By Jueseppi B.

 

 

 

Not everything Mitt Romney says is on the level. Scratch that…NOTHING Mitt Romney says is on the level….scratch that….Mitt Romney Is a Lyin Prick.

 

 

Much Thanks to Rachel Maddow & Steve Benen for compiling this never-ending list.

 

The Lies of Mitt Willard Romney…..ALL Of Them: Oh yeah….immediately following each lie, is the true fact that disputes each Mitt Willard Romney lie. All 344 lies.

 

January 06, 2012:

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.”

That’s not even close to being true.

 

3. Romney talking about his jobs record on Fox News on Tuesday: “[At Bain Capital], we helped create over 100,000 new jobs.”

Actually, no, he didn’t.

 

4. Romney in New Hampshire on Wednesday saidPresident Obama seeks “a ‘European-style welfare state’ to redistribute wealth and create ‘equal outcomes’ regardless of individual effort and success.”

This isn’t just a lie, it’s also “Glenn Beck-level insane.”

 

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.”

Romney has said this before, and he’s been told every time,he’s lying.

 

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.

 

 

January 13, 2012:

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.”

That’s not true.

 

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.”

This is the exact opposite of the truth.

 

3. After winning the New Hampshire primary, Romney said of the president, “He lost our AAA credit rating.”

In reality, it was congressional Republicans who were responsible for the downgrade.

 

4. In the same speech, Romney said of Obama, “He apologizes for America”

Romney’s still lying.

 

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.”

No, it doesn’t.

 

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.

That’s so blatantly untrue, the Romney campaign has started moving the goal posts.

 

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 abackwhen others, including Republicans, accuse the former governor of being deceitful.

 

 

January 20, 2012:

1. “The president is planning on cutting $1 trillion out of military spending.”

That’s a Romney favorite, but it’s not at all accurate.

 

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.”

That’s not even close to being true.

 

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.”

This one actually includes multiple lies.

 

4. “Our navy is smaller than it’s been since 1917.”

That’s wildly misleading and intended to deceive.

 

5. “[D]on’t forget who it was that cut Medicare by $500 billion. And that was President Obama, to pay for Obamacare.”

As Romney almost certainly knows, that’s just not true.

 

6. “I went off on my own. I didn’t inherit money from my parents.”

Yes, actually, he did.

 

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’s run for president as a culture warrior), and when he was endorsed by the Massachusetts Pro-Life Family Association, Romneyforcefully 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.

 

 

Feb 3, 2012:

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.”

True or false? The claim isn’t even closeto being right.

 

2. Romney said Democrats “passed Dodd-Frank,” which “has made it almost impossible for community banks.”

True or false? He’s has said this before, and it’s still completely untrue.

 

3. Romney continues to insist, “Our Navy is now smaller than any time since 1917.”

True or false? It’s one of his favorite talking points, but it’s wildly misleading.

 

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.”

True or false? In reality, he inherited quite a bit from his wealthy, powerful parents.

 

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.”

True or false? That’s not really what happened.

 

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.”

True or false? Reality shows the exact opposite is true.

 

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.”

True or false? Republicans love this, but it’s plainly false.

 

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.”

True or false? It’s one of the more transparent lies Romney has told.

 

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.”

True or false? He’s lying again.

 

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.”

True or false? That’s not only untrue, it’s a story Romney has changed literally five times.

 

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.”

True or false? Even for Romney, this is kind of dishonesty is just brazen.

 

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, evenMitt 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.”

 

 

Feb 10, 2012:

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.”

This is both untrue and rather strange.

 

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.”

That’s not even close to being an accurate description of the policy.

 

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.”

That’s not true.

 

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.”

No honest evaluation of the Affordable Care Act could lead a literate person to believe this.

 

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.

That’s not what happened.

 

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.

 

 

Feb 17, 2012:

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.”

In reality, Romney won Michigan by more than nine points.

 

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’tcut 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.”

That’s really not what happened.

 

6. Romney claimed this week, “My campaign hasn’t run any negative ads against Rick Santorum.”

Well, that depends on how one defines “campaign.”

 

7. Trying to take credit for the auto-industry-rescue policy he opposed, Romney claimed “the course I recommended was eventually followed.”

No, not really.

 

8. Romney said the “real unemployment rate” is actually 15%.

No, it’s not.

 

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.”

Oh, please.

 

 

Feb 24, 2012:

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.”

This not just a dumb argument, it’s also not true.

 

3. On foreign policy, Romney said, “[T]his president should have put in place crippling sanctions against Iran, he did not.”

Actually, he did.

 

4. Romney claimed that Syria is Iran’s “route to the sea.”

Iran has 1,520 miles of its own coastline – and doesn’t share a border with Syria.

 

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 bailoutfor 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.”

That’s so ridiculous, even Romney couldn’t actually mean that.

 

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.”

That’s not even close to being true.

 

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.”

That’s just not what happened.

 

12. Romney’s new attack ad says Rick Santorum voted to confirmSupreme 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.”

 

 

Mar 2, 2012:

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.”

Obama never said this.

 

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.”

Romney wasn’t born at the time of the event.

 

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.”

No, actually, he didn’t.

 

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.”

No serious person could possibly look at Romney’s plan and believe this.

 

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.”

That might make more sense if U.S. oil production under Obama weren’t up so significantly.

 

12. Romney argued this morning, “You know how many trade agreements this president has negotiated? Zero.”

Panama, Colombia, and South Korea know better.

 

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.

 

 

Mar 9, 2012:

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.”

He was lying.

 

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?”

This isn’t even remotely accurate.

 

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.”

Obama mentioned the deficit and the debt six times in his State of the Union address.

 

4. Pretending to understand U.S. policy in Iran, Romney said Obama “failed” to place sanctions on Iran.

That’s the opposite of reality.

 

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.

That’s also the exact opposite of reality.

 

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.”

No, actually, he didn’t.

 

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.”

Romney isn’t just lying about what transpired in 1981; he’s making a claim that’s laughably untrue.

 

 

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?”

 

 

Mar 16, 2012:

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.”

You know who agrees with the president? Mitt Romney.

 

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.”

That’s not what Obama said.

 

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.

What Romney’s saying just isn’t true.

 

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.”

No, it won’t. The Affordable Care Act actually cuts the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.

 

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.

 

 

Mar 23, 2012:

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.”

No, he didn’t.

 

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.”

That’s not even close to being true.

 

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.”

That’s just not what the Congressional Budget Office said.

 

6. In the same appearance, Romney said his first problem with the health care reform law is the “$500 billion cut in Medicare.”

Romney loves this line, but it’s simply not true.

 

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.”

That’s plainly false.

 

8. In the same speech, Romney said, “Under Dodd-Frank, [entrepreneurial pioneers] would have struggled to get loans from their community banks.”

Romney has to know that’s not true.

 

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.”

This isn’t just a lie; it’s a dumb lie.

 

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.”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

 

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.”

That’s the exact opposite of reality.

 

13. In the same interview, Romney said the Ryan plan “preserves Medicare.”

Actually, it ends Medicare, and replaces it with vouchers.

 

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.

 

 

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.”

That’s not even close to the truth.

 

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.’”

To say this was wrenched wildly out of context would be a dramatic understatement.

 

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.”

He’s lying.

 

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.”

Contrary to Mitt Romney, he is 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.”

Romney repeats this lie often, but it’s still a lie.

 

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.”

It’s the most tiresome lie of them all.

 

15. Romney claimed this week, “We know that under this president, chronic unemployment is the worst it’s been in American history.”

Asked to substantiate the claim, the Romney campaign couldn’t.

 

16. The Romney campaign argued this week that Romney, during his only term as governor, had “four years of budget surpluses.”

Actually, Romney left his successor a $1.3 billion deficit to clean up.

 

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.

 

22. Romney also argued Obama approved “a government takeover of healthcare.”

That’s just ridiculous.

 

 

Apr 13, 2012:

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.”

That’s not even close to being true.

 

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.”

Actually, no, they didn’t say that at all.

 

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.”

That’s simply not true.

 

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.”

Not really.

 

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 budgethasn’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.”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

 

10 The Romney campaign and its surrogates spent all day Thursdaydescribing 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.”

That’s actually three lies in one paragraph.

 

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.”

 

 

Apr 20, 2012:

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 positionObama 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.”

That’s a fascinating story, but it was the Bush/Cheney EPA that the Sackett family was fighting.

 

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.”

That’s not what Obama said.

 

6. Romney concluded, “We’ll stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for America abroad.”

This is a lie Romney repeats so often, it raises real concerns about his character.

 

7. Romney told ABC’s Diane Sawyer, “92% — 93% of the jobs lost have been lost by women during this president’s term.”

This is a ridiculous lie.

 

8. Trying to justify his secrecy on tax returns, Mitt Romney told CNBC, “John Kerry released two years of taxes.”

That’s not true.

 

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 diedbecause 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.

There’s clear evidence pointing in the exact opposite direction.

 

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.”

That’s a lie.

 

14. Romney also said in the same speech that Bush added “far less” to the national debt than Obama.

That’s not even close to being true.

 

15. In the same speech, Romney said Obama is “first president in modern history, in any history, to cut Medicare by $500 billion.”

Romney has said this countless times, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s not true.

 

16. Romney claimed on Thursday that Obama has placed “three times” as many regulatory burdens on the private second as Bush did.

That’s the opposite of the truth.

 

17. In Ohio yesterday, Romney argued, “[Obama] said that if we let him borrow $787 billion, he would unemployment below 8%.”

There is no universe in which this claim is true.

 

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.”

In reality, Kobach is still very much an adviser to Romney and his team.

 

21. The Romney campaign also said yesterday that the former governor never said Arizona’s anti-immigrant law is a “model” for the nation.

Romney absolutely 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?”

 

 

Apr 27, 2012:

1. Romney argued in Pennsylvania earlier this week that President Obama has “apologized for America.”

The fact that Romney continues to repeat this lie every day is pretty depressing.

 

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.”

As a matter of policy, that’s ridiculous, and as a matter of accuracy, it’s completely untrue.

 

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.”

That’s not even close to being true.

 

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.”

He neglected to mention that he endorsed a budget plan that slashes 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.”

That’s the opposite of the truth.

 

7. Romney added that under Obama, “we will have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society.”

No one can seriously believe such nonsense.

 

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.

Romney, earlier this year, explicitly endorsed ”self-deportation.”

 

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.”

 

 

May 4, 2012:

1. In a speech in Ohio, Romney referred to the Bush/Cheney era as “before the recession.”

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 smallestshare 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.”

That’s plainly false.

 

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.”

No, we’re not.

 

7. The Romney campaign again claimed “more than 92%” of the jobs lost since Obama took office are women.

This still is a ridiculous lie.

 

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 absurdly untrue, too.

 

9. In New Hampshire, Romney said Obama is “focused on taking away from those who have the least.”

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.

 

10. Romney also vowed, “I want to help the poor.”

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.”

That’s the opposite of reality, and reflects an unnerving ignorance about job policy.

 

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.”

This is one of those zombie lies that never goes away, but it’s still not true.

 

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.

 

 

May 11, 2012:

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%.”

That’s a popular claim for Romney, but it’s completely untrue.

 

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.”

That’s demonstrably false.

 

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.”

This one again? Romney dropped this lie a while ago, but it’s apparently back.

 

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.”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

 

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.”

Obama actually did the opposite, urging Americans to remember the last four years.

 

9. In the same speech, Romney said Obama has tried “to blame others” for the slow recovery, including “ATMs.”

As his lies go, this one’s just dumb.

 

10. He added, “President Clinton said the era of big government was over. President Obama brought it back with a vengeance.”

That’s the opposite of the truth.

 

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.”

That’s not true.

 

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.”

That’s wildly misleading and he knows it.

 

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.”

That’s not at all what “The Life of Julia” says.

 

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.

That’s wildly misleading and deliberately deceptive.

 

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.

To call this comically misleading would be an understatement.

 

20. And overnight, the Romney campaign claimed that Obama has “now admitted that he’s forgotten about the recession.”

That’s not even close to being accurate.

 

 

May 18, 2012:

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.”

I really wish that were true. It’s not.

 

3. Romney also argued that Obama has “added almost as much debt as all the prior presidents combined.”

That’s not even close to being true.

 

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.”

That’s an obvious lie. It’s not Obama’s policies that are driving the debt.

 

12. Romney claimed that more of the economy is being “absorbed … into government.”

That’s the opposite of the truth.

 

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.”

That’s not even close to being true.

 

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.”

This is one of the more important lies Romney will tell this year.

 

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.”

Actually, Romney retained full, sole ownership of the firm at the time GST collapsed.

 

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.

 

 

May 25, 2012:

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.”

As Romney surely knows by now, that’s simply not true.

 

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’ssavings become greater in future years, and killing the law makes it harderto 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.”

That’s a fundamental falsehood. Romney’s plan slashes taxes on the wealthy.

 

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.”

In reality, it’s the rich, not the middle class, that primarily benefits from Romney’s tax plan.

 

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.”

There is no universe in which this is even close to being true.

 

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 doesn’t even make 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.

That’s not even close to being accurate.

 

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.”

That’s not really what the book says, and it’s not what the president’s team argued.

 

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.”

No, you didn’t.

 

16. The Romney campaign also argued this week that Romney created “well in excess of 100,000” jobs as an executive at Bain Capital.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

 

 

Jun 1, 2012:

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.’”

Romney says this just about every day. It’s not true.

 

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.”

That’s the exact opposite of reality.

 

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.”

That’s the place the nation has been cutting back.

 

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.

Nice try, but no.

 

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.’”

That’s ridiculously misleading.

 

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 endlesslyover 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.”

That’s a new twist on an old lie (see above), but it’s still wrong.

 

 

Jun 8, 2012:

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.”

No, actually we’re not.

 

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.”

Given the relevant details, Romney is “just making stuff up” with this deceptive tale.

 

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.

As his lies go, this one’s just dumb.

 

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.”

That’s as clear a lie as the campaign has told all year.

 

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.”

The only way in which that makes any sense is if you use standards the Romney campaign rejects.

 

15. Romney went on to say, “For a family watching their house being sold at foreclosure … the results are just as devastating.”

Romney has no intention of intervening to stop foreclosures.

 

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.”

There is no version of reality in which this is true.

 

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.”

Again, according to the Romney campaign’s own standards, the Romney campaign isn’t being honest.

 

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.”

That’s a nice attempt at spin, but it’s not even close to being true.

 

 

Jun 15, 2012:

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 thatit’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.”

Panama, Colombia, and South Korea know better.

 

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.”

That’s the exact opposite of reality.

 

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.”

In reality, coal production is up, not down.

 

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 scarecommunity 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.”

Romney says this just about every day. It’s not true.

 

20. In the same speech, Romney argued, “That stimulus didn’t work. That stimulus didn’t put more private-sector people to work.”

The stimulus did work and it did 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.”

Um, no.

 

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.

 

 

Jun 22, 2012:

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.”

Romney says this a lot. He’s not telling the truth.

 

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.

As Romney surely knows by now, he’s lying.

 

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 saida 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.

There is no such change-of-address form.

 

9. At the same event, Romney said Obama is “taking away” scholarships and charter schools for “kids in Washington, D.C.”

This has become a line in Romney’s stump speech, but it isn’t in any way true.

 

10. Romney also claimed, “This president has put together almost as much public debt as all the prior presidents combined.”

That’s a lie.

 

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.”

That’s the opposite of the truth.

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 conventioners 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.”

Either Romney hasn’t read his own tax plan, or he’s lying.

 

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.”

You’ve got to be kidding me.

 

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.”

That’s demonstrably ridiculous.

 

24. At the same event, Romney said that Obama “insists” that “Israel return to the ’67 borders — indefensible borders.”

He’s lying.

 

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.”

As Romney surely knows by now, that’s simply not true.

 

26. At the same event, Romney said under Obamacare, we’ll get “a healthcare system run by the government.”

There is no universe in which this is true.

 

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.”

That’s painfully untrue.

 

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 actuallygotten 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.”

Romney does realize that Panama is part of Latin America, right?

 

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.

 

If after reading these 344 lies that tumbled out of the mouth of Mitt Willard Romney, you are still undecided whom to vote for, you’re just plain stupid.

 

Thats 344 lies. If President Of The United States Barack Hussein Obama told two lies, he’d be impeached. 345 lies if you count Ann Romney’s bald faced lie about her being a stay at home mom. Next time you see Ann Romney, ask her, for me, which of her 6 homes was she a stay at home mom in?

 

I don’t want a President who lies to me.

 

344 times since January of 2012.

 

“BARACK” The Vote.

 

 

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