By now, Americans are so used to the dishonesty of Mitt Romney‘s campaign ads that the Republican presidential candidate is barely even trying to disguise it anymore. On Monday morning, the Romney campaign released an ad (sure to become a weeks-long series) targeting younger voters, based on President Obama‘s recent declaration that “You can’t change Washington from the inside.”
The ad is so clumsy in its execution and self-evident in its dishonesty, though, that even the fifth-grader who wrote it would immediately know that the Romney campaign is twisting the quote out of context.
In case you missed it, here’s what the President actually said at that Univision forum (the day after Mitt Romney’s rigged Univision forum):
You can’t change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside. That’s how I got elected and how the big accomplishments like health care got done – was because we mobilized the American people to speak out. That’s how we were able to cut taxes for middle class families. So, something I’d really like to concentrate on in my second term is being in a much more constant conversation with the American people, so that they can put pressure on Congress to move some of these issues forward.
So the President says that the American people must be involved in the process before any real change can come to Washington, and he makes that statement based on his own experiences. But Mitt Romney, being so comfortable with lying to and misleading the American people, decides to do it again.
Here’s the ad, where Romney takes one sentence of the president’s remarks, and makes a totally baseless claim.
Hold on to your chairs folks, we are not responsible for anyone falling over from laughter. Get this… In an interview that aired today, Mitt Romney, the most dishonest politician I’ve ever seen accused President Obama of lying.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says the upcoming debates will be tough because President Barack Obama has a tendency to “say things that aren’t true.”
“I think he’s going to say a lot of things that aren’t accurate,” Romney told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired on Friday. “I’m tempted to go back to that wonderful line by Ronald Reagan — ‘There you go again’ — but you can’t use something that’s [already been used].”
“Bill Clinton used that about you the other day during the Democratic Convention,” Stephanopoulos noted.
“I didn’t happen to see that, but doubt we’re going to pull out something from Ronald Reagan, he’s one of a kind,” the former Massachusetts governor explained. “But the challenge I’ll have is that the president tends to, how shall I say it, say things that aren’t true in attacking his opponents.”
“I’ve looked at prior debates and in that kind of case, it’s difficult to say, well, am I going to spend my time correcting things that aren’t quite accurate or am I going spend my time talking about the things I want to talk about? And that’s the challenge.”
But President Obama may also have his hands full when it comes to fact checking the Republican nominee.
Pundits, politicos and Republican Party stalwarts alike have panned a mid-morning press conference by Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA). Romney’s campaign drew fire overnight for falsely attributing a quote by Egyptian embassy personnel under siege to the Obama administration, then attacking the presidency for “apologizing for our values,” thereby seizing upon the violence in Egypt and Libya to score political points against President Barack Obama.
Rather than use today’s press conference as an opportunity to clear the air and mourn the deaths of U.S. citizens who gave their lives in service to their country, however, the former governor doubled down on his attacks against the president, a maneuver that was criticized even on the right.
Former foreign policy adviser to Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Victoria Coates told BuzzFeed, “It’s deeply unfortunate when the circumstance of the statement becomes the story.”
Members of the press were struck by the move, as well. Time magazine’s Mark Halperin said on Twitter that Romney’s attacks were the most “craven + ill-advised move” of the 2012 campaign.
Wall Street Journal columnist and doyenne of DC politics Peggy Noonan opined to Fox News that the nominee isn’t “doing himself any favors” with his handling of the situation.
“When you step forward in the midst of a political environment and start giving statements on something dramatic and violent that has happened, you’re always leaving yourself open to accusations that you are trying to exploit things politically,” she said.
They’re all politicians, regardless of what Mitt Romney wants to call himself. But what does it say of the Romney campaign and the Republican leaders when they chose three major lies to base an entire convention on?
Lie Number 1. – “You Didn’t Build That.”
Those were the words President Obama used at a campaign event. The President was talking about all the different factors that contribute to all successful businesses. But Republicans are only focusing on the you didn’t build that phrase and they are telling their followers that President Obama is against businesses.
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you have a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.
Anyone with a hint of common sense can look at that quote and conclude that the President was correct. Somewhere along the line, somebody gave entrepreneurs some help. Yes, business owners formulate a business plan, some invested every dollar they had and put in the long hours. But doing that alone does not make a successful business. It helps to have a proper education and good teachers. It helps when customer have access to a business whether it be through roads, public transportation or the internet. And yes, it helps when there is a system already in place that facilitates the business plan and allows that plan to be successful.
So Republicans can focus on the “you didn’t build it” part of the President’s speech all they want. The facts… the simple facts show that the president is correct.
Lie Number 2. – “Obama increased the deficit by $5 Trillion”
This lie is another example of what Republicans and the Romney campaign is famous for – placing a laser focus on one part of a political argument and enlarging that argument to a point where it becomes the whole story.
Yes, $5 Trillion dollars were added to the deficit under the Obama administration, but that’s not the whole story. For anyone who is genuine and want to know more, the full story is about where this $5 trillion comes from.
Here are the facts on the $5 trillion:
The George Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were conducted on a credit card. In his infinite wisdom, George Bush did not include these wars in any budget. Mr. Obama on the other hand chose to bring this information to the American people and $853 billion – the price of both Bush wars – were added to the deficit.
The George Bush Tax Cuts – Another Bush policy that the Bush administration chose not to add to the deficit. In an effort to be transparent President Obama budgeted this cost and $2.2 trillion appeared on the deficit, thanks to Bush.
Other Bush Credit Card Policies – The costs of these Bush policies were also hidden from the American people, and these cost were finally budgeted by the Obama administration:
Defense – $616 Billion
Non Defense – $608 Billion
Entitlements – $293 Billion
Troubled Assets – $294 Billion
Prescription Drug costs – $180 Billion
And there you have it. The whole story on the $5 trillion deficit increase, all items from the George Bush-era.
How much did Obama’s policies add to the deficit? According to the chart below, when the expenses and revenues are taken into consideration, the Obama policies adds just about $983 billion. It breaks down like this:
And the Republican’s claim in itself makes no sense. A recent article by MarketWatch details that spending under President Obama is at a 60 year low. How can he “increased the deficit by $5 trillion if he’s not spending? The graph below explains:
In addition to the study by MarketWatch, PolitiFact did their research and agrees – spending is less under Obama. From PolitiFact:
Obama has indeed presided over the slowest growth in spending of any president using raw dollars, and it was the second-slowest if you adjust for inflation. The math simultaneously backs up Nutting’s calculations and demolishes Romney’s contention.
Lie Number 3 – “Obama removed the work requirement in Welfare.”
This particular lie was told (and will be told again and again) by the Republican Vice President candidate Paul Ryan. This lie was, like I’m sure you all know by now, debunked by every respectable fact-checker in the field. But the fact that this lie is already debunked did not stop the vice president candidate and he mentioned it in the biggest speech of his career – his speech to the nation.
The lie is based on a memo from the Obama administration to the states, where the states are granted a waiver from the federal program if they (the states) can show better more effective way to transfer welfare recipients from welfare to better training and work. But unfortunately, many in the Republican base choose fiction over facts and the Romney campaign is feeding this lie to these people.
And now that we’ve come to the end of the Republican convention, what can we really say we’ve learned?
Although a tad more of the Republican candidate was revealed to the American people, it was hard to believe what I was seeing and what I was hearing from the Convention podium. How can we believe anything coming from these Republicans when the very foundation of their Convention was based on lies?
Mitt Romney’s claim that President Obama has removed the work requirement for welfare recipients and is now issuing free checks, has been debunked by everyone who knows how to use google. And now, even Mitt Romney is debunking Mitt Romney.
Romney’s lie stems from a memo the Obama Administration issued to states, inviting them to apply for waivers from the Federal welfare program. These waivers allow the states more flexibility to “help their poorest citizens transition from welfare to employment—in return, the states would face tougher federal standards that ensure 20% more people move into work.”
Seems like a straightforward memo. But if your name is Mitt Romney, you are again blinded by politics and you see a need to say anything and do anything to win the presidency. And that’s exactly what Romney did. He created lie stating that President Obama was giving away money to welfare recipients.
All the Fact checkers called Romney’s lie a lie and based on this 2005 letter signed by Mitt Romney, even Mitt Romney is debunking his lie.
The letter below was asking then President George Bush to do the same thing Obama did in his memo. And Romney was one of the originators of the letter.
Here’s an old song I’m sure you have heard before – Mitt Romney is a liar! See? You’re all shaking your heads in agreement.
Well, I here’s another verse to add to our little song. We have all the new claim from Mitt Romney that President Obama has “stolen” $700 billion from Medicare. Well PolitiFact checked into these claims and found…shockingly…that Mitt Romney is a liar!
Here’s how Romney put it in an interview with 60 Minutes shortly after selecting Ryan:
“There’s only one president that I know of in history that robbed Medicare, $716 billion to pay for a new risky program of his own that we call Obamacare.”
Here, we’re checking whether Obama “robbed” Medicare of $716 billion dollars to pay for Obamacare.
$700 billion from Medicare?
The claim that Obama cut $700 billion out of Medicare is relatively new. Not long ago, the oft-cited number was $500 billion. How did he manage to cut another $200 billion when no one was looking?
First things first: Neither Obama nor his health care law literally cut a dollar amount from the Medicare program’s budget.
Rather, the health care law instituted a number of changes to try to bring down future health care costs in the program. At the time the law was passed, those reductions amounted to $500 billion over the next 10 years.
What kind of spending reductions are we talking about? They were mainly aimed at insurance companies and hospitals, not beneficiaries. The law makes significant reductions to Medicare Advantage, a subset of Medicare plans run by private insurers. Medicare Advantage was started under President George W. Bush, and the idea was that competition among the private insurers would reduce costs. But in recent years the plans have actually cost more than traditional Medicare. So the health care law scales back the payments to private insurers.
Hospitals, too, will be paid less if they have too many re-admissions, or if they fail to meet other new benchmarks for patient care.
Obama and fellow Democrats say the intention is to protect beneficiaries’ coverage while forcing health care providers to become more efficient.
And Romney’s claim that President Obama is the only president in history to deal with Medicare? This is what PolitiFact found:
“We reviewed this history in detail in a fact-check of Romney’s statement from December, “Only one president has ever cut Medicare for seniors in this country . . . Barack Obama.” We rated that False. Many presidents have sought to rein in Medicare spending.
Here are a few highlights from that fact-check:
• President Ronald Reagan cut Medicare by reducing payments to hospitals, and he cut benefits by raising deductibles.
• President George H.W. Bush cut benefits by repealing a law that would have expanded coverage for drugs and catastrophic illness.
• President Bill Clinton cut Medicare by changing payments to doctors and other providers, which could be considered to have an indirect effect on beneficiaries.”
By now you’ve all heard of yet another massive lie from the Mitt Romney, accusing President Obama of getting rid of the “work” element for welfare recipients, and “sending them a check” just for being on the program.
Of course, this is just another of Romney’s growing list of blatant lies against the President and this time, President Obama is answering back.
PolitiFact took on Mitt Romney’s constant claim that President Obama is anti-business. Romney’s attack on the President stems from a statement Mr. Obama made a few weeks ago, where he said – among other things -” If you have a business, you didn’t build that.”
PolitiFact – a fact checking organization that analyze political statements of both Democrats and Republicans – checked Romney’s attack and found Romney is, once again, lying.
From PolitiFact : Romney cherry-picked a quote that made it sound like Obama was dismissive of businesses when in fact he was making a point that success comes from the combination of “individual initiative” and the fact that “we do things together.”
The biggest problem is that the Romney campaign has left out the lead-up to the statement — that “if you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges.”
These words indicate that Obama was referring to infrastructure and educational opportunities that were paid for by taxpayers through the government — things that established a necessary foundation for making private businesses successful.
We think his meaning is clear — that both business people and government play a role in the American enterprise system, not purely one or the other.
Our ruling
In speeches and videos, the Romney campaign has repeatedly distorted Obama’s words. By plucking two sentences out of context, Romney twists the president’s remarks and ignores their real meaning.
We thought Mitt Romney had no convictions. We thought he was a flip-flopper whose position on any issue depends on the group of people he’s talking to at that moment. We thought Mitt Romney did not stand by anything and is capable of changing his mind on a dime. But we were wrong.
As it turns out, there is something Mitt Romney stands by. Something he is known for and he apparently will not change and that is, Mitt Romney is a liar who continues to lie even after the truth is point out to him. Fact-checking means nothing to Mr. Romney, as he just brushes off the facts and continues lying anyway.
When he lose the election in 2012, Mitt Romney will do well as a political pundit at Fox News.
Mitt Romney told CNBC that there’s precedent for presidential candidates releasing just two years of tax returns.
Said Romney: “Well, we’ve had people run for president before, and they’ve released two years. John Kerry released two years of taxes… I’ve released one already, put the estimate out for the next year. We’ll have two years of taxes.”
But Think Progress points out Kerry actually released 20 years of tax returns when he was a candidate in 2004.
Now that the President is officially in campaign mode with Mitt Romney being the obvious choice for the Republican nomination, the Obama presidential campaign put out this simple ad focusing on some of the things Romney have said during the campaign, and then showing where Romney is blatantly lying to the American people.
Like taking candy from a kid… not that we take candy from kids… well, your kids shouldn’t be dining on candies anyway… unless they’re Sarah Palin’s…
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