President Barack
Obama named himself one of the country's four best presidents."
That's blatantly untrue, and the campaign knows
it's blatantly untrue because it's been told the truth several times.
4. On the campaign trail, Romney told voters, "The president said
something interesting over the weekend. He said that 'in an ideal world,'
government could spend as much as it wanted.'"
5. At a forum hosted by disgraced Republican
lobbyist Ralph Reed, Romney argued that under the Affordable Care Act,
"The employees of the Catholic Church have to be provided by the Catholic
Church with health care that gives them free contraceptive and free
sterilization treatments and morning-after pills despite the fact that this
violates the conscience of the Catholic Church."
6. At the same forum, Romney argued that
Obama doesn't believe in "American exceptionalism."
Actually, he does. Obama is the only
president in American history to explicitly endorse the phrase "American
exceptionalism."
7. At a town-hall meeting in Wisconsin,
Romney said "Obamcare," if it's allowed to be implemented, would mean
government would control "almost half of the total economy."
Romney appears to have made this up out of whole
cloth. It's based on the notion that the government would control all of the
nation's health care system under the reform law, which just isn't true --
"Obamacare" relies heavily on private health insurers, not socialized
medicine.
8. On Monday night, Romney talked to Fox
News' Greta Van Susteren, and argued, "The economy is nothing but the
addition of all the businesses in the country together."
That's not true. The American economy includes the
public sector.
9. In an interview with James Pethokoukis,
Romney insisted that Obama has
"launched an all-out attack on small business."
In reality, Obama has cut taxes on small
businesses, eased the process that allows small businesses to be created, and
streamlined the patent process.
10. In the same interview, Romney argued,
"[C]ontrary to Vice President Biden and President Obama, I am not cutting
taxes for the rich."
11. Rolling out his new stump speech this
week, Romney claimed, "Barack Obama
presided over the first trillion-dollar deficit in American history."
That's incredibly dishonest. The deficit Bush left
for Obama to clean up was $1.3 trillion on the day Obama was inaugurated.
12. In the same speech, Romney said the Recovery Act
"promised to hold unemployment below eight percent."
13. Romney also claimed "this president
attacks businesses for making money."
That's simply never happened in this universe.
14. In the same speech, Romney suggested once
more that Obama has been "apologizing for success at home" as well
having apologized "for America abroad."
15. Romney claimed this week, "We know
that under this president, chronic unemployment is the worst it's been in
American history."
16. The Romney campaign argued this week that
Romney, during his only term as governor, had "four years of budget
surpluses."
17. Romney argued in his speech to the
Newspaper Association of America, "I'd be willing to consider the
president's plan [on Medicare financing], but he doesn't have one."
Actually, he does. In fact, Romney knows
the president has a plan because in the same speech, he criticized it.
18. Romney added that Obama "has
taken a series of steps that end Medicare as we know it. He is the only
president to ever cut $500 billion from Medicare."
That's a blatant, and rather ironic, lie. The only plan to end
Medicare as we know it is the House Republican budget plan written by Paul Ryan
-- which Romney has enthusiastically endorsed.
19. In the same speech, Romney said, "Through it all,
President Obama has failed to even pass a budget."
That doesn't even make sense -- presidents don't
pass budgets; Congress passes budgets.
20. Romney also argued, "With all the
challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for President Obama's hide
and seek campaign.... Unlike President Obama, you don't have to wait until
after the election to find out what I believe in -- or what my plans are."
Actually, Romney is the only candidate in either
party to say he won't share the details of his agenda until after
Americans vote for him.
21. In the same speech, Romney said, "As I have said
many times before, the President did not cause the economic crisis, but he made
it worse."
And as I have said many times before, Romney's
lying. He knows he's lying because he's also said the American economy has
improved under Obama.
For those keeping score, yes, this 12th edition is
the longest of the year thus far. It's discouraging because it suggests Romney
is getting less honest, not more, as the campaign progresses.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 13- April 13, 2012
Mitt Romney recently felt comfortable lecturing
journalists about, of all things, "quality control" when sharing the
news with the American public.
As Ed Kilgore joked,
"Now I suppose when you have already developed a reputation for towering
mendacity on subjects large and small, a medium-sized lie about your views on
media accuracy is as easy as changing those jeans and a lot easier than
changing your entire political persona on a regular basis. But you might think
at some point the man would fear being struck down by a thunderbolt right on
the spot if he lectures the media -- old or new -- about 'sourcing' and
'quality control.'"
If the presumptive Republican nominee has any such
fears, he's not showing it. Those looking for proof need only
consider the 13th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's
mendacity.
1. Romney told voters about the cost of the
Affordable Care Act, "[W]e've just learned from the CBO, it's not a
trillion dollars. It's more like double that.... Obamacare is massively more
expensive than had been originally estimated."
2. On the same subject, Romney argued, "Thirty
percent of employers said they are going to drop the coverage for their
employees when Obamacare is installed."
3. He said he would save "about $100 billion a
year" eliminating Obamacare.
That's not only absurdly untrue, it's actually
backwards -- scrapping the entirety of the Affordable Care Act would add hundreds of billions
of dollars
to the debt.
4. Romney claimed Obama had created an
"unaccountable panel, with the power to prevent Medicare from providing
certain treatments."
5. Romney argues in a new fundraising letter that
the numbers for unemployment, bankruptcies, and foreclosures are
"soaring."
Actually, that's the exact opposite of the truth --
unemployment, bankruptcies, and foreclosures are all falling.
6. Romney claims in the same mailing that Obama
stood over "the greatest job loss in modern American history."
7. Romney went on to argue, "President Obama
has mortgaged our future, increased the budget by more than 20% and allowed our
debt to skyrocket."
The debt has increased (thanks to Bush-era
policies),
but the budget hasn't increased by more than 20%.
8. Romney told voters in Philadelphia this week,
"This president did not cause the recession; he just made it worse and
made it longer."
There's no way around the fact that Romney's
simply lying. He knows he's lying because he's also said the American economy has
improved under Obama.
9 Romney argued repeatedly this week, "Women
account for 92.3 percent of the jobs lost under Obama."
10 The Romney campaign and its surrogates spent all
day Thursday describing Hilary Rosen as an
"advisor to the Obama campaign."
Hilary Rosen is not an advisor to the Obama
campaign.
11. Romney argued yesterday, "President Obama is
the first president in history to openly campaign for reelection on a platform
of higher taxes. He has already raised taxes on millions of Americans, but he
won't stop there. He wants to raise taxes on millions more by taxing small
businesses and job creators."
12. On a Romney campaign conference call yesterday, a
campaign spokesperson said the Obama administration needs to "stop
disrespecting stay-at-home moms."
The Obama administration has never disrespected
stay-at-home moms, and when pressed for evidence to back up the charge, the
Romney campaign couldn't think of anything.
Paul Krugman noted
this week, "Mitt Romney's campaign is setting new standards in serial
dishonesty. Really. He makes Bush look like a font of truth and accuracy."
That's more than fair, though the question is no
longer whether Romney has a problem telling the truth -- he clearly does -- but
rather whether he'll face any electoral consequences for recklessness.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 14- Apr 20, 2012
Campaigning in Ohio yesterday, Mitt Romney told
supporters, without smirking or sounding sarcastic, "If I'm president of
the United States, with your help, I will tell the truth."
Ordinarily, those seeking national leadership
positions don't vow to tell the truth if others help them, but since I am
nothing if not helpful, I thought I might give the presumptive Republican
presidential nominee a few examples of instances in which he fell short of
honesty this week.
Indeed, if Romney intends to "tell the
truth," he can start by reading the 14th installment of my weekly series,
chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Speaking to the NRA, Romney said, "The Obama
administration has decided that it has the power to mandate what Catholic
charities, schools, and hospitals must cover in their insurance plans.... Here
we are, just getting started with Obamacare, and the federal government is
already dictating to religious groups on matters of doctrine and
conscience."
In Massachusetts' governor for one term, Romney took the same position Obama has adopted. He
somehow forgot to mention this.
2. Romney also told the NRA audience, "We need
a president who will enforce current laws, not create new ones that only serve
to burden lawful gun owners. President Obama has not, I will."
The grammar in this sentence makes it hard to
understand, but the implication seems to be that Obama has created new
restrictions on gun laws. That's a lie.
3. Romney also claims to be a "lifetime"
member of the NRA.
In reality, Romney used to oppose the NRA, but became a
"lifetime" member fairly recently by buying the honor from the group.
4. Romney also shared this interesting anecdote:
"Mike and Chantell Sackett have seen firsthand how the Obama government
interferes with personal freedom. They run a small business in Idaho. They
saved enough money to buy a piece of property and build a home. But days after
they broke ground, an EPA regulator told them to stop digging. The EPA said
they were building on a wetland. But the Sackett's property isn't on the
wetlands register. It sits in a residential area. Nevertheless, the EPA
wouldn't even let them appeal the decision. Fortunately, the Constitution
confronted the Obama administration: the Supreme Court ruled unanimously for
the Sacketts and against the Obama EPA."
5. In the same speech, Romney said, "[Obama]
told the Russian president last month when he thought no one else was
listening, after his re-election he'll have a lot more, quote, 'flexibility' to
do what he wants."
6. Romney concluded, "We'll stop the days of
apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for America
abroad."
7. Romney told ABC's Diane Sawyer,
"92% -- 93% of the jobs lost have been lost by women during this president's
term."
8. Trying to justify his secrecy on tax returns,
Mitt Romney told CNBC, "John Kerry
released two years of taxes."
9. Romney also told CNBC about the Buffett Rule, "[T]hey
couldn't get it through their own Democratic Senate."
The Buffett Rule enjoyed the support of a majority
of the Senate, but it died because of a Republican
filibuster.
"They" could have gotten it through the Senate if the bill was given
an up-or-down vote.
10. The Romney campaign told NBC News this week that
the former governor "never solicited" Ted Nugent's
endorsement.
11. On tax policy, Romney argued this week, "I'm
going to keep the burden on the upper-income people the same as it is
today."
That's extremely misleading -- Romney intends to
give the rich a massive tax cut. The "burden"
may not shift because he intends to cut taxes across the board, but the claim
makes it seem as if "upper-income people" won't see a change in their
taxes, when in fact Romney intends to give them another huge break. (Thanks to
reader V.S. for the tip on this one.)
12. In Charlotte, Romney said of the president and the
upcoming Democratic convention, "He's not going to want to remind anyone
of Greece because he's put us on a road to become more like Greece."
Obama hasn't put us on a road to
become more like Greece. (Nor has Bush, who's still largely responsible for today's deficits.)
13. In the same speech, Romney said Obama "is on
track to add almost as much public debt to this country as all the prior
presidents combined."
14. Romney also said in the same speech that Bush
added "far less" to the national debt than Obama.
15. In the same speech, Romney said Obama is
"first president in modern history, in any history, to cut Medicare by
$500 billion."
16. Romney claimed on Thursday that Obama has placed
"three times" as many regulatory
burdens on the private second as Bush did.
17. In Ohio yesterday, Romney argued, "[Obama]
said that if we let him borrow $787 billion, he would (get) unemployment below
8%."
18. In the same speech, Romney said Obama "has
not created more jobs for the American people."
I know Romney's busy running for president, but he
should at least try to keep up with current events.
19. Romney, in the same speech, shared one of his new
favorite talking points: "The number of new businesses started per year is
down 100,000 a year under the Obama term."
Actually, for those who take facts seriously, just
last year, more than 540,000 new businesses were started each month -- which is
well above the levels seen before the Great Recession began.
20. The Romney campaign argued this week that Kris
Kobach, Romney's controversial adviser on immigration policy, is a
"supporter," not an "adviser."
21. The Romney campaign also said yesterday that the
former governor never said Arizona's anti-immigrant law is a "model"
for the nation.
The Obama campaign, by the way, seems well aware
of the fact that Romney lies with unnerving frequency, but seems reluctant to
say so in harsh terms, fearing media and voter pushback. Instead, as of
yesterday, Team Obama is resorting to an interesting
euphemism: "Why does [Romney] have such an aversion to the
truth?"
Whether the political mainstream is comfortable
using the word "lie" or not, that question seems increasingly
unavoidable.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
____________________________________________________________________
Volume 15- Apr 27, 2012
After winning several more presidential primaries
this week, Mitt Romney delivered a speech his campaign billed as the unofficial
kickoff of the general election. And while making his pitch as the presumptive
Republican nominee, the former governor said President Obama intends to
"run a campaign of ... distortions."
I very nearly fell out of my chair. After watching
Romney closely for years, I've never seen any candidate in either party run a
campaign of distortions as shamelessly as this guy, and this claim seemed to
take the "I'm rubber, you're glue" tactic to new levels.
To appreciate the scope of Romney's distortions,
consider the 15th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's
mendacity.
1. Romney argued in Pennsylvania earlier
this week that President Obama has "apologized for America."
2. The Romney campaign argued this week that college
tuition costs are going up because "this president decided to take over
the student loan market."
3. Romney continues to push the line that under
Obama, "the number of new business start-ups per year has dropped by
100,000 per year."
4. Romney said in New Hampshire this
week that he wants to help rescue "the mom and dad who never thought
they'd be on food stamps."
5. He also said he wants to look out for
"grandparents who can't afford the gas to visit their grandchildren."
Romney plans to turn Medicare into a voucher
program, which increases costs for seniors. He's also vowed to bring back
Medicare Part D's "donut hole," which will quickly raise prescription
drug costs for grandparents nationwide.
6. In the same speech, Romney said, "With
Obamacare fully installed, government will come to control half the
economy."
7. Romney added that under Obama, "we will have
effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society."
8. Romney vowed, "[W]e will stop the unfairness
of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next."
That's misleading in important ways. Romney's platform calls
for massive tax breaks that he can't pay for, which necessarily means growing
the national debt.
9. The Romney campaign argued this week that the
candidate hasn't endorsed "self-deportation" as an immigration
policy.
10. The Romney campaign argued this week that under
Obama, "the youth unemployment rate is double the unemployment rate for
all Americans."
That's wildly
misleading, too.
A few months ago, Fox News' Brit Hume, reflecting
on Romney's flip-flops, said, "You're only allowed a certain number of
flips before people begin to doubt your character."
I'm curious -- is Romney also allowed a certain
number of falsehoods before people begin to doubt his character? And if so,
what is that number?.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 16- May
4, 2012
After finally wrapping up his strange presidential
campaign this week, Newt Gingrich talked to
Wolf Blitzer about his support for his former rival, Mitt Romney. The CNN host
asked, "Do you still believe Romney is a liar?"
Gingrich replied, in reference to the presidential
candidate he now supports, "The governor said things at times that weren't
true." Pressed further on whether that means Romney's a liar, Gingrich
changed the subject.
It's generally not a good sign when high-profile
supporters of a candidate hedge on whether the candidate is an honest person,
but then again, the presumptive Republican nominee is not like most candidates.
To appreciate the scope of Romney's distortions, consider the 16th installment
of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
The recession began in late 2007, more than a year
before President Obama's inauguration. The economy crashed in September 2008,
four months before Obama took office. Someone who claims an expertise in
economic policy probably ought to know that.
2. In the same speech, Romney summarized his message
to young people: "[I]t's so critical, in my view, for you to consider
what's in the best interest of not just yourself, but of America, over the
coming century, and it is to stop the excessive overspending."
Annual domestic spending is already on track to
become the smallest share of the economy
since Dwight Eisenhower's administration.
3. Romney acknowledged that President
"inherited" the recession, but added that Obama "didn't make it
better."
4. In the same speech, Romney said once
"Obamacare" is implemented, "government at all levels" will
"consume" 50% of the American economy.
David Corn explains today that this is Romney's
arguably "biggest fib," which falls
"somewhere between 'ridiculous' and 'stupid.'"
5. Also from that speech, Romney said Obama's record
includes "the first trillion deficit in history."
That's a blatant lie -- the day Obama was
inaugurated, there was a $1.3 trillion deficit Bush had left for him to clean
up.
6. In the same remarks, Romney said, "We're on
track to become Greece."
7. The Romney campaign again claimed "more than 92%" of the jobs lost
since Obama took office are women.
8. The Romney campaign added, "The fact is,
what we have now is the U.S. economy is a hostile workplace for women under
President Obama because it's harder to get a job."
That's blatantly untrue in an ironic sort of way.
Romney's tax plan calls for higher taxes on those at the lowest end of the
income scale. He also intends to cut food stamps, Medicaid, and educational
spending, which benefit those who have the least.
First, see #9. Second, he specifically said earlier this year,
"I'm not very concerned about the poor."
11. Romney told Charlie Rose that the president has
launched an "attack on small businesses."
In reality, Obama has cut taxes on small
businesses (several times), eased the process that allows small businesses to
be created, and streamlined the patent process.
12. The Romney campaign argued this week that the
former governor's position on the auto-industry rescue "was exactly what
President Obama followed," adding, "The only economic success that
President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney's advice."
Romney condemned Obama's efforts on the
industry rescue repeatedly, including throughout the GOP primaries. He can't
oppose the policy and take credit for the policy at the same time, at least not
if he's being honest.
13. Romney said regulations under Obama are
duplicating "like proverbial rabbits."
It's a subjective question, I suppose, but at a
minimum, this is deeply misleading. The truth is, Obama approved fewer regulations than George
W. Bush did over a comparable period.
14. The Romney campaign this week claimed President
Obama "delivered" the controversy
over GSA over-spending at a Las Vegas conference.
The Obama administration launched the
investigation that uncovered the wrongdoing, and GSA's
reckless conference spending began during the Bush era.
15. In a speech in Virginia yesterday, Romney blamed
"card check" for making things "tougher" on businesses.
Card check didn't pass, so it's impossible for
Romney's argument to be true.
16. In the same speech, Romney said Obama has
"added about 150,000 government workers."
17. Romney, at the same event, said raising the top
marginal income tax rate would force small businesses to "cut back"
and not "hire more."
18. Romney went on to condemn Obama for
"shutting down" a "wonderful" school voucher program in the
District of Columbia.
Obama didn't shut down the school voucher program
in the District of Columbia. It still exists.
At one of his events this week, Romney, in apparent
reference to the president's eloquence on the stump, told voters, "[A]s
you look at the campaign of 2012, you're gonna hear a lot of words, but you're
going to have an opportunity to also look behind the words at the facts....
Words are easily malleable but facts, they're stubborn."
Yes, governor, they are.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 17- May
11, 2012
As the 2012 presidential campaign advances,
impatience with Mitt Romney's penchant for falsehoods grows. Jamelle Bouie this
week reflected
on the fact that "the former Massachusetts governor has no use for honesty
in his campaign."
"Constant mendacity is the norm for Romney
and his campaign, and odds are good that he won't suffer for it," Bouie wrote.
"Campaign reporters don't have a strong incentive to challenge him on his
misrepresentations, and interested parties have a hard time dealing with the
deluge."
And yet, we remain undeterred, as evidenced by the
17th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. At an event in Euclid, Ohio, Romney argued,
"We will not forget the fact that when [President Obama] was putting in
place $787 billion of borrowing in his first few months in office that he said
the borrowing would keep the unemployment rate below 8%."
2. Romney said in the same remarks the only reason
the unemployment rate dropped from 10% to 8.1% is "because of the people
that dropped out of the work force."
3. At the event, Romney also said of the president,
"[H]is vision is that it is ok for a small business to raise taxes from
35% to 40% of small businesses."
In reality, Obama has cut taxes on small
businesses, and raising the top income tax rate would not adversely affect
small businesses, no matter how often Republicans argue to the contrary.
4. Romney added, "You know, the number of ships
in the U.S. Navy is smaller than any time since 1917."
5. Romney went on to say, "Let me tell you, we
will take America in a very different place. He is taking America on a path
towards Europe and Europe is not working there. It will not work here."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through
austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting
sort of way.
6. Romney also argued, "Syria is Iran's source
of access to the Mediterranean."
Iran doesn't share a border with Syria.
7. Romney said of the American auto industry,
"I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry's come
back."
8. In a speech in Michigan, Romney said
of Obama, "In his campaign kickoff speech last week, he asked us not to
think about these last four years.... The president's plea that we simply
ignore the last four years is his latest effort to escape responsibility for
the failures."
9. In the same speech, Romney said Obama has tried
"to blame others" for the slow recovery, including "ATMs."
10. He added, "President Clinton said the era of
big government was over. President Obama brought it back with a
vengeance."
11. Romney also argued, "Government at all
levels now constitutes 38% of the economy, and if Obamacare is installed, it
will reach almost 50%."
David Corn recently said this is arguably Romney's
"biggest fib," which falls
"somewhere between 'ridiculous' and 'stupid.'"
12. Romney went on to say, "Old-school liberals
saw a problem and thought a government-run program was the answer. Obamacare is
the fulfillment of their dreams."
There is no universe in which this makes sense --
"Obamacare" relies on private insurers, not a government takeover.
13. Romney also said of the Affordable Care Act,
"An unelected board will tell seniors what treatments Medicare will
cover."
14. He went on to argue, "President Obama takes
his marching orders from union bosses ... and even denies an American company
the right to build a factory in the American state of its choice."
15. Romney also said, "Have you seen President
Obama's vision of the future? To help us see it, his campaign has even created
a little fictional character, living an imaginary life filled with happy
milestones for which she will spend the rest of her days thanking President
Obama. It's called 'The Life of Julia.' And it is a cartoon. Julia progresses
from cradle to grave, showing how government makes every good thing in her life
possible."
16. Romney asked, "What does it say about a
president's policies when he has to use a cartoon character rather than real
people to justify his record?"
Obama uses real people, with real
stories,
to justify his record all of the time. That many of these same real people
would suffer under Romney's agenda matters, too.
17. The Romney campaign argued this week that
"the average cost of college has increased by 25%" under Obama.
18. The Romney campaign also argued this week that
Obama has broken his promise "to pursue all available energy sources, an
'all of the above" policy.'
Actually, Obama's still pursuing an "all of the above" energy policy, which is nearly
identical to John McCain's plan from 2008.
19. The Romney campaign also blamed Obama this week
for gas prices having "more than doubled" since January 2009.
20. And overnight, the Romney campaign claimed that
Obama has "now admitted that he's forgotten about the recession."
The New York Times' David Firestone said this
week, after a Romney claim he called "preposterous" and
"breathtaking," that the Republican presidential candidate has "pushed
the boundaries of veracity," but "hasn't paid much of a
price."
That's clearly a fair assessment. It's up to media
professionals and voters to determine whether Romney's extraordinary detachment
from the truth is going to matter in this election or not. So far, the former
governor is gambling he can get away with falsehoods that are as extraordinary
as they routine, and by all appearances, at for now, he's right.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 18- Fri
May 18, 2012
Back in February, Paul Krugman argued
that Mitt Romney is "running a campaign of almost pathological
dishonesty." Was this an intemperate analysis? Perhaps. Three months
later, does it seem fair? Put it this way: take a look at the 18th installment
of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Romney promised in a speech this week, "I will
lead us out of this debt and spending inferno."
Given that his stated agenda would add trillions to the debt, and Romney refuses to
say how he'd pay for his tax cuts and increased Defense spending, the claim
seems pretty misleading.
2. Romney claimed in the same speech that Obama has
"bailed out the public-sector."
3. Romney also argued that Obama has "added
almost as much debt as all the prior presidents combined."
4. Romney insisted that the national debt is
responsible for "the most tepid recovery in modern history."
That's ridiculously false. If the debt were
holding back the economy, we'd have high interest rates and high
inflation. We have the opposite.
5. Romney also said the national debt is the reason
"half of the kids graduating from college can't find a job that uses their
skills."
There is no universe in which this is true (or
really, even coherent).
6. On the Recovery Act, Romney said,
"President Obama started out with a near trillion-dollar stimulus package
-- the biggest, most careless one-time expenditure by the federal government in
history. And remember this: the stimulus wasn't just wasted -- it was borrowed
and wasted."
The Recovery Act rescued the economy. Romney doesn't have to
like it, but he shouldn't lie about it.
7. Romney added, equating the debt with a prairie fire,
Obama "fed the fire. He has spent more and borrowed more."
That's false, too.
8. Referencing the Affordable Care Act, Romney
argued, "Then there was Obamacare. Even now nobody knows what it will
actually cost."
"Nobody" except the Congressional Budget
Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and every budget expert with
access to a calculator.
9. Romney argued that the Affordable Care Act is a
"massive, European-style entitlement."
No, it's not. Most of Europe has socialized or
government-run health care systems. Obamacare doesn't resemble France; it
resembles Massachusetts' Romneycare.
10. Romney also insisted Americans "can't
afford" the health-care reform law.
Actually, the ACA lowers the deficit by hundreds
of billions of dollars.
11. Romney argued, "When you add up his
policies, this president has increased the national debt by five trillion
dollars."
12. Romney claimed that more of the economy is being
"absorbed ... into government."
13. Romney argued, "Medicare and Social Security
are also easy to demagogue, and I expect the president to continue doing that
in this campaign."
Romney has said several hundred times that Obama
cut $500 billion from Medicare and is the only president to ever cut Medicare
benefits. Neither is true, but both are excellent examples of demagoguery.
14. On gay adoption, Romney said "all states but
one allow gay adoption."
15. The Romney campaign said of Obama, "He promised he
would cut the debt, and he has not done that."
Obama made no such promise. He promised to cut the
deficit, not the debt; presidential campaigns really should know the
difference if it's going to talk about these issues, and Obama has cut
the deficit.
16. Romney said of his controversial private-sector
background, "We were able to help create over 100,000 jobs."
17. On the president's watch, about 100,000 jobs were
lost in the auto industry and auto dealers and auto manufacturers, so he's hardly
one to point a finger."
First, the comparison is absurd. Second, the claim about
the auto industry is demonstrably ridiculous.
18. On GST Steel, Romney said of his critics,
"They said, 'Oh, gosh, Governor Romney at Bain Capital closed down a steel
factory.' But their problem, of course, is that the steel factory closed down
two years after I left Bain Capital. I was no longer there, so that's hardly
something which is on my watch."
19. Romney's campaign said yesterday that it's "clear" that the
Obama campaign "is running a campaign of character assassination."
Asked for an example of Obama engaging in
character assassination, the Romney campaign so far hasn't come up with
anything.
I continue to think about something Fox News' Brit
Hume said a few months ago. Reflecting on Romney's flip-flops, said,
"You're only allowed a certain number of flips before people begin to
doubt your character."
I'm curious -- is Romney also allowed a certain
number of falsehoods before people begin to doubt his character? And if so,
what is that number?
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 19- May
25, 2012
Campaigning in Iowa yesterday, President Obama
reflected on some of Mitt Romney's recent speeches, including last week's
remarks in Iowa. "I know Governor Romney came to Des Moines last week;
warned about a 'prairie fire of debt,'" Obama
said. "But he left out some facts. His speech was more like a cow pie
of distortion. I don't know whose record he twisted the most -- mine or
his."
It was a rhetorical point, of course, but when it
comes to Romney's falsehoods, I'm not sure whose record he twists more, either.
Maybe you can help me decide by taking a look at the 19th installment of my
weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. In an interview with Mark Halperin, Romney argued about
President Obama, "Did he hold unemployment below 8%? It's been, what, 39
months now. That hasn't happened. He promised it would happen by virtue of his
stimulus."
2. In the same interview, Romney asked, "Are
people happy with ... the level of foreclosures?"
Romney was trying to attack the administration,
but he's on record supporting more foreclosures, making this, at a
minimum, wildly misleading.
3. Romney added, in reference to the president,
" Look at him right now. He just doesn't have a clue what to do to get
this economy going. I do."
Actually, Obama's jobs agenda, unveiled in
September, included specific policy proposals that Romney had previously
endorsed.
If the president "doesn't have a clue," then Romney doesn't have a
clue.
4. Romney went on to say, "I actually lay out a
plan to get us to a balanced budget within eight years."
That's plainly false. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
5. Romney also argued, in the context of talking
about budget savings, "I'm going to take action immediately by eliminating
programs like Obamacare, which become more and more expensive down the road --
by eliminating them, we get to a balanced budget."
He's lying. In fact, this is the polar opposite of
the truth -- Obamacare's savings become greater in future years, and
killing the law makes it harder to balance the budget.
6. Romney said, in addressing likely budget cuts,
" I'd like my grandkids to be able to watch PBS. But I'm not willing to
borrow money from China."
The implication here is that U.S. debt is financed
by the Chinese. This isn't true -- China only holds about
8% of the nation's debt.
7. On taxes, Romney argued, "I'm not looking to
lower the tax burden paid by the highest-income Americans. That's a fundamental
principle."
8. On a related note, he added, "I'm looking,
if there's any break at all, the break will go to middle-income Americans that
have been most hurt by the Obama economy."
9. In a speech in Washington, Romney insisted,
"President Obama has decided to attack success."
The Romney campaign has never been able to point
to a single credible example of Obama attacking success.
10. In the same speech, Romney added, "When the
President took office ... he faced a spending crisis. It's only gotten
worse."
11. In making the case against Obama's student-loan
reforms, the Romney campaign said it intends to "reverse President Obama's
nationalization of the student loan market."
This is demonstrably false; the market wasn't
nationalized. Since all kinds of private-sector banks still make all kinds of
student loans, the argument makes no sense.
12. Romney told Fox News that "it certainly
sounds like" the president is, as Rush Limbaugh put it, "running
against capitalism." Romney added, "There's no question but that he's
attacking capitalism."
No sensible person could possibly believe this is
true, and neither Romney nor his aides have ever provided an example of the
president attacking capitalism. Obama routinely does the opposite.
13. Romney argued in an op-ed that Obama "signed
into law a budget scheme that threatens to saddle the U.S. military with nearly
$1 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years," which the president's own
Defense Secretary criticized.
14. Referencing Noam Scheiber's book, The Escape
Artists, Romney argued, "In this book, [White House officials] point
out that they said the American people will forget how long the recovery took.
So that means they went into this knowing that when they passed Obamacare, it
was going to make life harder for the American people."
15. Romney boasted this week, in a rare reference to
his one term as governor, "[W]e didn't just slow the rate of growth of our
government, we actually cut it."
16. The Romney campaign also argued this week that
Romney created "well in excess of 100,000" jobs as an
executive at Bain Capital.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 20- Jun
1, 2012
On last night's show, Rachel talked at some length
about a subject I follow with great interest: Mitt Romney's habit of saying
things that aren't true. Summarizing some of yesterday's big political
headlines, Rachel explained, "Just like Mitt Romney lied in his very first
ad, in a really blunt, schoolyard kind of way. They're now lying in the new ad
that is about Solyndra and Mitt Romney is lying about it personally out of his
face at his big campaign stunt today. Rachel concluded, "Even in this nuts
day in American politics, don't you think that candidate telling a big, blatant
lie in the middle of the news cycle deserves a little follow up?"
That was a rhetorical question, of course, but the
answer is obviously yes, big, blatant lies from a major party presidential
nominee do deserve some little follow up. It's one of the reasons I'm glad to
present the 20th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. At a campaign stop in Craig, Colorado, this week,
Romney argued, "The president, when he got elected, he said, look, 'I'm
going to go out and borrow $787 billion and I'll keep unemployment below 8
percent.'"
2. In the same speech, Romney said Obama can't
"blame Congress" for economic problems: "Remember that he had a
supermajority in both the House and the Senate in his own party for his first
two years."
Putting aside the fact that the current Congress
is more relevant, the truth is Democrats did not have a supermajority for the
vast majority of Obama's first two years.
3. Romney also argued, "That stimulus he put in
place, it didn't help private sector jobs; it helped preserve government
jobs."
4. He went on to say about Obama, "He promised
when he was running for office he was going to cut the deficit in half. He's
more than doubled it."
I don't know how Romney defines
"double," but the deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion.
Last year, it was also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1
trillion. When he says the president "more than doubled" the deficit,
as he has many times, Romney's lying.
5. Romney also argued, "There was an effort to
impose unions on businesses and employees that didn't want them by having
quickie elections and taking away the right to a secret ballot. Do you think
imposing unions where employees don't want them is helping create jobs in this
country?"
Putting aside the fact that he's mischaracterizing
what card-check is, Romney is making it sound as if the policy passed and is
hurting the economy. It never became law.
6. Romney went on to say, "You see, when
businesses have lower taxes, they're able to invest in their future, put people
back to work. Do you think President Obama's tax increases will add jobs in
America?"
President Obama has not increased taxes; he's
lowered them. Government spending, taxes, and deficits are all lower today than when Obama
took office.
7. On energy, Romney argued, "[Obama] says he's
for all of the above when it comes for energy. You heard that. And yet he's
made it harder to get coal out of the ground. He's made it harder to get
natural gas out of the ground. He's made it harder to get oil out of the
ground."
In reality, coal production is up; we have more natural gas than we know what to do
with; and oil production is up. Obama's support for
"all of the above" continues.
8. On spending, Romney added, "The one place we
should have shut back -- or cut back -- was on government jobs."
9. On his own budget plans, Romney said, "I
think it's immoral for us to pass on those burdens to our kids. If I'm
president, I'll go after that deficit and get America on track to a balanced
budget."
That's plainly false. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
10. Romney told Fox News this week that President
Obama is waging "a personal attack campaign," adding, "He's
going after me as an individual."
To date, the Romney hasn't been able to point to
any examples of Obama making a personal attack against Romney unrelated to
substantive issues.
11. In an attack on teachers' unions, Romney said, " Their attitude was
memorably expressed by a longtime president of the American Federation
of Teachers: He said, quote, 'When school children start paying union
dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of children.' "
If we're being generous, we might call a claim
like this "unsubstantiated." If we're being
candid, a better description would be "apocryphal nonsense."
12. Romney began arguing this week that "80
percent" of the companies Bain Capital invested in grew and created jobs.
13. In Las Vegas, Romney told a crowd, "He came
into the White House and told people not to bother to go out to Las Vegas for
conventions or meetings. That sure as heck didn't help did it?"
No, Obama actually said, in reference to Wall Street
recklessness, "You are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses
until you pay taxpayers back. You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a
trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime. There's
got to be some accountability and some responsibility."
14. In the same speech, Romney said "When the
president proposes, as he has, raising the personal income tax rates took from
35% at the margin to 40%, it means less money for people [who own small
businesses]."
In reality, Obama has cut taxes on small
businesses, and raising the top income tax rate would not adversely affect
small businesses, no matter how often Republicans argue to the contrary.
15. In an attack ad going after federal loan
guarantees for energy companies, Romney claimed, "The Inspector General
said contracts were steered to 'friends and family.'"
16. The Romney campaign argued this week that it
focuses exclusively on substantive issues, regardless of passing distractions:
"Every time the president trying to get off to something different like
the attack of Governor Romney because of his dogs or the attack on Mrs. Romney
we keep going back to what's important."
Putting aside the fact that neither Obama nor his
campaign "attacked" Ann Romney, the truth is, the Romney campaign has
obsessed endlessly over these side stories.
17. Romney told Fox News this week that
voters are still getting to know "a new candidate like myself."
Romney has been running for president, nearly
non-stop, for six years. He's anything but "new."
18. Romney told CBS News yesterday,
"[D]omestically, it's hard to call what, now, 39, 40 months of
unemployment above 8% a success when even he said by now, it would be in the 6%
range."
The estimable Jamelle Bouie, clearly frustrated
with Romney's resistance to honesty and the media's coverage of the problem, asked a fair
question this week: "What does Romney need to do to receive any scrutiny
for the mendacity that has defined his quest for the presidency?"
I wish I had a good answer to that question, but
it's worth noting that a growing number of observers are at least noticing.
Eugene Robinson explained
this week, "There are those who tell the truth. There are those who
distort the truth. And then there's Mitt Romney.... Not to put too fine a point
on it, he lies. Quite a bit."
After compiling these last 20 installments, I'm
hard pressed to disagree.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 21- Jun
8, 2012
Campaigning in
St. Louis yesterday, Mitt Romney, reading from his teleprompter, told
supporters he would never be a "president of doubt and
deception."You could almost hear irony weeping. After all, as Kevin Drum explained, "I expect political candidates to bend the truth a fair amount.... But Romney's willingness to flat-out lie is singular."
Or as Rachel explained just last night, "Mr. Romney gets caught saying things that are factually wrong, and the thing that is different about him is that he does not mind; he doesn't fix it; he doesn't even try to worm out of it. He doesn't appear to feel any shame about it at all -- and he's happy to keep telling the lie once he knows it is a lie."
As has become painfully clear, Romney's reliance
on "deception" has practically become an addiction. To help
appreciate the scope of the dishonesty, consider the 21st installment of my
weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Campaigning in Texas, Romney argued, "[W]ith
America in crisis, with 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for
work, [President Obama] hasn't put forth a plan to get us working again. Now I
know we're getting close to an election so he'll come out with one soon, but
three and a half years later, we're waiting."
2. Referencing Noam Scheiber's book, "The
Escape Artists," told a remarkable tale about Obama and his aides, saying,
"[T]here was discussion about the fact that Obamacare would slow down the
economic recovery in this country." He added that the administration
"knew" the health care reform package would hurt the economy,
"but they concluded that we would all forget how long the recovery took
once it had happened, so they decided to go ahead."
3. Romney added that he's concerned about the
millions of Americans "on food stamps, most of whom never expected that
would be their course."
This, at a minimum, is misleading, given that
Romney enthusiastically endorsed a budget plan that slashes food stamps.
4. In the same speech, Romney said the Affordable
Care Act includes a "job-killing mandate."
The individual mandate in the law does not
undermine job creation, and more importantly, Romney championed the same
mandate policy for years.
5. In the same speech, Romney rhetorically asked,
"Did the trillion-dollar deficits make it more likely for people to invest
in America?"
First, the drivers behind the deficits are
Bush-era policies, so blaming Obama for them is dishonest. Second, the deficits
have not adversely affected investors' willingness to invest in America.
6. Romney also argued that Obama isn't really for an
"all the above" energy policy: "All of the above means that you
like oil and gas and coal and nuclear and renewables. And yet he has made it
harder and harder to take advantage of some of those."
Actually, that's the opposite of the truth. Obama
has expanded renewables and expanded nuclear plants. Also, coal production is up; we have more natural gas than we know what to do
with; and oil production is up. Obama's support for
"all of the above" continues.
7. Romney said Obama has blamed "the ATM
machines" for the slow recovery.
8. Romney also said of the president, "His idea
is to make America more like Europe."
As it turns out, that's backwards. Europe is
trying (and failing) to grow through austerity measures, which is what Romney,
not Obama, intends to do here.
9. Romney went on to argue, "If [Obama's]
president, you're going to see more trillion-dollar deficits. And they're going
to put us on a path to becoming like Greece."
In reality, Obama is already on track to reduce
the deficit below a trillion in his second term, and comparing our path to
Greece has no basis in reality.
10. Romney also said, "If I'm president, I'm
going to put America on a track to get a balanced budget. It's immoral and
wrong for us to pass on these obligation to our kids."
That's plainly false. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
11. In a campaign ad, Romney claims, in reference to
the federal loan guarantee Solyndra received, "The inspector general said
contracts were steered to friends and family."
12. In St. Louis, Romney claimed the Recovery Act
"left us with record unemployment."
Actually, millions of Americans owe their jobs to
the Recovery Act, and the unemployment rate isn't at a "record" high
-- it's lower now than when Obama took office, and it didn't get as high as it
did in Reagan's first term.
13. He also argued, "Over the last three and a
half years, record numbers of Americans have lost their jobs or simply
disappeared from the work force."
15. Romney went on to say, "For a family
watching their house being sold at foreclosure ... the results are just as
devastating."
16. Romney also argued, "Today, government at
all levels consumes 37 percent of the total economy or G.D.P. If Obamacare is
allowed to stand, government will reach half of the American economy."
17. Romney promised, "[F]or every government-spending
proposal, I will ask the following question: 'Is this program so important that
it is worth borrowing more money from China to pay for it?'"
The implication here is that U.S. debt is financed
by the Chinese. This isn't true -- China only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
18. Describing President Obama's economic vision,
Romney said, "There is nothing fair about a government that favors
political connections over honest competition."
This is a serious allegation of corruption, which
Romney has backed up with literally no facts of evidence at all.
19. The Romney campaign claimed in a press release,
"Under President Obama, the nation has lost 552,000 jobs."
20. And finally, the Romney campaign argued this week
that the taxpayer investment in Konarka Technologies during Romney's tenure as
governor "was approved by the prior administration. The governor made it
clear that his philosophy was that government should not be in the business of
venture investing."
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 22- Jun
15, 2012
A New York Times editorial
this morning noted, almost in passing, that Mitt Romney's "entire campaign
rests on a foundation of short, utterly false sound bites." That's true,
but the fact that such observations have become commonplace is itself rather
jarring.
It's equally jarring to appreciate why Romney does
this. As Kevin Drum explained
this week, the Republican presidential hopeful tells falsehoods because he
knows he can get away with it.
“Politicians
have increasingly discovered over the past couple of decades that even on a
national stage you can lie pretty blatantly and pay no price, since the
mainstream media, trapped in its culture of objectivity, won't really call you
on it, limiting themselves to fact checking pieces ... buried on an inside
page. And because virtually nobody except political junkies ever see this
stuff, it doesn't hurt their campaigns at all.”
I agree, and yet, I feel compelled to make an
effort anyway, hoping that accountability still plays some role in the American
political discourse. With that in mind, consider the 22nd installment of my
weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Trying to clean up his own mess, Romney told Fox
News, "[T]eachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level
and also by states. The federal government doesn't pay for teachers,
firefighters or policemen."
2. In Iowa, Romney blamed Obama for the fact that
"the median income in America has dropped by 10 percent over the last four
years."
That only makes sense if we count Obama's first
year in office, which relies on a standard Romney believes is
fundamentally unfair.
3. In the same Iowa speech, Romney claimed about the
president, "[H]is answer for economic vitality by the way, was of course
pushing aside the private sector."
4. Romney added that Obama has failed to
"reduce the deficit."
Actually, Obama reduced the deficit in his first
year in office by over $100 billion. What's more, the deficit is projected to
shrink again this year.
5. Romney also claimed, "Congress was his with
a super majority for two years."
That's demonstrably false. In Obama's first two
years, Democrats did not have a supermajority for 20 out of 24 months.
6. Romney argued in the same speech, "If I'm
the president of the United States, we're going to stop this out-of-control
spending."
7. Romney added, "[If I'm the president of the
United States, we're going to stop this] prairie fire of debt."
That's plainly false. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
8. Romney released a video this week, claiming that
President Obama "touted the fact that government employment had fallen on
his watch."
9. Romney claimed in a separate ad that during his
one term as governor, he "had the best jobs record in a decade."
10. At a campaign stop in Florida, commenting on
Nemschoff Chairs moving from Iowa to Wisconsin, Romney said of Obama, "He
said he didn't understand that Obamacare was hurting small business. He doesn't
understand that Obamacare impacts small business."
11. In the same speech, Romney said of the Affordable
Care Act, "It's simply unaffordable."
Actually, that's backwards. If Romney kills the
law, according to CBO estimates, he'll add hundreds of billions of dollars to
the national debt in the coming years.
12. Romney also said in Florida, "When they saw
the president campaign four years ago, he didn't mention to them that he was
planning on cutting Medicare by $500 billion to pay for his health care plan,
but that's what he did."
13. In the same speech, Romney said, "In the
last three and a half years China and the European nations have put together
some 44 different trade agreements, opening up markets for them around the
world. Guess how many trade agreements this president has negotiated over the
last three and a half years? Zip. Zero."
14. Romney also argued in Orlando, "This
president is leading us to become Europe, and Europe doesn't work in
Europe."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through
austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting
sort of way.
15. In remarks to the Business Roundtable, Romney
claimed, "The stimulus that he put in place upon coming into office was
not primarily directed at re-igniting the private sector, but was instead
associated with trying to protect the governmental sector."
16. In the same speech, Romney complained, "The
rate of regulatory increase has jumped three-fold from that of his
predecessor."
Actually, Obama approved fewer regulations in his
first three years in office than Bush did in his first three years.
17. On energy policy, Romney said Obama "has
made it almost impossible to mine coal and to use coal."
18. On financial regulatory reform, Romney argued,
"The impact is seeing, first, by community banks, for instance, that find
it harder for them to keep up with the regulations and therefore less likely
for them to make loans to small and emerging businesses."
According to community banks, this is plainly
untrue. These banks have actually gotten stronger after Dodd-Frank, and the
president of Independent Community Bankers Of America recently said, "I am sick of Wall
Street using community banks as their shills to scare community bankers into
stampeding Congress into undoing provisions of law that finally attempt to deal
with too big to fail and Wall Street overreach."
19. In Cincinnati yesterday, Romney said, "The
president said that if we let him borrow $787 billion for a stimulus, he'd keep
unemployment below 8 percent nationally."
20. In the same speech, Romney argued, "That
stimulus didn't work. That stimulus didn't put more private-sector people to
work."
21. Also in Ohio, Romney added, "This president
has put together -- he has put together almost as much public debt as all the
prior presidents combined."
22. Romney went on to say, "I met a woman from
Las Vegas who has a business renting furniture to casinos and to conventioneers
that come to Las Vegas. When President Obama said no need to go to Las Vegas
for company meetings, don't spend money there, her business collapsed."
Obama actually said, in reference to Wall Street
recklessness, "You are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses
until you pay taxpayers back. You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a
trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers' dime. There's
got to be some accountability and some responsibility." The success or
failure of some random business in Nevada is not the president's fault.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the publication
in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog, Political
Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 23- Jun
22, 2012
For those who are watching the 2012 presidential
race closely, Mitt Romney's penchant for falsehoods is hard to miss. Michael
Cohen summarized the issue nicely this week in a
piece for The Guardian:
“Granted,
presidential candidates are no strangers to disingenuous or overstated claims;
it's pretty much endemic to the business. But Romney is doing something very
different and far more pernicious. Quite simply, the United States has never
been witness to a presidential candidate, in modern American history, who lies
as frequently, as flagrantly and as brazenly as Mitt Romney.
“Now,
in general, those of us in the pundit class are really not supposed to accuse
politicians of lying -- they mislead, they embellish, they mischaracterize,
etc. Indeed, there is natural tendency for nominally objective reporters, in
particular, to stay away from loaded terms such as lying. Which is precisely
why Romney's repeated lies are so effective. In fact, lying is really the only
appropriate word to use here, because, well, Romney lies a lot.”
If there are any lingering doubts about the
accuracy of this observation, consider the 23rd installment of my weekly
series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity. (I've been at this for several months
now, and this week's list is the longest to date.)
1. In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity,
Romney claimed it's fiscally responsible to eliminate the entirety of the
Affordable Care Act: "It saves $100 billion a year to get rid of it."
That's the opposite of the truth. According to the
CBO and other nonpartisan budget estimates, killing the law would make the
deficit go up, not down, and would cost, not save, the country hundreds of
billions of dollars in the coming years.
2. In the same interview, Romney said, "I think
a lot of people forgetting is there is only one president in history that's cut
Medicare by $500 billion and that is President Obama."
3. Romney also said, "I see people holding up
signs, 'Don't touch my Medicare.' It's like, hey, I'm not touching your
Medicare."
Romney endorsed Paul Ryan's House Republican
Budget plan, which ends the Medicare program and replaces it with a private
voucher scheme.
4. In the same interview, Romney said President
Obama has "never had the experience of working in the private
sector."
Actually, that's not true. Obama worked at a
private-sector law firm before entering public service.
5. Romney also told Hannity Obama went on "an
apology tour" in his first year.
6. Romney, trying to talk about foreign policy, said
Syria is Iran's "route to the sea."
Iran doesn't share a border with Syria, and Iran
already borders two bodies of water.
7. At a campaign event in Stratham, New Hampshire,
Romney claimed, "Bill Clinton and so many other mainstream Democrats are
revolting against the backward direction President Obama is taking his party
and our country."
In reality, Bill Clinton supports the president's
re-election and recently said a Romney presidency would
be "calamitous for our country and the world."
8. At an event in Cornwall, Pennsylvania, shared an
anecdote about a local optometrist who was forced to fill out a "33-page"
change-of-address form -- several times -- at the post office.
9. At the same event, Romney said Obama is
"taking away" scholarships and charter schools for "kids in
Washington, D.C."
10. Romney also claimed, "This president has put
together almost as much public debt as all the prior presidents combined."
11. Romney went on to say, "It's immoral in my
view for my generation to pass on to these kids the burden of our generation. I
think it's wrong. It's got to stop. And if I'm president of the United States I
will get us on track to have a balanced budget."
That's plainly false. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
12. At a campaign stop in Weatherly, Pennsylvania,
Romney said the president's "trillion- dollar stimulus" failed to
"create jobs."
13. At the same event, Romney said about Obama,
"He was told that one small business was having a hard time dealing with
Obamacare. He said he hadn't heard that."
That's not what happened. In fact, the small business
wasn't having a hard time dealing with Obamacare, and was hurt by policies
Romney wants to pursue.
14. Romney went on say, "I was in Las Vegas and
met a woman who was worried. She has a business renting furniture to casinos
and to conventioneers that come to Las Vegas. And when the president said, don't
bother coming to Las Vegas for your company meetings a few years ago, her
business dove."
Obama actually said, in reference to Wall
Street recklessness, "You are not going to be able to give out these big
bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can't get corporate jets. You can't
go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers'
dime. There's got to be some accountability and some responsibility." To
blame the failure of some random business in Nevada on this is ridiculous.
15. Romney added, "If we stay on the road we're
on, we're going to become like Europe.... I don't believe Europe works in
Europe. I don't want it here."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through
austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting
sort of way.
16. In his "Face the Nation" interview,
Romney said of Obama's new immigration policy, "If he really wanted to
make a solution that dealt with these kids or with the illegal immigration in
America, then this is something he would have taken up in his first three and a
half years, not in his last few months."
That's remarkably misleading. Obama has pushed for
the DREAM Act for years, and would have signed it into law in 2010 had it not
been blocked by a Republican filibuster.
17. In the same interview, Romney said about health
care, "I will continue to describe the plan that I would provide, which
is, number one, to make sure that people don't have to worry about losing their
insurance if they have a preexisting condition, and change jobs."
This is the kind of answer that's clearly intended
to deceive. Under Romney's approach, millions of people with pre-existing
conditions would be denied coverage -- and occasionally his
campaign even admits it.
18. Also on health care, Romney said the president
"jammed through a bill" and "didn't really try and work for a
Republican vote."
This is laughably untrue. Obama worked for months
to find someone -- anyone -- in the Republican Party who would work with
him in good faith, including delaying progress while the "Gang of
Six" engaged in pointless talks.
19. Romney also said, "I'm not looking for a tax
cut for the very wealthiest."
20. Appearing via video at the "Faith and
Freedom Coalition" annual event, Romney applauded the far-right group's
leader: "Ralph Reed has been a real champion in fighting for the
fundamental values that have made America the nation that it is."
21. In the same speech, Romney said, "When you
put in place a bill like Obamacare, you attack the freedom of people to make a
choice about their own insurance and what kind of coverage they want to
have."
That's not true. Under the Affordable Care Act,
consumers would choose from competing plans as part of a health care exchange.
Romney knows this -- it was part of his own plan.
22. Romney went on to say, "[M]edian income in
this nation has dropped by 10 percent over the last four years."
That only makes sense if we count Obama's first
year in office, which relies on a standard Romney believes is
fundamentally unfair.
23. He also argued, "Government at all levels is
about 37 percent of the economy today -- 37 percent. And if Obamacare were
allowed to stand, government would control about half of the economy of
America."
24. At the same event, Romney said that Obama
"insists" that "Israel return to the '67 borders -- indefensible
borders."
25. At a campaign event in Brunswick, Ohio, Romney
claimed that Obama said "if you let him borrow all that money, he'd keep
unemployment below 8 percent."
26. At the same event, Romney said under Obamacare,
we'll get "a healthcare system run by the government."
27. At a campaign event in Janesville, Wisconsin,
Romney argued, "[T]he path we're on, spending $1 trillion more every year
than we take in, is leading us to Greece."
28. At a campaign event in Holland, Michigan, Romney
claimed that, as a result of the Dodd-Frank reforms, "small banks and
community banks are finding it harder and harder to make loans to small
businesses."
According to community banks, this is false. These
banks have actually gotten stronger after Dodd-Frank, and the
president of Independent Community Bankers Of America recently said, "I am sick of Wall
Street using community banks as their shills to scare community bankers into
stampeding Congress into undoing provisions of law that finally attempt to deal
with too big to fail and Wall Street overreach."
29. In a speech to the National Association of Latino
Elected and Appointed Officials yesterday, Romney argued that President Obama
"has not completed a single new trade agreement with Latin America."
30. Romney went on to argue, "Unfortunately,
despite his promises, President Obama has failed to address immigration
reform."
Actually, Obama has addressed it quite a bit,
taking executive action where the law allows, and pushing Congress to pursue
comprehensive reform based on a bipartisan plan he presented last year.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 24- Jun
29, 2012
The NBC News/Wall
Street Journal
poll
that came out this week included an interesting, open-ended question:
"What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Mitt Romney
as president?" Poll respondents weren't offered any choices; they could
offer any response they wanted.
The results weren't especially surprising -- the
most common answer noted Romney being very wealthy. There were also plenty of
folks who mentioned Romney's conservatism, his Mormon faith, his controversial
positions on women's rights, etc.
Down towards the bottom of the list, however, was
one that jumped out me: "Dishonest." For at least some respondents --
not a lot, but some -- the first thing that came to mind when thinking about
Romney was the candidate's willingness to say things that aren't true.
It's good to know I'm not the only one who's
noticed. In fact, the public response should probably be far more common given
how quickly the Republican's record of falsehoods is growing. Consider, for
example, the 24th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's
mendacity.
1. Following the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's
anti-immigrant law, Romney said "we are still waiting" for President
Obama "to present an immigration plan."
No, actually, we're not. Obama endorsed a
comprehensive reform plan years ago, and presented his own detailed plan more
than a year ago.
2. At a campaign event in Salem, Virginia, Romney
said Obama had "all the support he needed" in Congress to pass
immigration legislation during his first two years in office.
That's plainly false. There were Democratic majorities
in both chambers, but not enough to overcome Republican filibusters.
3. At the same event, Romney said Obama "did
not deal with immigration" policy.
Sure he did. Obama introduced a comprehensive
immigration reform proposal; he increased deportations; he strengthened border
security; and he used his prosecutorial discretion to implement the goals of
the DREAM Act. Romney may not approve of these policies, but he should deny
their existence.
4. Romney also argued that Obama
"promised" to keep unemployment "below 8 percent" through
the Recovery Act.
5. Romney went on to accuse Obama of "raising
taxes on small businesses."
In reality, Obama cut taxes on small business,
many times, and Romney should probably understand that "cutting
taxes" is the opposite of "raising taxes."
6. Romney said an "avalanche of new
regulations" under Obama is standing in the way of "good jobs."
Actually, Obama approved fewer regulations in his first three years
in office than Bush did in his first three years.
7. Romney also said Obama "says no to developing
our oil resources."
Oil production is up under Obama.
8. Romney added, "Guess how many [trade]
agreements this president has negotiated? Zero. No new agreements to open up
markets for American goods."
9. Romney went on to say Obama "has put
together almost as much public debt as all the prior president's
combined."
10. Romney vowed, "I will get us to on track to
a balanced budget."
There's overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
11. Romney shared an odd anecdote: "I was with a
woman in Las Vegas, she has a business. She rents furniture to casinos and to
conventioneers that come to Las Vegas... When the president said not to bother
coming to Las Vegas to go to a company meeting, her business collapsed."
Obama actually said, in reference to Wall
Street recklessness, "You are not going to be able to give out these big
bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can't get corporate jets. You can't
go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers'
dime. There's got to be some accountability and some responsibility." To
blame the failure of some random business in Nevada on this is ridiculous.
12. Romney added, "The president's put on us on
path to Europe. Europe doesn't work in Europe. It'll never work here."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through austerity,
just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting sort of way.
13. At a campaign event in Sterling, Virginia, Romney
said under the Affordable Care Act, "government bureaucrats get between us
and our doctors."
In reality, this does not resemble the law in any
way. (Perhaps Romney is thinking of Bob "Ultrasound" McDonnell?)
14. At the same event, Romney said, "The
president cut $500 billion out of Medicare."
15. In the same speech, Romney said under Obama,
"wages have dropped by 10 percent."
That only makes sense if we count Obama's first
year in office, which relies on a standard Romney believes is
fundamentally unfair.
16. Romney also argued that Obama's
"cap-and-trade proposal ... scared away jobs."
First, cap-and-trade was a Republican idea.
Second, it didn't pass, so it couldn't have affected the job market.
17. In response to the Supreme Court's ruling on the
Affordable Care Act, Romney argued, "Obamacare adds trillions to our
deficits and to our national debt."
That's demonstrably ridiculous. The health care
law, according the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and every
independent analysis, cuts the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars in
the coming decade.
18. In the same remarks, Romney said, "Obamacare
also means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance
they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep."
19. He added he intends to "make sure that those
people who have pre-existing conditions know that they will be able to be
insured and they will not lose their insurance."
At a minimum, that's wildly misleading. Under
Romney's approach, millions of people with pre-existing conditions would be denied coverage -- and occasionally his
campaign even admits it.
20. Romney went on to say, "Obamacare does not
... help lower the cost of health care."
21. And in a campaign statement last night, Romney
claimed, "With Obamacare fully installed, government will reach fully half
of the economy."
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 25- Jul
13, 2012
After more than six months of marveling at Mitt
Romney's propensity for falsehoods, I have to admit it was unsettling to see
his campaign's new attack ad, launched yesterday. The spot accuses President
Obama of making "untrue" claims about Romney shipping jobs overseas
-- Obama's claims are actually quite credible -- and concludes that the
president is running a "dishonest campaign."
Think about that for a moment. The candidate whose
entire campaign has been built on one falsehood after another, the candidate
whose dishonesty is routinely characterized as "almost
pathological," the candidate whose near-constant lying puts him in a
league of his own among modern politicians, is complaining that his rival
is taking liberties with the facts.
There's dishonesty in politics, and then there's
meta-dishonesty in politics.
Romney's spokesperson this week declared,
"America deserves ... a president who's willing to tell the truth."
That seems more than fair. Perhaps the Romney camp can reevaluate that demand
after reading the 25th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's
mendacity.
1. In an interview with Fox Business Network's Neil
Cavuto, Romney insisted, "Obamacare is killing jobs."
2. In the same interview, Romney, asked about his
tax returns, said, "We have of course released all of the financial
statements that are required by law and then released two years of tax
returns."
Actually, he's only released his tax returns for
one full year. Two years wouldn't be enough, but it'd be an improvement.
3. Romney also told Cavuto, of the existing
disclosure, "So tax information is there and other financial disclosure is
there."
I wish that were true, but the whole point of the
recent controversy is that "other financial disclosure" isn't
there. We learned about his shell corporation in Bermuda based on one year's
tax returns, but we don't know what other disclosures exist because Romney has
kept previous returns hidden from the public.
4. Also on Fox Business, Romney said his tax
disclosures include "the same information" John Kerry released during
his 2004 campaign.
That's plainly false. During his presidential run
eight years ago, Kerry released five years of tax returns, and during his
Senate campaigns, made a habit of releasing several years' worth of tax
documents as part of a commitment to disclosure.
5. Criticizing President Obama's tax-cut plan,
Romney said the proposal constitutes "a massive tax increase."
Well, that's obviously a subjective matter, but in
reality, 98% of Americans would get a tax cut under the plan. [Update: Commenter VeryVerySad
reminds of an important point: 100% of Americans would get a tax cut, but
2% of Americans would pay slightly more on income above $250,000.]
6. Attacking the same plan, Romney said the White
House plan "is the sort of thing only an extreme liberal could come up
with."
"Extreme liberals" aren't the only
people who can think of middle-class tax cut, and there's really nothing
"extreme" at all about the president's proposal.
7. At a town-hall meeting in Grand Junction,
Colorado, Romney claimed Obama is "putting money into energy companies,
solar and wind energy companies that end up making their products outside the
United States."
8. At the same event, Romney claimed, "This
president has increased the rate of new major regulations by about threefold
over his predecessor."
That's false. Obama approved fewer regulations in his first three years
in office than Bush did in his first three years.
9. Romney added, "I'm going to look at all the
programs we have in government and ask this question: Is this program so
critical to America that it's worth borrowing money from China to pay for
it?"
At a minimum, that's misleading. The implication
here is that U.S. debt is financed by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China
only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
10. Romney went on to say he's "going to get rid
of ObamaCare" so the government won't have to borrow more money.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office, the Affordable Care Act will save over $100 billion over the next
decade, and over $1 trillion in the decade after that. Romney has it backwards
-- we would need to borrow more money if he does "get rid of
Obamacare."
11. He added that "dreams are being crushed when
taxes go up and up and up on job creators."
Taxes haven't gone up; they've gone down. In fact,
Americans' federal tax burden has down and down and down, reaching a 30-year low after Obama cut taxes in
2009.
12. At the same event, Romney said the Affordable
Care Act "cuts Medicare by $500 billion."
13. He also said "no, no, no" to the notion
that he would "cut" Medicare.
Romney endorsed Paul Ryan's House Republican
Budget plan, which ends the Medicare program and replaces it with a private
voucher scheme.
14. In response to a question about the tax code,
Romney argued, "For me ... this campaign is about the middle class, and
about the poor. It's not about the rich. The rich are going to do fine,
whosever elected."
First, Romney intends to give the wealthy a
massive tax cut (while they keep their existing massive tax cut). Second,
Romney said in February he's "not concerned
about the very poor."
15. In his speech to the NAACP, Romney went
off-script and said, "You know, there was a survey of the Chamber of
Commerce. They carried out a survey of their members, about 1,500 surveyed. And
they asked him what effect Obama care would have on their plans and
three-quarters of them said it would make them less likely to hire
people."
That's not what happened. The Chamber, a
pro-Republican lobbying institution heavily invested in helping Romney, put up
an unscientific online survey. Treating this as a legitimate poll of businesses
is fundamentally dishonest.
16. Responding to an interview the president did with
CBS, Romney argued, "President Obama
believes that millions of Americans have lost their homes, their jobs and their
livelihood because he failed to tell a good story."
17. Romney's campaign claimed that health care
premiums "are $4,893 higher per family than President Obama promised"
in 2008.
18. In a speech in New Hampshire, responding to the
new jobs report, Romney complained, "The highest corporate tax rates in
the world do not create jobs."
19. Describing economic policies that would improve
matters, Romney added, "Opening up new markets in Latin America. The
president hasn't done that in three and a half years -- no new trade
agreements."
20. In the same speech, Romney added, "Failing
to effectively crack down on China for cheating and stealing American jobs --
that has not helped."
21. Romney went on to say, "The president's
policies have not gotten America working again."
22. Asked about his lack of specific ideas on the
economy, Romney argued, "I don't think I've seen any from the president
that -- that show what he's planning on doing."
Romney doesn't have to like the American Jobs Act, but he shouldn't get
away with brazenly lying about its existence.
23. In response to a reporter's question about health
care, Romney said, "You know, I've spoken about health care from the day
we passed it in -- in Massachusetts and people said, is this something that
you'd apply at the federal level? And I said no."
24. Commenting on his plans to eliminate the deficit,
Romney argued, "What I describe in my plan is a series of changes to
programs and elimination of programs which save more and more money over time,
so we're able to get America to a balanced budget in eight to 10 years -- not
in the first year, but eight to 10 years."
There's overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
25. At a fundraiser in Montana, Romney told
supporters, "The great majority of small business -- 54% of American
workers work in businesses taxed as individuals. So when the president wants to
raise taxes on individuals as he's proposed from 35% to 40%, he kills jobs. If
your priority is crushing people, vote for him."
Only about 3% of American small
businesses would be affected by the higher rate, and there is literally no
evidence to suggest Clinton-era top rates on the wealthy "kills
jobs."
In conclusion, Jay Rosen argued yesterday that Romney and
his team appear to be running a "post-truth" campaign, working under
the assumption that the media isn't equipped to report the lies. It's a story
that's "too big to tell."
It's a fair point, and with just 115 days until
the election, it's a dynamic well worth watching.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 26- Jul
20, 2012
Just last night, Rachel reported on Mitt Romney's
new campaign offensive -- based entirely on a President Obama quote that's been
taken out of context -- and stepped back to consider the larger context, which
leads to a subject near and dear to me.
"There's also an interesting conversation to
be had," Rachel noted, about how much you can get away with and still be
considered a viable candidate for president." This conversation can be
built on straightforward question: "Are we so inured to the idea of
everybody calling each other a liar, that when somebody actually really does
blatantly lie it doesn't matter anymore? Ultimately, that is not a question
about these guys fighting it. That is a question about us."
Before you answer that question, perhaps consider
the 26th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. The Romney campaign argued this week that Fisker
Automotive "got over half a billion dollars in loan guarantees from the
Department of Energy, which did not result in jobs being created in America,
but actually jobs being created overseas in Finland."
This has been debunked over, and over, and over, and over again. It was a lie
when it came up a year ago, and now it's been downgraded to a rather pathetic
lie.
2. At a campaign event in Bowling Green, Ohio, Romney
said Obama intends to "raise taxes on small business."
No, actually, he doesn't. In fact, it's a detail
that generally goes overlooked, but the president has actually cut taxes on
small businesses several times.
3. At the same event, Romney added, "This
president said he'd cut the deficit in half. He's doubled it."
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double"
means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was
also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says
the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times,
Romney's lying.
4. Romney also argued, "The president and his
administration said they are going to usurp your religious freedom by demanding
that you provide products to your employees, if you're the Catholic Church,
that violates your own conscience."
Neither the Catholic Church nor any other house of
worship are required to "provide products" -- in this case,
contraception -- to their employees. Churches are exempt from preventive-care
requirements. Romney knows this, but continues to lie anyway.
5. He went on to say, "There's only one person
I know who has cut Medicare by $500 billion, and that's President Obama."
6. Romney told WTOL in Ohio that, when it
came to the rescue of the auto industry, "My plan was absolutely
right." (thanks to reader F.B. for the tip)
7. The Romney campaign said repeatedly this week
that it's "standard" for a presidential nominee to only release two
years' worth of tax returns.
8. At a rally in Irwin, Pennsylvania, Romney said,
"The Chamber of Commerce went out to their members and surveyed them and
said, 'What's been the impact of Obamacare?' And three-quarters -- three-quarters
-- said they are less likely to hire people because of Obamacare."
The "survey" is a joke. The Chamber, a
pro-Republican lobbying institution heavily invested in helping Romney, put up
an unscientific online survey. Treating this as a legitimate poll of businesses
is fundamentally dishonest.
9. At the same event, Romney claimed that President
Obama promised "he'd hold unemployment below 8 percent."
10. He also said, "When you increase the number
of regulations that are created three times that of his predecessor ...
you don't add jobs."
This is based on a dishonest premise. Obama
approved fewer regulations in his first
three years in office than Bush did in his first three years.
11. Romney went on to say, "When you put in
place regulations that don't allow coal to be able to be mined or to be used,
these things kill jobs, and that's got to stop."
12. Romney added, "I'm ashamed to say that we're
seeing our president hand out money to the businesses of campaign contributors....
That kind of crony capitalism does not create jobs, and it does not create jobs
here."
13. At the same event, Romney said Obama blamed
"ATM machines" for economic problems.
14. Romney also argued, "We won't forget, by the
way, that Congress was in his party for two years with a supermajority."
That's demonstrably untrue. In Obama's first two
years, Democrats did not have a supermajority for 20 out of 24 months.
15. Romney went on to say, "You can look at what
[Obama] said. And what he said was this; he said, and I quote, and he's
speaking, by the way, of business like this one; small businesses, big
businesses, middle-sized businesses, mining businesses, manufacturing service
businesses of all kinds. He said this; 'If you've got a business, you didn't
build that. Somebody else made that happen.'"
16. He added, "The idea to say that Steve Jobs
didn't build Apple, that Henry Ford didn't build Ford Motor, that Papa John
didn't build Papa John Pizza, that Ray Kroc didn't build McDonald's, that Bill
Gates didn't build Microsoft, you can go on to list.... To say something like
that is not just foolishness, it's insulting to every entrepreneur, every
innovator in America, and it's wrong."
The only two accurate words in that quote are,
"It's wrong." The rest is ridiculously untrue, since Obama never said
economic pioneers didn't build their enterprises.
17. Romney said, "Look, President Obama attacks
success, and therefore, under President Obama we have less success."
For one thing, Romney has never been able to point
to a single instance in which Obama has attacked success. For another, we're
having a hell of a lot more success now than we were four years ago.
18. Romney went on to say the president is
"trying to take work out of welfare requirements."
19. He added that Obama "wants Americans to be
ashamed of success."
If Romney can produce any evidence in support of
this lie, I'll donate a bucket of cash to the charity of his choice.
20. Romney said "in the last three and a half
years, we've seen ... higher taxes keeps us from achieving what we can
achieve."
Taxes haven't gone up; they've gone down. In fact,
Americans' federal tax burden has down, reaching a 30-year low after Obama cut taxes in
2009.
21. Romney spoke about trade agreements and said,
"Do you know how many this president's put in place? Zero. Zero."
22. Romney vowed, "Slow growth means fewer jobs,
and that is why as president of the United States, I will get America on track
to have a balanced budget."
There's overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
23. The Romney campaign argued this week that Obama
"told the businesspeople of America they shouldn't take credit for
building their businesses."
24. The Romney campaign also claimed that the
president "never really held a private sector job in which he earned a
real paycheck."
This is a common attack, but it's not true. Obama
worked at a private-sector law firm before entering public service.
25. The campaign also argued that Obama has accused
Romney of "not paying taxes."
That's wrong, too. Team Obama has said there are
all kinds of unanswered questions about Romney's finances, since he keeps his
tax returns secret, but neither Obama nor his campaign has ever said Romney
didn't pay his taxes.
26. The Romney campaign also released a video that
tied together two separate Obama sentences to make it seem as if he was making
an argument he did not make.
Even by 2012 standards, wrenching presidential
comments from context this ridiculously was outrageously dishonest.
Finally, Romney told Fox News this week, "A
campaign based on falsehood and dishonesty does not have long legs." We'll
learn soon enough whether that's true.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 27- Jul
27, 2012
Paul Krugman, who's been nearly as frustrated by
Mitt Romney's habitual dishonesty as I've been, noted
this week that political observers should pause to appreciate "this
remarkable spectacle." Krugman added, "I really don't think there's
been anything like this in American political history: a presidential campaign,
with a pretty good chance of winning, that is based entirely on cynical lies
about what the sitting president has said."
I agree. Mitt Romney is, at a minimum, unique.
What's especially striking, in addition to the
volume and frequency of the falsehoods, is how often the dishonesty is obvious.
Jonathan Bernstein has labeled this "lazy mendacity"
-- untruths based on "the indifference to any fact-checking," and
"the insistence on continuing to use a lie long after it's been
definitively debunked."
To better understand the phenomenon, take a look
at the 27th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Romney claimed this week that President Obama was
saying success "is the result of government," not "hard-working
people," when Obama said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build
that. Somebody else made that happen."
That's as obvious a lie as Romney has told all
year. It's not even close to what the president
said.
2. Romney told CNBC's Larry Kudlow, in reference to
last week's massacre, "There were, of course, very stringent laws which
existed in Aurora, Colorado."
4. Romney told donors this week that Ronald Reagan
was so focused on the economy after taking office in 1981, he told his aides
not to schedule any national security meetings in his first 100 days as
president.
That's so ridiculously false it seemed to thoroughly
annoy Republican media figures, including Bill Kristol and Marc Thiessen.
5. Romney told CNBC's Larry Kudlow, "I think
the president made an error coming into office and deciding that the economy
would take care of itself."
I don't know what planet Romney's on, but on this
one, Obama came into office and immediately worked on a stimulus bill called
the Recovery Act. Romney probably should have heard of it -- he's condemned it
many times.
6. In the same interview, Romney said Obama is
responsible for a "takeover of the health care industry."
There is no universe in which this makes sense --
"Obamacare" relies on private insurers, not a government takeover.
7. Romney also told Kudlow the economic downturn has
"gone on for three and a half years."
In our reality, the Great Recession began in
December 2007 (when George W. Bush was president) -- not January 2009 (when
Barack Obama became president).
8. Romney said a president should have "at
least six months or a year" to get economic policies "in place."
This is fundamentally dishonest, given that Romney
refuses to allow Obama to use this standard to defend his own term.
9. He added, "When I say extend the current tax
setting, what I'm saying is, don't raise taxes."
10. Romney went on to say, "I'm not looking for
tax breaks for high-income folks."
11. He also said he has a plan that will "show
the world that we're on track to having a balanced budget within eight to 10
years."
There's overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
12. Romney described Obama's economic vision this
way: "This is an ideology which says hey, we're all the same here, we
ought to take from all and give to one another and that achievement, individual
initiative and risk-taking and success are not to be rewarded as they have in
the past."
13. Romney also argued that the president
"demonizes" and "denigrates the people who have worked
hard."
Romney has never been able to point to a single
instance in which Obama has actually done this.
14. In reference to Bain Capital, Romney said,
"[O]ver the history of the firm, which I helped start, they made some 350
investments, 80 percent of which grew."
15. In his speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars
National Convention, Romney said the president, in his "dealings with
other nations," has given "apologies."
16. In the same remarks, Romney said Obama has
"diminished" Americans ability to "shape world events,"
adding, "[T]his president has diminished American leadership."
This is something of a subjective question, but at
a minimum, all available evidence suggests American leadership has more international stature and
credibility now than before Obama took office.
17. Romney went on to say, "Today, we are just
months away from an arbitrary, across-the-board budget reduction that would
saddle the military with a trillion dollars in cuts, severely shrink our force
structure, and impair our ability to meet and deter threats. Don't bother trying
to find a serious military rationale behind any of this, unless that rationale
is wishful thinking. Strategy is not driving President Obama's massive defense
cuts."
These aren't "President Obama's massive defense
cuts". Romney's talking about defense cuts proposed by congressional
Republicans
as part of the congressional Republicans' debt-ceiling crisis.
18. He added that national security leaks are
"contemptible," adding, "It betrays our national interest. It
compromises our men and women in the field."
19. Romney went on to say, "The operating
principle of American foreign policy has been to work with our allies so that
we can deter aggression before it breaks out into open conflict. That policy
depends on nurturing our alliances and standing up for our common values. Yet
the President has moved in the opposite direction. It began with the sudden
abandonment of friends in Poland and the Czech Republic."
20. In the same speech, Romney said, "President
Obama had a moment of candor ... just the other day. He said that the actions
of the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez have not had a serious national security
impact on us."
The actions of the Hugo Chavez really haven't had a serious national
security impact on us. (Hezbollah's interest in the region isn't exactly new.)
21. Romney added, "[T]his is the president who
faltered when the Iranian people were looking for support in their struggle
against the ayatollahs.... When unarmed women and men in Tehran find the
courage to confront their oppressors, at risk of torture and death, they should
hear the unequivocal voice of an American president affirming their right to be
free."
The Iranian people weren't looking and didn't want
U.S. officials to intervene. That's not "faltering"; that's sound
judgment -- the protestors didn't want to "hear the voice of an American
president" at all.
22. Romney went on to say, "It is in our mutual
interest for China to be a partner for a stable and secure world, and we
welcome its participation in trade. But the cheating must finally be brought to
a stop. President Obama hasn't done it and won't do it."
23. In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, Romney
said of his one term as governor, "I began a relationship with the speaker
of the House and the Senate president that was personal. We respected each
other. We often disagreed. But we found common ground from time to time."
That's wildly misleading. In his one term, Romney
issued more than 800 vetoes, over 700 of which were overridden, and
demonstrated a "relative disinterest in
bipartisan collaboration."
24. In the same interview, he asserted "we have
not" increased trade with Latin America.
That's not true. Since early 2009, the exports of
goods and services to Latin America have increased nearly 50 percent. (Obama
also signed trade deals with Panama and Colombia.)
25. A Romney campaign ad this week claimed,
"Where did all the Obama stimulus money go? Friends, donors, campaign
supporters, special interest groups."
26. And in his first diplomatic incident of the week,
Romney said Bob Carr, the Australian
foreign minister, told him that America is "in decline," but that the
situation could be turned around if an appropriate budget deal is reached.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 28- Aug
3, 2012
After Mitt Romney returned from his truly horrid
overseas trip this week, one of his campaign aides tried to put a positive spin
on the candidate's inexplicable gaffes. The problem, the staffer said, is that
Romney "has a tendency to speak his mind and to say what he
believes."
The idea is, the Republican presidential hopeful
is bound to get in trouble once in a while because he's just such an honest,
candid guy. To borrow an '08 frame, Romney's a "straight talker."
The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus could
hardly believe the argument, calling it "about as knee-slapping a spin
effort as I've ever seen." She added, " Mitt Romney has many
strengths and many flaws. Being an unvarnished truth-teller does not fall in
either category."
To consider this problem in more detail, consider
the 28th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Romney told reporters this afternoon, "The
president has also raised taxes on the middle class, so said the Supreme
Court."
He's referring to an individual mandate that would
apply to 1% of the population. And if President Obama's health care policy
"raised taxes on the middle class," then Mitt Romney raised taxes on the middle class.
2. In a statement responding to the July jobs
report, Romney argued, "President Obama doesn't have a plan" to
create jobs.
Romney doesn't have to like the American Jobs Act,
but he shouldn't get away with brazenly lying about its existence.
3. At a campaign event in Golden, Colorado,
yesterday, Romney said "we have fewer jobs that have been created"
under Obama.
He didn't specify -- "fewer" than what?
- but by Romney's own stated standard, nearly 4.5 million
private-sector jobs have been created under Obama.
4. In the same speech, Romney said in reference to
the president, "He said he'd hold unemployment below 8 percent."
5. Romney went on to complain, "[W]e've seen
record numbers of foreclosures."
Putting aside how dishonest it is for Romney to
blame the housing crash on the president, let's also not forget that Romney
intends to deliberately avoid any
efforts to curtail foreclosures.
6. Romney also argued, "We are at a 30 year low
in the number of business start-ups that have occurred. A 30 year low."
7. Reflecting on his one term as governor, Romney
said, "I added jobs. We've added more jobs than the president has in the
entire country."
Romney had one of the worst jobs records of any governor
in the country, and so long as we're playing by Romney's rules, his
job-creation totals don't come close to Obama's.
8. Complaining about Democrats, Romney said,
"[O]ur friends across the aisle and the president, they have a different
view. They think, well we should just raise taxes, that's the primary way they
think we should cut the deficit."
Actually, in 2011, when Democrats offered
Republicans a massive debt-reduction deal, the "primary way" they
closed the budget gap was through spending cuts.
9. He also argued, "When you raise taxes, you
lower growth."
That may be Romney's opinion, but there's
overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Both Reagan and Clinton raised taxes,
and economic growth soared soon after. (This is not to say there's a causal relationship,
only that categorical statements like these about what happens when taxes go up
aren't true.)
10. On health care, Romney said, "We also have
to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions don't have to be denied
care."
At a minimum, that's wildly misleading. Under
Romney's approach, millions of people with pre-existing conditions would be denied coverage -- and occasionally his
campaign even admits it.
11. Condemning the Affordable Care Act, Romney said,
"Obamacare, we simply can't afford trillions of dollars in more federal
spending. It gets more and more expensive as time goes on."
That's the exact opposite of
reality.
"Obamacare" cuts the deficit, and the saving increase as time goes
on.
12. On the same point, Romney argued, "We simply
can't afford to have federal bureaucrats telling us what kind of health care we
can have."
There is nothing in the Affordable Care Act that
empowers bureaucrats to tell Americans what kind of health care they can have.
13. Romney soon added, "And we sure as heck
can't have Obamacare cut Medicare by over $500 billion."
14. Pointing to his five-part agenda, Romney said,
"We got our economists. We go through and say, OK how many jobs will be
creating -- created just by doing those things? And I got more coming down the
road, but just those things alone create 12 million new American jobs."
If we do nothing, we're on track to create
12 million new American jobs over the next four years anyway.
15. In an interview with Fox's Sean Hannity, Romney
claimed, "That's one of the first principles of my plan, which is,
high-income people will continue to pay the same share of taxes they pay
today."
That's not true. The wealthy would
receive a massive, disproportionate tax break under the Romney plan.
16. In the same interview, Romney said, "[I]f
anyone's going to get a break, a tax break, it's going to be middle Americans.
They're the people who deserve it."
The middle class may deserve it, but independent
analysis shows that the middle class would see their federal tax burden go up, not down, under Romney's
plan.
17. Romney unveiled a "report card" in Colorado this
week that claims job creation has gone down during Obama's first term.
18. The same "report card" claims
unemployment has gone up under Obama.
It's actually down from 10% in 2009, and is
slightly lower than it was when Obama took office.
19. The "report card" says the budget
deficit has gone up since Obama took office.
The deficit has gone down since Obama took office.
It was $1.3 trillion on Inauguration Day 2009, and it's projected to be $1.1 trillion this year.
20. The "report card" also claims
Massachusetts' budget deficit went down during Romney's only term in office.
21. In a minute-long biographical ad unveiled this
week, Romney claims he knows what it's like "to wonder whether you're
going to be able to make ends meet."
22. In the same ad, Romney says he had the "best
jobs record of any Massachusetts governor in the last decade," citing the
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That's wildly misleading. He's comparing two
records: his jobs record vs. his successor's, and Deval Patrick was governor
when the economy crashed in 2008.
23. In the ad, he went on to boast that, after he
oversaw the 2002 Olympics, he put $100 million "into an endowment there
for the future of Olympic sport."
It wasn't $100 million and he's
only really talking about part of the federal taxpayer bailout he didn't manage
to spend.
24. Romney released a new ad this week, featuring an
Obama quote: "We tried our plan -- and it worked."
25. In an interview with Fox News after his
controversial remarks in Jerusalem, Romney said he "did not speak about
the Palestinian culture or the decisions made in their economy."
26. On a related note, during the Jerusalem remarks,
Romney said GDP per capita in Israel "is about $21,000 dollars, and
compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the
Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita."
None of those figures are
true.
27. Also in Israel, Romney claimed Jared
Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel "basically says the physical
characteristics of the land account for the differences in the success of the
people that live there. There is iron ore on the land and so forth."
28. Romney told CBS this week that President Reagan,
during his tenure, sent troops into harm's way "only in one circumstance,
which was in Grenada.... We were in a peacekeeping setting in Lebanon."
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 29- Aug
10, 2012
Joe Klein reflected briefly on Mitt Romney this
week, noting,
"I can't remember a candidate so brazenly allergic to facts. What a
travesty." Kevin Drum offered some related
thoughts.
[I]t's common to twist and distort and cherry
pick. But Romney has flatly claimed that Obama said something that, in fact, a
John McCain aide said. He's snipped out sentences from an Obama speech and
spliced the two halves back together so nobody can tell what he did. Then he
did it again to another Obama speech. And he unequivocally said that Obama
plans to drop work requirements for welfare even though he's done nothing of
the sort.
This really is a post-truth campaign. It's
different. It's one thing to be nasty. All campaigns are nasty. It's one thing
to twist and distort and mock. Every campaign does that too.... But this is
different. This is a presidential candidate just baldly making stuff up on the
assumption that nobody will ever know.
The same afternoon, in an apparent attempt to push
the 2012 campaign even deeper down the rabbit hole, a Romney spokesperson tweeted,
"After months of distortions and lies, how can we trust anything the Obama
campaign says?" She wasn't kidding.
Of course, if months of distortions and lies
causes irreparable harm to a presidential candidate, Romney might as well pack
up and go to one of his mansions now. To consider this problem in more detail,
consider the 29th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's
mendacity.
1. In a radio interview yesterday, Romney said of
the president, "His campaign and the people working with him have focused
almost exclusively on personal attacks."
2. In an attack ad launched this week, Romney said
Obama "quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work
requirements."
3. In the same ad, Romney claims, "Under
Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job.
They just send you your welfare check."
4. In reference to voting rights in Ohio, Romney wrote on Facebook that Obama
believes "it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women
extended early voting privileges."
This is ridiculously untrue. Obama wants servicemen
and women to have extended early voting privileges, just like every other
eligible voter in Ohio.
5. In the same written message, Romney argues that
Obama intends to "undermine ... the voting rights of our military."
6. In a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Romney said,
"Do you know what's happened to the median income in America over the last
three-and-a-half years? It's dropped by $4,000 a family."
That only makes sense if we count Obama's first
year in office, which relies on a standard Romney believes is
fundamentally unfair.
7. In the same speech, Romney said in reference to
the deficit, "Instead of cutting it half, he actually doubled it and
more."
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double"
means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was
also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says
the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times,
Romney's lying.
8. He went on to say in Iowa that Obama is "the
first president in history to have a deficit above $1 trillion."
That's a lie. George W. Bush was the first
president in history to have a deficit above $1 trillion.
9. Romney added, "He's on track in four years
to put together almost as much debt held by the public as all the prior
presidents combined."
10. Romney also said, "We must restore and I
will restore work into welfare."
11. In reference to the budget deficit and debt,
Romney argued, "If entrepreneurs and business people around the world and
here at home ... think we're going to get to a point of massive deficits and
the potential for economic challenge, why they're going to have a hard time
investing in America."
At a minimum, this is misleading. Despite our
deficits and debt, there's a negative yield on U.S. Treasuries, with investors
around the world willing to pay us to
borrow their money.
12. Romney added, "[W]e're going to have to get
ourselves on track to balance our budget and I know how I'll do that."
No he doesn't. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add trillions to the
national debt.
13. In the very next sentence, Romney said,
"I'll begin by looking at every single government program and ask this
question: Is this program so critical, it's worth borrowing money from China to
pay for it?"
The implication here is that U.S. debt is financed
by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
14. Romney went on to say, "[A]t the top of my
list of programs we don't need is one that costs $100 billion a year I'm going
to get rid of and that's Obamacare."
The Affordable Care Act doesn't add $100 billion a
year to the deficit. On the contrary, Obamacare saves the country hundreds
of billions of dollars. If Romney "gets rid of" it, the deficit goes up,
not down.
15. Romney also argued, "I want to make sure
that those with pre-existing conditions are able to get insurance."
No he doesn't. Under Romney's approach, millions
of people with pre-existing conditions would be denied coverage -- and occasionally his
campaign even admits it.
16. The Romney campaign last night sent an email
blast arguing that Obama admitted he wants to do government bailouts for
"every industry."
17. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek,
Romney argued that "higher
productivity means higher wages for the American worker."
The evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.
Productivity rates saw sharp increases during the Bush/Cheney era, but wages
remained stagnant.
18. Romney told voters in Nevada this week,
"I've been interested in seeing that the president continues to not only
in speeches but in ads say things that are patently untrue. I've made it very
clear. My tax policy will not reduce the taxes paid by high income
Americans."
That's the opposite of the truth. Romney's plan, according
to independent analysis, will reduce taxes for the wealthy, and these
breaks will be paid for by tax increases on everyone else.
19. At a press availability in Nevada, Romney said,
"The president has now raised taxes on the middle class."
He was off by only one letter: the president has
not raised taxes on the middle class.
20. At the same event, he added, "I've laid out
a plan that will get Americans working again, will create 12 million new jobs
over these next 4 years."
If we do nothing, we're on track to create 12 million new American jobs over
the next four years anyway.
21. Romney went on to say, "With regards to
middle income Americans, I want to lower the taxes paid by middle income
Americans."
22. In a different speech in Nevada, Romney claimed,
"I know the president now has a plan to raise taxes on small business,
taking the tax rate from 35 percent to 40 percent."
23. Romney went on to say, "The president, the
other day, you heard what he said. I simply couldn't believe what he said. It
may go down as the most famous quote of his entire presidency. When he said,
'If you have a business, you didn't build that, someone did that for you.' He
does not understand that it's entrepreneurs of all kinds that have built this
country, free individuals reaching excellence, reaching for achievement."
24. At an event in Elk Grove Village, Illinois,
Romney said Obama falsely claimed four years ago that "he was going to
help create more jobs."
25. Romney added, "[Obama] said if we passed his
stimulus, that we would never see unemployment go above 8 percent."
26. Romney blamed Obama for the fact that
"gasoline prices have doubled."
27. Romney went on to say, "The president's
solution for all these problems is to do more of the same. He wants another
stimulus. The last one didn't work."
The last one rescued the economy from collapse, grew the
economy, created jobs, and at least technically ended the recession.
28. Romney boasted, "When I was governor of my
state ... we balanced the budget every year [and] we were able to build a rainy
day fund of over $2 billion."
29. And Romney said his fiscal plan "is very
similar to the Simpson-Bowles plan."
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 30-August
17, 2012
Mitt Romney gave a speech Beallsville, Ohio, this
week, and presented an unfortunate attack against President Obama. "How
can you go out there and tell people things that just aren't true?" he asked
rhetorically. He added, "This is a time for truths."
In context, Romney was referring to Obama's claim
that "we're adding jobs in the coal industry." In reality, the nation
really is adding jobs in the coal industry -- Romney was looking for an example
of the president saying something that "just isn't true," and he
pointed to an Obama quote that happened to be accurate, though he told his
audience the opposite.
It's hard not to appreciate the ironic circle --
the president said something true, Romney lied when he said the accurate claim
is false, and then he complained about falsehoods in the campaign.
I don't know the Republican candidate personally,
but from a distance, it appears there's a part of his brain that allows him to
create some kind of deliberate blind-spot. It's actually a little scary to
think of a leader -- a man who'd be given enormous power and influence,
literally making life and death decisions on a regular basis -- who can
convince himself that his falsehoods are true, and that others' truths are
falsehoods.
But here we are. If this is, as Romney claims, a
"time for truths," I can only hope the Republican candidate will take
a few moments to consider the 30th installment of my weekly series, chronicling
Mitt's mendacity. (This is the biggest list I've ever done.)
1. At an impromptu event in South Carolina yesterday,
Romney said on Medicare policy, "Our plan [has] no change for current
seniors and those 55 and older."
That's plainly false. Romney's plan eliminates all
new benefits for seniors under the Affordable Care Act, which necessarily means
higher prescription drug costs for seniors, and more expensive preventive care.
2. At the same event, Romney argued, "Under the
president's plan, [Medicare] goes bankrupt... Under the plan I propose, it is
solvent."
That's the exact opposite of reality. Obama's
policy strengthens Medicare's finances, and under Romney's plan, the system
would be closer to insolvency faster.
3. In Chillicothe, Ohio, Romney said that under
Obama, "We've got lower economic growth."
4. In the same speech, Romney said that under Obama,
"We've got higher unemployment."
5. He went on to say the annual budget deficit has
hit the $1 trillion mark under Obama for the "first time the history of
our country."
Not true. The first time in the history of our
country that the deficit hit $1 trillion was George W. Bush's last year in
office, when the annual shortfall was $1.3 trillion.
6. Romney added that Obama promised "he'd get
the unemployment down to under 5.6 percent today if we pass that $1 trillion
stimulus package."
That's actually two falsehoods wrapped as one. For
one thing, the stimulus wasn't $1 trillion (Romney's off by over $200 billion,
and that's real money). For another, that's not what Obama promised.
7. Romney added, "You see unlike President
Obama, I won't raise taxes on small business."
Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on small businesses
-- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his tax plan would
have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
8. In an interview with Fortune
magazine, Romney said the president's stimulus measures "have not put
Americans back to work."
9. In the same interview, Romney said he would
create jobs by "taking advantage of America's energy resources,
particularly natural gas, as well as coal, oil, nuclear, solar, and wind."
Much of this is contradicted by Romney's own
agenda. He opposes the wind production tax credit, no matter how many jobs it
costs the nation, and has vowed to cut off investments in renewable energy
programs (Romney has said wind and solar do not constitute "real energy.")
10. Romney went on to say, "A nation which is a
highly productive nation as we are benefits by trade with others... The Obama
administration has negotiated no new [trade] agreements."
Did Romney not hear about the trade agreements
with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea?
11. Romney added, "We have to cut the deficit
and get America on track to a balanced budget in order to convince investors
that America is a good place to invest long term.... The president has done
virtually nothing other than to propose a series of tax increases."
Actually, Obama proposed a massive, $4 trillion
"grand bargain," most of which was made up of spending cuts.
Congressional Republicans turned it down anyway.
12. Romney also said, "We're at a 30-year low in
new business startups."
13. Romney went on to say, "I indicated as I
announced my tax plan that the key principles included the following. First,
that high-income people would continue to pay the same share of the tax burden
that they do today."
At a minimum, this is ridiculously misleading.
Under Romney's plan, high-income people would get an enormous tax break.
14. Romney added, "Obamacare is a tax. It's been
so determined by the Supreme Court, and it falls predominantly on the middle
class."
He's referring to an individual mandate that would
apply to 1% of the population. And if President Obama's health care policy
"raised taxes on the middle class," then Mitt Romney raised
taxes on the middle class.
15. Romney also said, "President Obama raises
taxes on the middle class. I will under no circumstances raise taxes on the
middle class."
16. Romney went on to say, "I will follow a
model similar to Simpson-Bowles."
17. Romney also said, "I believe infrastructure
is going to see very substantial investments over the coming decade."
He may believe that, but he's also endorsed a
budget plan that drastically curtails
infrastructure investments.
18. Romney argued, "I believe that you're going
to see us having created 12 million new jobs."
If we do nothing, we're on track to create 12
million
new American jobs over the next four years anyway.
19. In a televised ad, Romney said Obama "cut
$716 billion dollars from Medicare ... to pay for Obamacare."
20. The ad goes on to say, in reference to seniors,
"So now the money you paid for your guaranteed healthcare is going to a
massive new government program that's not for you."
That's plainly false. Under the Affordable Care
Act, seniors pay less for prescription medication and preventive care --
meaning the policy is "for" them, too.
21. At a campaign stop in Ohio, Romney said under
Obama we're not "adding jobs in the coal industry" and not
"producing more coal."
22. Romney said this week that Paul Ryan reached out
to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to "co-lead a piece of legislation that makes
sure we can save Medicare."
According to Ron Wyden, that's ridiculously
untrue.
23. In another attack ad this week, Romney once again
accused Obama of "quietly ending work requirements" in the welfare
law."
24. In Beallsville, Ohio, Romney argued,
"President said he'd cut the deficit in half. He's doubled it."
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double"
means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was
also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says
the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times,
Romney's lying.
25. In the same speech, Romney added that Obama has
"raided that [Medicare] trust fund."
26. Romney went on to call the Affordable Care Act an
"unproven federal government takeover to health care."
There is no universe in which this makes sense -- "Obamacare"
relies on private insurers, not a government takeover. (Also, it's not
"unproven" -- the policy works quite well in, ahem, Massachusetts.)
27. Romney also said, "My number four [goal] is
to stop spending massively more than we take in to get America on track to have
a balanced budget. And I'll do it."
No you won't. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
28. Romney went on to say, "Seventy-five percent
of small businesses in this country surveyed by the Chamber of Commerce said
that Obamacare makes it less likely for them to hire people."
The "survey" is a joke. The Chamber, a
pro-Republican lobbying institution heavily invested in helping Romney, put up
an unscientific online survey. Treating this as a legitimate poll of businesses
is fundamentally dishonest.
29. Romney also said, "I'm going to put work
back into welfare."
30. Romney went on to say, "[Obama] said if you
have a business, you didn't build that. Someone else did that."
31. At an event in St. Augustine, Florida, Romney
said the president "won't want to remind people of Greece because that's
where he's taking our country if we don't get off the road we're on."
32. In the same speech Romney said of the president,
"He said he'd measure progress also by whether people were able to have a
good job that kept them in their home and paid their mortgage. Well, 8.5
million homes foreclosed, a record level, is not success, Mr. President."
Putting aside how dishonest it is for Romney to
blame the housing crash on the president, let's also not forget that Romney
intends to deliberately avoid any
efforts to curtail foreclosures.
33. Romney added, "I'm going to take every
government program and apply this test: Is this program so critical it's worth
borrowing money from China to pay for it? And if it's not, we'll get rid of
it."
This continues to be misleading. The implication
here is that U.S. debt is financed by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China
only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 31- Aug
24, 2012
At a campaign event on Monday, a Republican voter
asked Mitt Romney about falsehoods pushed by "leftists" and what he
intended to do about it. The candidate replied, "It seems that the first
victim of an Obama campaign is the truth."
As it turns out, the first victim is actually
irony.
Michael Tomasky had a
good piece this week, explaining what many have been reluctant to
acknowledge: "The distinguishing fact of the Romney-Ryan campaign thus far
is the extent to which it is built on outright lies in a desperate attempt to
avoid honest debate at all costs." The GOP ticket, Tomasky argued,
"lies as much as possible."
Just
making stuff up about the other guy is bad enough. But it is in terms of past
and future positions that what Romney-Ryan are doing really plows new and
dishonorable earth. [...]
They
know that the truth would crush them electorally. And so it follows that they
know they must lie. They must lie about their Medicare plans. They must lie
about the effects of their tax plans on average people and rich people. And
they must tell a number of lies about Obama, all the better if they involve
race, as the welfare lie does.
So
this will be the entire point of the Romney-Ryan campaign. Lie lie lie. Muddy the waters. Turn day to night, fire to water, champagne to
piss. Peddle themselves as the precise opposite of what they actually are. That
is clearly the m.o.
It's always something of a relief when others
notice this, but it's a dynamic much of the political world resists. Perhaps
these stragglers could take a few moments to consider the 31st installment of
my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity. (This week is the biggest list
since I started the project in January.)
1. Referencing the money he gives to his church
every year, Romney said, "This is done entirely privately. One of the
downsides of releasing one's financial information is that this is now all
public, but we had never intended our contributions to be known."
2. In an interview with Time
magazine, Romney said of the recent Tax Policy Center analysis, "The basic
foundation and premises of my plan are ... we don't reduce taxes or the share
of taxes paid by the highest-income individuals. The highest-income individuals
will get to pay the same share of taxes they pay today."
At a minimum, this is ridiculously misleading.
Under Romney's plan, high-income people would get an enormous tax break.
3. In the same interview, Romney added, "I know
that many in the modeling community do not want to assume growth with changes
in tax policy. I do."
Actually, the Tax Policy Center, which Romney was
criticizing, gave him the benefit of the doubt
on growth assumptions, and found that his numbers still didn't add up.
4. On Twitter, Romney claimed President Obama
"gutted bipartisan welfare reform by ending the work requirement."
5. Also on Twitter, Romney argued that the Affordable Care
Act, "raises taxes on families making less than 120k. I will repeal
it."
He's referring to an individual mandate that would
apply to 1% of the population. And if President Obama's health care policy
raised taxes on families making less than $120,000, then Romney raised taxes on
families making less than $120,000.
6. In a campaign ad, Romney says Obama is
"raiding $716 billion from Medicare."
7. The same ad accuses Obama of "taxing
wheelchairs and pacemakers."
8. The ad concludes, "The Romney/Ryan plan will
restore Medicare funding, and protect and strengthen the program for the next
generation."
9. At a campaign event in Hobbs, New Mexico, Romney
said, "Sometimes I have the impression that the whole regulatory attitude
of the administration is trying to stop oil and gas and coal, that they don't
want those sources."
In reality, coal production is up; we have more natural gas than we know what to do
with; and oil production is up.
10. In the same speech, Romney said of Obama,
"He's taken federal dollars, your money, to invest in companies -- solar
companies, wind companies -- about $90 billion in so-called green jobs."
11. On welfare policy, the Romney campaign said this
week that all the administration needs to do "is have HHS send out a hard
letter making sure that the only things that will qualify under the work
requirement is hard training and the cooperative programs with employers and
define it in such a way that what was allowed before is all that's allowed in
the future.... That's all that's required."
12. On the budget sequester, the Romney campaign argued this week, "It was
the president who insisted on this makeup, this formula. Defense spending is
not half of all federal spending, but it's half of the cuts approximately in
the sequester. We disagreed with that then, disagree with it now.''
That's a lie. Democrats wanted the other half of
the sequester to be tax increases. The defense cuts were proposed by House
Republicans.
13. The Romney campaign also said it can create a
"debt-free nation just like our parents."
For one thing, the Romney campaign isn't proposing
to eliminate the debt, just the deficit. For another, I don't know how old most
folks' parents are, but the U.S. has maintained a debt every year since 1836.
14. At a campaign event in Bettendorf, Iowa, Romney
argued, "We've now had four years in a row with a president that's built
trillion-dollar deficits."
That's not true. Obama inherited a $1.3 trillion
deficit from Bush; it wasn't something the president "built."
15. In the same speech, Romney said, "Now, the
president promised that he was going to cut the deficit in half. Yeah, it
didn't happen, did it. He's more than doubled it."
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double"
means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was
also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says
the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times,
Romney's lying.
16. Romney added, in reference to the president,
"He's added almost as much debt held by the public, $5 trillion, as all
the prior presidents of the country combined."
17. Romney went on to say, "One out of six
people's fallen into poverty under this president."
That only makes sense if we count Obama's first
year in office, which relies on a standard Romney believes is
fundamentally unfair.
18. Romney also said, "What [Obama] said was not
a gaffe. It was not a slip of the tongue. What he said was his philosophy. He
said that if you have a business you didn't build it, someone else did
that."
19. Romney said his economic plan "creates 12
million jobs in four years."
If we do nothing, we're on track to create
12 million new American jobs over the next four years anyway.
20. At an event in Manchester, New Hampshire, Paul
Ryan, standing alongside Romney, said, "Now, let's be very clear and fair.
The president inherited a difficult situation, no two ways about that. Problem
is, he made things worse."
21. Ryan also said of Romney, "He took
struggling businesses and turned them around -- an 80 percent success rate.
That's astounding."
22. At the same event, Ryan said, "Remember when
the president said, when he came in office he would create jobs. Unemployment
would never get above 8 percent."
23. Also in New Hampshire, Romney said of Paul Ryan,
"This is a guy who's been able to work with good Democrats, find people
who could look beyond partisanship, find common ground to get things
done."
After seven terms in Congress, Paul Ryan has never
found common ground with Democrats to pass a significant piece of legislation.
24. Romney added, in reference to the budget,
"So what do I do? Well, first, you've got to end the deficit and then
start accumulating, if you will, reserves and growing. That's what we did [in
Massachusetts]."
25. Romney also vowed to "get rid of the
deficit."
There's no reason to believe this is in any way
true. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
26. Romney went on to say, "My test is this. I
look at every program and say, is this so critical as a program it's worth
borrowing money from China to pay for it?"
This continues to be misleading. The implication
here is that U.S. debt is financed by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China
only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
27. In explaining his plans to balance the budget,
Romney added, "We're going to get rid of some programs like Obamacare and
some others."
The Affordable Care Act saves the country hundreds
of billions of dollars. If Romney "gets rid of" it, the deficit goes up,
not down.
28. Romney also said, "We can't go on the way
we're going on, or we'll end up being Greece."
29. Romney went on to say, "I don't want to
raise taxes on the American people."
30. Romney also complained about Obama's tax plan,
arguing., "When you raise taxes on small business from 35 percent to 40
percent, you will kill jobs."
Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on small businesses
-- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his tax plan would
have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
31. On U.S. policy in Afghanistan, Romney said,
"We haven't heard this president" explain "what's happening and
why they're there, what the mission is, what its purpose is, how we'll know
when it's completed."
32. At the same event, again alongside Romney, Ryan
said in reference to Israel, "When President Obama made the 1967 borders
the precondition to the beginning of negotiations, it undercut our ally."
33. Romney added, in reference to Iran, "We
should make it very clear that we're going to put in place crippling
sanctions."
34. In his inaugural weekly audio message, Romney
claimed, the Affordable Care Act "put in place a board of 15 unelected
bureaucrats and gave them the power to make additional cuts to Medicare without
even having to get approval from Congress. This means they could deny elderly
Americans the care they've worked for their entire lives -- all because
President Obama trusts bureaucrats more than he trusts seniors and their
doctors."
Romney's trying to describe the Independent
Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), but he's doing so in a way that's completely dishonest.
35. In the same message, Romney said, "According
to independent, non-partisan scorekeepers, these cuts the president's people
will take to Medicare won't prevent it from going bankrupt."
The lying is just amazing. The independent,
non-partisan scorekeepers said Obama's plan would strengthen Medicare's
finances and extend its financial health, while Romney's plan would move the Medicare
system closer to insolvency.
36. Touting his own agenda, Romney added, "I
released a plan to save and strengthen Medicare -- without making any changes
for those that are 55 years of age and older."
That's demonstrably wrong. Under Romney's policy,
the cost of prescription drug prices and preventive care for seniors would go
up immediately -- for current and future retirees.
37. And again in reference to Medicare, Romney said,
"No president should put in jeopardy your benefits."
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 32-
August 31, 2012
Jon Chait noted
the other day that Mitt Romney "has built his entire campaign on, well,
lies." Jon made the observation in passing, but it struck me as
significant, especially as the Republican National Convention unfolded --
Romney isn't the first national politician to try to deceive the public, but
he's arguably the first to build his entire campaign around the deceptions.
Kevin Drum was thinking along
the same lines responding to Romney's lie on welfare policy, which the
candidate has vowed to continue repeating, even after it's been proven false.
In
the past, you felt that maybe campaigns were at least a little bit embarrassed
about this kind of thing. They'd blame it on someone else. They'd try to
produce some lame defense. They'd haul out some fake white paper to give
themselves cover. They'd do something. The Romney campaign just doesn't seem to
care. If it works, they use it. It's like the campaign is being run by cyborgs.
Thomas Mann, a longtime political scholar at the
center-left Brookings Institution and a respected Beltway voice, added,
"The Romney campaign has, as is strikingly evident at the Tampa
convention, broken new ground in its brazen and cynical disregard for the
truth."
Love Romney or hate him, it's an experiment of
sorts -- we're seeing the first real-world test of a post-truth campaign. Team
Romney lies, without shame, because it's certain the line between fact and fiction
has been blurred out of existence, and if lies will give Romney vast power, the
ends justify the means.
But for those who still like to think reality has
some meaning, I hope they'll take some time to consider the 32nd installment of
my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity. (For the record, this week, I'm
only including falsehoods from Romney himself. Including every lie told at the
convention would have caused a mendacity overdose.)
1. In Romney's acceptance speech last night, he
said, "Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement
about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the choice
of our party but Americans always come together after elections."
Actually, congressional Republicans decided early on
that they would refuse to come together and work
with President Obama, no matter what he offered in terms of policies. This
began before Inauguration Day, when GOP leaders decided
they simply would not cooperate or compromise with Democrats.
2. Romney added that Obama "took office without
the basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to
his task. He had almost no experience working in a business."
First, the president has experience working in
business.
Second, lots of successful presidents didn't come from the private sector (and
lots of lousy presidents were businessmen). And third, it's obvious that Romney
doesn't believe his own rhetoric, because if he did, he wouldn't have picked
Paul Ryan as his running mate -- Ryan has far less private-sector experience
than Obama.
3. Romney went on to say, "[T]he centerpiece of
the President's entire re-election campaign is attacking success."
For one thing, Romney has never been able to point
to a single instance in which Obama has attacked success. For another, we're
having a hell of a lot more success now than we were four years ago.
4. Romney added, "[T]his president cannot tell
us that you are better off today than when he took office."
Of course he can. I'm not sure who Romney is
referring to you with "you," but for Americans, economic growth, job
creation, the stock market, the auto industry, the deficit, and the
manufacturing sector are all better off now than in January 2009.
5. Romney complained, "[G]asoline prices have
doubled."
6. Romney went on to claim, "Today more
Americans wake up in poverty than ever before."
That's insane. The percentage of Americans in
poverty is high, but it's been much higher many times.
7. Referencing Obama, Romney said, "His
policies have not helped create jobs."
It's not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of
fact: Obama has helped create more jobs -- over 4.4 million of them in the private
sector. Independent economists agree that the Recovery Act was crucial to
improving U.S. job creation.
8. Again in reference to the president, Romney
argued, "His plan to raise taxes on small business won't add jobs, it will
eliminate them."
Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on small businesses
-- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his tax plan would
have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
9. Romney added, "His trillion dollar cuts to
our military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and also put our
security at greater risk;"
Romney's not only lying, he's also condemning
defense cuts crafted by his own party and endorsed by his own
running mate.
10. Romney went on to argue, "His $716 billion
cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will both hurt today's seniors, and depress
innovation -- and jobs -- in medicine."
Sigh.
11. Romney said "unlike the president," he
has a jobs plan.
Romney doesn't have to like the American Jobs Act,
but he shouldn't get away with brazenly lying about its existence.
12. Romney added that his jobs plan would
"create 12 million new jobs."
As it turns out, if we do nothing, we're on track to create 12 million new American
jobs over the next four years anyway.
13. Romney argued, "[L]et me make this very
clear -- unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle
class."
That's actually two lies in one. First, Obama
approved one of the largest middle-class tax cuts in American history. (Note to
Romney: cutting taxes and raising taxes are not the same thing.) Second,
there's ample evidence that Romney will raise
taxes on the middle class.
14. Romney said President Obama began his presidency
"with an apology tour."
15. Romney went on to say, "President Obama has
thrown allies like Israel under the bus."
Officials in Israel say the opposite is true.
16. Romney added, "He abandoned our friends in
Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments."
17. Romney asked, "Does the America we want
borrow a trillion dollars from China?"
This continues to be misleading. The implication
here is that U.S. debt is financed by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China
only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
18. In an interview with Fox News, asked about
"putting back" that $716 billion in savings, Romney said,
"Restoring that money to Medicare does not make it less solvent, it makes
it more solvent."
Romney is either profoundly ignorant about the basics of how Medicare
works, or
he's blatantly lying.
19. Romney complained "the president accuses me
of being a felon."
The president never said that. A campaign aide
said it may be a felony that Romney's SEC filings
are inconsistent with Romney's public claims about his Bain work.
20. Romney also whined, "They have a PAC which
says that I'm responsible for someone's death and he won't distance himself
from that."
First, the PAC is a separate entity from the
president's campaign. Second, Obama did distance himself from the
allegation. In fact, he specifically told a briefing room full of
reporters, "I don't think that Governor Romney is somehow responsible for
the death of the woman that was portrayed in that ad. But keep in mind this is
an ad that I didn't approve, I did not produce, and as far as I can tell, has
barely run."
21. Romney went on to say, "I think Planned
Parenthood, given the fact that it's a major provider of abortions, shouldn't
be receiving federal funding."
That's wildly misleading. The law already prevents
Planned Parenthood from using public funds to terminate pregnancies.
22. In his latest weekly audio message, Romney said the president "won't
even try" to create jobs "anymore."
In reality, Obama has pleaded with Congress to
act, and continues to call for action on Capitol Hill. Republicans refuse.
23. At a campaign event in Powell, Ohio, Romney said
Obama made "difficult" economic conditions "worse."
24. Referencing his one term as governor, Romney
boasted, "I was able to get unemployment down to 4.7 percent."
Actually, the unemployment rate in Massachusetts
dropped because so many people dropped out of the state's workforce. In
reality, Massachusetts' job creation record during Romney's term was "one of the worst in the
country,"
ranking 47th out of 50 states.
25. In the same speech, Romney said the U.S. has
"the highest taxes in the world on corporations."
26. Romney also said, "[W]e're at a 30-year low
in this country for new business start-ups."
27. Romney added, "[T]he president's vision ...
takes us down a road to Europe."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through
austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting
sort of way.
28. At a campaign event in Commerce, Michigan, Romney
once again said Obama argued "if you have a business you didn't build it,
someone else did that."
29. At the same event, Romney promised, "I'm
going to work very hard to finally get America to a balanced budget by cutting
the deficit and getting it to zero."
No, actually he's not. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
30. In the same breath, Romney said Paul Ryan's
budget has "shown the courage to actually" balance the budget.
Paul Ryan's budget doesn't balance the budget. It's a fraudulent
document, featuring numbers that don't add up.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 33-
September 7, 2012
First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a
beautiful speech at the Democratic National Convention this week, which was
very well received. There were a few phrases in particular, though, that seemed
to strike a chord.
Referencing her and President Obama's families,
she said, almost in passing, "We learned about honesty and integrity --
that the truth matters, that you don't take shortcuts or play by your own set
of rules, and success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square."
Those three words -- "the truth matters"
-- drew a hearty response. In context, the First Lady wasn't going after anyone
in particular, and she didn't accuse anyone, even indirectly, of dishonesty.
But I suspect people applauded not just because it's worthwhile maxim, but
because this year, it seems clear there are some who believe the truth doesn't
matter.
Consider, for example, the 33rd installment
of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity. This week's list is
considerably shorter than usual because Mitt Romney spent several days out of
the public eye, preparing for next month's debates. It does not include the
media availability he did this morning (I haven't seen the transcript yet).
1. Mitt Romney told Fox News this week, "You
know, no one in the [Democratic] convention so far has had the temerity to say
that people are better off in America, because they realize it's not the
case."
2. In the same interview, Romney said he rejects
"the decision of the president to slash our military by a trillion dollars
over this decade."
3. Romney went on to say "there's no
question" President Obama took "work out of welfare" and
"waived the work requirement in welfare."
I continue to believe this is as blatant a lie as any modern
presidential candidate has told. It simply has no connection to our plane of
reality, but Romney keeps repeating it.
4. Asked about the president's rescue of the
American auto industry, Romney told Fox, "Well, my view from the beginning
was that the auto companies needed to go through a managed bankruptcy. And
ultimately, that's what the president did."
Romney can take credit for Obama's policy, or he
can condemn Obama's policy, but to do both is obviously
dishonest
(and more than a little ridiculous).
5. In his weekly podcast, Romney boasted, "I
have a plan to create 12 million new jobs."
Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't
actually have a specific jobs plan, the fact remains that if we do nothing,
we're on track to create 12 million new
American jobs over the next four years anyway.
6. In the same podcast, Romney vowed he'll be able
to "cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget."
Actually, Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
7. Romney added, "[W]e must rein in the
skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare."
8. Romney went on to say, "[L] me make this
very clear -- unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle
class of America."
That's actually two falsehoods in one. First,
Obama approved one of the largest middle-class tax cuts in American history.
(Note to Romney: cutting taxes and raising taxes are not the same thing.)
Second, there's ample evidence that Romney will
raise taxes on the middle class.
9. Romney once again claimed, "President Obama
began his presidency with an apology tour."
10. Romney added, "President Obama has thrown
allies like Israel under the bus."
11. Romney also said of the president, "He
abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense
commitments."
12. Romney added, "Does the America we want borrow
a trillion dollars from China? No."
This continues to be misleading. The implication
here is that U.S. debt is financed by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China
only holds about 8% of the nation's debt. No
one has borrowed a trillion dollars from China; no one intends to borrow a
trillion dollars from China; no one has recommended borrowing a trillion
dollars from China.
13. In a speech in Cincinnati, Romney said Obama
falsely promised "he was going to create more jobs."
14. In the same speech, Romney said Obama intends to
"raise taxes on our best small businesses."
Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on small businesses
-- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his tax plan would
have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
15. In a speech in Jacksonville, Romney claimed,
"We're at a 30-year low in startups of new businesses."
16. In a speech in Lakeland, Florida, Romney said of
the president, "He doubled the deficit."
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double"
means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was
also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says
the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times,
Romney's lying.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 34- Sep
14, 2012
In an interview aired this morning with George
Stephanopoulos, the host told Mitt Romney that, despite his claims to the
contrary, the Obama administration never showed sympathy for attackers in Egypt
and Libya. How did the candidate explain the discrepancy? He didn't -- Romney
dodged the question and let the lie stand.
Towards the end of the interview, however, Romney looked
ahead to the upcoming debates and said he'll have a challenge to deal with:
"[T]he president tends to, how shall I say it, to say things that aren't
true."
There's no sense of shame and no sense of irony.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll
out today shows a plurality of Americans believes the Obama campaign is saying
things "it believes to be true" rather than "intentionally
misleading people." On the other hand, a plurality of Americans believes
the opposite about the Romney campaign.
If anyone's wondering why the public has this
impression, consider the 34th installment of my weekly series, chronicling
Mitt's mendacity.
1. At a campaign event in Virginia yesterday, Romney
said he "couldn't believe" the president said "if you have a
business you didn't build it, someone else did that."
2. On Wednesday morning, Romney accused Obama
administration officials of issuing an "apology for American values."
3. Romney also said, in response to violence in
Libya and Egypt, that "the Obama administration's first response" to
the violence was to "sympathize with those who waged the attacks."
4. As part of the same statement, Romney also said
that the Cairo Embassy "put out a statement after their grounds had been
breached. Protesters were inside the grounds. They reiterated that statement
after the breach."
5. Pressed by reporters, Romney added, "I'm not
going to take hypotheticals about what would have been known what and so forth.
I, we responded last night to the events that happened in Egypt."
That's an understandable attempt to cover up the
truth, but Romney's statement referred to "attacks on our
diplomatic missions," not just Egypt.
6. In a Spanish-language television ad, Romney
claims "Obama has cut $716 billion dollars from Medicare to pay for
Obamacare."
Sigh.
7. In the same ad, Romney says, apparently to Latino
seniors, "The money we have paid to guarantee our health care will be used
for a new program that's not for us."
The Affordable Care Act includes extensive new benefits
for seniors and to suggest otherwise
is dishonest.
8. The ad goes on to say Romney's plan
"strengthens" Medicare "for future generations."
That's the exact opposite of the truth. Romney's
plan and weakens the system's finances for future generations.
9. In a speech at the National Guard Association
Convention in Reno, Nevada, Romney said, "Like you, I remember where I was
on September 11th. I was originally planning to be in Battery Park in New York
City, not far from the World Trade Center itself. But as it turned out, I was
in Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress about preparations for the
security of the upcoming Olympic Winter Games. A colleague and I were working
in the office we had in the Ronald Reagan Building. It was just a few blocks
from the White House. Someone rushed into our office and said that a plane had
hit the World Trade Center."
10. In the same speech, Romney added, "With less
than two months to go before Election Day, I would normally speak to a
gathering like this about the differences between me and my opponent's plans
for military, and for our national security. There is a time and place for
that. But this day is not that."
If Romney believed that, he wouldn't have accused the Obama administration,
on 9/11, of "sympathizing" with Libyan thugs who killed four
Americans in Libya.
11. In a speech in Mansfield, Ohio, Romney boasted,
"If I'm president of the United States, when and if I become president of
the United States, I will not take God out of my heart, I will not take God out
of the public square, and I will not take it out of the platform of my
party."
This is part of a larger attack suggesting Obama
took the word "God" out of the Democratic Party platform. That's the opposite of what happened -- Obama
put the reference back into his party's platform.
12. In the same speech, Romney added, "It's hard
for me to understand how the president would have as his intention not only
reducing our military through cuts in his budget, but also proceeding with a
sequestration program will which cost about a trillion dollars for our military
over the coming decade."
That's two falsehoods in one. First, the sequester
would cut about $500 billion from the military budget, not $1 trillion. Second,
Romney's not only lying, he's also condemning defense cuts crafted by his own party and endorsed by his own
running mate.
13. In the next breath, Romney claimed, "This
sequestration idea emanated from the White House."
14. Romney went on to say the president "does
not have a [jobs] plan."
Romney doesn't have to like the American Jobs Act,
but he shouldn't get away with brazenly lying about its existence.
15. In the same remarks, Romney said in reference to
the deficit, "[I]f we keep on spending a trillion dollars more every year
than we take in, that's where we're headed [on the road to Greece]."
16. Romney also boasted, "I will get us on track
to a balanced budget."
No, he won't. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
17. Romney went on to argue, "President Obama
wants to raise taxes on small business."
In reality, Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on
small businesses -- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his
tax plan would have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
18. In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, Romney
said of Obama, "He'd create more jobs, we don't have new jobs in
America."
19. Romney added, "We'd see new businesses start
up, as a matter of fact, for the 30-year low in business start-ups."
20. Romney also told Baier that Obama has
"doubled" the deficit.
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double"
means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was
also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says
the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times,
Romney's lying.
21. Romney added, "I'm very specific as to what
I'll do to get the economy going."
22. Romney also said, "[W]hen this president was
elected, he and his team announced to the American people that by now we'd have
5.4 percent unemployment.... He put it out for the American people."
23. Referencing the president's rescue of the
American auto industry, Romney told Baier, "[T]he president took the car
companies into bankruptcy. They went in bankruptcy exactly as I proposed."
Romney can take credit for Obama's policy, or he
can condemn Obama's policy, but to do both is obviously dishonest
(and more than a little ridiculous).
24. At a campaign event in Orange City, Iowa, Romney
vowed, "I know how to get the private sector to create 12 million new
jobs. I know what it's going to take to do that."
Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't
actually have a specific jobs plan, the fact remains that if we do nothing,
we're on track to create 12 million new American
jobs over the next four years anyway.
25. In the same speech, Romney claimed Obama "is
the first since Roosevelt, FDR, not to seek and receive trade promotion
authority, to be able to work out new trade deals with other nations."
Obama finalized three separate trade deals in his
first term: Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. Why Romney keeps repeating this
lie is a mystery.
26. Romney went on to argue, "The Chamber of
Commerce carried out a survey. They asked businesses all over America, 'What's
the impact of a particular piece of legislation?' And the people came back, 75
percent of the people surveyed said, 'That piece of legislation keeps us from
hiring people.' That legislation we have to get rid of is known as 'ObamaCare,'
and I'm going to get rid of it."
The "survey" is a joke. The Chamber, a
pro-Republican lobbying institution heavily invested in helping Romney, put up
an unscientific online survey. Treating this as a legitimate poll of businesses
is fundamentally dishonest.
27. On health care, Romney said, "[W]e have to
make sure that people who have pre-existing conditions are able to get
insured."
28. Romney went on to say that voters are going to
soon ask themselves, "Do I want a president that's going to continue the
policies that he put in place over the last four years, that led to record
levels of unemployment?"
Unemployment peaked at 10% a few years ago. We
haven't seen "record levels of unemployment" in generations, and the
fact that Romney's willing to repeat such obvious falsehoods is disconcerting.
29. Romney added, "The other party will promise
you lots of free stuff. But then ask them, how are they paying for it? And
they'll say, 'Oh, we're borrowing money from China to do that.'"
First, Democrats actually intend to raise taxes on
millionaires to "do that." Second, the implication here is that U.S.
debt is financed by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
30. At a media availability in Sioux City, Iowa,
Romney said, if elected, he'll be "cracking down on China, going after
China for currency manipulation, that's something neither President Bush nor
President Obama has done."
31. On "Meet the Press," Romney told David
Gregory that, in his tax plan, "we don't lower taxes on high income
people. We're not going to have high income people pay less of the tax burden
than they pay today. That's not what's going to happen."
That's extremely misleading. Romney's plan,
according to independent analysis, will sharply reduce taxes for
the wealthy.
32. In the same interview, Romney added, "I'm
not going to increase the tax burden on middle income families."
33. Romney went on to say, "I've demonstrated
that I have the capacity to balance budgets. I balanced them four years in a row
in Massachusetts."
34. Romney added, "I'm not getting rid of all of
health care reform. Of course, there are a number of things that I like in
health care reform that I'm going to put in place."
35. On Medicare, Romney insisted "there's no
change for anyone who's retired or is nearing retirement."
That's demonstrably wrong. Under Romney's policy,
the cost of prescription drug prices and preventive care for seniors would go
up immediately -- for current and future retirees.
36. On foreign policy, Romney argued that the day
before his convention speech, "I went to the American Legion and spoke
with our veterans there and described my policy as it relates to Afghanistan
and other foreign policy and our military."
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 35-
September 21, 2012-11-03
I thought many months ago that it was at least
possible that Mitt Romney would be more cautious about telling falsehoods as
the election drew closer. After all, candidates can get away with more in, say,
April than in September -- there's far more scrutiny now.
Alas, Romney seems unfazed, both by the calendar
and by life under a microscope -- he keeps repeating falsehoods without any
real concern for consequences. In case there were any doubts about his worst
habit, consider the 35th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's
mendacity.
1. At an event in Sarasota yesterday, Romney said, in reference to President Obama's comments about
engaged citizens changing politics, "The president today threw in the
white flag of surrender again."
2. At a Univision town-hall event in Miami, Romney
said he opposes an economic model in which we "take from some to give to
others."
Actually, Romney's preferred budget plan redistributes wealth at a level unseen in
modern American history.
3. Romney also said, several times, "[T]his is
a campaign about the 100 percent.... My campaign is about the 100 percent of
America."
I seem to recall watching a video in which Romney said it's
not his "job" to "worry about" 47 percent of the
population.
4. At the same event, Romney boasted, "When I
was governor of my state, the state of Massachusetts ... we brought
unemployment down to 4.7 percent."
Well, in reality, the unemployment rate in
Massachusetts dropped because so many people dropped out of the state's
workforce. The fact of the matter is Massachusetts' job creation record during
Romney's term was "one of the worst in the
country,"
ranking 47th out of 50 states.
5. In response to a student's question about federal
aid, Romney said, "We're going to continue a Pell Grant program.... So I
care. I care about your education and helping people of modest means get a good
education and we'll continue a Pell Grant program."
6. On health care, Romney said at the same forum,
"The government is going to ultimately have a board that tells you what
kind of care you can receive."
This is in apparent reference to the Independent
Payments Advisory Board (IPAB), and what Romney's saying isn't even close to being
accurate.
7. In a Fox News interview, Romney said, "I
have got great support from seniors, because they are unhappy with the fact
that President Obama's Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion."
Sigh.
8. In the same interview, Romney insisted that the
Affordable Care Act "tells us what kind of health insurance we have to
have."
As Romney surely knows -- his state-based policy
works the same way -- the whole point of the Affordable Care Act is to provide
consumers with choices of private plans, made available through regulated
exchanges. Giving people choices and telling people "what kind of health
insurance we have to have" are opposites.
9. Asked about his affiliation with Kris Koback,
Romney said this week, "He may well be part of a policy team [but] I have
not met with him yet."
10. Speaking to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber Of Commerce
this week, Romney said, "The administration promised us that its policies
would have brought unemployment down to 5.4% by now."
11. Romney added, "[M]y Plan for a Stronger
Middle Class will create 12 million jobs by the end of my first term."
Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't
actually have a specific jobs plan, the fact remains that if we do nothing,
we're on track to create 12 million new American
jobs over the next four years anyway.
12. In the same speech, Romney said, "President
Obama has not initiated a single new trade agreement with Latin America. I
will."
He's trying to slice the truth in a way that
misleads. In reality, Obama finalized three separate trade deals in his first
term: Panama, Colombia, and South Korea.
13. In reference to China, Romney argued,
"President Obama may think that announcing new trade cases less than two
months from Election Day will distract from his record, but the American
businesses and workers struggling on an uneven playing field know better."
This just isn't true. Obama just didn't bring a
new case at the WTO against China "less than two months from Election
Day," he's been bringing these cases throughout
his term.
14. Romney also said, "Many Hispanics have
sacrificed greatly to help build our country and our economy, and to leave for
their children a brighter future. Today, those sacrifices are being put at risk
by a president who cannot stop spending."
15. Romney went on to boast, "I know how to
balance budgets. We balanced our budget in my business, at the Olympics, and
every year in my state."
He balanced his budget at the Olympics thanks to a
taxpayer bailout, and in Massachusetts, Romney left his successor with a deficit.
16. On federal spending, Romney said, "[M]y test
is this: is the program so critical that it is worth borrowing money from China
to pay for it?"
The implication here is that U.S. debt is financed
by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
17. Romney added, "The president has put us on
the road to Greece."
18. Romney also argued, "No wonder business
start-ups are at a 30-year low."
19. Romney went on to say Obama "plans to raise
the federal income tax on small business even more."
In reality, Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on
small businesses -- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his
tax plan would have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
20. Referencing the Affordable Care Act, Romney said,
"The Chamber of Commerce surveyed 1,300 of its members. It found that
three-quarters of them said they are less likely to hire people because of
Obamacare."
The "survey" is a joke. The Chamber, a
pro-Republican lobbying institution heavily invested in helping Romney, put up
an unscientific online survey. Treating this as a legitimate poll of businesses
is fundamentally dishonest.
21. Romeny added, "Obamacare ... is already
depressing job creation."
There's literally no evidence to support this, but
let's also note that Romney created a nearly identical policy at the state
level, and it didn't depress job creation at all.
22. On immigration policy, Romney said, "Despite
his party having majorities in both houses of Congress, the president never
even offered up a bill."
First, the president has endorsed all kinds of
immigration bills. Second, having majorities in both chambers doesn't change
the fact that Senate Republican filibusters blocked immigration policy-making.
23. In his weekly podcast, Romney said,
"President Obama has imposed major new federal regulations at an
unprecedented rate."
Well, it depends on what Romney means by
"unprecedented." He may be surprised to learn that Obama approved
fewer regulations in his first three years in office than Bush did in his first three years.
24. At a campaign event in Painesville, Ohio, Romney
suggested it's Obama's fault that the price of "gasoline has
doubled."
25. In the same speech, "I've got a [jobs] plan,
all right. Unlike the president, I have a plan."
Romney doesn't have to like the American Jobs Act, but he shouldn't get
away with brazenly lying about its existence.
26. Romney also argued, "The president believes
in having a government put money out into companies. He put $90 billion into
solar and wind, and green-energy companies. He's picking winners and losers....
He doesn't understand that the market where free people pursuing dreams and
working to take their ideas to the marketplace, that's what makes America go;
not a government that tries to pick investments, and guide the market for
us."
What an interesting choice of misleading words.
Because whether he likes it or not, if Obama "doesn't understand"
free people in a free market, then Romney "doesn't
understand" this, either.
27. Mitt Romney says "redistribution" has
"never been a characteristic of America."
28. In an ad unveiled by his campaign this week,
Romney argues, "Dear Daughter. Welcome to America. Your share of Obama's
debt is over $50,000."
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 36-Sept
28, 2012
When Mitt Romney talked to "60 Minutes"
last week, he said President Obama has "repeatedly shown a reckless
disregard for the truth." If there's ever been a more blatant example of
political "projection,"
I can't think of it.
And yet, Romney is increasingly invested in this.
This week, several reports noted that Romney intends to use next week's debate
to "fact check"
the president. The Obama campaign, unimpressed, released a video this morning
on the subject.
Of course, if the 2012 presidential race comes
down to which candidate is more dishonest, Romney's in trouble. Consider, for
example, the 36th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's
mendacity.
1. Romney argued just yesterday that the crisis of
military suicides would be made worse by looming cuts to the
defense budget.
2. In same speech, Romney said, "You realize we
have fewer ships in the Navy than any time since 1917."
3. Romney went on to say, in reference to the
president, "[H]is plan also calls for trillion dollar deficits."
4. Romney added, "It is the same series of
policies he's put in place over the last four years and they have not worked.
And if you don't, why, look at the price of gasoline."
5. Romney also said in reference to Obama,
"He's put us on a road to Europe."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through
austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting
sort of way.
6. In a speech at Westerville, Ohio, Romney boasted,
"We got unemployment down [in Massachusetts] to 4.7 percent."
Well, in reality, the unemployment rate in
Massachusetts dropped because so many people dropped out of the state's
workforce. The fact of the matter is Massachusetts' job creation record during
Romney's term was "one of the worst in the
country,"
ranking 47th out of 50 states.
7. In the same speech, Romney argued, "Now we
have a president who the other day says something quite revealing. He said he
can't change Washington from the inside. Only from the outside."
8. Romney added, "Obamacare is point number
one. It's the example number one, where he wants to put bureaucrats between you
and your doctor."
There's nothing in the Affordable Care Act that
does this. Maybe Romney is thinking of his pal, Virginia Gov. Bob
"Ultrasound" McDonnell?
9. Romney also said, "He believes that
government should have a board of people that tell you what kind of care you
could receive."
Romney's trying to describe the Independent
Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), but he's doing so in a way that's completely dishonest.
10. In a minute-long ad, Romney said, "My plan
will create 12 million new jobs over the next four years."
Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't
actually have a specific jobs plan, the fact remains that if we do nothing,
we're on track to create 12 million new American jobs over
the next four years anyway.
11. Romney told ABC News this week,
"[M]ine is a campaign about 100% of the people, not 99 and 1, not any
other percent."
I seem to recall watching a video in which Romney said it's
not his "job" to "worry about" 47 percent of the population.
12. In an interview with CNN, Romney said,
"[C]rippling sanctions [on Iran] ... These are the types of things that
the president could have done, should have done from the very beginning, which
he did not."
13. Asked about his own dishonest ads, Romney said,
"We've been absolutely spot-on. And any time there's anything that's been
a miss we correct it or remove it."
14. Romney also argued, "Look, it has been shown
time and again that the president's effort to take work requirement out of
welfare is a calculated move."
15. Romney added, "The requirement that they're
waiving was saying that people don't have to work to get welfare. That's the
change that they proposed."
16. Romney said in an ABC interview, "And of
course also on 60 Minutes he laid out his economic agenda saying things are
going just fine."
17. At a campaign event in Ohio, Romney said on
Obama, "He's going to bring the deficit down. Of course, he didn't. He
doubled it."
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double"
means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was
also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says
the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times,
Romney's lying.
18. In the same speech, Romney added, "[D]o you
know how much money he's spent in one year putting money into companies that he
thought had a bright future, green companies? He spent $90 billion! $90
billion!"
The details matter: much of the $90 billion was
appropriated by George W. Bush, not Obama.
19. Romney also argued, "This president persists on the road of making it harder and harder for small businesses to grow and thrive."
19. Romney also argued, "This president persists on the road of making it harder and harder for small businesses to grow and thrive."
20. Romney went on to say, "This president has a
plan for small business. He's got a plan for small business. He's going to
raise their taxes!"
In reality, Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on
small businesses -- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his
tax plan would have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
21. On a conference call with a group of Iowans,
Romney argued, "Small business is
getting crushed under the president's program ... by forcing people to join
unions that don't want to. That's something known as card check."
Card check didn't pass. It wouldn't crush small
businesses anyway, but a law can't have any effect if it doesn't exist.
22. In an interview with CBS, Romney defended himself
against the flip-flop label. "The president has certainly changed his view
on a whole host of things. He was going to close Guantanamo."
Obama's views on Guantanamo didn't change;
Congress intervened to keep the detention facility open.
23. Romney added, in reference to voters looking for
details, "Well, I can tell them specifically what my policy looks like. I
will not raise taxes on middle income folks."
24. Asked about what spending he'd cut to balance the
budget, Romney said, "The first big one is I'm not going to go forward
with Obamacare. I will repeal Obamacare. It costs about $100 billion a
year."
That's the exact opposite of the
truth.
The Affordable Care Act saves the country hundreds of billions of dollars. If
Romney repeals it, the deficit goes up, not down.
25. Romney added, "I don't want any change to
Medicare for current seniors or for those that are nearing retirement. So the
plan stays exactly the same"
That's demonstrably wrong. Under Romney's policy,
the cost of prescription drug prices and preventive care for seniors would go
up immediately -- for current and future retirees.
26. Romney also said, "The president's cutting
$716 billion from current Medicare. I disagree with that."
Sigh.
27. Romney argued, "I'm going to look at every
federal program and I'll ask this question, 'Is this program so critical it's
worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?'"
The implication here is that U.S. debt is financed
by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
28. Romney went on to say in reference to the
president, "His challenge with blaming it on the Republican Congress is of
course that for his first two years, right now the majority of his term, he had
a Democrat Congress, a super majority in the Democrat Congress."
29. In his weekly podcast, Romney said, "As many
of the original proponents of welfare reform have made clear, the Obama
Administration's actions were not in keeping with the spirit or the letter of
the law."
30. He added, "My five-point plan will deliver
the economic recovery we've all been waiting for."
31. At an event in Las Vegas, Romney said of Obama,
"This redistribution idea, this redistribution idea has been tried in
other places. This is not a new idea. It's just never worked in other places.
And it's certainly not going to work here."
32. In the same speech, Romney argued, "I don't
want to have a government getting bigger and bigger, more intrusive, telling us
what kind of health insurance we have to have."
As Romney surely knows -- his state-based policy
works the same way -- the whole point of the Affordable Care Act is to provide
consumers with choices of private plans, made available through regulated
exchanges. Giving people choices and telling people "what kind of health
insurance we have to have" are opposites.
33. At an event in Florida, Romney said, "We
can't keep spending a trillion dollars more than we take in every year or we
will be Greece at some point."
34. In the same speech, Romney promised, "I'll
get America on track to have a balanced budget."
No, he won't. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
35. Romney added, "I think a lot of us were really
surprised when the President in Roanoke, Virginia a few weeks ago, he stood up
and said, 'If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Someone else did
that.'"
36. Romney went on to say, "I will never
apologize for American abroad."
37. Romney also argued, "One more thing this
president has proposed, and that is the combination of the sequential idea come
from the White House which is cutting our military by hundreds of billions of
dollars in its own budget, which cutting our military by hundreds of billions
of dollars, he would have cut a trillion dollars by this decade."
That's two falsehoods in one. First, the sequester
would cut about $500 billion from the military budget, not $1 trillion. Second,
Romney's not only lying, he's also condemning defense cuts crafted by his own party and endorsed by his own
running mate.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume
37-October 5, 2012
Joe Conason watched the presidential candidates'
debate this week, and had a
reaction I could relate to.
"'It's not easy to debate a liar,' complained
an email from one observer of the first presidential debate -- and there was no
question about which candidate he meant. Prevarication, falsification,
fabrication are all familiar tactics that have been employed by Mitt Romney
without much consequence to him ever since he entered public life,"
Conason wrote.
Concerns along these lines were not
uncommon yesterday. In fact, note David Gergen's take from Wednesday
night:
"I think [President Obama] was so surprised,
he thought Romney was just flat-out lying," Gergen said. And if the
president was thinking that, he had good reason to.
Consider, for example, the 38th installment of my
weekly series -- easily the longest of 2012 -- chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. In reference to the unemployment rate, Romney
said, "The reason it's come down this year is primarily due to the fact
that more and more people have just stopped looking for work."
2. On Fox News last night, Romney said in reference
to the president, "[W]hat I find so offensive about his tax plan is by
raising taxes on small business, as he does, he will kill jobs."
In reality, Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on
small businesses -- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his
tax plan would have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
3. Speaking yesterday at the Colorado Conservative
Political Action Committee Conference, Romney said, "this sequestration
idea ... came out of the White House."
4. In the same speech, Romney said Obama
"spending more and more, borrowing more and more, putting us on a road to
Greece."
5. In Wednesday night's debate, Romney said, "I
don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. I don't have a tax cut of a scale that you're
talking about."
6. Romney said, "I'm not going to reduce the
share of taxes paid by high-income people. High-income people are doing just
fine in this economy."
That's not true. The wealthy would receive a
massive, disproportionate tax break under the Romney plan.
7. Romney said, "[G]asoline prices have doubled
under the president."
8. Romney said, "I'm not going to cut education
funding. I don't have any plan to cut education funding and grants that go to
people going to college."
9. Romney argued, "Energy is critical, and the
president pointed out correctly that production of oil and gas in the U.S. is
up. But not due to his policies. In spite of his policies. Mr. President, all
of the increase in natural gas and oil has happened on private land, not on
government land."
10. On taxes, Romney said, "I do want to reduce
the burden being paid by middle-income Americans. And to do that that also
means that I cannot reduce the burden paid by high-income Americans."
11. On taxes, Romney argued, "I will not reduce
the share paid by high-income individuals. I -- I know that you and your
running mate keep saying that, and I know it's a popular things to say with a
lot of people, but it's just not the case."
12. Romney said, "I will not reduce the taxes
paid by high-income Americans."
13. Romney said, "I will not, under any
circumstances, raise taxes on middle-income families." He cited "six
studies" to back him up on this.
There's ample evidence that Romney will have no
choice but to raise taxes on middle-income families and the six studies don't back him up.
14. Romney said, "I saw a study that came out
today that said you're going to raise taxes by 3 to $4,000 on middle-income
families."
15. Romney said on tax rates, "Mr. President,
you're absolutely right, which is that with regards to 97 percent of the
businesses are not taxed at the 35 percent tax rate, they're taxed at a lower
rate. But those businesses that are in the last 3 percent of businesses happen
to employ half -- half -- of all of the people who work in small
business."
16. Romney said, "[Y]our plan is to take the tax
rate on successful small businesses from 35 percent to 40 percent. The National
Federation of Independent Businesses has said that will cost 700,000
jobs."
17. Romney said, "What things would I cut from
spending? Well, first of all, I will eliminate all programs by this test -- if
they don't pass it: Is the program so critical it's worth borrowing money from
China to pay for it? And if not, I'll get rid of it."
The implication here is that U.S. debt is financed
by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
18. In reference to how he'd balance the budget,
Romney said he'll "get rid of" the Affordable Care Act.
This is incoherent and absurd.
"Obamacare" cuts the deficit to the tune of about $109
billion over the next decade. It's simply incoherent to say you'll cut the
deficit by eliminating a law, which would in turn increase the deficit. That's
like promising to put out a fire by using more kerosene.
19. Romney said, "The president said he'd cut
the deficit in half. Unfortunately, he doubled it."
Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double"
means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was
also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says
the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times,
Romney's lying.
20. Romney argued, "The president's put in place
as much public debt, almost as much debt held by the public as all prior
presidents combined."
21. On subsidies, Romney said to the president,
"[Y]ou say Exxon and Mobil -- actually, this $2.8 billion goes largely to
small companies, to drilling operators and so forth."
22. Romney said to Obama, "[Y[ou put $90
billion -- like 50 years' worth of breaks -- into solar and wind."
23. Romney argued to the president, "[Y]ou said
you get a deduction for getting a plant overseas. Look, I've been in business
for 25 years. I have no idea what you're talking about."
Romney's admitted cluelessness notwithstanding,
he's simply wrong to argue the tax deduction doesn't exist. It's real.
24. On entitlements, Romney argued, "[N]either
the president nor I are proposing any changes for any current retirees or near
retirees, either to Social Security or Medicare. So if you're 60 or around 60
or older, you don't need to listen any further."
That's demonstrably wrong. Under Romney's policy,
the cost of prescription drug prices and preventive care for seniors would go
up immediately -- for current and future retirees. For that matter, since
Romney's plan hastens Medicare's
insolvency
-- soon -- seniors should listen closely.
25. Defending his Medicare plan, Romney said the idea
originated in part with Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), "who's a
co-author of the bill."
26. In reference to Dodd-Frank, Romney said,
"[I]t designates a number of banks as too big to fail, and they're
effectively guaranteed by the federal government. This is the biggest kiss
that's been given to New York banks I've ever seen. This is an enormous boon for
them.... I wouldn't designate five banks as too big to fail and give them a
blank check."
27. In reference to Wall Street reform, Romney said,
"It wasn't thought through properly.... [I]t's killing regional and small
banks.
28. In reference to the Affordable Care Act, Romney
said, "It cuts $716 billion from Medicare to pay for it. I want to put
that money back in Medicare for our seniors."
As I suspect Romney knows -- he'd already endorsed
these same cuts earlier in the year -- he's just not telling the truth.
29. In the next breath, Romney says of the health
care law, "[I]t puts in place an unelected board that's going to tell
people, ultimately, what kind of treatments they can have."
30. Romney vowed to "sit down with Democratic
leaders as well as Republican leaders -- as we did in my state."
That's wildly misleading. In his one term, Romney
issued more than 800 vetoes, over 700 of which were overridden, and
demonstrated a "relative disinterest in
bipartisan collaboration."
31. According to Romney, congressional Republicans
unveiled a "bipartisan" health care reform plan in 2010. "It was
swept aside."
There was no "bipartisan plan" from GOP
lawmakers. Romney just made this up.
32. Asked what he would replace the Affordable Care
Act with, Romney's exact words were, "Let, well, actually, actually it's ,
it's, it's a lengthy description."
33. Romney said, "Pre-existing conditions are
covered under my plan."
34. Romney, offering "proof" that the
president's agenda is "not working," said, "23 million people
are out of work."
That's not true. As of the time of the debate,
there were 12.5 million Americans unemployed.
35. In reference to public support for green-energy
companies, Romney argued, "These businesses, many of them have gone out of
business. I think about half of them, of the ones have been invested in,
they've gone out of business."
36. In a TV campaign ad released this week, Romney
said "Obama and the liberals already have ... raised taxes on the middle
class."
That's obviously untrue; Obama has repeatedly cut
taxes on the middle class. In fact, Romney admitted as much just last week.
37. In the same ad, Romney accused Obama of creating
"government-run health care."
As Romney knows -- his own state health care law
served as the blueprint for the president's plan -- the Affordable Care Act
relies on private insurers, and is not "government-run health care."
38. The same ad claims consumers will be forced to
"pay more for your medicine."
Actually, the only change in the cost of
medication came for seniors -- and "Obamacare" closes the donut hole
to make sure they pay less, not more.
39. The commercial goes on to say the Affordable Care
Act "includes a trillion dollars in higher taxes -- even on the middle
class."
This is apparently in reference to the individual
mandate. And if the claim is true, then Romney's Massachusetts law also includes higher taxes -- even on the middle
class.
40. In his weekly podcast, Romney said Obama's vision
of international affairs is premised on seeing the United States "as
merely one among many nations rather than as an exceptional nation."
Obama is the only president in American history to
publicly and explicitly
endorse
the principle of American exceptionalism.
41. Romney also argued "our moral standing has
declined" around the globe.
42. Romney went on to say Obama no longer supports
"standing with Israel."
43. Romney also said the president "refuses to
meet with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu."
44. He went on to say, hoping to draw a contrast with
the president, "I will never apologize for America."
45. At a campaign event in Wayne, Pennsylvania,
Romney said the president is "planning on cutting our military by about a
trillion dollars over the next decade."
No, he's not. Obama is planning to cut defense
spending, on the recommendation of the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs, by about
$500 billion over the next decade. There are other cuts looming, but they were crafted by Romney's party and endorsed by his own
running mate.
46. At the same event, Romney argued, "[T]he
president adds about a trillion dollars a year to the national debt."
It's true that in recent years, about a trillion
dollars a year to the national debt, but it's not the president who's
doing it.
47. Romney went on to say, "Do you realize that
our Navy is smaller in terms of the number of ships than any time since
1917?"
48. Romney also vowed, "I will not raise taxes
on middle-income Americans."
49. Romney went on to promise, "I've got a plan.
I've got a plan to help free people pursue their dreams and get this economy
going. And the good news is this: It'll create 12 million jobs."
Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't
actually have a specific jobs plan, the fact remains that if we do nothing,
we're on track to create 12 million new American jobs over
the next four years anyway.
50. Romney added, "I want to take that big cloud
off of the small business world that's hanging over them. Three-quarters of
them say they don't want to hire more people because of this cloud and that
cloud is Obamacare."
Romney's referring to a "survey"
conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce if its members. The claim, however,
is a misleading joke -- the Chamber, a pro-Republican lobbying institution
heavily invested in helping Romney, put up an unscientific online survey.
Treating this as a legitimate poll of businesses is fundamentally dishonest.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 38-
October 12, 2012
The broader concerns about Mitt Romney's comfort
with dishonesty reached a milestone this week -- it
got The Onion treatment. (Remember, this is satire. The quotes in
this excerpt are not actual quotes.)
For
weeks many Beltway insiders had written off the Romney campaign as dead, saying
the candidate had dug himself into too deep a hole with too little time to
recover. However, with a month to go before ballots are cast, Romney has pulled
even with President Obama, and the former Massachusetts governor credits his
rejuvenated campaign to one, singular tactic: lying a lot.
"I'm
lying a lot more, and my lies are far more egregious than they've ever
been," a smiling Romney told reporters while sitting in the back of his
campaign bus, adding that when faced with a choice to either lie or tell the
truth, he will more than likely lie. "It's a strategy that works because
when I lie, I'm essentially telling people what they want to hear, and people
really like hearing things they want to hear. Even if they sort of know that
nothing I'm saying is true."
"It's
a freeing strategy, really, because I don't have to worry about facts or being
accurate or having any concrete positions of any kind," Romney added.
The satirical report added that Romney has vowed
to continue to "just openly lie [his] ass off" until Election Day. It
also "quoted" the Republican's campaign manager saying, "It's
late in the game, but this campaign has finally found its groove. And that
groove is lying. Bald-faced, make-no-apologies, dirty, filthy lying."
Behind all great satire, of course, is a degree of
truth -- or in this case, more than a degree. Consider, for example, the 38th
installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity. (This is the
second longest list of the year -- and the quotes below are entirely real,
not satire.)
1. At a town-hall forum in Mount Vernon, Ohio,
Romney said of President Obama, "He said he was going to cut the deficit
in half; he's doubled it."
Romney is still having trouble with the definition
of "double." The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last
year, it was also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion.
When he says the president "doubled" the deficit, as he has many
times, Romney's lying.
2. At the same event, condemning the Affordable Care
Act, Romney said, "We'll let people choose the plans they want, as opposed
to the plan that the president thinks he and the bureaucrats in Washington,
D.C., are going to impose on the American people."
As Romney surely knows -- his state-based policy
works the same way -- the whole point of the Affordable Care Act is to provide
consumers with choices of private plans, made available through regulated
exchanges. Giving people choices in place and "imposing" a plan are
opposites.
3. Romney added, "[W]hen I went to the Olympics
and helped guide the Olympics, I learned as well you got to balance the budget
here or we'll be in real trouble."
In context, Romney made it sound as if he balanced
the Olympics' books through skill. In reality, he balanced his budget at the
Olympics thanks to a taxpayer bailout.
4. In an interview with the editorial board of the Des
Moines Register, Romney argued, "I know the Obama
people are excited about trying to find a way to say, 'Oh, you're going to
raise taxes on middle-income people,' and I keep pointing out, 'No, no.'"
5. In the same interview, Romney said that under his proposed plan,
"[W]e get to a balanced budget in eight, 10 years."
No we don't. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent
budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add
trillions to the national debt.
6. Romney added that no abortion legislation is part
of his agenda: "There's no legislation with regards to abortion that I'm
familiar with that would become part of my agenda."
7. In reference to the president, Romney said,
"He wants to hire more school teachers. We all like school teachers. It's
a wonderful thing. Typically, school teachers are hired by states and
localities, not by the federal government. But hiring school teachers is not
going to raise the growth of the U.S. economy over the next three-to-four
years."
Romney himself doesn't seem to believe this is
true, since he said largely the opposite just last week.
8. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Romney said, "I want high income
people to continue to pay the same share they do today."
9. In the same interview, citing a document from the
National Federation of Independent Businesses, Romney said, "The
president's plan, on the other hand, cuts 700,000 jobs."
10. Hoping to lower expectations for last night's
debate, Romney said, "I don't know how Paul will deal with his debate.
Obviously, the vice president has done, I don't know, 15 or 20 debates during
his lifetime, experienced debater. This is, I think Paul's first debate. I may
be wrong. He may have done something in high school, I don't know."
Ryan has been in Congress for 14 years, and has
participated in eight election debates before this week.
11. Romney also told Blitzer, "[M]y campaign is
about 100 percent of the American people."
I seem to recall watching a video in which Romney said it's
not his "job" to "worry about" 47 percent of the
population.
12. At his latest "major" foreign policy
speech, delivered in Virginia, Romney said of the Middle East, "As the
dust settles, as the murdered are buried, Americans are asking how this
happened? How the threats we face have grown worse?"
The threats we face haven't grown worse. In fact, the number of
attacks on U.S. embassies is near an all-time low.
13. In the same speech, Romney said, "The
president has not signed one new free trade agreement in the past four
years."
14. Romney added, "The greater tragedy of it all
is that we're missing an historic opportunity to win new friends who share our
values in the Middle East."
Did Romney miss the protests against the militants
in Benghazi, featuring Libyans who consider the United States their
"new friends" after Obama helped topple the Gadhafi regime?
15. Romney went on to say, "The president
explicitly stated that his goal was to put daylight between the United States
and Israel."
16. On Iraq, Romney said, "The president ...
failed to secure a responsible and gradual drawdown that would have better
secured our gains."
17. On Iran, Romney declared, "I will put the
leaders of Iran on notice that the United States and our friends and allies
will prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons capability. I will not
hesitate to impose new sanctions on Iran and will tighten the sanctions we
currently have. I will restore the permanent presence of aircraft carrier task
forces in both the Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf region -- and work with
Israel to increase our military assistance and coordination."
Obama is already doing all of this. For Romney to suggest
his approach would represent a new course is absurdly untrue.
18. On a related note, Romney said, "[W]hen
millions of Iranians took to the streets in June 2009, when they demanded
freedom from a cruel regime that threatens the world, when they cried out, 'are
you with us or are you with them,' the American president was silent."
19. Romney complained, "The size of our Navy is
at levels not seen since 1916."
20. Romney added, "I'll roll back President
Obama's deep and arbitrary cuts to our national defense that would devastate
our military."
Romney appears to be referring to cuts, which have
not yet kicked in, and which were crafted by Romney's own
party and
endorsed by his own running mate.
21. Romney also denounced Obama's "politically
timed retreat that abandons the Afghan people to the same extremists who ravaged
their country."
And in the same paragraph, Romney endorsed Obama's 2014 withdrawal
timetable, offering a rare instance in which the GOP candidate debunked his own
falsehood within seconds of saying it out loud.
22. At a campaign event in Van Meter, Iowa, Romney
said, "I want to take that tax rate down. I want to take it from 35
percent to 28 percent and help American farmers and small business."
Fewer than 3 percent of American farmers and small
businesses pay the top marginal income tax rate, leaving a whole lot of farmers
and small businesses without "help."
23. At the same event, Romney argued, "Now there
are differences on regulations, by the way. And you know this. The regulatory
burden under this administration has just gone, has just gone crazy."
He may be surprised to learn that Obama approved fewer regulations in his first three years
in office than Bush did in his first three years.
24. Romney went on to argue that Obama administration
officials "of course, want to regulate dust."
25. Romney added, "Let me just also note that,
you know, people have been waiting a long time for a farm bill. And the
president has to exert the kind of presidential leadership it takes to get the
House and the Senate together and actually pass a farm bill."
26. Romney went to say, "There are big
differences between the president and me. He has no plan for rural America, no
plan for agriculture."
Romney doesn't have to agree with Obama's plan for rural America, but he shouldn't lie
about its existence.
27. In the next breath, Romney added, "[Obama
has] no plan for getting people back to work."
28. At a campaign event in Apopka, Florida, Romney
said about the president, "[W]hen he took office, instead of focusing on
jobs, he instead focused on Obamacare."
When Obama took office, the very first thing he focused on was jobs, approving an economic
plan that ended the recession.
29. At the same event, Romney said, "[T]hey
calculate, because of all that interest expense, and all the spending he's
doing, that he's going to also raise taxes on middle-income families by an
average of $4,000 per family."
30. Romney added, "[A]s you know, the president
has made it clear that he's going to go ahead with $716 billion in cuts to
Medicare."
As I suspect Romney knows -- he'd already endorsed
these same cuts earlier in the year -- he's just not telling the truth.
31. Romney also said, "Gasoline prices are up
twice what they used to be."
32. Romney went on to argue, "You see, if the
number of people, if the percentage of the American population that were in the
workforce were the same today as the day he was elected, our unemployment rate
would be above 11 percent."
33. Romney also said, "And let me tell you, if
this president keeps spending a trillion dollars or more than we take in, than
we take in every year, you're going to see us on the road to Greece."
34. Romney also argued, "Obamacare ... kills
jobs and small business."
There is literally no evidence to
support this claim
in any way. Indeed, a big chunk of the Affordable Care Act goes to give small
businesses a tax break.
35. In a tweet, Romney said, "The middle class
can't afford four more years of [President Obama's] tax hikes."
36. In his weekly podcast, Romney boasted, "My
'Plan for a Stronger Middle Class' will lead to rising incomes for everyone and
create 12 million new jobs in my first term alone."
Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't
actually have a specific jobs plan, the fact remains that if we do nothing,
we're on track to create 12 million new American jobs over
the next four years anyway.
37. At a campaign event in Abingdon, Virginia, Romney
said, "The road this president's put us on looks like Europe. Europe isn't
working in Europe. It'll never work here."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through
austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting
sort of way.
38. In a campaign ad this week, Romney argues,
"Since President Obama took office, there are over 450,000 more unemployed
women."
39. And finally, with an important falsehood I missed
last week, Romney argued, "Right now, the (Congressional Budget Office)
says up to 20 million people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into
effect next year."
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 39-
October 19, 2012
President Obama and his campaign team have been
increasingly assertive of late in accusing Mitt Romney of dishonesty, but the
president is still cautious in how he makes the charge.
In this week's debate, for example, Obama was
willing to go so far as to say, "Not true, governor," when the
president heard something obviously false. The problem, of course, is that the
Republican challenger strayed from the truth with unfortunate frequency --
leading Obama to repeat the words "not true" a half-dozen times.
I suspect the president was probably annoyed, both
with Romney's dishonesty and with the challenge of coming up with alternative
ways to let the audience know the Republican was repeating falsehoods. I know
the feeling -- this is, after all, the 39th installment of my weekly series,
chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. At a speech in Chesapeake, Virginia, Romney
boasted, "If I become president ... we finally get America on track to a
balanced budget."
No we don't. Romney's plan slashes tax rates
(which makes the deficit worse, not better), increases defense and entitlement
spending (which makes the deficit worse, not better), and every independent
analysis reaches the same conclusion: Romney's numbers don't add up.
2. In the same speech, Romney said Obama only filed
"one" action "against China."
3. In this week's town-hall debate, Romney claimed,
"I want to make sure we keep our Pell Grant program growing. We're also going
to have our loan program so that people are able to afford school."
We know this isn't true, because he vowed to do the exact opposite in March. What's more,
Romney also endorsed Paul Ryan's budget plan, which cuts Pell Grants.
4. Romney also argued, "We have fewer people
working today than we had when the president took office."
No matter when we start the clock, there's a net jobs increase under Obama, both overall
and in the private sector.
5. Romney added, "If the unemployment rate was
7.8 percent when he took office. It's 7.8 percent now. But if you calculated
that unemployment rate taking back the people who dropped out of the workforce,
it would be 10.7 percent."
6. Romney also said, "I put out a five-point
plan that gets America 12 million new jobs in four years and rising take-home
pay."
7. On the rescue of the auto industry, Romney said
in reference to the president, "[H]e keeps saying, 'You wanted to take
Detroit bankrupt.' Well, the president took Detroit bankrupt. You took General
Motors bankrupt. You took Chrysler bankrupt. So when you say that I wanted to
take the auto industry bankrupt, you actually did.... That was precisely what I
recommend and ultimately what happened."
Romney can take credit for Obama's policy, or he
can condemn Obama's policy, but to do both is obviously dishonest
(and more than a little ridiculous).
8. Romney argued, "As a matter of fact, oil
production is down 14 percent this year on federal land, and gas production is
down 9 percent."
9. Romney added, "Coal production is not
up."
10. Romney added, "Coal jobs are not up."
11. Romney also told the president, "In the last
four years, you cut permits and licenses on federal land and federal waters in
half."
12. Romney went on to say, "[T]he proof of
whether a strategy is working or not is what the price is that you're paying at
the pump. If you're paying less than you paid a year or two ago, why, then the
strategy is working. But you're paying more."
13. Romney also argued, "I don't have a policy
of, of stopping wind jobs in Iowa."
14. On taxes, Romney said, "The top 5 percent of
taxpayers will continue to pay 60 percent of the income tax the nation
collects. So that'll stay the same."
15. Romney added, "Middle-income people are
going to get a tax break."
16. Romney also argued, "A recent study has
shown that people in the middle class will see $4,000 a year higher taxes as a
result of the spending and borrowing of this administration."
17. Romney said, "We can get this economy going
again. My five-point plan does it."
18. Asked about the hard-to-believe numbers in his
economic plan, Romney insisted, "Well, of course they add up."
19. In reference to the budget deficit, Romney said
of Obama, "he's doubled it."
Romney is still having trouble with the definition
of "double." The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last
year, it was also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's $1.08 trillion. When he says
the president "doubled" the deficit, as he has many times, Romney's
lying.
20. Romney boasted, "I ran the Olympics and
balanced the budget."
In context, Romney made it sound as if he balanced
the Olympics' books through skill. In reality, he balanced his budget at the
Olympics thanks to a taxpayer bailout.
21. In the next breath, Romney said, "I ran the
state of Massachusetts as a governor, to the extent any governor does, and
balanced the budget all four years."
22. Romney went on to say, "If the president
were re-elected, we'd go to almost $20 trillion of national debt. This puts us
on a road to Greece."
23. In an unfortunate moment, Romney claimed, "I
had the chance to pull together a Cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be
men. And I went to my staff, and I said, how come all the people for these jobs
are all men? They said, well, these are the people that have the
qualifications. And I said, well, gosh, can't we find some women that are also
qualified? And so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had
backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet."
24. Romney argued, "In the last four years,
women have lost 580,000 jobs. That's the net of what's happened in the last
four years. We're still down 580,000 jobs. I mentioned 3 1/2 million women more
now in poverty than four years ago."
25. Romney said, "I don't believe employers
should tell someone whether they could have contraceptive care or not."
26. Romney said, "President Bush and I are
different people, and these are different times. And that's why my five-point
plan is so different than what he would have done."
27. Romney argued, "Our party has been focused
on big business too long. I came through small business."
To call Bain Capital a "small business" is to strip
the phrase of any plausible meaning.
28. Romney also said, "[O]ne of the things I
find most troubling [about the Affordable Care Act] is that when you go out and
talk to small businesses and ask them what they think about it, they tell you
it keeps them from hiring more people."
There is literally no evidence to support this claim in
any way. Indeed, a big chunk of the Affordable Care Act goes to give small
businesses a tax break.
29. Romney argued, in reference to Obama, "He
said that by now we'd have unemployment at 5.4 percent."
30. Romney added, "The entire record is such
that the unemployment has not been reduced in this country."
31. Romney said, "The only reason the
unemployment rate seems a little lower today is because of all the people that
have dropped out of the workforce."
32. Romney added that Obama "just hasn't been
able to cut the deficit."
33. Romney also said, "Any investments I have
over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust."
34. On immigration, Romney argued, "I did not
say that the Arizona law was a model for the nation."
35. Romney said in reference to the attack in
Benghazi, "the president the day after that happened flies to Las Vegas
for a political fundraiser."
There was no Obama fundraiser in Las Vegas on
Sept. 12.
36. Romney added, "Consider the distance between
ourselves and Israel, where the president said that he was going to put
daylight between us and Israel."
37. Romney went on to say, "The president's
policies throughout the Middle East began with an apology tour."
38. Romney added, "It took the president 14 days
before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror."
Oops.
39. Romney argued, "[I]n my state, the pro-gun
folks and the anti-gun folks came together and put together a piece of
legislation."
40. Romney said, "I care about 100 percent of
the American people."
I seem to recall watching a video in which Romney said it's
not his "job" to "worry about" 47 percent of the
population.
41. On gun control, Romney said, "We of course
don't want to have automatic weapons, and that's already illegal in this
country to have automatic weapons."
42. Romney added, "Regulations have quadrupled.
The rate of regulations quadrupled under this president."
43. Romney said, "Canada's tax rate on companies
is now 15 percent. Ours is 35 percent. So if you're starting a business, where
would you rather start it? We have to be competitive if we're going to create
more jobs here."
This is wildly misleading, since the actual income tax paid by corporations
"is one of the lowest in the world."
44. At a campaign event in Richmond, Virginia, Romney
asked, "Why was it, with 23 million Americans struggling to find a job,
why was it [the president] focused his first three years on Obamacare, which
makes it harder to create jobs?"
When Obama took office, the very first thing he focused on was jobs,
approving an economic plan that ended the recession.
45. At the same event, Romney said, "There's
been a study done recently that shows that with all the spending he's planning
and of all the interest on the debt that's associated with all that spending
that he's going to have to raise taxes on middle-income Americans again."
46. Romney argued, "Obamacare is going to cost
you an extra $2,500 a year."
He appears to have made this up out of whole
cloth. Romney sometimes blames rising health care costs in recent years on the Affordable Care
Act, but to say the law will in the future cost consumers an extra $2,500 a
year is new -- and baseless.
47. Romney went on to say, "If the president
were to get re-elected, he will cut Medicare by $716 billion."
48. Romney added, "[T]he president has a budget
that cuts our military by hundreds of billions of dollars, and then this
sequester idea that came from the White House, that cuts it hundreds of
billions more."
Romney appears to be referring to cuts, which have
not yet kicked in, and which were crafted, not by the White House, but by Romney's own party. They were also endorsed
and supported by his own running mate.
49. Romney said, "Seventy-five percent of small
businesses surveyed by the Chamber of Commerce said that because of Obamacare,
they're less likely to hire people."
The claim is a misleading joke -- the Chamber, a
pro-Republican lobbying institution heavily invested in helping Romney, put up
an unscientific online survey. Treating this as a legitimate poll of businesses
is fundamentally dishonest.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 40-
October 26, 2012
A joke made the rounds this week, which resonated
with me. It goes like this: a man dies, goes to heaven, stands before St.
Peter, and see a huge wall of clocks. The man asks what all the clocks are for
and St. Peter explains, "These are lie clocks. Everyone on earth has a lie
clock. Every time a person lies, the clock hands move."
Pointing to one, the man says, "Whose clock
is that?"
"That's Mother Teresa's," St. Peter
answers. "The hands have never moved, indicating she never told a
lie."
"Incredible," the man responds.
"And whose clock is that?"
St. Peter responds, "That's Abraham
Lincoln's. The hands moved twice telling us he told two lies in his entire
life."
"Where is Mitt Romney's clock?" the man
asks.
"Romney's clock is in Jesus' office,"
St. Peter says. "He's using it as a ceiling fan."
It's obviously just a joke, but it reinforces an
increasingly common observation about Romney's casual relationship with the
truth. Consider, for example, the 40th installment of my weekly series,
chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. At an event in Defiance, Ohio, last night, Romney
told voters, "I saw a story today, that one of the great manufacturers in
this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all
production to China."
2. At a campaign event in Reno, Nevada, Romney said
President Obama has been "unable to communicate an agenda" for a
second term.
3. At the same event, Romney said, "The idea
that the president would cut Medicare for current seniors ... is something
which I don't think the American people understand."
The notion that Obama is cutting Medicare for
current seniors is ridiculously untrue. Indeed, Obama is expanding benefits,
not cutting them.
4. Romney added, "I will get America to finally
be on track to a balanced budget."
No he won't. Romney's plan slashes
tax rates (which makes the deficit worse, not better), increases defense and
entitlement spending (which makes the deficit worse, not better), and every
independent analysis reaches the same conclusion: Romney's numbers don't add
up.
5. Romney also argued, "If I'm elected -- when
I'm elected -- we're going to finally get this housing market going."
The housing market is currently seeing its
strongest gains in several years. Romney, meanwhile, has said he intends to deliberately avoid any efforts to curtail
foreclosures.
6. Romney said, "Under President Obama, you
really don't have a jobs plan."
Romney doesn't have to like the American Jobs Act, but he shouldn't get
away with brazenly lying about its existence.
7. Romney went on to say, "Paul Ryan and I have
a plan with five simple steps. These steps are going to get America's economy
just cooking again."
The five-point plan -- oil drilling, trade,
privatizing K-12 education, vague assertions about debt reduction, and
ambiguous promises about doing nice things for small businesses -- is a rehash of Bush/Cheney
promises.
No credible analysis of the vague agenda has found it capable of boosting the
economy.
8. At a campaign event in Henderson, Nevada, Romney
blamed Obama for the "doubling of the gasoline prices you're paying."
This is wildly misleading. It's true that when
Obama took office, gas cost about $1.81 a gallon, and it's more than double
now. And how did gas prices get so low in late 2008 and early 2009? Because
there was a global economic catastrophe -- gas was cheap because the economy
had fallen off a cliff, and demand crawled to a stop. As the economy improved,
demand went up, and the price of gas started climbing. It's Economics 101.
9. At the same event, Romney said, " We're
gonna crack down on cheaters when they steal our jobs through unfair trade
practices like China, we'll crack down. He has not."
10. In a television ad debuted this week, Romney says
a second Obama term would mean "the debt will grow from $16 trillion to
$20 trillion."
If Romney's elected and the Ryan budget plan is
implemented, the debt will grow from $16 trillion to $20 trillion.
11. In the same ad, Romney adds that if there's a
second Obama term "20 million Americans could lose their employer-based
health care."
No. Millions may get different
insurance, but they'll have better and more secure coverage, not nothing. By
Romney's reasoning, if you replace your old, unreliable car with a new one,
you've lost your car.
12. Also in the ad, Romney says in a second term for
the president, "taxes on the middle class will go up by $4,000."
13. In the same ad, Romney whines about "$716
billion in Medicare cuts that hurt current seniors."
This is deeply silly. Obama strengthened the
Medicare system's finances by reducing payments to insurance companies and
hospitals. Benefits for seniors have been expanded, not cut.
14. In this week's debate in Boca, Romney argued,
"Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the
sea."
Iran doesn't share a border with Syria, and Iran
already borders two bodies of water.
15. Romney also said, "We need to have strong
allies. Our association and connection with our allies is essential to
America's strength. We're the great nation that has 42 allies and friends
around the world."
The United States has more than 42 allies and friends
around the world.
16. Romney argued, "When the students took to
the streets in Tehran and the people there protested, the Green Revolution
occurred. For the president to be silent I thought was an enormous
mistake."
Obama wasn't silent, and the comment
continues to reinforce suspicions that Romney is incapable of thinking
strategically when it comes to foreign policy.
17. Romney also said, "The president said by now
we'd be at 5.4 percent unemployment."
18. "As a matter of fact, Latin America's
economy is almost as big as the economy of China."
19. Reflecting on his education record, Romney
boasted, "While I was governor, I was proud that our fourth graders came
out number one of all 50 states in English and then also in math, and our
eighth graders number one in English and also in math -- first time one state
had been number one in all four measures. How did we do that? Well, Republicans
and Democrats came together on a bipartisan basis to put in place education
that focused on having great teachers in the classroom."
At a minimum, this is wildly misleading. It's true that
policymakers from both parties instituted effective education reforms that
improved Massachusetts schools, but this was done many years before Romney took
office.
20. Romney argued, "Come on our website, you'll
look at how we get to a balanced budget within eight to 10 years."
Aside from some vague platitudes, there is no
balanced-budget plan on Romney's website. There's a good reason for that -- his
numbers don't add up.
21. Romney went on to say, "We [balance the
budget] by getting, by reducing spending in a whole series of programs. By the
way, number one I get rid of is Obamacare. There are a number of things that
sound good but, frankly, we just can't afford them."
This is incoherent and absurd.
"Obamacare" cuts the deficit to the tune of about $109
billion over the next decade. It's simply incoherent to say you'll cut the
deficit by eliminating a law, which would in turn increase the deficit. That's
like promising to put out a fire by using more kerosene.
22. Romney argued, "I was in the world of
business for 25 years. If you didn't balance your budget, you went out of
business."
That's both untrue and ridiculous. Businesses
operate in the red all the time, and take out loans for capital improvements,
expansions, acquisitions, etc. If Romney's background is in the private sector,
how could he not know this?
23. Romney also said, "I went to the Olympics
that was out of balance, and we got it on balance."
In context, Romney made it sound as if he balanced
the Olympics' books through skill. In reality, he balanced his budget at the
Olympics thanks to a massive taxpayer bailout, the largest in U.S. history for
any Olympic games.
24. Romney argued, "Our Navy is smaller now than
any time since 1917."
25. Romney added, "[T]he president began what
I've called an apology tour."
26. Romney also said, "[T]he president said he
was going to create daylight between ourselves and Israel."
27. Romney argued, "I look around the world, I
don't see our influence growing around the world."
There's ample evidence that respect and support
for the United States around the world has improved under Obama.
28. Romney added, "Is al Qaeda on the run, on
its heels? No."
29. Romney complained about "our decision to cut
back on our military capabilities -- a trillion dollars."
Romney appears to be referring to cuts, which have
not yet kicked in, and which were crafted, not by the White House, but by Romney's own party. They were also endorsed
and supported by his own running mate.
30. In reference to the rescue of the American auto
industry, Romney argued, "I said they need, these companies need to go
through a managed bankruptcy, and in that process they can get government help
and government guarantees."
31. Romney went on to say, "I want to invest in
research. Research is great. Providing funding to universities and think tank,
great. But investing in companies? Absolutely not. That's the wrong way to
go."
32. Romney added we're "heading towards Greece."
33. Romney argued, "I'll get people back to work
with 12 million new jobs."
Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't
actually have a specific jobs plan, the claim about 12 million jobs has been definitely proven
fraudulent.
His own economic advisor was forced to concede the candidate's -- and the
campaign's -- talking point was based on a falsehood.
34. Romney also said, "I was in a state where my
legislature was 87 percent Democrat. I learned how to get along on the other
side of the aisle."
35. At a campaign event in Daytona Beach, Florida,
Romney promised, "If I am elected, we're going to reduce taxes on middle
income Americans."
There's ample reason to believe the exact opposite -- independent budget
analysts have concluded that once Romney slashes taxes on the wealthy,
increases defense spending, increases entitlement spending, and cuts corporate
tax rates, all while promising to balance the budget, he'll have no choice but
to ask more from the middle class. Indeed, there's no other way for Romney to
keep his other promises.
36. "Look, the president wants to fundamentally
transform America. He's making us more and more like Europe. I don't want to
become Europe."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through
austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting
sort of way.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
Volume 41 - Nov
2, 2012
In a way, I blame my friend Greg Sargent. In the
first week in January, he noted, almost in passing, that Mitt Romney seemed to
be making a lot of false claims, and someone "really should document them
all." That struck me as a good idea, so I decided to tackle this on my
own.
After all, I thought at the time, how hard could
this be? Once a week, I'd let readers know about Romney's whoppers, which I
assumed would total about a half-dozen a week, and maybe after the election,
I'd do a top 20 list of my favorites. The project would be a nice little
Friday-afternoon feature.
Little did I know at the time that Romney would
become an ambitious prevaricator, whose rhetoric would come to define
post-truth politics. Nearly 11 months after Greg Sargent's harmless suggestion,
I've published 40 installments in this series, which, before today, featured
884 falsehoods. (If you include today's edition, the new total is 917
falsehoods for the year.)
I wish that were a typo. It's not.
The outcome of next week's election remains in
doubt, but regardless of who wins, I suspect this will be the final edition in
the series. If President Obama wins, the project will have run its course. If
Romney wins, I rather doubt I'll be able to keep this going every week for four
years. So, with that in mind, enjoy the 41st and probably final installment of
my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. At a campaign event yesterday in Roanoke,
Virginia, Romney again suggested the president is to blame for the fact that
"gasoline prices" have "gone up."
This is wildly misleading. It's true that when
Obama took office, gas cost about $1.81 a gallon, and it's more than double
now. And how did gas prices get so low in late 2008 and early 2009? Because there
was a global economic catastrophe -- gas was cheap because the economy had
fallen off a cliff, and demand crawled to a stop. As the economy improved,
demand went up, and the price of gas started climbing. It's Economics 101.
2. In the same speech, Romney said he should be
elected in order to prevent "four more years of trillion dollar deficits
in Washington."
According to the budget plan Romney endorsed,
we'll have four more years of trillion dollar deficits in Washington
anyway.
3. Romney added he has a "five-point plan ...
that'll get this economy going."
The five-point plan -- oil drilling, trade,
privatizing K-12 education, vague assertions about debt reduction, and
ambiguous promises about doing nice things for small businesses -- is a rehash of Bush/Cheney
promises.
No credible analysis of the vague agenda has found it capable of boosting the
economy.
4. At a campaign event in Doswell, Virginia, Romney said
"Obamacare" is "crushing small businesses across America."
There is literally no evidence to support this claim in
any way. Indeed, a a significant portion of the ongoing cost of the
Affordable Care Act is to give small businesses a tax break.
5. In the same speech, Romney also argued, "The
president wants to raise taxes on small business."
In reality, Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on
small businesses -- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his
tax plan would have no effect on 97% of small businesses.
6. Romney also vowed, "I will not raise tax on
... middle-class America."
There's ample reason to believe the exact opposite -- independent budget
analysts have concluded that once Romney slashes taxes on the wealthy,
increases defense spending, increases entitlement spending, and cuts corporate
tax rates, all while promising to balance the budget, he'll have no choice but
to ask more from the middle class. Indeed, there's no other way for Romney to
keep his other promises.
7. In a television ad, Romney claimed Obama
"gutted the work requirement for welfare."
8. In the same ad, Romney claimed there's been
"record unemployment" under Obama.
The unemployment rate topped out at 10% a few
years ago, and that's not even close to being a "record."
9. The ad went on to say the rates of "women in
poverty" are at their highest rates "ever."
Poverty rates were vastly worse during the last
global financial crisis, the Great Depression.
10. The same ad claimed Obama financed the debt by
"borrowing from China."
The implication here is that U.S. debt is financed
by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China only holds about 8% of the nation's debt.
11. In a different ad, Romney claimed to "have a
plan to help the auto industry."
Asked for a copy of that plan, the Romney campaign
refused to provide one.
12. The same ad suggests Jeep production is moving
"to China."
13. Romney said on Monday he'd cancel his campaign
rally in Ohio on Tuesday, out of sensitivity for the victims of Hurricane
Sandy.
14. In a radio ad this week, Romney suggested Obama
saved the auto industry "for China," adding that "GM cut 15,000
American jobs" because of the president.
GM itself responded to this by saying, "We've clearly
entered some parallel universe during these last few days. No amount of
campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating
jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country."
15. The same radio spot adds, "Mitt Romney grew
up in the Auto Industry. Maybe that's why the Detroit News endorsed him."
No, the Detroit News specifically called
Romney's approach to the auto rescue "wrong-headed."
16. At a campaign event in Avon Lake, Ohio, Romney
claimed, "[W]e're at a 30 year low in the number of new businesses that
have started up."
17. In the same speech, Romney said, "In Europe
... their corporate tax rate, which used to be higher than ours is now down to
25 percent. Ours is 35 percent. So businesses that are thinking of investing
are interested in going elsewhere."
This is wildly misleading, since the actual income tax paid by corporations
"is one of the lowest in the world."
18. Romney went on to say, "I'm going to make
sure that we finally get America on track to have a balanced budget."
No he won't. Romney's plan slashes
tax rates (which makes the deficit worse, not better), increases defense and
entitlement spending (which makes the deficit worse, not better), and every
independent analysis reaches the same conclusion: Romney's numbers don't add
up.
19. Referencing the president, Romney said,
"He's cut Medicare $716 billion."
This is deeply silly. Obama strengthened the
Medicare system's finances by reducing payments to insurance companies and
hospitals. Benefits for seniors have been expanded, not cut.
20. Romney also argued, "[T]he president's been
spending massively more than he's been taking in."
21. Romney went on to boast, "I have a plan
that'll create 12 million new jobs."
Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't
actually have a specific jobs plan, the claim about 12 million jobs has been definitely proven
fraudulent.
His own economic advisor was forced to concede the candidate's -- and the
campaign's -- talking point was based on a falsehood.
22. Romney also claimed, "I was governor of a
state with a legislature that was 85 percent Democrat. I knew from the very
beginning to get anything done, I had to reach across the aisle and I
did."
23. At a campaign event in Tampa, Romney said,
"Latin America's economy is almost as large as that of China."
24. In a speech on the economy in Ames, Iowa, Romney
said Obama "doubled" the deficit.
Romney is still having trouble with the definition
of "double." The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last
year, it was also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's $1.08 trillion. When he says
the president "doubled" the deficit, as he has many times, Romney's
lying.
25. In the same speech, Romney said Obama has not
"proposed any solution at all" to address Medicare's finances.
Actually, Obama shored up Medicare's finances by
finding $716 billion in savings, and has a long term plan through IPAB.
26. Romney went on to say the president "did not
tame the spending and borrowing."
27. Romney added that Obama "did not reach
across the aisle."
Obama repeatedly pleaded with congressional
Republicans to work on common solutions. GOP lawmakers responded by opposing
every idea, including their own.
28. Romney also said the president "did not
stand up to China's trade practices."
29. Romney claimed Obama has "added almost as
much debt held by the public as all prior American presidents in history."
30. Romney also argued the president "launched
an onslaught of new regulations, often to the delight of the biggest banks and
corporations."
Putting aside the irony of Romney suggesting Obama
is beholden to corporations, there has been no regulatory onslaught.
31. Romney went on to say, "Energy prices are up
in part because energy production on federal lands is down."
32. Romney claimed, in reference to Obama,
"[H]is tax plan has been calculated to destroy 700,000 jobs."
33. Romney added, "[C]utting one trillion
dollars from the military will kill jobs and devastate our national
defense."
Romney appears to be referring to cuts, which have
not yet kicked in, and which were crafted by Romney's own
party and
endorsed by his own running mate.
Steve
Benen is a contributing writer to the Washington Monthly, joining the
publication in August, 2008 as chief blogger for the Washington Monthly blog,
Political Animal.
__________________________________________
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| Pinocchio image (above)from Dreamstime. Montage with Romney logo by Daily Kos |
I copied everything but the pictures directly from the following website:
