The lies of Willard ‘Mittens’ Romney are growing tiresome

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Willard "Mittens" Romney is not a stupid man, so he cannot claim ignorance. This shapeshifter is, however, a shameless liar. And it is growing tiresome.

A Romney campaign aide made an interesting claim today: “The thing that no one has focused on is that Obama is headed to be the first president in modern history to have a net loss in jobs. No president has ever been re-elected with a net loss job record … because no president has ever had a net loss.”

Seriously, Dude? I may have to start referring to your boss as Rip Van Winkle Romney, because he apparently slept through the past decade. The Bush Years Were a Lost Decade.

Both elements of the Romney aide's statement are false, as that dubious distinction belongs to none other than George W. Bush in 2004. Political Animal – Never before, except for the last time:

[T]he demonstrable lie is the Romney campaign’s larger claim. As the Republican frontrunner sees it, (a) Obama is the first modern president to have a net loss in jobs; and (b) no president has ever been re-elected with a net-loss job record. Both of these are wrong.

Romney campaign, let me introduce you to George W. Bush.

Notice that red line down towards the bottom? That shows the anemic job creation over the first decade of the 21st century, also known as the Bush Era.

Indeed, it went largely ignored at the time — Democrats didn’t mention it — but when the GOP’s Bush/Cheney ticket sought a second term in 2004, it was the first in generations to — you guessed it — go four years with a net loss of jobs. The American private sector didn’t achieve a net gain of one job until well into Bush’s second term. (All told, for the entirety of Bush’s eight years in office, the net job gain was about 1 million. Obama is on track to beat that this year easily.)

Now look at the Romney claims again. Is Obama is the first modern president to have a net loss in jobs? No, that claim would have applied to Obama’s Republican predecessor in 2004. No president has ever been re-elected with a net-loss job record? Actually, Bush was re-elected despite having a net-loss job record. Indeed, Romney voted for him.

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. "Mittens" Romney had an atrocious record of job creation as governor, and in the private sector he made his fortune by selling off companies and destroying jobs. Romney was a job-killer. Political Animal – The jobs issue is Romney’s weakest issue:

Romney should also be aware of the fact that the more his campaign focuses on employment, the more Romney leads with his chin. Put simply, the jobs issue is Romney’s weakest issue.

The more he pushes this, the more the public should be reminded of Romney’s atrocious record.

“You see, Romney made a Mittload of cash using what’s known as a leveraged buyout. He’d buy a company with ‘money borrowed against their assets, groomed them to be sold off and in the interim collect huge management fees.’ Once Mitt had control of the company, he’d cut frivolous spending like ‘jobs,’ ‘workers,’ ‘employees,’ and ‘jobs.’ […]

“Because Mitt Romney knows just how to trim the fat. He rescued businesses like Dade Behring, Stage Stories, American Pad and Paper, and GS Industries, then his company sold them for a profit of $578 million after which all of those firms declared bankruptcy. Which sounds bad, but don’t worry, almost no one worked there anymore.

“Besides, a businessman can’t be weighed down with a bleeding heart. As one former Bain employee put it, ‘It was very clinical…. Like a doctor. When the patient is dead, you just move on to the next patient.’” 

Romney slashed American jobs as if his career depended on it — and it did. Indeed, it’s tempting to wonder how many of those folks in Romney’s new web ad, waiting in the unemployment line, were put there by Romney’s hedge fund?

Complicating matters, during Romney’s only service in public office, his state’s record on job creation was “one of the worst in the country.” Adding insult to injury, “By the end of his four years in office, Massachusetts had squeezed out a net gain in payroll jobs of just 1 percent, compared with job growth of 5.3 percent for the nation as a whole.”

How bad is Romney’s record? During his tenure, Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 states in jobs growth.

"Mittens" seems to think this is a winning issue for him. He is badly mistaken.