Continuous Coverage

“With respect to pre-existing conditions, what Governor Romney has said is for those with continuous coverage, he would continue to make sure that they receive their coverage.”

• Eric Fehrnstrom, Senior Romney Campaign adviser, October 3, 2012
• Source: Talking Points Memo
• Context: During the Presidential debate on October 3, 2012, Mitt Romney claimed that his repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) would not deprive those with pre-existing conditions of insurance. Fehrnstrom, however, contradicted Mitt Romney’s claim right after the debate, saying that Romney’s plan would only cover those who already have continuous coverage, meaning that those with pre-existing conditions who have not been able to get coverage will not be covered under his new plan. When pressed on the issue, he said it would be up to the state’s to find their own solutions. Fact checkers have covered last nights debate, critiquing many of Romney’s accusations and claims: NPR, FactCheck.org, Politifact, and the Washington Post, among others.

Make A Much Better Case

“I would not argue that tax increases are per se stimulative. It all depends on circumstances. But it is clear from the experience of the 1990s that they can play a very big role in reducing the budget deficit and are not necessarily a drag on growth. And the obvious experience of the 2000s is that tax cuts increase the deficit and don’t necessarily do anything for growth. Those arguing otherwise need to make a much better case than they have so far.”

• Bruce Bartlett, senior policy advisor in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, August 5, 2012
• Source: The Clinton Tax Challenge For Republicans
• Context: Bruce Bartlett has been very critical of Republican economic policies, specifically their refusal to even consider raising any taxes to tackle economic problems. In this piece, Bartlett argues that there is no historical support for the Republican policies, yet there is evidence which shows that raising taxes does help the economy. In order to justify their policies, Bartlett accuses the Republicans of resorting to “economic revisionism”:

“However, there are still a few people around old enough to remember the 1990s and 2000s. Even without looking up government statistics, they know that the 1990s were a time when the economy boomed, while the 2000s were a period of economic stagnation. This has created a problem for Republicans, leading to economic revisionism.”

We’ve Got To Separate That

“I think we have to get the money out of the teachers unions going into campaigns. It’s the wrong way for us to go. We’ve got to separate that.”

• Mitt Romney, September 25, 2012
• Source: CBS News
• Context: Speaking in New York at a forum sponsored by NBC, Education Nation, Romney said that although he is not against the right to strike, he is against teachers unions giving money to political campaigns. Romney, however, has no problem allowing corporations and the wealthy from donating unlimited sums of money to Super PAC’s. Super PAC’s supporting the Romney campaign will be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising attacking President Obama. Donor’s such as the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson have pledged tens of millions of dollars of their own money to defeat the President.

Who Better Than Me

“Who better than me, that’s already finished one of the entitlement programs ,to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare?”

• Tommy G. Thompson, Republian Senate candidate for Wisconsin, June 4, 2012
• Source: video
• Context: Thompson was speaking at a meeting on June 4 of the Lake Country Area Defenders of Liberty, a Tea Party group, in Oconomowoc. He faces Democrat Tammy Baldwin in the November 6 election for a seat in the Senate. Thompson’s campaign responded by saying that he simply wants to reform Medicaid and Medicare.

Not Qualified To Be President

“He has been clear that no American need pay more than he or she owes under the law. At the same time, he was in the unique position of having made a commitment to the public that his tax rate would be above 13%. In order to be consistent with that statement, the Romneys limited their deduction of charitable contributions.”

• Source: Buzzfeed
• Context: In July of 2012, Romney stated that  that he doesn’t “pay more [taxes] than are legally due, and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president.” In August, he also stated that he had never paid taxes below 13% in the past 10 years amidst accusations that he possibly paid no taxes at all. However, upon release of his 2011 tax returns, it was evident that Romney manipulated his deductions in order to pay a higher tax rate than he would have, 14.1%. Had he taken his full deduction, he would have been below 13%. When asked about this, his campaign responded by admitting that they he had not claimed his full deductions in order to stay consistent with his statement in August. By Romney’s own standards, because he paid more than he had to, he is not qualified to be president. As Bloomberg has pointed out, Romney has three years to amend his tax returns and reclaim the deductions, which he will most likely do after the election.

A Decent Check

“I’m in a three way primary for the US Senate. I’ve gone to people and asked for their support, their help, or their endorsement and some people say yes. They write me a decent check. I remember that. The people that I thought were friends that tell me to go away because they are supporting someone else, I remember that. You know, I can remember back to 12 years ago. You remember who’s helping you. That’s one way that people get to know Congressmen and Senators.”

• Todd Akin, Republican candidate for Senate, May 11, 2012
• Source: audio
• Context: A video surfacing on Youtube on Monday purported to be an audio recording of Todd Akin answering a question on how to get in touch with a Congressman. Akin, who has been criticized heavily for his comments on rape, responded by saying that a good way to be remember by him is to write him a “decent check”. The influence of money on politicians has been highlighted recently with super PAC’s spending tens of millions of dollars on campaigns across the country.

Not Worrying About Those People

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax…My job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

• Mitt Romney, May 17, 2012
• Source: video
• Context: Mitt Romney, speaking at a private fundraiser earlier this year at the Boca Raton home of controversial private equity manager Marc Leder, made several controversial remarks, one being his unfounded criticism of people on welfare and that his job is “not to worry about those people.” Mother Jones has recently released several videos of the private fundraiser, which have now gone viral. In them, Romney talks about his campaign strategy, boasts that some of his consultants have worked for political leaders all over the world (including Netanyahu), and criticizes the Obama administration. In another set of videos, also released by Mother Jones, at the same fundraiser, Romney discusses foreign policy. Among them, he is against the Palestinians having their own independent state. After one donor criticized his campaign, wondering why they were not attacking Obama on a more intellectual level, Romney responded by saying:

“In a setting like this, a highly intellectual subject—discussion on a whole series of important topics typically doesn’t win elections.”

• His campaign has been heavily criticized for its false attacks, misrepresentation of the facts, and outright lies. On one occasion, his campaign pollster stated that the Romney campaign would not be dictated to by fact checkers. Another video purported to be of Romney speaking at a private fundraiser was released in late August.

I Don’t Care

“I don’t care what fact check says.”

• Peter King, Republican Congressman from New York, September 17, 2012
• Source: video
• Context: Republicans, including the Romney campaign, have recently, and falsely, attacked President Obama for “apologizing” for America. Peter King reiterated this Republican talking point n CNN’s Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien. When O’Brien pointed out that independent fact checkers, such as factcheck.org (and The Washington Post), have determined that the President has never apologized for America, King stated that he doesn’t “care what fact check says.” O’Brien responded by saying that “There are fact checks. You may not care, but they’re a fact checker.”

Leftist Minions

“Pillar after pillar after pillar holding up this shining city on the hill and what are we faced with? the president of the United States and his leftist minions out there every day with their little jackhammers chiseling away at those pillars, undermining those pillars of American exceptionalism, attempting to bring down the shining city on the ills, turn it into rubble. And they have no idea what they would build on top of the rubble but I know this: we are not going to let them do that. We are going to refurbish those pillars, we are going to strengthen the shining city on the hill. We’re going to serve God and country in that order. There is a fine future for the United States of America and we’re going to have a chance to live it and when that victory comes it will be His victory, not our victory, it will be in his time not our time. God bless you all. God bless America.”

• Steve King, Republican Congressman from Iowa, September 14, 2012
• Source: video
• Context: King was speaking at the Values Voter Summit, where he implied that Barack Obama was the ant-Christ and that he and his “leftist minions” were destroying America. He also went on to say that if President Obama is defeated in this years election, it will have been because God defeated him.

A Racist Organization

“Besides slavery, abortion is the other darkest stain on our nation’s character. And this president is looking for every way possible to make abortion more available and more frequent, and he wants you to pay for it — even if you disagree with it. Welcome to another provision of Obamacare.

…

I am the adoptive father of four children, each of them either — each of them either black, Hispanic, Native American, and I am incensed that this president pays money to an entity that was created for the sole purpose of killing children that look like mine — a racist organization, and it continues specifically to target minorities for abortion destruction.”

• Tim Huelskamp, Republican Congressman from Kansas, September 14, 2012
• Source: NBC News
• Context: Tim Huelskamp made the comments at the 2o12 Values Voters Summit, referring to President Obama’s funding of Planned Parenthood. However, as FactCheck.org has pointed out, only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s are abortions, and 10% of the organizations clients receive an abortion. Furthermore, federal funding cannot be (by law) and is not used to fund Planned Parenthood’s abortion services.