Bad Arithmetic: Top Romney Economist Admits ‘Jobs Plan’ Numbers Don’t Compute

Memo Pad

previous | next

Bad Arithmetic: Top Romney Economist Admits ‘Jobs Plan’ Numbers Don’t Compute

October 16th, 2012 5:58 pm Joe Conason

When innocent citizens asked about unemployment last night at the town-hall presidential debate on Long Island, would Mitt Romney again tout his plan to create 12 million jobs? Unable to Etch-a-Sketch away that often-repeated claim—one that he has hired several conservative economists to endorse—the Republican candidate had little choice. It’s up on his campaign website, it’s there in his own well-advertised words, and it is the central appeal of his candidacy for the non-billionaire voting bloc.

But there is a serious problem with that promise. It now stands exposed as a complete fraud by Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker, who pinned upon it his highest (lowest?) prize of four “Pinocchios.”

Here is how Kessler reached that troubling conclusion. After requesting the specific numbers behind Romney’s jobs claim, he soon discovered that the citations offered by the campaign made no sense— and in fact the attempted deceptions were transparently obvious.

Romney’s economic program has three basic elements that he says will produce those 12 million jobs, as outlined in a TV ad quoted by Kessler:

First, my energy independence policy means more than 3 million new jobs, many of them in manufacturing. My tax reform plan to lower rates for the middle class and for small business creates 7 million more. And expanding trade, cracking down on China and improving job training takes us to over 12 million new jobs.”

In the studies cited by the Romney campaign, however, those figures practically debunked themselves.

The study that supposedly justifies the 7 million jobs produced by tax reform, written by a Rice University professor, covers a 10-year period—not four years. The study supposedly proving that his energy program will produce 3 million jobs is a Citigroup report that doesn’t even examine Romney’s plan; it includes fuel-economy requirements he has criticized and projects an 8-year timeline. And the International Trade Commission report that supposedly shows how an intellectual-property crackdown on China will produce those final 2 million jobs is similarly distorted, using outdated employment figures and ridiculous speculation to reach a conclusion that even its authors warn is “unclear.”

For the coup de grace, Kessler quoted an email from Romney economic advisor R. Glenn Hubbard confessing that “the 3+7+2 does not make up the 12 million jobs in the first four years (different source of growth and different time period).”

Kessler didn’t attempt to estimate what, if anything, those studies might indicate about the results of Romney’s plan. There may well be no substance to them at all. But it is possible to estimate a best-case based on a revised timeline—taking 40 percent of the expected tax-reform-relaed jobs plus 50 percent of the energy-independence-related jobs—which comes to a measly 4.3 million jobs (the China-crackdown jobs are too phony to include at all).

Describing the deficiencies of the Republican program, a famous man once said “it’s arithmetic”—and as usual, the Romney campaign can’t seem to add or subtract without cheating.

So much for the “Jobs Plan.” What understandably puzzled Kessler —who has never hesitated to pillory Barack Obama—is why the Romney campaign would send out supporting material that can be so easily and simply dismissed as bogus. The answer may be that—with due respect to the Post—they can reasonably expect to get away with such fakery in a media environment where lies usually go unchallenged.

Tags: 2012 campaign, China, front.page.blog.post, Mitt Romney, Presidential, Republicans, taxes, Unemployment

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7DKWSXHQIDBW5PUAPZ2HZAYYUY Baron Cormac

And this surprises anyone because? As the Republicans in general and the Romney campaign in particular have no problems making up their own facts, how is this news?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Jones/827014412 Daniel Jones

It’s news because without these stories, the lies never get challenged!

It’s news because the Big Lie theory works unless you counter the lies every single time!

It’s news because it shows a god damned national trend to lie and lie and lie until people just let it babble around them–and get influenced by it all.

It’s news, end stop.

nobsartist

willard cant even make his tax returns public because he is hiding something.

willard is a lying rat.

ryan is a lying punk nazi.

these are the two worse candidates ever to run as republiCONs

these two are an embarrassment to America.

http://www.facebook.com/fern.woodfork Fern Woodfork

If He Tell He Know He Wont Win !! Romney Thinks He Can Con His Way, By All The Lies , Avoiding To Give Real Answer And Flip Flopping A Plus Morphing Into Other versions Of Himself Trying To Close The Deal!! The Problem Is This Is Not A Business That’s Looking For Investors, This Is A Country Who Needs A Honest Fair Leader Who Will Help ALL The AMERICAN PEOPLE And Romney IS NOT THAT LEADER!!! OBAMA IS The One To Lead This Country Cause He Got ALL Of The American People Back!!!

http://profile.yahoo.com/ZRYMJS6X3HDSTJ4PW3ILFH7KGM Carol

YEA, HORRAY,,,,FERN, GOOD WORK….

bcarreiro

mr romney refers to his days as governor and he did NOT create jobs ……………….first responders and firefighters lost their jobs to this masshole. the fact of the matter is his 5 point plan is to
1. lie
2. cheat
3. steal
4. drain the rest we have and deduct it from his taxes
5. lead us into the greattest depression of all time.

http://www.facebook.com/fern.woodfork Fern Woodfork

Romney Was 47 In Create Jobs And Hell It’s Only 50 States What Do That Tell You Romney Is A Bald Face LIAR!!!
http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

The credit he is taking for his tenure as Governor of MA is inconsistent with what the people of that state are saying. I could not believe he took credit for the outstanding education system in that state, which everybody knows has been among the best in the country for much of the past century.

Mimi2kool

I lived in MA when he was governor. He takes credit for lots of things that are not his doing. He was probably one of the most disengaged governors there is in the entire history of governors. He only ran for that office to enhance his national standing. I do not think he would do any better as President than he did when he was the chief executive of MA.
bcarreiro

I was born in massachusetts and the records dont lie, only he believes he did something for this state.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ralph-Lackey/100001785091603 Ralph Lackey

Gov. Romney is the typical Republican that rewrites history to suit their ambitions with no shame. Truth to a Republican is just an annoying word that gets in their way.

concernedgran

Mr Romney keeps talking about everything he accomplished as Governor of his state. Funny thing to me is that he is running behind in “his” state by double digits. I don’t think he is very popular in “his” state.

http://www.facebook.com/fern.woodfork Fern Woodfork

Matter Of Fact Romney Losing In His State!!! NEVER Believe Not One Damn Thing Romney Say He’s A Con Man, A Snake Oil Salesman Trying To Close The Deal!! He Will Lie Flip Flop Shape Shift And Morph Into Whatever It Takes To Con The American People Into Voting For His Bush On Steroid Polices!!! The Man Is A True SOCIOPATH!!!

highpckts

Were they not close to the bottom of the list as far employment goes? So much for being a jobs creator!!

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

Romney’s promise to create 12 million new jobs, and his promise to offset a $5T loss in revenues as a result of more irresponsible tax cuts, do not add up.
He is not going to create 12 million jobs by allowing a Canadian company to build a pipeline to carry their oil to the Gulf of Mexico for export to foreign countries. The most that would produce would be a couple of thousand jobs. Tax credits and tax breaks to small businesses have already been put in place, as well as easier access to credit and low interest rates.
On the issue of taxes, the CBO stated that his tax plan will result in a whopping $5T in revenue losses and that eliminating the dividend and capital gains deductions will not make a dent on it. The mortgage, charity, and education deductions will have to be eliminated to offset the losses and keep the government running. Other alternatives include the elimination of some of the largest social programs and borrowing at a scale never seen before.

http://www.facebook.com/fern.woodfork Fern Woodfork

Romney Math Do NOT Add Up Unless He SCREW The Middle Class And Por Working People!!!

SockersFan12

Please pontificate in your esteemed wisdom how Gov Romney would “screw” the middle class??

http://www.facebook.com/warren.nicholson.77 Warren Nicholson

Why don’t you spend some time checking his record. Then you won’t waste Ferns time repeating it.

http://profile.yahoo.com/VZIHVXZSOR4LBQND2HPA3PPKUY Howard

There’s that Keystone Pipeline story again — a real pipe dream if ever there was. Why can’t the President be as clear and simple as Dominick in rebutting this scam? None of the shale-extracted oil in the pipe would head for our gas tanks. That oil would go to a port in TX (duty free!) and from there on to to Europe, China and India. The Canadian co. has an alternate route: west to Vancouver, and on to foreign ports of call. A base of about 2000 jobs would open up as the line moved south from Canada, true, and along the way service and supply jobs would open – and close — jobs like food service and convenience outlets, like the sutlers that followed the armies in the Civil War! 60 thousand new jobs created? Hardly.

Sandra

For the record, the keystone pipeline is not a done deal in Canada either, Vancouver, BC is a very environemntal friendly Province and they refuse to sign on the dotted line until all the cards are on the table ie environmental issues and the $$ they expect to receive from the deal ie what’s in it for them among other considerations. BC is a Liberal Province unlike Conservative who only think of the moola and to hell with the environment.

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

Unfortunately, the GOP does not share the same commitment to the environment and our patrimony tha Canadians, Europeans and people in other countries do. Their sense of patriotism starts and ends with the Almighty dollar.

http://www.facebook.com/itsmsdee333 Darlene A Wyche

AMEN to that!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1144050753 Marek Patejak

Actually it will raise prices in the upper midwest. Right now most of this oil goes to the refineries in Gary Indiana. If the the pipe line goes through it will go on the world market bypassing the midwest. I can expect a 15 to 25 cent rise per gallon in Iowa if the pipeline goes through.

SockersFan12

Thank you Marek for stating one of the reasons why the President chose to shut the construction of the pipeline down. Where do the Presidents big advisors/backers and even himself call home?? You guessed it… Chicago, IL which is just down the street from Gary, Ind

Colorado15

Not only won’t it create jobs, its an environmental menace. Top that with thte fact the company building it threatens landowners to get easements accross their land and its an unholy trinity.

http://twitter.com/pogomcl pogomcl

what Romney doesn’t ever own up or acknowledge is that creating a cross continental pipeline is very complicated and dependent on local state laws and regulations and is passing through Native American lands…

so his whole bullshit argument against Obama has no legs. Moreover as anyone in Europe or Alaska knows, pipelines leak. There is fairly substantial environmental damage and the cost of transporting oil by pipe can be quite expensive.

Secondly the Rat went on his hot air rant regarding drilling. Drilling, here, there, everywhere… okay, what he didn’t honestly say was fracking here, there and everywhere… and fracking is costing Californa, Colorado, Pennsylvania and other states huge costs in environmental pollution as a result of ground water contamination and heavy metals in water and other unpleasant side effects…. and the whole fracking thing was grandfathered in under the Bush-Cheney-Halliburton league–and what the Rat really doesn’t say is that he is lobbying on behalf of Koch brothers who pay his campaign expenses.

Next, the Rat never acknowledges the huge expense and clean-up and loss of livelihood and income from Deep Horizon and the costs and clean-up are still ongoing. Deep Horizon is located where it ought not be, thanks to under-table arrangements in the previous admin and the Bush personal interest in oil business. However, it wasn’t exactly so good for the fish, for the fishermen or the people who were blasted to death as result of the explosion or their families. The Rat is not exactly forthcoming on compensation to families, lost work, lost environment, etc. He’s very big on filling his own pocket via oil interests and that’s another reason to be very very skeptical of what he is hiding off shore.

Rat is also not up to admitting or knowing that the Columbia River is heavily contaminated and the clean-up from Hanford Nuclear Reservations (remember Palin and her blithe remark about how the people of Hanford believed in pulling themselves up by the bootstraps even if by having little wayside cookie stands?) Well, Romney-Palin-Ryan are probably so bloody stupid that they don’t know that Hanford is and was always a fed pet project better known to the public as the Manhatten Project and all that nuclear contamination and leakage– costs Washington State billions of dollars in clean-up, billions to fed gov, but massive loss in fish– and of course Oregon isn’t always the happiest southern neighbor. McCain is also a bit brain-dead regarding such matters, but not surprising. He doesn’t remember that his first wife financed and paved his way as a politician and then when she was inconvenient, he got the second one… McCain aint nearly the hero as most men coming back from 2 and 3 tour duty in Afghanistan.

That Rat should constantly boast about how he cooperated in Mass with bipartisan politics has to be a huge laugh, because he does everything he can to be disagreeable in real life.

That Rat should boast that he made Mass number one in education–is also bullshit. MIT was big name before he got out of his nappies. He takes claim for things he has absolutely no effect over… and then in same breath accuses Obama for not controlling things outside any President’s control.

The President does not have any direct control over the price of gas at the station. Price of oil is determined by international organization. What Obama does make clear regarding recovery is true. He understands the need for infrastructure development, slow growth and control over “big interests” such as the oil and coal companies which happily ruin both environment and worker’s lives for their own greed. He is a realist, not given to delusions.

Is funny, but I doubt if Rat ever went to a hospital or talked and spent time with coal miners with black lung. He probably talked to CEOs and Koch Brothers to get their altruistic projections. Do you remember the fury of the American public regarding the BP CEO? Well, Rat is nowhere near as forthcoming and responsible as the BP CEO.

But who can trust an shoe-polish salesman who hedged and leveraged healthy businesses into bankruptcy to fill his own pockets and whose religion perpetrates delusion and revisionist history such as that Native Americans are lost ten tribes of Israel? Give us a break. It’s fine to have your own religion– but the problem with the Rat, is that he wishes to impose his delusions on others and is filled with revisionist ideas. From one week to the next, there’s always some revision.

Not a great adherent of Rat & Rodent. Rats spread plague and other nasties. Not very fond of most Rodents, either, especially bug-eyed ones that look like Alfred on Mad Magazine.

highpckts

Pogomcl – very well said!!

SockersFan12

I will start with a positive response. If 9 million more people are working then they will be paying taxes. Did you miss the first debate? Gov. Romney gave, in very simple terms, the reasons why you lower income tax rates.
Now on to the debunking. How could the CBO state anything about his tax plan? CBO stands for CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE. Gov Romney has not submitted a single thing to the CBO as he does not serve in congress!! The only entity that has claimed the $5T in losses did not even look at his entire plan and subsequently changed their analysis.
Why are all of the large and small corporations sitting on an record amount of capital? There is to much uncertainty in the business environment. None of theme know what the fiscal effects of the ACA are going to be. Lots of analysts have stated that full implementation of the ACA will force the elimination of millions of full time jobs as it will be more economical for these companies(small businesses and large corporations) to hire people(or change people) to part-time work rather than full-time. Some studies have claimed otherwise. The point is that NOBODY KNOWS!!
BTW, nice false analogy with the 12 million jobs from the Keystone pipeline. No one has ever claimed that. Also, if the pipeline doesn’t get built here in the USA then China is going to pay for it to be built across Canada so that they can have ALL of the oil. Do you want THOSE jobs to be outsourced??

highpckts

“Those jobs” are so temporary! Pipeline done, jobs gone except for management oh, and clean up when we have a nother huge oil spill!!
http://www.facebook.com/warren.nicholson.77 Warren Nicholson

Maybe you should check the facts before you do a Mitt. The reason they want to send the pipe line south is because British Columbia is in the way.

http://profile.yahoo.com/QXUFSMTKTK3UCL3ZFPJPONXAVM mac macey

Look, we know the 12 million was BS. Now its on record for all to see. Mitt can’t have his cake and eat it as well. He’s so phoney, he’d claim milk leaked out of his nipples if it got him votes.
mmaynard119

Keystone would create many more jobs, to clean up the environmental disasters it would cause. It already has in Canada.

epubcar

After last night the republicans should adopt “Nearer My God To Thee” as their anthem.
What a Titanic disgrace Romney has, is and shall be forever.
I agree he is a lying rat and Ryan is a Nazi.
Don’t forget, they are being sponsored by the Koch Bros (among other fascists).
They are as big a threat to us than Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden were. They are part of the cancer that is eating America alive!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KOPKDFAUQPIIRAFI3HEXNMSHLQ Ed

Ah, but you forget that there are millions who will vote for Donald Duck before they vote for ObomaWait! I might be wrong. I can hear the chants “Donald doesn’t talk like me”, or look like me”>
ALLLLAMERICAN

you mean Barack Hussein Obama

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4HKCTSVHCQJCJUU2VYCERLWWDE Richie T

A major problem with the election games that go on in this country, there’s nothing in the Constitution that refers to Politicians, the News, or the citizens of this country lieing. The only time a person can’t lie, is when they’re testifying in court.
To many people actually believe whatever they say, anything and everything to get elected.
Always do some research about whatever it is they’re saying the problem is, or what will fix it.
Romney;
47% of the citizens of this country don’t pay taxes. The members of our Armed Forces don’t pay taxes, I seriously doubt that anyone has a problem with that one.

http://profile.yahoo.com/UHE4MJP5FHMFIEAOGEQHETUGDQ Rvn_sgt6768

Sorry to disagree with you and it is a small one at that but the only time a person can’t lie is when they are dead. Well ok two small items with the other being the Armed Forces is deployment in Afghanistan do not pay taxes but the rest of the military on duty here and else where do.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KOPKDFAUQPIIRAFI3HEXNMSHLQ Ed

I cannot believe that “not paying taxes”is the only thing congress could think of to reward our troops. Disgraceful. But I guess to those guys that is the greatest thing that can happen to you.

grammyjill

But the minute your back on US soil the taxes start again. And you should see what they get paid. It’s disgraceful!

http://profile.yahoo.com/C4AKD46QH7TCBRZSLBMQSG7BIY JLP

But again, Obama is promising the same things he promised in his first campaign, we gave him 4 years to deliver. He hasn’t delivered.
Has he helped me? Is the question I keep asking myself. The answer is no.
Gas prices are killing me, Food prices are killing me, tax hikes are drowning me.
And I haven’t had a raise in 4 years, yet Gas/Food/Taxes have been raised.
I am among the middle – poor class.

CAThinker

Do you have a 401K? If you do, he helped you. But here’s a question that goes right to your pain – how does the President reduce the prices you’re complaining of? The President doesn’t control the price of gas – the oil companies do. And they’re getting the benefit of subsidies that you and I contribute to. How does the President control the cost of food? A large cost of food is transportation to the market – that uses gas – so indirectly, the oil companies do. You know the reason gas was so cheap at the beginning of Obama’s administration? Bush had nothing to do with it. The economy was so cratered at the time, if the oil companies didn’t reduce the price of fuel, no one would buy it because no one could afford it. The value of anything lies in the ability of someone else to pay for it – so those prices are high because those suppliers believe that someone is willing to pay for it – has nothing to do with the President.

So put on your big boy pants on and quit whining… Moreover, quit blaming the President for things he can’t control…
http://profile.yahoo.com/UHE4MJP5FHMFIEAOGEQHETUGDQ Rvn_sgt6768

What tax hikes are you talking about? President Obama has cut taxes for the middle class many times as well as other taxes that impact us. When I was let go in 2005 I had seen my wages go down for many years regardless of any extra training I may have gotten or any raises and I was getting over $1.00 per year in raises but when my hours kept getting cut the net was less wages per year. I think those taxes are state and local taxes and how does that result as a President’s problem? By the way I was never able to find a new job and in 2009 I finally took early retirement. I also did not have health care and now I do with Medicare which just paid for my heart attack two months ago. What if I would have had it a year ago? I would be wiped out from the bills.

jarheadgene

Thank God RYAN hadn’t been given the chance to dismantle Medicare….Hope you recover well. OBAMA 2012.

jarheadgene

And you would be returning to BUSH economy on steroids with Romney…..YOU think you are “bending over” right now….if ROMNEY is elected…get ready to bend over and take it dry. Sorry for the vulgarity, but that is how I feel about ROMNEY/RYAN/Koch/Murdoch GREED. It is EXTREMELY vulgar to 98% of America.

ALLLLAMERICAN

ANYTHING is better than obama

he is bringing our country down and it’s NOT just a coincidence!!

EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH THE MOVIE—2016: Obama’s America

OR are you to scared

concernedgran

You are so down on the current president and so many like you love to call him a Muslim. Why don’t you investigate the Morman religion and see who this man really believes.
I suspect that the movie 2016: Obama’s America is nothing but more Republican propaganda.

ALLLLAMERICAN

You need to watch the movie—

OR are you to scared???
Justin Napolitano

I just wrote that I saw it and it was a complete waste of time and money.

Justin Napolitano

I did see the movie, me and 4 other people in a very large theater.
The first 30 minutes was about Denish d’Sousa, the writer of the movie. He was so full of himself in that all he talked about was his own history. The rest of the movie tried to make Obama something he has never been and made a very tenuous attempt the define him based on passed acquaintances.
How would you like your life to be defined the same way? Obama is President of the United States and, arguably, the most powerful man on the planet. Dinesh D’Sousa is a half assed writer more interested in himself. I wonder which one has made more of their life?
The movie was very boring and a waste of money.

ALLLLAMERICAN

SEEEEEEE—–I knew it!!!!

If allll you Libs went to see the movie —-

Your reply would be the same—Lie

DON’T BE SO CLOSE MINDED

Do you REALLY think he just made everything up—REALLY

ALLLLAMERICAN

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

obama hasn’t done anything to make our counrty better—-

He is alllll talk and no do

Justin Napolitano

You are all talk allll. Never offer any facts so you and Romney have a lot in common.
I got a real kick out him saying that with 4 boys he knows all about lying. All I can say is those apples didn’t fall far from the tree.

ALLLLAMERICAN

Really???? Do you have kids?????

STUPID REMARK—-STUPID

Justin Napolitano

Actually, Obama has delivered. I think some of you folks think that an economic collapse, such as the great recession, can be turned around in less than 4 years. It took 12 years to get the country on an economic upturn after the great depression and WWII helped that turnaround. We are moving in the right direction evidenced by the doubling of the stock market and a the beginning of a gain in the housing industry, plus the 5.2 million jobs that have been created since the bottom. Just think how far along we would be if the Republican house had helped the president instead of hindering him.
By the way gas prices are up as a result of the improvement in the economy. Perhaps you would like to go back to the end of the Bush Administration where 800,000 jobs were being lost per month and the economy was in free-fall? I’ll bet gas prices would be just as low in such a scenario. Another thing, since oil prices are determined by world wide demand and are the same throughout the trading world, why would you assume that oil companies would sell their oil for less to to the US than for the going rate throughout the world? Oil companies are not stupid nor are gas companies that now want to export our gas to other countries. The same thing would happen if we had as much oil as gas.
ALLLLAMERICAN

Obama had his turn to try and he couldn’t do it!!!!

Let someone else in and see what they can do—

and YES—SORRY Libs, you are going to have to get BACK to work
Romney is getting you off welfare and unemployment and getting you a job!!!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1603447131 Marc E. Motley Sr

Mitt tried really hard to convey figures that sound good but don’t add up. The craziest answer he had last night was about women. How ludicrous for him to say he had to go to these women action groups to find qualified women to be on his cabinet. There are more qualified and educated women in the New England area then anywhere in the country!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1603447131 Marc E. Motley Sr

Mitt Romney is a joke and it’s sad because he is truly misleading millions of Americans
howa4x

Romney believes that if you tell the lie long enough people will believe him. It’s just making up numbers. He is used to that from his Wall st days and if I were running for president I wouldn’t even mention I was there considering what has happened. His tax cut plan is even better. He will keep the Bush tax cuts for the ultra wealthy by saying he won’t change what they are currently paying and then give everyone else a 20% tax cut, plus end the estate tax, which is good for his kids, and no one would pay capital gains taxes, which is good for his buddies at Bain. Also he wants to increase military spending by 20%. Even though we spend more than all the countries in the world combined including Russia and China. Now he won’t say how he would do this so maybe he is relying on his magic underwear to get him through this, and refuses to say what loop holes he would close. He also says this won’t add to the deficit, which is the highlite of this magic act. His whole premise goes against the bi partisan Simpson-Bowles commission findings on deficit reduction that call for a mix of cuts and revenue. Maybe he will just cut every social program there is including student loan support. This is a snake oil saleman and he is pedling the same oil that GW Bush did the origional deficit maker.
http://profile.yahoo.com/ZRYMJS6X3HDSTJ4PW3ILFH7KGM Carol

Romney’s supposed plan, what a fake. Willard, as is his birth name, yet he go”s by Mitt is enough to tell you about his personal self. Cant even be on a ballot using his real name, a supposed high society knick name. He is an actor of the worst math and horse and poney show. Oh his faith, who cares about his faith, yes his faith is keeping his money overseas. How is he going to get jobs, perhaps he will re-open the plants and business he closed …… Maybe he will hire back the folks who used to work in those jobs that he got rid of. Oh and yes he has a past in saving this and that, yes for his own wealth and that of his billionaire friends. Hope the American people can see through your past and math. Tell the folks what you did to a gay boy when you were 14. Did your folks know about that?????

ALLLLAMERICAN

What an idiot!!!!

Should we dig up your past EVERYTHING you ever did???

You should keep digging—I’m sure Mitt did something terrible in his mothers WOMB!!!!

WHAT A FREAK

http://profile.yahoo.com/ZRYMJS6X3HDSTJ4PW3ILFH7KGM Carol

By the way, Romney”s hair cut was awful, and he looked like he had a bullet proof vest on, and had posture, its a shame he didn”t have a pulpit to lean on. rOMNEY WAS LIKE A PACING OSTRIDGE SO FRUSTRATED HIS SCRIPT WAS CATCHING UP WITH HIM………………………. Obama came back, Let us all realize what and who is behiend him, folks like Chaney, jackass mr pure Gingrich, and Forbes billionairs. Corporations also that are getting tax write off’s for moving their companies overseas, and it go”s on and on. Look at the actor in him, he may be Regans type, Regan got rid of so many pensions for us 47 percenters to save his friends in business, Romney is not for us middle class and poor and disabled. Perhaps his running mate could get out of office and clean pots in the 5 min stunt with wifey and kids. Ryan could dress up as Simon LaGree, especially tieing a woman to the railroad tracks as she tried to go to the drug store for her birthcontrol pills, or for a mammogram. As long as they have their insurance and nice cars and pensions, the hell with the 47%
http://www.facebook.com/dianrib Diane Ribbentrop

MITT can say whatever he pleases His loyal followers will buy into whatever he says Even though it changes every few months . Every single position has been etch a sketched . Mitts fans put their faith in Fox Hannity OReilly Rush Rove and 800 co n radio talk shows who spread misinformation which spreads like wild fire to their gullible believers . Yes Mitts numbers are pure fantasy but most folks are
poor in math so it works for Mitt
http://profile.yahoo.com/LLWBIIX4LZA3CC6XMBGFF37DBU yahoo-LLWBIIX4LZA3CC6XMBGFF37DBU

I am amazed that this guy has been able to get away with so many outright lies and misrepresentations. His whole campaign is etch-a-sketch. He will say anything necessary depending on who he is talking to. This is the worst kind of person. He isn’t even an idealogue, he is a ‘fast talker’ who believes he can fool you because you don’t know the facts. Add to that, he makes about $400,000/week and sequesters the loot in foreign lands. What is he work towards, being able to skip the country if things get bad. Add to that he is a religious idealogue of strange ideas and background and you see one of the grandest scams in political history. This is even worse than George Bush and I thought I would never be able to say that.

God help us if he is elected. Wake up folks. This guy has nothing we want or need unless we are in the top 2%.

http://www.facebook.com/schirmerdon Donald Schirmer

The President even had to get up and tell him his time was up. I looked at the board when it went down to 0 Obama had a great time last night and one more win and romney weill be out, just like Casey

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ralph-Lackey/100001785091603 Ralph Lackey

This exposes the “fuzzy math” that Republicans are famous for.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HCRICNLRMQH4GYX2KWQYLNQTPI whitetiger

As far as the jobs he said he will create, he can save hundreds of jobs today. Being the largest owner of a plant that is scheduled to close on Nov. 5th. A plant that is going to China. If he wants to do something about jobs, why not this plant?
http://www.facebook.com/dave.kruse.14 Dave Kruse

Republican math never adds up. Just look back to 2008!
http://www.facebook.com/schirmerdon Donald Schirmer

Wee gotta git Mitt an Ech-a-sketch and a calculator before he get in front of his audiance on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. His numbers do not add up,even for me who was not very good at trigonomitry
http://profile.yahoo.com/2YNX57XKEG3DGAWKXJE4HTMAB4 Carlos

HIS MATH JUST DON’T MATCH HIS PLANS IN GENERAL.

ALLLLAMERICAN

REALLY?????

Is that what you heard?????

http://profile.yahoo.com/2BK4GN6CDVOOBMXWHI3KXFAFNE douglas

Even FOX news is beginning to say the Romney numbers do not add up. It is impossible for anyone to create 12 million jobs in the next four years. I did some checking on my own. There have been only three presidents in history that this many jobs were created during their administration, and even then it did not happen until their 2nd term. The Presidents are: Roosevelt, Reagan and Clinton. Another interesting fact. In the last 50 years Republican presidents have been in office 28 years, and created 24 million jobs. Democratic presidents have been in office 24 years and created 42 million jobs. Also since President Hoover every Republican
president has had a recession during office. Carter is the only Democratic president to have a recession. Do Republicans have bad luck or is it their economic policy?

ArthurConanDoyle

Well, for one example, JFK’s tax and economic policy was much closer to Romney’s than Obama’s. Cf:

“Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased – not a reduced – flow of revenues to the federal government.”

– John F. Kennedy, Jan. 17, 1963, annual budget message to the Congress, fiscal year 1964

So, it’s the policy, not whether they have a D or R after their name.

There is a delay, but increased growth in the tax base results in higher revenues.

The error in many economist’s thinking – and in Obama’s ‘math’ – is they assume a static base and a static economy and therefore a shortfall in revenue with a tax rate cut.

Obama has said that we should not raise taxes during a recession because it hurts the economy. If that is true for one group, it is true for all.

What is desperately needed is job growth which requires economic growth. Romney, and JFK’s policy focused on this. Obama seems to think growth should come by taking more money from the citizens, giving it to government to spend. We tried it with a trillion dollars already. It didn’t work.

More of the same won’t work either.

irishtap

The Romney campaign and the game plan of today’s republican cult is one in the same : cheat – prevaricate – obfuscate. Throw multiple lies out to the airwaves and hope a few stick in the minds of uninformed voters. I’m a liberal, yet I don’t rely upon left leaning news sites or blogs for ammunition : it comes from angry republican intellectuals. Serious number crunchers who’ve looked at the Ryan/Romney plans that have determined the plans to be absurd and fictitious fairytales, based upon an ideological fantasy wish list. People like Mike Lofgren, a 28 year republican strategist who wrote a scathing expos’e about how his party has morphed into a “cult”. David Stockman the high ranking economic advisor to Reagan, flat out called the Ryan budget a “fairytale that would never happen”. Presidential candidate John McCain’s economic advisor Mark Zandi (a highly regarded conservative economist for Moody’s Analytics) has publicly stated how the stimulus saved us from a full on depression, saving and adding roughly 2.7 million jobs in the process.
Clearly, the GOP no longer exists. It is fully owned and operated by the radical right wing super rich element residing in our country. They want to purchase this election to engineer society to their economic and ideological liking. Brothers Koch will use 400 million dollars or more for purposes of removing environmental, labor regulations. Koch thought dictates: it’s our own problem if we have an asthma attack or eventually succumb to the air we breathe or become ill from what may be floating around in our aquifers. Of course they’ll be doing damage control by buying the public school system to teach our children that climate change is fiction. These people think they are worthy of holding power over us by virtue of their ravenous appetite for enormous wealth. They say ‘to hell with representative government’, it’s an unnecessary nuisance, it only gets in the way of them doing as they please, to make more money and put the rest of us in economic and environmental peril.
To provide some perspective as to the level of Kochs otherworldly riches consider this: the 400 million dollars they are using to destroy our representative government is but 6/10 of one percent of their entire wealth. Pocket change to them, but an investment that will profoundly impact their bottom line and give them license to promote pre-labor movement working conditions. Thanks to Citizens United, there will be no stopping them. What passes for the alternative political party is comprised of vacuous and cruel sociopaths, whom masterbate to the suffering of fellow citizens. Evil through and through. Give what you can to democratic candidates, be vocal and for the love of God, VOTE.

nobsartist

It is run and financed by the koch brothers and the racist John Birch Society.

ArthurConanDoyle

Too bad this strategy isn’t working:

“Obama is a dismal failure, but the other guy would be worse! He’s a rich meanie racist misogynist!”

Stopped working during the first debate.

nobsartist

You must have missed the last 2 debates. willard and ryan have proved that they are idiots to a large number of voters.

That could explain why President Obama is winning the election,

ArthurConanDoyle

Or.. we could accept some truth from the rapid and dramatic increase in support for Romney/Ryan, and correspondent decrease for Obama/Biden beginning after the first debate.

Melvin Chatman

DUH!!!
http://twitter.com/LostAnarchist S-3

And as usual, liar’s mathematics don’t add up, just like I expected!

In other words, like my honest opinion and that only – THIS ISN’T NEWS ANYMORE.
nobsartist

Speaking of numbers, where are willards tax returns?

Is it true he has made millions shipping American jobs to China where he is in business with the RED CHINESE ARMY?

Is it true that because his business partners are the RED CHINESE ARMY, he has hidden hundreds of millions in Chinese banks that refuse to supply information to the IRS?

I smell a rat.

mccain figured it out. Thats why he picked an idiot like palin over willard the rat.

ALLLLAMERICAN

WHO CARES ABOUT ROMNEY’S MONEY!!!!!!!!!

IT’S NOT YOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s none of your business

You make your money and do what you want with your money and we wont ask!!

GET A LIFE

http://www.facebook.com/itsmsdee333 Darlene A Wyche

For the life of me, I can’t understand why Romney supporters cannot see through all the lies and hype. Did they really “excuse” that 47% statement. Look, it is a fact that when someone makes a negative statement in private around those one believes is of like mind, that you can bet everything that it came from the heart. People, it is the way he REALLY feels about you. He just wants to be President to keep the rich, RICH! Don’t vote for Romney because you don’t like President Obama. Read, research and understand the issues and how each candidate REALLY feels about them. Then, make your “informed”, “intelligent” decision.
http://www.facebook.com/itsmsdee333 Darlene A Wyche

For the life of me, I can’t understand why Romney supporters cannot see through all the lies and hype. Did they really “excuse” that 47% statement? Look, it is a fact that when someone makes a negative statement in private around those one believes is of like mind, you can bet everything that it came from the heart. People, it is the way he REALLY feels about you! He just wants to be President to keep the rich, RICH! Don’t vote for Romney because you don’t like President Obama. Read, research and understand the issues and how each candidate REALLY feels about them. Then, make your “informed”, “intelligent” decision.

ALLLLAMERICAN

For the life of me, I can’t understand why obama supporters cannot see through all the lies he has said for over four years now.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZBIWKGJLZRDSUYO3Y5WGY4CJPE common sense1

All Romney knows how to count is his money, then he pays less taxes than most working people.
mmaynard119

Mr. Conason – After not seeing your writings for many months, I was pleased to find your work here. Plus, being in the writing company of E.J. Dionne must be a major plus for you.

Memo Pad

Bad Arithmetic: Top Romney Economist Admits ‘Jobs Plan’ Numbers Don’t Compute

Follow Us

Newsmaker Memo

Most Read

Most Comments