Fact Checking the mendacity of 'Mittens'

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Time once again for Steve Benen's weekly fact checking of the pathologival liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XX:

On last night's show, Rachel Maddow talked at some length about a subject I follow with great interest: Mitt Romney's habit of saying things that aren't true. Summarizing some of yesterday's big political headlines, Rachel explained, "Just like Mitt Romney lied in his very first ad, in a really blunt, schoolyard kind of way. They're now lying in the new ad that is about Solyndra and Mitt Romney is lying about it personally out of his face at his big campaign stunt today.

Rachel concluded, "Even in this nuts day in American politics, don't you think that candidate telling a big, blatant lie in the middle of the news cycle deserves a little follow up?"

That was a rhetorical question, of course, but the answer is obviously yes, big, blatant lies from a major party presidential nominee do deserve some little follow up. It's one of the reasons I'm glad to present the 20th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.

1. At a campaign stop in Craig, Colorado, this week, Romney argued, "The president, when he got elected, he said, look, 'I'm going to go out and borrow $787 billion and I'll keep unemployment below 8 percent.'"

Romney says this just about every day. It's not true.

2. In the same speech, Romney said Obama can't "blame Congress" for economic problems: "Remember that he had a supermajority in both the House and the Senate in his own party for his first two years."

Putting aside the fact that the current Congress is more relevant, the truth is Democrats did not have a supermajority for the vast majority of Obama's first two years.

3. Romney also argued, "That stimulus he put in place, it didn't help private sector jobs; it helped preserve government jobs."

That's the exact opposite of reality.

4. He went on to say about Obama, "He promised when he was running for office he was going to cut the deficit in half. He's more than doubled it."

I don't know how Romney defines "double," but the deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times, Romney's lying.

5. Romney also argued, "There was an effort to impose unions on businesses and employees that didn't want them by having quickie elections and taking away the right to a secret ballot. Do you think imposing unions where employees don't want them is helping create jobs in this country?"

Putting aside the fact that he's mischaracterizing what card-check is, Romney is making it sound as if the policy passed and is hurting the economy. It never became law.

Continue reading Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XX. Benen concludes:

The estimable Jamelle Bouie, clearly frustrated with Romney's resistance to honesty and the media's coverage of the problem, asked a fair question this week: "What does Romney need to do to receive any scrutiny for the mendacity that has defined his quest for the presidency?"

I wish I had a good answer to that question, but it's worth noting that a growing number of observers are at least noticing. Eugene Robinson explained this week, "There are those who tell the truth. There are those who distort the truth. And then there's Mitt Romney.... Not to put too fine a point on it, he lies. Quite a bit."

After compiling these last 20 installments, I'm hard pressed to disagree.

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

Comments

[Cheri]

20 volumes of Mitt's lies. 20 volumes with MULTIPLE ENTRIES! Just what we DON'T need. A liar AND a tax evader.How many volumes will he fill by Nov? How many times will the media CALL HIM OUT ON HIS LIES?

[Cheri]

This just made my day....could you fit this in somewhere? It would fit in SO many stories....thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GR_HUJTleEw