At Last Debate

[m...@facts.only.now]

At Last Debate: Romney Told 31 Myths In 41 Minutes

During the first presidential debate in Denver, Colorado Romney
managed to tell 27 myths in his 38 minutes of speaking time. But at
his second encounter with Obama in New York, the GOP presidential
candidate — who has run a post-truth campaign from day one — outdid
himself and crammed 31 myths in 41 minutes:

1) “I want to make sure we keep our Pell grant program growing. We’re
also going to have our loan program, so that people are able to afford
school.” Paul Ryan’s budget could cut Pell Grants for nearly 1 million
college students and even Romney’s white paper on education, “A Chance
for Every Child,” suggests that he “would reverse the growth in Pell
Grant funding.” It says: “A Romney Administration will refocus Pell
Grant dollars on the students that need them most and place the
program on a responsible long-term path that avoids future funding
cliffs and last-minute funding patches.”

2) “I put out a five-point plan that gets America 12 million new jobs
in four years and rising take-home pay.” The Washington Post’s
in-house fact checker tore Romney’s claim that he will create 12
million jobs to shreds. The Post wrote that the “‘new math’” in
Romney’s plan “doesn’t add up.” In awarding the claim four Pinocchios
— the most untrue possible rating, the Post expressed incredulity at
the fact Romney would personally stand behind such a flawed, baseless
claim.

3) “And the president’s right in terms of the additional oil
production, but none of it came on federal land. As a matter of fact,
oil production is down 14 percent this year on federal land, and gas
production was down 9 percent.” 14 percent is a one-year number.
“Overall, oil production on federal land under Obama is up from 566
million barrels in 2008 to 626 million barrels in 2011, a 10.6 percent
increase.” Compared to the last three years of President Bush, there
have been 241 million more barrels of oil produced from public lands
in the first three years of Obama.

4) “Because the president cut in half the number of licenses and
permits for drilling on federal lands, and in federal waters.” There
are slightly fewer permits in 2009 and 2010, from between 8,000-9,000
permits to over 5,000, and they have not been cut by half. The oil and
gas industry is sitting on 7,000 approved permits to drill, where it
hasn’t begun exploring or developing. Two-thirds of “acreage leased by
[oil] industry lies idle” on public lands, according to the Department
of the Interior.

5) “I believe very much in our renewable capabilities; ethanol, wind,
solar will be an important part of our energy mix.” Romney is actually
against a one-year renewal of the wind production tax credit. The wind
production tax credit has led to $14 billion of investment in 2011 and
tens of thousands of American jobs.

6) “And coal, coal production is not up; coal jobs are not up.” 1,500
coal jobs have been created under Obama.

7) “And if we do that, if we do what I’m planning on doing, which is
getting us energy independent, North America energy independence
within eight years.” Romney would actually eliminate the fuel
efficiency standards that are moving the United States towards energy
independence, even though his campaign plan relies on these rules to
meet his goals.

8) “I will fight to create more energy in this country, to get America
energy secure. And part of that is bringing in a pipeline of oil from
Canada.” Even with generous assumptions, the impact of the pipeline on
oil prices is unclear and may raise prices in midwest states. After
all, a lot of that refined tar sands crude will be sold on the
international market.

9) “The proof of whether a [energy] strategy is working or not is what
the price is that you’re paying at the pump. If you’re paying less
than you paid a year or two ago, why, then, the strategy is working.
But you’re paying more.” Gas prices are certainly high, but oil is a
global commodity, and the president has virtually no control over
them. And according to the Congressional Budget Office, Romney’s
proposal to increase domestic oil production would not have much
impact on volatility.

10) “And I will not — I will not under any circumstances, reduce the
share that’s being paid by the highest income taxpayers. And I will
not, under any circumstances increase taxes on the middle-class.” As
the Tax Policy Center concluded, Romney’s plan can’t both exempt
middle class families from tax cuts and remain revenue neutral. “He’s
promised all these things and he can’t do them all. In order for him
to cover the cost of his tax cut without adding to the deficit, he’d
have to find a way to raise taxes on middle income people or people
making less than $200,000 a year,” the Center found.

11) “But your rate comes down and the burden also comes down on you
for one more reason, and that is every middle-income taxpayer no
longer will pay any tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. No
tax on your savings. That makes life a lot easier.” This would
actually help very few Americans. Nearly three-fourths of households
that make $200,000 or less annually would get literally nothing from
Romney’s tax cut, due to the simple fact that most of those households
have no capital gains income. To be exact, 73.9 percent of the
households upon which Romney “focused” his tax cut will see zero
benefit from it.

12) “A recent study has shown the people in the middle-class will see
$4,000.00 per year in higher taxes as a result of the spending and
borrowing of this administration.” Romney is pointing to this study
from the American Enterprise Institute. It actually found that rather
than raise taxes to pay down the debt, the Obama administration’s
policies — those contained directly in his budget — would reduce the
share of taxes that go toward servicing the debt by $1,289.89 per
taxpayer in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

13) “Fifty-four percent of America’s workers work in businesses that
are taxed as individuals. So when you bring those rates down, those
small businesses are able to keep more money and hire more people.”
Far less than half of the people affected by the expiration of the
upper income tax cuts get any of their income at all from a small
businesses. And those people could very well be receiving speaking
fees or book royalties, which qualify as “small business income” but
don’t have a direct impact on job creation. It’s actually hard to find
a small business who think that they will be hurt if the marginal tax
rate on income earned above $250,000 per year is increased.

14) “I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us
find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women. I was
proud of the fact that after I staffed my Cabinet and my senior staff,
that the University of New York in Albany did a survey of all 50
states, and concluded that mine had more women in senior leadership
positions than any other state in America.” Romney did not ask women
groups for candidates. Instead, prior to his election, a “bipartisan
group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem
of few women in senior leadership positions in state government.” They
“put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different
cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions” and
presented it to Romney after he was elected. A UMass-Boston study
found that “the percentage of senior-level appointed positions held by
women actually declined throughout the Romney administration, from
30.0% prior to his taking office, to 29.7% in July 2004, to 27.6% near
the end of his term in November 2006.”

15) “I’m going to help women in America get good work by getting a
stronger economy and by supporting women in the workforce.” Romney has
been uncomfortably silent on the issue of pay equity. He has refused
to say whether he’d support the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that
would allow women to sue for equal pay, and named four of the justices
who voted to roll back equal pay in that Supreme Court decision as his
models for any of his appointments to the federal bench.

16) “I’d just note that I don’t believe that bureaucrats in Washington
should tell someone whether they can use contraceptives or not. And I
don’t believe employers should tell someone whether they could have
contraceptive care of not. Every woman in America should have access
to contraceptives.” But back in March, Romney expressed strong support
for the so-called Blunt amendment, which that would allow employers to
deny contraception coverage to women. Romney also wants to defund
Planned Parenthood, where 76 percent of the patients seek low-cost
birth control options. Defunding the organization would make it much
harder for those women to obtain contraceptives.

17) “So when you say that I wanted to take the auto industry bankrupt,
you actually did. And — and I think it’s important to know that that
was a process that was necessary to get those companies back on their
feet, so they could start hiring more people. That was precisely what
I recommend and ultimately what happened.” This is false. As
Buisnessweek explains: Romney “opposed any use of taxpayer dollars to
bail out the automakers, advice that President George W. Bush and
Obama ignored. GM and Chrysler went through managed bankruptcies after
Bush, at the end of his presidency, and later Obama provided federal
funds.” “Without federal funds, GM and Chyrsler would not have
survived. As former Bush aide Tony Fratto explained, “It wasn’t just
that there wasn’t credit available; a lot of private equity had cash,
they just weren’t giving it away.”

18) “He said that by now middle-income families would have a reduction
in their health insurance premiums by $2,500 a year. It’s gone up by
$2,500 a year.” Premiums have increased, though at a lower rate than
before. And while the Affordable Care Act’s most important cost
contentment strategies have yet to be implemented, the law is already
lowering costs. 16 million seniors have received preventive benefits
without deductibles or co-pays and are saving at least $3.9 billion on
prescription drugs. Millions of young adults now have insurance
coverage and are staying on their parent’s health care plan, insurers
that spend too many premium dollars on administrative spending have
refunded consumers, and states have successfully rejected dramatic
premium increases.

19) “He keeps saying, ‘Look, I’ve created 5 million jobs.’ That’s
after losing 5 million jobs. The entire record is such that the
unemployment has not been reduced in this country.” Job creation is
net positive since Obama took office in the middle of the worst
recession since the great depression. Economists estimate that up to 3
million jobs were created by the stimulus alone.

20) “The kids of those that came here illegally, those kids, I think,
should have a pathway to become a permanent resident of the United
States and military service, for instance, is one way they would have
that kind of pathway to become a permanent resident.” But Romney has
promised to end President Obama’s deferred action directive, which
saves some young undocumented immigrants from deportation, though he
would not take away visas from people who had already received them.
He has also promised to veto the DREAM Act.

21) “Now, when the president ran for office, he said that he’d put in
place, in his first year, a piece of legislation — he’d file a bill in
his first year that would reform our — our immigration system… He
didn’t do it. He had a Democrat House and Democrat Senate,
supermajority in both houses.” Senate Republicans repeatedly prevented
Obama’s immigration reform efforts. The GOP actually blocked the DREAM
Act from securing 60 votes to pass cloture, denying hundreds of
thousands of young undocumented immigrants a path to legal status if
they enrolled in college or joined the military. Sen. Lindsey Graham
(R-SC) even said on the Senate floor that young people lobbying his
office had wasted their time.

22) “Any investments I have over the last eight years have been
managed by a blind trust. And I understand they do include investments
outside the United States, including in — in Chinese companies.”
Romney’s blind trust is not very blind, and includes investments in a
company owned by Romney’s son.

23) “It was a terrorist attack and it took a long time for that to be
told to the American people.” Obama called the Libya incident an act
of “terror” the very next day. “No acts of terror will ever shake the
resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the
light of the values that we stand for,” he said. “Today we mourn four
more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of
America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is
done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be
done.”

24) “Consider the distance between ourselves and — and Israel, the
president said that — that he was going to put daylight between us and
Israel.” The Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Ehud
Barak, told CNN, “President Obama is doing … more than anything that I
can remember in the past [in regard to our security].”

25) “The president’s policies throughout the Middle East began with an
apology tour and — and — and pursue a strategy of leading from behind,
and this strategy is unraveling before our very eyes.” Obama never
embarked on an “apology tour.”

26) “We, of course, don’t want to have automatic weapons, and that’s
already illegal in this country to have automatic weapons.” Automatic
weapons are legal in this country.

27) “The — the greatest failure we’ve had with regards to — to gun
violence in some respects is what — what is known as Fast and Furious.
Which was a program under this administration, and how it worked
exactly I think we don’t know precisely, where thousands of automatic,
and AK-47 type weapons were — were given to people that ultimately
gave them to — to drug lords.” The Justice Department’s inspector
general “issued a scathing critique of federal officials for their
handling of the botched gun-trafficking case,” but “exonerated
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., whom many Republicans have blamed
for the scandal.”

28) “What I will do as president is make sure it’s more attractive to
come to America again.” Romney’s plan to move the country to a
territorial tax system would let corporations do business and make
profits overseas without ever being taxed on it in the U.S. This would
encourage American companies to invest abroad, potentially costing the
country up to 800,000 jobs.

29) “Canada’s tax rate on companies is now 15 percent. Ours is 35
percent. So if you’re starting a business, where would you rather
start it? We have to be competitive if we’re going to create more jobs
here.” The U.S. is raising historically low amounts of revenue from
the corporate income tax, and it already has the second lowest
effective corporate tax rate in the world. U.S. corporations are taxed
less than their foreign rivals, and the U.S. effective corporate tax
rate is low compared to other developed economies.

30) “And there’s no question but that Obamacare has been an
extraordinary deterrent to enterprises of all kinds hiring people.”
Under the law, only companies with more than 50 employees must provide
health insurance or pay a fine — that’s just 2.6 percent of
businesses. If anything, expanding health care coverage to more
Americans will actually create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

31) “He said he would have by now put forward a plan to reform
Medicare and Social Security, because he pointed out they’re on the
road to bankruptcy.” The possibility of Medicare going bankrupt is —
and historically has been — greatly exaggerated. In fact, if no
changes are made, Medicare would still be able to meet 88 percent of
its obligations in 2085. Social Security is fully funded for another
two decades and could pay 75 percent of its benefits thereafter. There
is also an easy way to ensure the program’s long-term solvency without
large changes or cuts to benefits.

[private sector's doing 'fine']

On 10/19/2012 1:14 PM, m...@facts.only.now wrote:
> At Last Debate:

http://online.wsj.com/

So came the moment late in the Hofstra debate when moderator Candy
Crowley looked at Mr. Obama and asked: "Does the buck stop with your
secretary of state as far as what went on here?"

Staring back, the president clutched for a second. He looked like a
fourth-grader being confronted in front of the whole class by Miss
Crowley of all our childhood nightmares. That moment revealed the
problem: At the core of Barack Obama's persona and his presidency is a
constant instinct to deniability.

It's not my fault. He comes across as one of those smart kids who always
had some elaborate excuse to disperse responsibility for anything bad in
his vicinity. And so it was in his answer to Miss Crowley: "Secretary
Clinton has done an extraordinary job. But she works for me. I'm the
president. And I'm always responsible. And that's why nobody is more
interested in . . ." By the end, he said it was Mitt Romney's fault for
bringing it up! In contrast, the bin Laden takedown was accompanied by a
Lady Gaga-like White House P.R. blitz in the media.

[el Dorado]

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20066660

Longmont-based Abound Solar, recipient of a $400 million federal loan
guarantee to expand solar-panel production, said Tuesday it is laying
off 280 workers and delaying a new factory in Indiana.

The layoffs represent 180 full-time workers and, according to the
Longmont Times-Call, an additional 100 part-time employees. That is
about a 70 percent reduction in Abound's Colorado workforce.

"We are facing tough market conditions and falling prices," said Steve
Abely, Abound's chief financial officer.