Newt Gingrich was exactly right when he called Mitt Romney a liar.

Willard Milton Romney's Lies

Newt Gingrich was exactly right when he called Mitt Romney a liar.


From '100,000 new jobs' to Obama's jobs record to his first name, Mitt
Romney has a truth problem
By Robert Schlesinger

January 12, 2012 RSS Feed Print As his briefly front-running campaign
sunk in the polls under relentless punishment from Mitt Romney's
"super PAC" allies in the days before the Iowa caucuses, former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich caused a brief stir by matter-of-factly telling
a TV interviewer that Romney is a "liar."

"Why are you saying he's a liar?" his apparently shocked interlocutor
pressed. The notion that Mitt Romney routinely makes statements
lacking a factual basis should not come as a surprise to anyone who
has followed the campaign. On the left, Paul Krugman has marveled that
no other candidate has ever "lied so freely, with so little
compunction." On the right, The American Conservative's Daniel Larison
wondered about why he lies, concluding that the former Massachusetts
governor is "so contemptuous of the people he tells lies to that he
never thinks he will be found out."

[Read Robert Schlesinger and other columnists in U.S. News Weekly, now
available on iPad.]

With Romney sweeping Iowa and New Hampshire and leading in the polls
in South Carolina, this is a good time to catalogue some of Romney's
greatest hits thus far.

"100,000 new jobs." Romney has repeatedly claimed that during his
tenure at Bain Capital, "net-net, we created over 100,000 jobs." His
campaign defends the figure by tallying the current employment totals
of some companies Bain aided. That's a stretch in and of itself, but
it's also not a net figure. It lacks the balancing context of how many
jobs were destroyed by Bain. As the Los Angeles Times reported in
December, while Bain helped some companies grow, "Romney and his team
also maximized returns by firing workers, seeking government
subsidies, and flipping companies quickly for large profits. Sometimes
Bain investors gained even when companies slid into bankruptcy."

Indeed, the Wall Street Journal looked closely at Bain's record under
Romney and found that 22 percent "either filed for bankruptcy or
closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first
invested, sometimes with substantial job losses." Which is not really
terribly surprising: Bain's raison d'etre is not job creation but
wealth creation for its investors. As Washington Post fact checker
Glenn Kessler noted in an article Monday calling Romney's "100,000
jobs" figure "untenable," Romney and Bain "never could have raised
money from investors if the prospectus seeking $1-million investments
from the super wealthy had said it would focus on creating jobs."

As a corollary, when Romney's record has been criticized, he has
dismissed criticisms as an attempt to "put free enterprise on trial."
It's not an attack on free enterprise. It's an attack on Romney's
strained attempt to spin his successful record of wealth-creation into
one of job-creation. It's also a recognition that while a net good,
the free market has its destructive side—and it's a fair question to
ask, whether voters consider experience in that sort of vulture
capitalism as a good qualification for the presidency. Do they want
government to be run more like that kind of business?

[See a collection of political cartoons on Mitt Romney.]

Obama's jobs record. By Romney's own logic (touting jobs created but
ignoring jobs lost), his attacks on President Obama's economic record
are nonsensical. He told Time that Obama "has not created any new
jobs," and he told Fox News last week that Obama has "lost" 2 million
jobs as president. This is indeed a net figure, but also a misleading
one. When Obama took office, the economy was shedding jobs at a rate
of nearly 1 million jobs per month, losing roughly 3 million during
the first four months of 2009. But presidential policies don't take
effect as soon as the incoming chief takes his oath. Once Obama's
policies started to take effect, the trend turned. The country had
added 3.2 million private sector jobs over the course of 22 straight
months of private sector growth. By Romney's definition, the president
has created more than 3 million jobs—not enough, but also not none.

[Read the U.S. News debate: Will Mitt Romney Be the GOP Presidential Nominee?]

In fact the biggest drag on job growth is the 600,000 public sector
jobs that have disappeared under the auspices of budget austerity. As
my colleague Danielle Kurtzleben reported in September, "government
jobs are being shed by the tens of thousands almost every month,
hindering an already weak recovery."

"Entitlement society." Romney has argued that Obama "is replacing our
merit-based, opportunity society with an entitlement society," where
"everyone is handed the same rewards, regardless of education, effort,
and willingness to take risk." As New York's Jonathan Chait has
observed, "This accusation is approximately as accurate as claiming
that the Republican Party wants to pass laws forbidding poor people
from making more money." The idea that President Obama (or any
Democrat) advocates for equality of outcomes simply lacks a basis in
fact.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]

It's an important fabrication, because it marks a turning point in
Romney's attacks on Obama. Previously the president was characterized
as ineffectual, but not a socialist. Forced to battle to win the GOP
primaries, Romney has adopted the Tea Party's extremist rhetoric. It
won't play with swing voters, even delivered in his polished drone.

Defense cuts. In an October speech on national security, Romney
promised to "reverse President Obama's massive defense cuts." One
problem: Pentagon spending has gone up under Obama, from $594 billion
in 2008 to $666 billion. The 2011 request was for $739 billion. As
Rick Perry would say, "Oops."

[Read the U.S. News debate: Are Cuts to the Defense Budget Necessary?]

No apologies. Romney has said that Obama "went around the world and
apologized for America." This is part of the conservative, dog-whistle
meme that Obama is un-American (and possibly even a foreigner!). While
the notion of an international apology tour is a staple of the
conservative case against Obama, it is also fictitious. The Washington
Post's fact-checker concluded that "the claim that Obama repeatedly
has apologized for the United States is not borne out by the facts,
especially if his full quotes are viewed in context." Don't hold your
breath waiting for an apology from Romney on this one.

"Mitt." It's a small one, but might be my favorite. During a debate in
November, when moderator Wolf Blitzer introduced himself by saying
that "Wolf" is really his first name, Romney greeted the audience by
saying, "I'm Mitt Romney, and yes, Wolf, that's also my first name."
In fact, Willard is his first name. It's a lie notable for being so
mundane: Why would someone fudge their name? It's almost as if he
can't control himself.

More:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2012/01/12/mitt-romneys-lies

--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy



--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum

* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.