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A New York Times editorial this morning noted, almost in passing, that Mitt Romney's "entire campaign rests on a foundation of short, utterly false sound bites." That's true, but the fact that such observations have become commonplace is itself rather jarring.
It's equally jarring to appreciate why Romney does this. As Kevin Drum explained this week, the Republican presidential hopeful tells falsehoods because he knows he can get away with it.
Politicians have increasingly discovered over the past couple of decades that even on a national stage you can lie pretty blatantly and pay no price, since the mainstream media, trapped in its culture of objectivity, won't really call you on it, limiting themselves to fact checking pieces ... buried on an inside page. And because virtually nobody except political junkies ever see this stuff, it doesn't hurt their campaigns at all.
I agree, and yet, I feel compelled to make an effort anyway, hoping that accountability still plays some role in the American political discourse. With that in mind, consider the 22nd installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. Trying to clean up his own mess, Romney told Fox News, "[T]eachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn't pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen."
That's simply not true.
2. In Iowa, Romney blamed Obama for the fact that "the median income in America has dropped by 10 percent over the last four years."
That only makes sense if we count Obama's first year in office, which relies on a standard Romney believes is fundamentally unfair.
3. In the same Iowa speech, Romney claimed about the president, "[H]is answer for economic vitality by the way, was of course pushing aside the private sector."
There is no universe in which this is even remotely accurate.
4. Romney added that Obama has failed to "reduce the deficit."
Actually, Obama reduced the deficit in his first year in office by over $100 billion. What's more, the deficit is projected to shrink again this year.
5. Romney also claimed, "Congress was his with a super majority for two years."
That's demonstrably false. In Obama's first two years, Democrats did not have a supermajority for 20 out of 24 months.
6. Romney argued in the same speech, "If I'm the president of the United States, we're going to stop this out-of-control spending."
If reality has any meaning at all, there is no out-of-control spending.
7. Romney added, "[If I'm the president of the United States, we're going to stop this] prairie fire of debt."
That's plainly false. Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add trillions to the national debt.
8. Romney released a video this week, claiming that President Obama "touted the fact that government employment had fallen on his watch."
Romney took Obama's quote wildly out of context as part of another attempt at deception.
9. Romney claimed in a separate ad that during his one term as governor, he "had the best jobs record in a decade."
There's clear evidence to the contrary.
10. At a campaign stop in Florida, commenting on Nemschoff Chairs moving from Iowa to Wisconsin, Romney said of Obama, "He said he didn't understand that Obamacare was hurting small business. He doesn't understand that Obamacare impacts small business."
None of this is even remotely true.
11. In the same speech, Romney said of the Affordable Care Act, "It's simply unaffordable."
Actually, that's backwards. If Romney kills the law, according to CBO estimates, he'll add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt in the coming years.
12. Romney also said in Florida, "When they saw the president campaign four years ago, he didn't mention to them that he was planning on cutting Medicare by $500 billion to pay for his health care plan, but that's what he did."
Romney has said this countless times, but it doesn't change the fact that it's not true.
13. In the same speech, Romney said, "In the last three and a half years China and the European nations have put together some 44 different trade agreements, opening up markets for them around the world. Guess how many trade agreements this president has negotiated over the last three and a half years? Zip. Zero."
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.
Previous editions of Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII,XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI
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occurred to me last night that if faux news could run for office their campaign
would look just like willard's..
"people are corporations, my friend"
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and what actually motivates his campaign?
http://mattbors.com/archives/857.html
Ever notice how often trolls, at least certain ones, ape Mittsywittsy's patronizing, flagrantly insincere use of the phrase "my friend"?
Dear Steven Benen, You are a sick puppy. Thank You for telling it like it is.
I disagree, Steve. Some politician can get away with it. Specifically, Republican politicians get away with it.
I ask the question that I've asked many times before: Could Obama get away with what Romney is doing? Would the media just let Obama's mendacity slide as they are doing for Romney?
And remember the main attack for Bush campaign in 2004 was that Kerry was a flip flopper. And the media paid attention. Lying is not as newsworthy as flip flopping? Right. I guess Kerry just should have lied and said he never held that position and he would have been elected President? Not likely.
The corporate media is controlled by Conservative rich men, like Romney. And Conservative rich men are Republican. It's that simple.
And yet, and yet ... here we have a very mainstream publication calling Mitt on it -- and the fact that that amazes us shows how far from excellent news coverage of politicians has become.
Still, the NYT is no slouch, and Steve's careful cataloguing of each and every lie does get read, along with Rachel's very forceful presentation of this data on television.
It will creep in to the public's mind, however slowly...
"Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies." Ed Howe
Eugene Robinson , WAPO, wrote a good article 2 weeks about Romney's incessant pathological dishonesty.
searching for link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/romneys-distortions-about-obama-do-us-a-disservice/2012/05/28/gJQA9JuTxU_story.html?wprss=rss_eugene-robinson
Thank you for the link. I appreciate the effort to make it easy for me to read it.
"...I feel compelled to make an effort anyway..."
Steve, the work you do in the Mendacity Chronicles is important, and it's appreciated by your readers. And I believe that sooner or later it will receive the attention it deserves, if for no other reason than that lazy-ass journalists with ADD, like Dana Milbank, will come to see it as a source of ready-made research once "Mitt Romney is a liar" works its way into mainstream political discourse (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/opinion/the-political-contrast.html?_r=1&ref=opinion& ).
Thank you for doing great reporting, Steve.
Re: Las Vegas... Yes Obama hurt business there by criticizing it multiple times. He even apologized for it.
http://www.8newsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=11922804
That must be why Nevada's unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in 3 years.
Shooter: Criticism doesn't hut business, lack of demand does. Business could be praised, even flattered, but that doesn't add a second shift down at the plant. Stacks of orders would. But a large segment of the middle class that drives demand has been hit with layoffs and furloughs (ya know, those teachers, firemen, and other pin headed civil servants) and have lost the capacity to take on large purchases.
Put down the remote after you tune out Fox News and read something on basic economics.
Robert...,
He probably goes for worse stuff than Fixed Noise.
Awww, did he hurtum their widdle feelings. Bad president, bad. Poor widdle business executives.
Apparently, we have the world's wimpiest major corporations.
@Sam - That's because the first incidence was three years ago. It's taken that long to recover.
@MP Guy - You're damn right he "hurtum their widdle feelings." It's 2009, Las Vegas is foreclosure central and Obama makes a point that Las Vegas is a waste of money. The President of the United States singles out an entire city for disdain.
In his defense, I don't think he was trying to hurt Las Vegas, it just turned out that way. But it was still devastating. On the other hand he was definitely using the power of the Fed Govt to intimidate GM bondholders, enrich the UAW, deny SC a Boeing plant, kill the Keystone, shield banksters, and on and on and on. Never doubt the capacity of Government to be malicious.
@Robert - I'm consistently surprised by people's fascination with "demand". As I like to say, demand (human beings desire for new and better) is everpresent, it never goes away. I think we can agree that our real problem is not enough money, to pay for those wants and needs. I think we can also agree that people get that money from being employed. Are we good so far?
So it seems the problem isn't really "demand", it's jobs and anxiety around jobs. And where do jobs come from? Business. As you put it, a second shift at the plant.
OK, so the part I don't get, is how something like the payroll cut is supposed to spark a second shift at the plant. The math doesn't work well. We borrowed/printed hundreds of billions, so hundreds of millions could get an extra 20 bucks a week... for a year. Spread out all that money over millions of businesses, and there's absolutely no reason to add employees to the first shift much less add a second.
It didn't work for Bush either.
No my friend, everything comes from business first. Business is the only entity from which wealth (goods and services) is produced, making stuff that is greater than the sum of it's parts. Not Govt, not labor, only business. It is from business that profit appears, and it is from profit that jobs and taxes are derived. It is the health of business that determines how an economy fares. As we have seen from the Las Vegas gaffe Govt can easily damage business, and damage the Las Vegas economy.
I understand this is heretical to orthodoxy here, so I am happy to answer questions and challenges.
shooter I disagree with your idea of what demand means. To me demand means when people actually by your product. You don't know how many want your product until they start buying it. Surely your not going to buy new equipment and hire more employees until you have more orders for your product.
Actually, that's exactly what happens. You can't sell what you don't have.
Some equipment takes a year to build, some ingredients are seasonal. Not every business is a neighborhood restaurant where it's easy to hire an extra server.
Consider Apple. They build a bazillion iPads before anyone buys the first one. Do you have any idea what that costs, how much is at risk? Then there's the Microsoft Zune. Millions upon millions of dollars down the sewer. Demand for any given product isn't really known until it's too late.
But I don't think marketing is what you care about. More likely you want an upwelling of buying all across the board, yes? A surge of confidence in the future, accompanied by credit card binges, all across the nation, demand for stuff of all manner and type across the board. Sound about right?
Well that's the thing, there's no confidence in the future for business, or the people working for business. The sad part here is that Democrats think they can fool the entire country into that positivity by giving every pay check an extra twenty a week. Most people just aren't that dumb. When they see Obama hold up the Keystone pipeline, it's obvious that jobs aren't as important as politics. Trust me, that sort of thing does not inspire confidence.
I think YOU have things confused, Shooter.
Remember the Palm Pilot? Why did that company die? Because there was no DEMAND for its product!
Businesses just don't "create" things and then wait for people to buy them unless they are bad businessmen. They watch to see where people are spending their money (i.e., demand) and try to cater to that market (supply). That is just simple Econ 101!
Without demand first, there is NO reason to even consider "supply", so there is no reason to create jobs. There are lots of ways to "stimulate" the economy - chiefly by spending government money to do the things businesses WON'T do on their own, like fixing infrastructure. Once people have money, they spend money.
Do you REALLY believe that the reason people aren't spending is because business "has no confidence"? People aren't spending because they have no confidence - has nothing to do with business. When people regain confidence, they will start spending, and THEN business will regain its confidence. Don't you know what the Consumer Confidence Index is and why economists make such a big deal about it?
Really, you NEED to update yourself on the Keystone Pipeline. Most Republicans don't talk about it any more because they are starting realize what a lemon that thing is for our economy. 5000 temporary jobs at best?? And because the demand just isn't there, the fact that it will damage already existing AMERICAN pipeline companies?
Sorry, but that is exactly what they do. The Palm Pilot didn't die until after it had been designed, manufactured, and advertised. As in it was "created" and then they waited for people to buy them. But they didn't.
This is not rocket science, you can't sell something until you have it, and you don't know if you're a success until all the startup costs have been incurred. it's a roll of the dice and if you're wrong you're out of business.
Where do people get money? Their job. What if they see their company struggling? They hoard their money, just in case. As in, they don't spend their money. Hewlett Packard is set to lay off 27,000 workers soon, do you think the remainder aren't scared they're next? Surely you don't expect them to borrow and buy when they're under the gun do you?
People won't have confidence until business starts hiring. Everything begins and ends with business. Oh and about the pipeline, using your logic, houses shouldn't be built because once a house is finished that job is over. That doesn't make sense does it?
Crap !! Rachel is an ordinary human !! I did not need to know that. I guess next you are going tell me George did not cut down a cherry tree, and Jefferson WAS in love with a black girl ! My heart be still.
She's excitational.
We know Mitt lies.
I am perfectly aware that the man only wants a notch in his bedpost, and is willing to suck anything to get the chance to call himself President. Truth be damned, nobody cares if he lies.
Except us.
I have to agree with Rollo,
The MSM will never let any smidge of the truth hit the airwaves. There is no such thing as objective, truthful reporting that is actually seen or heard by Americans watching the tv.
Even Public Broadcasting has to be cautious, while the "Doomhammer of Funding" constantly holds itself over CPB's head.
"Power is nothing without control", and Rollo is right. The Republicans have the control, and are quickly getting the power.
At least we have the internet, right?
You have to get out more. There is a great big world out there.
There is a lot of truth in Knobson's post. These lies are going to accumulate and the rest of the media, TV and print, will not challenge Romney's lies. Even worse is that some newspapers will endorse Romney despite all the lies. Journalism as it should be practiced is on life support and sinking fast.
Mike, I totally agree with you that there will be newspapers that will endorse Romney despite all lies. Adding to that is they will endorse him not knowing what his exact positions are.
I believe Romney will continue to be vague on all his positions until he debates with Obama. This strategy of being vague is the only one that makes sense for him, because he has had varying positions on issues. During a debate, Mr. Obama has to make Mr. Romney take positions. Then Mr. Obama can point out the inconsistent positions Mr. Romney has held.
Democrats did not have a supermajority for 20 out of 24 months.
And had they realized what the Republicans were going to do they would have jammed some serious legislation in that period instead of trying to be Bipartisan
Thank you for this service to your country
I cannot wait until they start the debates - I cannot imagine that Mittens would do very well going head to head with Barack. Sound bites are one thing, but he won't be able to hide behind those when he is posed direct questions at the podium.
i agree with you mich. and i hope that obama goes into those debates like muhammad ali went into boxing matches - don't pull any punches and work for a knockout. no more mr. nice guy.
In addition, Romney is accustomed to being surrounded by yes-men, and does poorly whenever anyone challenges him in person at all, even a Fox interviewer and especially a voter. That should be fun in a debate.
I so badly wish that I had the confidence that I see in many others who are anxiously awaiting the debates like my 5 year-old waits for Santa on Christmas Eve. The same media which we progressives deplore for their "both sides do it" stance, and for their failure to ask the hard/right questions (and repeat them until we get a real answer), is the media which will control the debate(s). Team Romney will place ridiculous strictures in place, or their boy won't show. The debate questions will NOT be the ones we progressives want to have asked. The format will be finessed in such a way that there will be no smack-downs, and Obama will not be allowed (by his own staff, debate rules, and personal make-up) to call Mitt an outright liar.
So, I don't hold out for much when it comes to the debates. Besides, however well President Obama does, I fear there will be plenty of progressive voices complaining about what he SHOULD HAVE said...
Sigh
Sherry, I think you have made a very good point about the format of the debates.
I think the discussion of the debate format will be just as interesting as the debate. I think Romney's people would like to be as vague as possible during the debate and keep as much of Romney's past out of the debate.
so, steve, here's an idea. why don't you share your mendacity column with rachel, and have her do a daily mitt mendacity chronical. just think of the exposure.
just a thought.....
So...the media doesn't call out blatant falsehoods because of their ..."Culture of Objectivity?" Haha, that's a good one. We're past the point of being hoodwinked however. Corporate media works for corporate America. Corporate America, alias corporate media, alias the GOP, lies like rugs. Corporate media is absolutely complicit in each and every lie transmitted due to their complicity. Corporate media is corrupt and about the only folks who don't see it...are corporate media because their eyes are permanently averted from their own inherent corruption. Corporate media supplies their "News People" with eye aversion implants which seem to be permanently implanted. Chris Hayes' body seems to be struggling however with the implants to a degree. .
To Steve: Don't ever stop doing this! The rest of us don't have the time, and you are particularly good at it. It is required, if not for immediate usefulness, then for posterity to behold how this generation came to ignore the truth and destroy its own country.
One hopes David Gregory reads this. It may change his corporate programming to a degree....Probably not though! He's pretty much a corporodroid! MSNBC certainly does not posess a high horse in this regard. MSNBC allows misinformation all the time, Joe Scarborough would be a good example of a disinformation specialist, and from their other hosts, who often doublespeak, like Matthews and Schultz. A single misspoken word can change the entrirety of the meaning of a statement, and doubletalk experts like Schultz exploit the opportunity to mislead at will. MSNBC is corporate. They too are beholdin' for their salaries and benefits and pensions to their sponsors on Wall Street and in corporate America. They are cogs in the corporate wheel, and we know it. Their hands aren't clean. MSNBC isn't Fox but they sure aren't pristeen, not by any measure.
Obama is the kid you want on your team. Not the fastest, not the quickest. Just the most caring. He is the one telling the team, “ Let’s help some one across the street, or put a roof on their home. Not afraid to get his hands dirty. My kind of guy. The kind of guy that would stop to help me fix a flat tire in a snow storm. A real friend is when the times are not easy. A best friend. Not many really left these days.
Agreed, but I'd add....He played college ball so he's actually pretty darn fast! How 'bout yourself? Gobama!
The media claims Romney is lying, Romney claims Obama is lying and the media is for Obama, I don't know who to trust, I'm just not going to vote...
...and that's how Republicans win.
I don't think everything Mr. Obama has done as president has been good. I'm afraid he's carried forward a little too much of the "imperial presidency" established by Mr. Reagan (per Ms. Maddow's excellent book).
But I do think that any president would have been hamstrung by the ineffective Congress he's had to work with. And I do think that Mr. Obama has been far more truthful with the citizens of the world than Mr. Romney has.
Also, can I just say, I am sooooooo tired of people (of all political colorations) saying a president can create jobs? He can't! None of them can! The country isn't a corporation (... yet ...) and he can't just walk out and hire a bunch of people.
I am also soooo tired of people saying government waste has to be cut and then turning around and yowling because government *jobs* have been cut. All I ask is a little consistency. Argh. Exhausted by willful ignorance. And, yes, mendacity. iamthesupercommittee
I think for at least the first year Mr.Obama's lack of experience of leading a large organization hurt him. Secondly, I think he was unprepaired for total resistance by the leadership of the republicans. He is now wiser and a better leader because of what has happened in his first term.
The only thing this guy has ever done is make money. Making money is the only thing he's ever been interested in. He's hired all of Bush's advisors, that's right the neocons, and they are the ones giving him his talking points. He constantly says "I'm not going to talk about that." The question is does he not talk about something because he hasn't yet been versed in it, or does he not talk because he has no answer because it doesn't concern making money? The lying has been overwhelming. I'm beginning to think it may be a tenet of the Mormons. Weird that he lies so much.
It is hard to say that he actually "made" money. It's more like he extracted money like a miner pulls coal out of the ground.
Or maybe like a vampire pulls blood out of a person.
President Obama speaks well. He's likable he got elected. BUT IT"S BEEN 3 1/2 YEARS and the economy still SUCKS! I'm sure he's a nice guy but it's NOT GETTING BETTER. I LOVE MAKING MONEY and you don't? wake up. If he worked in my company and gave me the results we've gotten I would fire him. Hillary for president then .Whatever.
You need to turn theses into a Movie....
That is a really long list. It kind of reminds me of Walter Cronkite's sign-off during the Iran hostage crisis, though. There's a kind of fatigue that sets in after hundreds of times.
Petition/FOX NEWS
http://civic.moveon.org/fox//
Wow...
I am really hoping that Obama wins this November. I just can't see this country lasting very long with Romney and the Republicans in charge of the country. They are so stuffy and narrow minded that its sick to watch anything with them on it.
Just the other night my mom and i were watching a new episode of Resteraunt Impossible and Michelle Obama was on there with a mission for Robert Irvin to help some inner city kids have a better place to go for food and to help with a garden...Mrs. Obama was getting up close and personal with the kids and testing out the bicyle that helps pump the water that went to water the plants and we were thinking to ourselves that Ann Romney would NEVER EVER do something like that. It would be too beneath her.
This country would be so much better if Obama were re elected and that congress would help out. They are so selfish and set in their ways its rediculous. The republicans need to be stopped!!!!
When a company goes broke ,they cut costs. If we as a Country don't start to cut costs they will be cut for us... Broke is Broke and the truth hurts.
@Stop the Bleeding, so, if your job description doesn't depend on your "not understanding" -- then you should be voting Democratic! Why? Bush showed us that when a company is broke, they don't cut costs - they get a taxpayer bailout with no strings attached! (Unless... a Democratic president is sworn in, and all the "bailout CEO's" then begin cursing under their breaths that they have to jump through hoops because they can no longer rip off taxpayers through their "bid'ness-as-usual" practices.)
The truth - even with the GOP"s present to Pres. Obama of an epic economic disaster - spending growth under Obama is lower than it was under Bush -- and lower than it has been since Eisenhower. Another actual painful truth -- Bush did not include the costs of the two conflicts begun under his administration (Iraq and Afghanistan) in his budgets - Pres. Obama immediately rectified that "oversight" -- which means that a good deal of the howling at the moon the GOP does over "spending" is because those substantive costs - initiated on the GOP's watch -- are no longer being deliberately buried in the sand and are included in the budgets. Yet another painful truth -- the GOP turned tail and ran when the President offered them $4 TRILLION in cost-cutting. That's $4 TRILLION - more than they were looking for- that should be enough to cue any critically-thinking person that the GOP's professed interest in cost-cutting is a complete sham.
What will it take for people to stop presenting themselves to be played for fools by the GOP? The Ryan budget - which Romney deems to be "marvelous" - in reality adds trillions to the deficit. So does Romney's lusting after many more millions in tax cuts he'd like to grant himself (by making the Bush deficit-ballooning tax cuts permanent, and adding yet more budget-busting tax cuts that would be favorable to him and his $10,000-bet friends -- and which would raise taxes on the non-wealthy).
I have to wonder - what hold does the GOP have on people that they will voluntarily shut off their brains to push false Republican talking points - when the actual facts are so easily at hand.