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.”
That’s simply not true.
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.”
There is no universe in which this is even remotely accurate.
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.”
If reality has any meaning at all, there is no 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.”
Romney took Obama’s quote wildly out of context as part of another attempt at deception.
9. Romney claimed in a separate ad that during his one term as governor, he “had the best jobs record in a decade.”
There’s clear evidence to the contrary.
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.”
None of this is even remotely true.
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.”
Romney has said this countless times, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s not true.
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.”









