[Vision2020] The Romney/Ryan Reign of Error: Taxes, Energy, and the Deficit

[Nicholas Gier]

Dear Visionaries:


I've exhausted myself keeping up with all the fact checkers and I've now
decided to stop at 3,400 words.  The full version is attached.


I will be publishing and recording this in at least three portions over the
next three weeks. I'm starting with taxes, energy, and the deficit.


For those who choose not to read it, I'll just give you the last paragraph:


"Cynics say that all politicians lie, but I say choose the ticket with the
most truth telling, and the best record for governing during the worst
recession since the Great Depression."


A McCain presidency with this House would have put in country into a
Depression.


The choice is clear for Nov. 6,


Nick


*
*

*THE ROMNEY/RYAN REIGN OF ERROR*

*
*

By Nick Gier


*A lie can travel halfway around the world
while the truth is putting on its shoes.*

*
*

*—Mark Twain*

*
*

I have now collected 37 distortions and falsehoods from Mitt Romney and
Paul Ryan.  The full version can be read at
www.NickGier.com/RomneyRyanErrors.pdf<http://www.nickgier.com/RomneyRyanErrors.pdf>
.



Out of 501 statements tested by PolitiFact, Obama and Biden have a total of
145 mostly false, false, and pants on fire.  That is a record of 71 percent
truth-telling.  Out of 221 statements Romney and Ryan have 97 mostly false,
false, and pants on fire.  They were telling the truth only 56 percent of
the time.


·       *In the first debate Romney began by declaring that Obama has given
us “a bigger government” and is “spending more, taxing more, and regulating
more.”* According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 416,000
fewer government employees than when Obama took office.  The *Wall Street
Journal* reports that spending is now the lowest in decades.  From 1982-85
Reagan increased spending by 8.7 percent versus Obama’s spending over four
years has risen only 1.4 percent.  The total taxes Americans pay are at the
lowest level since 1950s. Finally, Obama has issued fewer regulations
(1,004) than Bush II did (1,073) in his first term.



·       *In the first debate Romney denied repeatedly that his plan would
produce $5 trillion in tax cuts and pointed to six studies that proved him
right.*  These studies, however, do not dispute the simple arithmetic of
leaving the Bush tax cuts in place and reducing tax rates 20 percent
across-the-board.  The studies instead attempt to show how Romney could pay
for those cuts without increasing the deficit, and most experts agree that
authors do not succeed.



·       * In the first debate Romney charged that Obama has doubled the
deficit*.  At the end of Obama’s first year the deficit was $1.4 trillion
and over four years he has brought it down to $1.1 trillion.  If Romney was
talking about the total national debt, he was also incorrect.  During
Obama’s term the national debt has risen 52 percent not 100 percent.  In
stark contrast, Reagan nearly tripled (187 percent) the debt in his first
three years.  See
www.NickGier.com/DebtGOPObama.pdf<http://www.nickgier.com/DebtGOPObama.pdf>
.

* *

·        *In his debate with Biden, Ryan maintained that Obama promised
“unemployment would never get to 8 percent.”*  This estimate of the
employment rate was contained in a report (complete with strong
disclaimers) released by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
These economists were correct in the number of jobs the stimulus would
create, but they underestimated the number of jobs the Great Recession
would eliminate. **

* *

·       *During the primary campaign Romney declared that “more Americans
have lost their jobs under Barack Obama than any president in modern
history.”*  Exempting the first year of all presidents since World War II,
a proviso that is always granted, George W. Bush was the only one who had a
net loss of jobs—1.31 million.  According to free-market* The
Economist*Obama now (October 2012) has a net gain of 125,000 jobs
after the loss of
5.2 million jobs to the Great Recession*.*

* *

·       *In the first debate Romney maintained that “about half” of
Obama-supported green industry companies “have gone out of business.”*  Of
the 26 firms given loan guarantees only four have filed for bankruptcy.
The loan support for Solyndra, the GOP’s favorite whipping boy, was started
under the Bush administration.  **

* *

·       *In the first debate Romney charged that “all of the increase in
natural gas and oil has happened on private land, not on government land.”*
Since Obama took office oil production is up 13 percent on federal lands,
and the 14 percent drop that Romney touts is for 2010-2011 when BP had to
shut down its wells in the Gulf of Mexico.  **

Cynics say that all politicians lie, but I say choose the ticket with the
most truth telling, and the best record for governing during the worst
recession since the Great Depression. **

Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.  **
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