Mitt Romney sat down with Time's Mark Halperin this morning, and made a rather remarkable boast about future job growth in a Romney administration.
"Over a period of 4 years, by virtue of the policies that we put in place, we get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent, perhaps a little lower," the Republican said.
There are, of course, two glaring problems with this. The first is that Romney told voters any unemployment rate above 4 percent is a problem. He didn't say this years ago; he set this standard earlier this month.
The second is that Romney doesn't realize what we're on track to reach that standard anyway. The self-described "numbers guy" told Halperin that his "policies" will "get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent," but as Travis Waldron noted, "The Congressional Budget Office predicts that unemployment will average 6.3 percent in 2016; the Office of Management and Budget, meanwhile, projects unemployment will hit 6.1 percent and ultimately fall below 6 percent the same year."
In other words, Romney is promising to deliver results we're likely to get anyway. The myth of this guy's competence has been greatly exaggerated.
Video by way of our pal James Carter.
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Forget the CBO or OMB. Or even Romney's recent 4% boast. The guy doesn't even have a plan! Unless it's the magic underpants gnome.
Surely Mitt Romney, King of Bain and master of the economic universe, is not so stupid as to lay out a specific figure that his "policies" will get the national unemployment rate to in the first year or so of his prospective presidency. If this quote is accurate, it once again shows that Romney has no clue about how the economy operates and what is causing our jobs crisis. Government regulation did not cause the unemployment rate to spike. A once-in-a-generation recession -- caused by GOP policies -- did, followed by mass austerity on the state level. Romney cannot possibly live up to this promise. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
And you who like me come from the wonderful state of FloriDuh and had to listen to the same kind of predictions from Mr. Rick "Lets get to work " Scott who told us he was going to create 700,000 jobs . The state has barely seen 50,000 in 2 years and the unemployment is still north of 9%. Gee Rick maybe if you hadn't refused that 24 Billion in high speed rail money for ideological reasons(It came from the Federal Government) we might have had a few more jobs They all create fantasies that the gullible swallow .
My take away from the exchange? Romney reinforced the type of leader he has shown himself to be - one who leads from behind. Bet he looked up the CBO report before he went on air to get his numbers right! What an embarrassment, and if elected, what an indictment against Jefferson's Collective Wisdom necessary for a healthy democracy to survive into the future! -Kevo
he is nothing but a signer of whatever the top one percent ask of him. scary to think of him being our president. gives me chills.
The classic "empty suit".
What a vapid two faced nobody...
Not if you're planning getting rid of medicare, planned parenthood and social security as well as lining the pockets of the 0.01% with ridiculous tax breaks and starting a war with Iran; doing that will kill jobs too you lying hairwad... Of course, maybe Mr Rmoney will have an "expand the jobs that pay < poverty level" program that we haven't heard about yet!
Its been a continuing mystery to me. Everybody in the MSM keeps telling me how smart and savvy he is (because, after all, he made a bazillion dollars by buying up mediocre companies, siphoning money out of them even if it meant loading them up with unsupportable amounts of debt and then selling the withered husks to greater fools. so he must be, right?). And yet I have, quite literally, never heard him utter, heard of him uttering or heard of him writing, a single word that is not consistent with the theory that he's even more of a blithering idiot than George W. Bush.
But, "he looks presidential". I cannot tell you how many times I have seen those words in comment sections from RWers.
Why didn't the GOP just nominate Don Draper? He's a well coiffed liar too.
Ignorance is the only reason Romney's candidacy has gone as far as it has.
"he looks presidential"= he's not black, black, blackity, black, black.
There translated it for you
See, this is my theory. The only qualification wingers need to run for office is to be able to look good in a suit.
Plan? Remember, this is the same guy who traded the family cow for some magic beans.
You mean he's "Jack and the Bain-stalk"?
Mitt Romney is leading us to believe his business experience will translate to leading a country. He has already applied his Bain expertise to a state. Why then doesn't he talk about how well that went? Sorry, Mitt, your silence is deafening.
News Flash : Mitt Romney has finally come up with a plan for America if hell freezes over and pigs fly and he becomes President of America !
A : Crush more and more American companies while destroying more jobs and defrauding the American tax payer of their taxes, pensions and savings and then continue sending this ill gotten booty over seas with even more middle class jobs.
B : Crush more and more American companies while destroying more jobs and defrauding the American tax payer of their taxes, pensions and savings and then continue sending this ill gotten booty over seas with even more middle class jobs.
C: Crush more and more American companies while destroying more jobs and defrauding the American tax payer of their taxes, pensions and savings and then continue sending this ill gotten booty over seas with even more middle class jobs.
Etc
Etc
Etc
Well...but that's the genius of the whole thing, isn't it? He is promising something that's been already supposed to be there, so there is nothing he has to do or work on.
It is like him saying "I bet you $10,000 if you go to NY on Monday, you'll see the statue of Liberty." Who can argue with that? And it is not that he is lying or not know that the statue will be there. He is just betting that YOU don't know the statue IS there.
The more viable question about his policy is: With all the talk and concern the GOP has about debt, what will his answer be to the growing debt number that all the economist say will happen under his tax and fiscal policy? Or is that question considered a character assassination?
Hilarious Just Comment. You make some great points.
He will keep doing what he has been doing without anyone being allowed to ask him what he has been doing or what he will do ! Its the just wait and see plan while accusing the President of the just wait and see plan !
He can tell all kinds of lies and then just complain about persecution when the media presses for clarity on what he is saying. Brilliant !
He just invested loads of money in this new company that makes asbestos pants called " The Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire " line !!
"The second [glaring problem] is that Romney doesn't realize what we're on track to reach that standard anyway."
He is FULLY aware that we will get to 6% whether he does anything or not. It is easy to get there over four years without lifting a finger, which is what he will do if elected president.
Mark Halperin should have been aware of that.
I guess being well informed on current issues is not a requirement for employment at Time magazine.
I believe Halperin was the top political hack on the Salon list
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/15/welcome_to_the_2011_salon_hack_list/
to quote: Congratulations to the world's laziest dispenser of conventional wisdom
He was also suspended for calling the President a dick .
A real professional .
We know who's team he is on
He might not lift a finger, but you can bet that with his help others will lift all sorts of things.
Mitt talks out of both sides of his mouth ~ one voice is his and one voice is Carl Rove's!
Why does the liberal media keep bullying Memory Isn't There Today (MITT) about his inability to remember what he said the previous day? Can't we all see that he just needs serious medical care and a few decades rest?
Steve, I think you forget the mind-numbing competency of Mitt's highly competent hair. It boggles! Just boggles! So, so very, competent. Plus, the hair isn't a compulsive liar.
From AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's campaign says Republican rival Mitt Romney is trying to "move the goal posts" and reverse his position on unemployment. Actually, that's a fumble of the facts.
In an interview with Time magazine, Romney predicts the nation'sunemployment rate will sink to 6 percent from the current rate of 8.1 percent if he wins the White House and implements his economic policies.
Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt told reporters Wednesday that Romney is reversing course from a 4 percent number he mentioned during May remarks — trying to cast Romney as a politician who readily changes positions.
"Romney moved the goal post in just a matter of weeks. He said that he was going to get it to 4 percent several weeks ago," LaBolt told reporters on a conference call. "Now he's at 6 percent and he's already moved the goal posts on a critical promise that he has made."
However, the economic plan that Romney introduced last September actually predicted a 5.9 percentunemployment figure by the end of his first term.
LaBolt, however, was citing comments Romney offered in Pittsburgh in May. At that time, Romney said in response to a decline in the unemployment rate: "Anything over 4 percent is not cause for celebration." He didn't offer a timetable for that, despite LaBolt's suggestion.
The last time the unemployment rate fell to 4 percent or lower was in 2000, the last year of Bill Clinton's presidency. The jobless rate fell to 3.8 percent in April of that year. President George W. Bush saw unemployment fluctuate during his presidency from 4.2 percent at the start of his administration to above 7 percent at its end.
Romney's goal falls into line with government economists' predictions. The Office of Management and Budget projects that the country could see an unemployment rate below 6 percent in 2016. Economists predict the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, 2016 — at the end of the next presidential term — would see 5.8 percent unemployment.
"I can tell you that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we'd put in place, we'd get the unemployment rate do
Mark Halperin (Romney interview) is not a reporter; he is a stenographer. Keep testing this uncritical Washington press corps, Rachel.