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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Thursday 18 October 2012
Describing the deficiencies of the Republican program, a famous man once said, “it‘s arithmetic” — and as usual, the Romney campaign can‘t seem to add or subtract without cheating.
Bad Arithmetic: Top Romney Economist Admits ‘Jobs Plan’ Numbers Don’t Compute
When innocent citizens asked about unemployment last night at the town hall presidential debate on Long Island, would Mitt Romney again tout his plan to create 12 million jobs? Unable to Etch-a-Sketch away that often repeated claim — one that he has hired several conservative economists to endorse — the Republican candidate had little choice. It's up on his campaign website, it's there in his own well-advertised words, and it is the central appeal of his candidacy for the non-billionaire voting bloc.
But there is a serious problem with that promise. It now stands exposed as a complete fraud by Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker, who pinned upon it his highest (lowest?) prize of four “Pinocchios.”
Here is how Kessler reached that troubling conclusion. After requesting the specific numbers behind Romney's jobs claim, he soon discovered that the citations offered by the campaign made no sense, and, in fact, the attempted deceptions were transparently obvious.
Romney's economic program has three basic elements that he says will produce those 12 million jobs, as outlined in a TV ad quoted by Kessler:
First, my energy independence policy means more than 3 million new jobs, many of them in manufacturing. My tax reform plan to lower rates for the middle class and for small business creates 7 million more. And expanding trade, cracking down on China and improving job training takes us to over 12 million new jobs."
In the studies cited by the Romney campaign, however, those figures practically debunked themselves.
The study that supposedly justifies the 7 million jobs produced by tax reform, written by a Rice University professor, covers a 10-year period — not four years.
The study supposedly proving that his energy program will produce 3 million jobs is a Citigroup report that doesn't even examine Romney's plan; it includes fuel-economy requirements he has criticized and projects an 8-year timeline. And the International Trade Commission report that supposedly shows how an intellectual property crackdown on China will produce those final 2 million jobs is similarly distorted, using outdated employment figures and ridiculous speculation to reach a conclusion that even its authors warn is "unclear."
For the coup de grace, Kessler quoted an email from Romney economic advisor R. Glenn Hubbard confessing that "the 3+7+2 does not make up the 12 million jobs in the first four years (different source of growth and different time period)."
Kessler didn't attempt to estimate what, if anything, those studies might indicate about the results of Romney's plan. There may well be no substance to them at all. But it is possible to estimate a best-case based on a revised timeline, taking 40 percent of the expected tax-reform-related jobs plus 50 percent of the energy-independence-related jobs, which comes to a measly 4.3 million jobs (the China-crackdown jobs are too phony to include at all).
Describing the deficiencies of the Republican program, a famous man once said, "it's arithmetic" — and as usual, the Romney campaign can't seem to add or subtract without cheating.
So much for the "Jobs Plan." What understandably puzzled Kessler — who has never hesitated to pillory Barack Obama — is why the Romney campaign would send out supporting material that can be so easily and simply dismissed as bogus. The answer may be that, with due respect to the Post, they can reasonably expect to get away with such fakery in a media environment where lies usually go unchallenged.
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By Tara Culp- Ressler
15 comments on "Bad Arithmetic: Top Romney Economist Admits ‘Jobs Plan’ Numbers Don’t Compute"
October 19, 2012 8:37pm
I find it amazing that so many people buy into Mitt Romney. Everything he says is suspect. He simply pulls numbers out of thin air, i.e., 12,000,000 jobs! and we are supposed to take his world for it. Venture capitalists do not create jobs... that simply is not how they function. Venture capitalists only invest money in opportunites that are up and going, proven! Or they scavenge on companies that are worth more dead than alive. As For The Tough Talk about China? This is where we see just how sound asleep Romney supporters are. All China need do is not participate in the next auction of Treasuries... and we {the Citizens of the USA} will be in big trouble. We won't be able to service the interest payments due on current debt. Suppose the Chinese go even further and refuse to participate in any more Treasury auctions??? Who will loan us money, long-term, at 2% interest??? Nobody in their right mind. Most of the Treasuries sold these days are sold to cover the cost of the semi-annual interest payments {borrowing from Peter to pay Paul}. This is the main reason the debt keeps growing and it was set in motion long before President Obama came along. The tab on the Iraq war is due. We have about 28 more years of interest payments due, + principal to pay on the Iraq war alone. This is a huge expense on which we earn no return {there is a serious difference between "spending" and "investing"}. Romney knows this... but since he thinks that we are stupid he is willing to lie about it, mislead, in order to trick the unwary, ill-educated 47% he despises so much, and anyone else he can fool into going along with him... believing they cannot see the truth through his falsehoods and will vote for him no matter what. Mitt Romney is the devil in the flesh, or the closest we've come to seeing the devil. No other politician in recent history has been such a blatant liar. He lies so much he forgets what he says... its not just flip-flopping. He is a sociopathic liar. It is small wonder his math doesn't add-up. Math is truth. Mitt Romney is incapable of representing truth.
October 18, 2012 5:28pm
Isn't the Washington Post a well known Communist rag?
""It now stands exposed as a complete fraud by Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker, who pinned upon it his highest (lowest?) prize of four “Pinocchios.”"
(Okay - I was being sarcastic)
October 18, 2012 3:57pm
Write in Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nadar.
October 18, 2012 4:38pm
I so much like your responses -- you are NOT alone.
I did WRITE-INs for the last 3 elections to ensure my VOTE would get counted.
October 18, 2012 3:41pm
Romney and Ryan are both graduates of the GW Bush School of Voodoo Economics. This means that the math never has to add up, all you have to do is say it adds up over and over again hoping enough people will begin to believe it.
October 18, 2012 3:08pm
CUT EDUCATION. . . . SCOTUS HAS A CASE - right now......a student in the top 10% of their class deinied admissioin to college.......for a lessor quailified student......does anyone really believe this isn't an actual outright attack upon affirmative action........from TEXAS ... TO ....SCOTUS.....
October 18, 2012 12:37pm
We shouldn't be too hard on these "job creators". After all, they are creating jobs just as they claim. The problem is that those jobs are in China, Mexico and India.... and the companies involved are enjoying a tax break as a result of political chicanery. The GOP depends on the electorate suffering from a "political Alzeheimer's" when it comes remembering the past. They count on the fact that people don't seem to understand that all those fingers jabbed at the sky are poking holes in the truth.
As RANDYVT correctly points out, one of the first "savings" in a GOP budget is always taken in education. The GOP doesn't want an informed electorate. Their Rove-ian tactics are too easily seen by anyone who pays attention, so why fund anything that smacks of educating the masses? Their children are sent to private schools, but the exercise of critical thinking presumably should be left to the "ruling class". Does anyone else see a problem in this?
October 18, 2012 10:41am
The whole thing is bogus as economic growth is impossible, and only greater equality and ecological healing will actually help our communities. Vote for Jill Stein Green Party Presidential candidate
October 18, 2012 11:14am
GREGGERRITT:
Yes, we know the mantra: Vote for Jill Stein. But do you think beyond the votes? You and I and Jill must know that she doesn't have a prayer of being elected to the highest office in the land. So, despite her valid critiques and admirable ideals, what would a vote for Jill accomplish?
It would most probably assure the election of Romney/Ryan. And don't tell me that disenchanted Republicans would be voting for the high and altruistic ideals of Ms. Stein. It just wouldn't happen, so a vote for Jill would be from people who would normally vote Democratic.
Which means a vote for Jill would help the Plutocrats in the extremist Tea Party Republicans dominate all of our federal government, from the Supreme Court to the Congress and the White House.
Do you think the Greedy Old Plutocrat Party is going to give a damn about Climate Change? Do you think those rich-pamperers are going to strengthen and preserve Social Security and Medicare, when they've hated them since the Dems initiated them? Do you think Romney gives a damn about the poor or the "47%" that he decries as dependent victims?
Yeah, vote for Romney/Ryan under the guise of Jill Stein. And accept the guilt when the "business as usual" energy-producers push us past the Tipping Point in Climate Change.
October 18, 2012 2:00pm
Reply to Ron--
And those of us who will vote for Jill Stein have heard about the lesser evils, the Supreme Court, the supposed spoiler effect, the guilt-tripping, the fears, ad nauseum.
So, rather than project your fears, how about containing them better?
There are many reasons to vote FOR Jill Stein--
Garnering 5% of the vote will unleash $20 million in public funds for the Green Party’s 2016 presidential bid.
When we state that the Democratic office-holders have moved so far to the center-right, who voted for those people? Everytime someone votes for a Blue Dog or a "New Democrat", the values shift to the R. I don't want that to keep on happening.
An analysis of the "Nader Effect" in 2000 from exit polls shows--
Nader took votes equally from Ds and Rs
The amount taken was minuscule, and balanced each other out
The party who suffered the most was the Reform Party, by a factor of 10, compared to Gore
Reform Party voters tend to vote GOP, so Nader actually took votes from Bush, not Gore, and is reflected in CNN’s own exit poll.
Nader supporters couldn’t stand Gore, and never would have voted for him anyway, much like Anderson/Stein/Stewart 3rd party voters would rather stay home than touch Obama with a 10-foot pole.
Likewise, CNN’s own data shows that Gore would have lost by 2% if Nader had not run.
Source--http://my.firedoglake.com/jest/2012/08/26/debunking-pathological-myths-of-the-2000-election-part-1-cnn-exit-polls-prove-that-nader-did-not-cost-gore-fl/
Obama and Rmoney aren't all that different--I speculate that in the second debate, a reason why Obama didn't confront Rmoney on Bain's Sensata currently shippping jobs and the whole company from Illinois to China was because Obama, as a self-declared "New Democrat" favors those kinds of trade agreements. It's part of the "New Democrat" value system-----
a robust foreign policy--hence the expansion in Afghanistan, and now sadly into Pakistan also
free trade--NAFTA
pro-growth
anti-union--think teachers, nurses, laborers
pro-corporation,
a belief in markets
de-regulation
privatizing education and support for charter schools
October 18, 2012 8:10pm
Don't forget the secretive Trans Pacific agreement where alien corporations will be allowed to trump US laws and protections. This is Obamas baby and could just as well be Romney
October 18, 2012 10:12am
Will we ever have a debate on whether those who run for office, or those who are issued ballots, must be able to read, write and do arithmetic at a basic level before being eligible for election or to vote? I fear, that as our support for education continues to decline, candidates who can't do math, and voters who know nothing of history will hasten our decline, leading to extinction of the human species.
I trust very few of them.
October 18, 2012 9:41am
Republican Romney/Ryan campaign dismissed fact checkers weeks ago.
Everyone is just supposed to trust them.
October 18, 2012 6:57pm
You mean they actually had fact checkers? At least they didn't have to work hard.
October 18, 2012 3:13pm
Copyright 2008 The Lufkin Daily News. All rights reserved.
Cox East Texas
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
"Trust us" has long been the mantra of the Bush administration.
"Just trust us."
Americans (and Congress) trusted that Saddam Hussein had an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, making him a threat to the United States and the world.
........................WMD's
"Just trust us."
The Supreme Court decided that Americans didn't need to know what transpired behind closed doors as Vice President Dick Cheney met with industry leaders eight years ago to set out an energy policy.
With gas prices soaring, critics lay blame at the feet of Democrats who regained control of Congress 18 months ago. The Bush team has had eight years to shape policy.
.......................OIL WILL PAY FOR THE WAR
"Just trust us."
After rancorous debate between Congress and the White House, the Patriot Act was extended last year. Only later did we learn about FBI officials abusing the ability to act without warrants while investigating American citizens.
"Just trust us."
The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to approve a White House-endorsed bill to overhaul the rules for secret eavesdropping without warrants. The bill includes a provision that gives legal cover to phone companies that complied with past wiretaps that were not approved by the secret court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
.............IMMUNITY FOR THE TELECOM EXECUTIVES
Time after time we hear: "Just trust us."
Time after time we see signals that the trust has not been earned.
Don't worry about government efforts to get databases that could show our Web surfing habits. Don't worry about a court order that YouTube turn over records of its viewers' visits. Don't worry that some of the most serious breaches of private data have been the results of careless acts by government employees.
"Just trust us."
Has anybody been following the news out of the U.S. State Department? There's an uproar over employees illicitly snooping on the passport travel records of famous Americans.
"Just trust us."
This week we learned that, in addition to his secret sessions with industry leaders to discuss American energy policy, Cheney has also had a hand in shaping (we really should say skewing) the testimony of EPA and Centers for Disease Control officials prior to their appearances before Congress. From what we can tell, he was just making sure the scientific testimony conformed to the administration's policies and politics.
One of the more interesting defenses of Cheney's efforts to minimize EPA's concerns about global warming issues was that there is precedence for such interventions, including efforts by Clinton officials to deflect a NASA scientist's testimony questioning the impact of global warming.
Do Republican officials really expect the American people to fall for the oldest ploy of all — the one where a child points to a sibling or classmate and cries, "He (or she) did it first!" defense? Do they really want to hold the Clinton adminstration up as a model for how they want to act?
"Just trust us."
Copyright 2008 The Lufkin Daily News. All rights reserved.
sorry folks this isn't a hatch-it job
In reality this started with Ronald Raegan while governor of California.....
GREAT SOUND-BITES//"TEAR DOWN THIS WALL. ETC" TRICKLE DOWN VOO-DOO ECONOMICS DIDN'T WORK THEN AND DO NOT WORK NOW........GEORGE BUSH SENIOR - and all his papers were -re classified to hide TRUTH.....twenty years = de-classified..re-classified within sixty days ( oh what wonderful lies would come to light )
The first debate...all cheers no jeers..I posted no substance and got 9 out of ten thumbs down.....
.................ARE YOU SAFER TODAY ?????????????