Mitt Romney claims that he has a jobs plan that’s going to create 12 million jobs. First off – Moody’s already projects that the economy will grow by 12 million jobs over the next 4 years and the Congressional Budget Office believes the economy will grow by 7 million jobs over that same time period under the current course we’re already on (source). But Romney has unleashed this “new plan” which he didn’t share for the first 18 months of running for President. He says – read the plan. Well – at least one fact checker did; their conclusion – Romney is LYING about even the sound math in the plan. Glenn Kessler gives Romney 4 Pinocchios for this.
The simple explanation on Romney’s jobs plan is simple – it’s a lie. Of course – this is the same campaign that said “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.” (source). Yeah – we got it … we really got it. Romney is the most dishonest politician in the history of modern politics; his entire campaign is based on a lie and faulty math.
You can see Romney’s miraculous plan HERE.
The Washington Post’s fact checker Glenn Kessler gives the brutal summary HERE:
This is a case of bait-and-switch. Romney, in his convention speech, spoke of his plan to create “12 million new jobs,” which the campaign’s white paper describes as a four-year goal.
But the candidate’s personal accounting for this figure in this campaign ad is based on different figures and long-range timelines stretching as long as a decade — which in two cases are based on studies that did not even evaluate Romney’s economic plan. The numbers may still add up to 12 million, but they aren’t the same thing — not by a long shot.
In many ways, this episode offers readers a peek behind a campaign wizard’s curtain — and a warning that job-creation claims by any campaign should not be accepted at face value. The white paper at least has the credibility of four well-known economists behind it, but the “new math” of this campaign ad does not add up.
Who are the economists behind this economic miracle? The same guys who designed George W. Bush’s awesome tax plan in 2001 and 2003.
Glenn Hubbard is the guy who was discredited in the movie “Inside Job” and was one of the brain trusts behind the Bush tax cuts as the chair of the council of economic advisers. Everything you need to know about him HERE. Romney’s tax plan was designed by one of George W. Bush’s main economic policy guys. GENIUS.
Greg Mankiw is a former economic adviser for George W. Bush. He works for a conservative think tank funded by the Koch Brothers and lobbyists. Paul Krugman has a great disdain for him. More on him HERE.
Greg Sargent responds to the fact check HERE:
There you have it. Ten million of those jobs in Romney’s plan represent an entirely bogus promise. As for the remaining two million jobs that would be supposedly created by Romney’s trade policies, the report supplied by the Romney camp bills itself as “highly conditional” — and also doesn’t evaluate any of Romney’s policies. Kessler dubs Romney’s plan “bait and switch.”
Let’s recap what Kessler has discovered here. The plan that is central to Romney’s candidacy on the most important issue of this election — jobs — is a complete sham. This is every bit as bad — or worse — than Romney’s claim to have created 100,000 jobs at Bain, or his vow to cut spending by eliminating whole agencies without saying which ones, or his refusal to say how he’ll pay for his tax cuts.
The Obama campaign has already responded to the fact check in the Washington Post:
“In yet another instance of Mitt Romney’s campaign not telling the truth, it turns out that the numbers behind his ‘jobs plan’ just don’t add up. For months, Romney has pledged to create 12 million jobs over his first term — a number economists project will be created under current policy — but the numbers he’s cited for his claims aren’t based on evaluations of his plan and are ‘squishy’ at best. Mitt Romney thinks he can run out the clock by not coming clean about policy details, but the American people deserve the truth about his plans. And the truth is that economists have concluded that the severe cuts he would make like education, research and development, manufacturing and infrastructure could eliminate 1 million jobs and shrink economic growth by 1 percent.”
And unlike Romney’s plan which would actually hurt jobs … a recent study found that Obama’s jobs plan would create 1.4 million jobs in the next two years versus significant job losses under Romney. You can read about that HERE; a chart showing this:
