Mitt Romney delivered his "closing argument" today [1]. True to form, Romney did not make argument contrasting his conservative positions with President Obama's. He instead tried to take as many Obama positions as his own, blame Obama for things he wants to do himself, and distort Obama's record as much as humanly possible.
He are some of the many lies, projections and misdirections from today's speech: [1]
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* [Obama is] trying instead to distract our attention from the biggest issues to the smallest--from characters on Sesame Street...
...oh wait, that was me, telling you the only specific thing I will cut to make up for my giant tax giveaway to millionaires.
* America voted for a post-partisan president, but they have seen the most political of presidents...
...except that every major legislation that was passed had bipartisan support. Except for ObamaCare. Which was a Republican idea. Namely, mine.
* He promised to cut the deficit in half, but he doubled it.
If by doubled you mean, [2], and is proposing a long-term deficit cut of $4 trillion [3], if Republicans will just accept tax increases on people like me.
* He said he would reform Medicare and Social Security and save them from pending insolvency, but he shrunk from proposing any solution at all.
...except for that whole ObamaCare thing [4], which extends the solvency of the Medicare trust fund, costs savings which I pledged to junk. And except for proposing to raise the Social Security payroll tax cap [5] so the wealthy contribute more to that trust fund's long-term solvency.
* Where are the 9 million more jobs that President Obama promised his stimulus would have created by now?
...or maybe I should say, where is that 9 million jobs promise? Oh that's right. Nowhere. It was President-elect Obama who promised a plan to create "2.5 million more jobs by January 2011." [6] It was President Obama's stimulus which met that goal, and then some, ahead of schedule. [7]
* They are in China, Mexico, and Canada and in countries that have made themselves more attractive for entrepreneurs and business and investment.
... Thanks to the wave of outsourcing which I pioneered at Bain Capital [8] and tax incentives which I benefit from yet claim not to know exist. [9]
* ...because Medicare has been slashed to pay for Obamacare.
...Fact-check me all you want, suckers! [10] I'm still gonna keep saying it!
* It matters to the man from Waukesha, Wisconsin I spoke with several days ago. In what were supposed to be his best work years, he used to have a job at $25 an hour with benefits and now has one at $8 an hour, without benefits.
...and he won't get any health benefits from me after I scrap ObamaCare!
* Nor did he stand up to China's trade practices
...except when he did and I criticized him for "protectionism." [11]
* ...anti-American extremism is on the rise
...so much so that terrorist attacks worldwide are at a seven-year ... low. [12]
* The president invested taxpayer money--your money--in green companies, now failed...
...since I got burned putting a number on that in the first debate, I won't mention that the failure rate on the green energy loan guarantee program is a mere 10% [13], and only amounts to 2% of the taxpayer funds involved.
* Energy prices are up in part because energy production on federal lands is down.
...Of course, by now you know that in my book, "up is down." Gas prices peaked in 2008 at $4.11 per gallon [14]. It's now at $3.69. [15]
* ...his tax plan has been calculated to destroy 700,000 jobs.
...in a phony study cooked up by the same lobbyists [16] who sued to overturn ObamaCare.
* ...cutting one trillion dollars from the military will kill jobs and devastate our national defense.
Which only will happen if Republicans refuse to accept higher taxes on the wealthy as a basis for a compromise deficit reduction plan, a possible scenario created by the Budget Control Act, voted for and praised for its bipartisanship by my vice-presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan. [17]
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Other than that, the speech was great.
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Links:
[1] http://blogs.ajc.com/jamie-dupree-washington-insider/2012/10/26/romney-makes-case-in-iowa-speech/
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/repeat-after-me-obama-cut_b_1955561.html
[3] http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121024/NEWS09/121024003/After-editor-s-blog-President-Obama-releases-transcript-of-Register-interview?Frontpage&gcheck=1&nclick_check=1
[4] http://www.factcheck.org/2012/08/medicares-piggy-bank/
[5] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/21/obama-social-security_n_1903773.html
[6] http://youtu.be/b1nz60J39eM
[7] http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-08-30-stimulus30_CV_N.htm
[8] http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/romneys-bain-capital-invested-in-companies-that-moved-jobs-overseas/2012/06/21/gJQAsD9ptV_story.html
[9] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/22/mitt-romney-offshoring-tax-break_n_2003098.html
[10] https://www.google.com/search?q=obamacare medicare fact check&oq=obamacare medicare fact check
[11] http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/09/24/14073693-shifting-focus-again-this-time-to-china
[12] http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/sharp-decline-in-terror-attacks-after-bin-laden-death/
[13] http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/10/04/960231/the-biggest-and-least-discussed-lie-of-the-debate-romneys-false-claim-about-clean-energy-bankruptcies/
[14] http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57401650/face-the-facts-a-fact-check-on-gas-prices/
[15] http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/
[16] http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/22/1148403/-Natl-Federation-of-Independent-Business-Big-Secretive-Right-Wing-and-Unaccountable
[17] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coVnDeomlLw