G
Guns Guns Guns
Guest
Truth took a punch or two at the first of two GOP debates before New Hampshire’s critical presidential primary.
But does Romney deserve credit for all of those jobs? He admitted at the debatethat the total includes jobs up until the present day, long after Bain’s initial involvement, and that other firms had invested in them as well.
http://factcheck.org/2012/01/mangled-facts-in-manchester/
- Romney, talking about taxes, said federal, state and local government consume 37 percent of the economy today compared with only 27 percent when John F. Kennedy was president. The fact is that federal, state and local government taxes are only slightly higher now than they were during Kennedy’s time in office.
- In fact, taxes now consume only 27.4 percent of GDP.
- Romney repeated his misleading claim that his firm Bain Capital invested in businesses that “have now added over 100,000 jobs.”
- A Romney spokesman said he was actually giving figures for spending. If so, Romney still was misleading his audience. He used the word “consumes.” And he sandwiched the figures between references to taxes, never making clear that he had switched from talking about taxes to giving figures on spending and back to talking about taxes again.
Furthermore, total government expenditures never exceeded 24.7 percent of GDP in any quarter while Kennedy was president, and never were as high as Romney’s 37 percent figure.
Also, during the July to September quarter last year, spending was 35.7 percent, lower than Romney’s 37 percent figure. (The figure did reach 36.5 percent in the second quarter of 2009, when the economy was shrinking. But that was then, not “today,” as Romney claimed.)
Romney repeated the claim that he created over 100,000 jobs through his work at the private equity firm Bain Capital. That’s an unproven and questionable claim.
Romney said that 100,000 jobs was a “net-net” figure that included jobs gained and lost at more than 100 businesses in which Bain invested.
When moderator George Stephanopoulos questioned that, saying analysts had said Romney hadn’t subtracted jobs lost, Romney responded, “no, it’s not accurate.”
He said he was “a good enough numbers guy to make sure I got both sides of that.”
But this week, the Romney campaign sent us as support for the claim a thin list of jobs gained at just three companies: Staples, The Sports Authority and Domino’s. No other companies were included in the list, and no jobs lost were mentioned, either. We have asked the campaign again for the detailed count that Romney said exists.
As for the three companies the campaign has cited, it’s true that they have added more than 100,000 jobs since Bain invested in them.
But does Romney deserve credit for all of those jobs? He admitted at the debatethat the total includes jobs up until the present day, long after Bain’s initial involvement, and that other firms had invested in them as well.
http://factcheck.org/2012/01/mangled-facts-in-manchester/