REWRITING PRESIDENT OBAMA'S POSITIONS

Mr. Romney and his advisors have shown a disturbing pattern throughout this election.  President Obama positions have been distorted and misquoted indiscriminately.  Here are 20 examples from Romney speeches...

References:  to learn more go to:

PolitiFact.com: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/mitt-romney/statements/byruling/false/
Photos/Cartoons: from TheChristian Left Web site: http://www.thechristianleft.org

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Mr. Romney has said:

1.  "Regulations have quadrupled. The rate of regulations quadrupled under this president."

The actual data on regulations show Obama's rate of regulations is no different from the past 18 years.

Mr. Romney  has said:

2.  "In one year, (President Obama) provided $90 billion in breaks to the green energy world … into solar and wind, to Solyndra and Fisker and Tesla and Ener1."

The money wasn’t provided in one year, wasn’t distributed primarily via tax breaks, wasn’t primarily provided directly to

companies, wasn’t primarily spent on solar and wind, and wasn’t spent at all on Fisker or Tesla.  If fact more than 60 percent of the allocated money was directed to state and local governments and utility companies for energy efficiency, transportation and electrical infrastructure. 


Mr. Romney has said:
3.   "President Obama has "doubled" the deficit."

President Obama and the Congress have actually decreased the deficit slightly.

Mr. Romney has said:
4.  "Right now, the (Congressional Budget Office) says up to 20 million people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into effect next year."

There is a great deal of insurance change by choice each year.  Many of those 20 million will be leaving employer coverage voluntarily for better options. Romney also ignores that under the status quo, many more people today "lose" coverage than even the highest CBO estimate.

"The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.” Fredrick Buchner

Mr. Romney has said:

5.  "The 48, 49 percent that supports President Barack Obama are "people who pay no income tax."

Not supported by the polls and income tax data.  Obama gets substantial support from people earning more than $50,000 -- and 90 percent of them, or more, do pay taxes. And Romney gets lots of support from seniors, many of whom have no income tax liability.

Mr. Romney has said:
6.  "President Obama’s lawsuit claims it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women extended early voting privileges during the state’s early voting period."

Obama’s lawsuit clearly states that it seeks to permit all Ohioans to vote during the three days before the election, as was the case in 2008. The suit in no way suggests restricting early voting by members of the military. 

It is simply dishonest for Romney and his backers to claim that Obama’s effort to extend early voting privileges to everyone in Ohio constitutes an attack on military voters’ ability to cast ballots on the weekend before elections. 


Mr. Romney has said:
7.  "President Obama was saying success 'is the result of government,' not 'hard-working people,' when he said, "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."


The Romney campaign has repeatedly distorted Obama's words. By plucking two sentences out of context, Romney twists the president's remarks and ignores their real meaning. 

The preceding sentences make clear that Obama was talking about the importance of government-provided infrastructure and education to the success of private businesses. 

Romney also conveniently ignores Obama's clear summary of his message, that "the point is ... that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together."

By leaving out the "individual initiative" reference, Romney and his supporters have misled viewers and given a false impression.

Mr. Romney has said:
8.  Stimulus money went to buy electric cars from Finland as a payback to Obama supporters.

There is nothing accurate in this claim. The federal loan guarantees the company received were not part of the stimulus, and there is no evidence that any government dollars paid for work done by Finnish workers.

Ornisher, the company spokesman, told us the contract to produce the cars in Finland had been signed before the federal loan was approved. Also, measures were put in place to ensure that taxpayer dollars only went for work done in America.

 

The ad’s suggestion that the Fisker loan was a reward to a political supporter also falls flat. The program was approved initially by the Bush administration.


Mr. Romney has said:
9.  " ‘Obamacare’ puts the federal government between you and your doctor."


The law does aim to improve the quality and efficiency of care. At some level, that would change what doctors do. But we found no hard evidence to support the claim that doctors would be forced to make bad decisions. In contrast, we found many provisions that support an open process geared toward providing better care.

Primary care doctors seem most inclined to support the law, as do a large number of physician professional associations.

 But that doesn’t mean the government is placing itself between doctors and patients.

Mr. Romney has said:
10. "Dow Chemical decided to build a plant in Saudi Arabia rather than Oklahoma due to the impact of environmental regulations on the supply of natural gas."

No record of it appears to exist, Romney's campaign didn't offer any evidence to back it up and neither did Dow.

"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at this woman" John 8:7

Mr. Romney has said:
11.,  "Obamacare … means that for up to 20 million Americans, they will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like and they want to keep."

Romney is  wrong to describe it as only including people who "like" their coverage, since many of those 20 million will be leaving employer coverage voluntarily for better options. Romney also ignores that under the status quo, many more people today "lose" coverage than even the highest CBO estimate. We rate his statement False.

Mr. Romney has said:
12.  "Obamacare adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt."

There is no factual basis for Romney’s claim that the law "adds trillions to our deficits and to our national debt."

Mr. Romney has said:
13.  (When Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts), "we didn’t just slow the rate of growth of our government, we actually cut it."

When Romney was governor spending rose by an average of about 5 percent per year during Romney’s term.  

Many of Romney’s efforts to shape the budget were rejected by the Democratic legislature, so claiming full credit for any budgetary trends on his watch is a stretch.

Mr. Romney has said:
14, "Barack Obama is the only president to ever cut $500 billion from Medicare."

Changes under Obama’s watch were a reduction in future growth.  And other presidents have cut Medicare in the past.  
 Health care law doesn't 'cut' Medicare

Mr. Romney has said:
15.  "The president gave the (auto) companies to the UAW."

The reality is Obama was in charge of a bailout deal that resulted in the union’s health care trust owning stock in Chrysler and GM. But the trust was owed money to pay for health care under the terms of labor contracts the car companies signed. And the union "gave" plenty too -- in the form of wages, vacation and job security. In that light, the arrangement was a tradeoff, not a giveaway.

What tips Romney’s claim even further from reality is the fact that the union itself does not own any GM or Chrysler stock. It is not a majority shareholder in either company, nor does it have a vote on the board.

Comparison of sentences for AIG executive  (stole $500 Million) and Homeless man (Stole $100)

Mr. Romney has said:
16.  "This president went before the United Nations and castigated Israel for building settlements. He said nothing about thousands of rockets being rained in on Israel from the Gaza Strip."

Doesn’t match Obama’s speeches. In his 2009 speech to the U.N., Obama said that America does not accept "the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." Though he did not specifically mention Hamas, he did mention Israeli’s fear of rockets. And in later speeches to the U.N., Obama was blunt in his criticism of violent attacks against Israelis, once saying "the slaughter of innocent Israelis is not resistance -- it's injustice." 

Our examination of three of Obama’s speeches to the U.N. showed that Obama is fairly even-handed as he has laid out goals for both sides -- while he spoke against the Israeli settlements, he also bluntly opposed violent attacks on Israelis.

Mr. Romney has said:
17.  "President Barack Obama has opened up no new trade relationships with other nations.

It did take the better part of three years for Obama and the Republican dominated Senate to enact the languishing South Korea, Colombia and Panama trade agreements. But ultimately he did reach an accord with lawmakers that enabled the agreements’ relatively easy passage in both the House and the Senate, including strong support from Republicans as well as the votes of several dozen Democratic lawmakers.

Mr. Romney has said:
18.  "Eliminating 'Obamacare' ... "saves $95 billion a year."


Romney said repealing the health care law would save $95 billion a year. But that only accounts for outlays in one year, 2016. Because of the revenue sources that the law established, repealing it actually adds significantly to the deficit over the long haul, according to the CBO.

Mr. Romney has said:
19.  "The National Labor Relations Board told Boeing that it couldn’t build a factory in South Carolina because South Carolina is a right-to-work state."

The NLRB’s complaint started a legal process that could ultimately have resulted in a factory closure, but the NLRB as a whole didn’t tell Boeing anything. What’s more, the legal basis for the action centered on whether Boeing was punishing the union for staging strikes, not that Boeing had opened a factory in a right-to-work state.

Mr. Romney has said:
20.  "Only one president has ever cut Medicare for seniors in this country . . . Barack Obama."


The statement gets it wrong on every front. The Medicare belt was tightened in 1981 and 1982 under Reagan, in 1989 under the first President Bush and again in 1997 under Clinton. So Obama is in no way the only president to cut the program.

Further, by specifying that Obama cut Medicare "for seniors," Romney seems to mean that the president slashed benefits, not just the program’s spending. That’s even more egregious. Other presidents have made changes to Medicare that reduced benefits for seniors, while the health care law Obama signed actually increases them. That’s a lot of inaccuracy in a single sentence.

The frightening thing is ... how many people accept the lies - even when presented with the actual evidence...

Be sure to vote on or before Nov. 6!

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