Wanna see? read on.
1) “[G]et us energy independent, North
American energy independent. That creates about 4 million jobs”.
Romney’s plan for “energy independence” actually relies heavily on a study that
assumes the U.S. continues with fuel efficiency standards set by the Obama
administration. For instance, he uses Citigroup research based off the
assumption that “‘the United States will continue with strict fuel economy
standards that will lower its oil demand.” Since he promises to undo the Obama
administration’s new fuel
efficiency standards, he would cut oil consumption savings of 2 million barrels per day
by 2025.
2) “I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut. I
don’t have a tax cut of a scale that you’re talking about.” A Tax
Policy Center analysis of Romney’s proposal for a 20 percent across-the-board
tax cut in all federal income tax rates, eliminating the Alternative Minimum
Tax, eliminating the estate tax and other tax reductions, would reduce federal
revenue $480 billion in 2015. This amounts to $5 trillion over the decade.
3) “My view is that we ought to provide tax
relief to people in the middle class. But I’m not going to reduce the share of
taxes paid by high-income people.” If Romney hopes to provide tax
relief to the middle class, then his $5 trillion tax cut would add to the
deficit. There are not enough deductions in the tax code that primarily benefit
rich people to make his math work.
4) “My — my number-one principal is, there
will be no tax cut that adds to the deficit. I want to underline that: no tax
cut that adds to the deficit.” 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.
5) “I will not under any circumstances
raise taxes on middle-income families. I will lower taxes on middle-income
families. Now, you cite a study. There are six other studies that looked at the
study you describe and say it’s completely wrong.” The
studies Romney cites actually further
prove that Romney would, in fact, have to raise taxes on the middle
class if he were to keep his promise not to lose revenue with his tax rate
reduction.
6) “I saw a study that came out today that
said you’re going to raise taxes by $3,000 to $4,000 on middle-income
families.” 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.
7) “And the reason is because small business pays that individual rate; 54 percent of America’s workers work in businesses that are taxed not at the corporate tax rate, but at the individual tax rate….97 percent of the businesses are not — not taxed at the 35 percent tax rate, they’re taxed at a lower rate. But those businesses that are in the last 3 percent of businesses happen to employ half — half of all the people who work in small business.” 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.
7) “And the reason is because small business pays that individual rate; 54 percent of America’s workers work in businesses that are taxed not at the corporate tax rate, but at the individual tax rate….97 percent of the businesses are not — not taxed at the 35 percent tax rate, they’re taxed at a lower rate. But those businesses that are in the last 3 percent of businesses happen to employ half — half of all the people who work in small business.” 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.
8) “Mr. President, all of the increase in
natural gas and oil has happened on private land, not on government land. On
government land, your administration has cut the number of permits and licenses
in half.” Oil production from federal lands is
higher, not lower: Production from federal lands is up slightly in 2011 when
compared to 2007. And the oil and gas industry is sitting on 7,000
approved permits to drill, that it hasn’t begun exploring or developing.
9) “The president’s put it in place as much
public debt — almost as much debt held by the public as all prior presidents
combined.” This is not even close to being true. When Obama took office, the
national debt stood at $10.626
trillion. Now the national debt is over $16 trillion. That $5.374 trillion
increase is nowhere near as much debt as all the other presidents combined.
10) “That’s why the National Federation of
Independent Businesses said your plan will kill 700,000 jobs. I don’t want to
kill jobs in this environment.” That study, produced by a
right-wing advocacy organization, doesn’t
analyze what Obama has actually proposed.
11) “What we do have right now is a setting
where I’d like to bring money from overseas back to this country.”
Romney’s plan to shift the country to a territorial tax system would allow
corporations to do business and make profits overseas without ever being taxed
on it in the United States. This encourages American companies to invest abroad
and could cost the country up to 800,000
jobs.
12) “I would like to take the Medicaid
dollars that go to states and say to a state, you’re going to get what you got
last year, plus inflation, plus 1 percent, and then you’re going to manage your
care for your poor in the way you think best.”
Sending federal Medicaid funding to the states in the form of a block grant
woud significantly reduce federal spending for Medicaid because the grant would
not keep up with projected health care costs. A CBO
estimate of a very similar proposal from Paul Ryan found that federal
spending would be “35 percent lower in 2022 and 49 percent lower in 2030 than
current projected federal spending” and as a result “states would face
significant challenges in achieving sufficient cost savings through
efficiencies to mitigate the loss of federal funding.” “To maintain current
service levels in the Medicaid program, states would probably need to consider
additional changes, such as reducing their spending on other programs or
raising additional revenues,” the CBO found.
13) “I want to take that $716 billion
you’ve cut and put it back into Medicare…. But the idea of cutting $716 billion
from Medicare to be able to balance the additional cost of Obamacare is, in my
opinion, a mistake. There’s that number again. Romney is
claiming that Obamacare siphons off $716 billion from Medicare, to the
detriment of beneficiaries. In actuality, that money is saved primarily through
reducing over-payments to insurance
companies under Medicare Advantage, not payments to beneficiaries. Paul
Ryan’s budget plan keeps
those same cuts, but directs them toward tax cuts for the rich and deficit
reduction.
14) “What I support is no change for
current retirees and near-retirees to Medicare.” Here
is how Romney’s Medicare plan will
affect current seniors: 1) by repealing Obamacare, the 16 million
seniors receiving preventive benefits without deductibles or co-pays and are
saving $3.9 billion on prescription drugs will see a cost increase, 2) “premium
support” will increase premiums for existing beneficiaries as private insurers
lure healthier seniors out of the traditional Medicare program, 3) Romney/Ryan
would also lower Medicaid spending significantly beginning next year, shifting
federal spending to states and beneficiaries, and increasing costs for the 9
million Medicare recipients who are dependent on Medicaid.
15) “Number two is for people coming along
that are young, what I do to make sure that we can keep Medicare in place for
them is to allow them either to choose the current Medicare program or a
private plan. Their choice. They get to choose — and they’ll have at least two
plans that will be entirely at no cost to them.” The
Medicare program changes
for everyone, even people who choose to remain in the traditional
fee-for-service. Rather than relying on a guaranteed benefit, all beneficiaries
will receive a premium support credit of $7,500 on average in 2023 to purchase
coverage in traditional Medicare or private insurance. But that amount will only
grow at a rate of GDP plus 1.5 percentage points and will not keep up with
health care costs. So while the federal government will spend less on the
program, seniors will pay more in premiums.
16) “And, by the way the idea came not even
from Paul Ryan or — or Senator Wyden, who’s the co-author of the bill with —
with Paul Ryan in the Senate, but also it came from Bill — Bill Clinton’s chief
of staff.” Romney has rejected the
Ryan/Wyden approach — which does not cap the growth of the “premium support”
subsidy. Bill Clinton and his commission also voted down these changes to the
Medicare program.
17) “Well, I would repeal and replace it.
We’re not going to get rid of all regulation. You have to have regulation. And
there are some parts of Dodd-Frank that make all the sense in the world.” Romney
has previously called for full
repeal of Dodd-Frank, a law whose specific purpose is to regulate banks.
MF Global’s use
of customer funds to pay for its own trading losses is just one bit of proof that
the financial industry isn’t responsible enough to protect consumers without
regulation.
18) “But I wouldn’t designate five banks as
too big to fail and give them a blank check. That’s one of the unintended
consequences of Dodd-Frank… We need to get rid of that provision because it’s
killing regional and small banks. They’re getting hurt.” The
law merely says that the biggest, systemically risky banks need to abide
by more stringent regulations. If those banks fail, they
will be unwound by a new process in the Dodd-Frank law that protects
taxpayers from having to pony up for a bailout.
19) “And, unfortunately, when — when — when
you look at Obamacare, the Congressional Budget Office has said it will cost
$2,500 a year more than traditional insurance. So it’s adding to cost.”
Obamacare will actually provide millions of families with
tax credits to make health care more affordable.
20) “[I]t puts in place an unelected board
that’s going to tell people ultimately what kind of treatments they can have. I
don’t like that idea.” The Board, or IPAB is tasked with making
binding recommendations to Congress for lowering health care spending, should
Medicare costs exceed a target growth rate. Congress can accept the savings
proposal or implement its own ideas through a super majority. The panel’s plan
will modify payments to providers but it cannot “include any recommendation to
ration health care, raise revenues or Medicare beneficiary premiums…increase
Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing (including deductibles, coinsurance, and co-
payments), or otherwise restrict benefits or modify eligibility criteria” (Section
3403 of the ACA). Relying on health care experts rather than politicians to
control health care costs has previously attracted bipartisan support and even
Ryan himself proposed
two IPAB-like structures in a 2009 health plan.
21) “Right now, the CBO says up to 20
million people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into effect next
year. And likewise, a study by McKinsey and Company of American businesses said
30 percent of them are anticipating dropping people from coverage.” The
Affordable Care Act would actually expand health care coverage to 30 million
Americans, despite Romney fear mongering. According to CBO director Douglas
Elmendorf, 3
million or less people would leave employer-sponsored health insurance
coverage as a result of the law.
22) “I like the way we did it [health care]
in Massachusetts…What were some differences? We didn’t raise taxes.” Romney
raised fees, but he can claim that he didn’t increase taxes because the federal
government funded almost
half of his reforms.
23) “It’s why Republicans said, do not do
this, and the Republicans had — had the plan. They put a plan out. They put out
a plan, a bipartisan plan. It was swept aside.” The
Affordable Care Act incorporates many Republican ideas including the individual
mandate, state-based health care exchanges, high-risk insurance pools, and
modified provisions that allow insurers to sell policies in multiple states.
Republicans never offered a united bipartisan alternative.
24) “Preexisting conditions are covered
under my plan.” Only people who are continuously
insured would not be discriminated against because they suffer from
pre-existing conditions. This protection would not be extended to people who
are currently uninsured.
25) “In one year, you provided $90 billion
in breaks to the green energy world. Now, I like green energy as well, but
that’s about 50 years’ worth of what oil and gas receives.” The
$90 billion was given out over several years and included loans, loan
guarantees and grants through the American Recovery Act. $23
billion of the $90 billion “went toward “clean coal,” energy-efficiency
upgrades, updating the electricity grid and environmental clean-up, largely for
old nuclear weapons sites.”
26) “I think about half of [the green firms
Obama invested in], of the ones have been invested in have gone out of
business. A number of them happened to be owned by people who were contributors
to your campaigns.” As of late last year, only “three
out of the 26 recipients of 1705 loan guarantees have filed for
bankruptcy, with losses estimated at just over $600 million.”
27) “If the president’s reelected you’ll
see dramatic cuts to our military.” Romney is referring to the
sequester, which his running mate Paul Ryan supported. Obama opposes the
military cuts and has asked Congress to formulate a balanced approach that would
avoid the trigger.
More coming from fact checkers who publish for both candidates.
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