Innovation Ohio

What you need to know about Ohio Politics and Policy

Romney, Kasich Lie About Auto Rescue

News Release For Immediate Release: October 10, 2012 Contact: Dale Butland, 614-783-5833

ROMNEY, KASICH LIE ABOUT AUTO RESCUE IO; Auto Czar Rattner Say Jobs & China Claims are “Cynical Deceptions”

COLUMBUS — Steven Rattner joined Innovation Ohio today at a Columbus news conference to “blow the whistle on the Romney campaign’s cynical attempt to mislead Ohio voters about the auto rescue.” Rattner was Lead Advisor to President Obama during the 2009 rescue of the auto industry. Innovation Ohio is a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus. Rattner and IO cited numerous instances in which the Romney campaign and its GOP allies – including Ohio Gov. John Kasich – have attempted to mislead Ohio voters, including:
  • At an October 25 campaign rally in Defiance, Romney claimed that “Jeep is thinking of moving all production to China.” The company emphatically denied the charge the same day, saying “Jeep has no intention of shifting production out of North America” and criticizing Romney’s claim in unusually blunt language as “a leap that would be difficult even for circus acrobats” and lamenting “unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments.” In fact, Jeep intends to restart production in China by hiring additional workers, not moving U.S. jobs there. It’s akin to Honda or Toyota opening plants here to build cars for the American market.
  • Despite the company’s rebuke, on October 27 the Romney campaign began airing a television ad misleadingly saying that “Obama … sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China.” The ad also contains three additional distortions:
    • It states that Obama “took the auto companies through bankruptcy” — conveniently omitting that was Romney’s plan as well;
    • It says that the conservative-leaning Detroit News “endorsed Romney” — conveniently omitting that the endorsement criticized his position on the auto rescue, while praising Obama’s “extraordinary leadership” on the issue.
    • It states that Romney has a “plan to help the auto industry” — when neither he nor his campaign has ever announced or spelled out such a plan.
    • As a result, the ad has been rated false by numerous media fact-checkers, including the Tampa Tribune’s “Politifact” which rated it “Pants On Fire.”
  • On October 28, in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Gov. Kasich that Ohio is only “up a total of 400 auto jobs when you count the companies and suppliers.” In fact, Innovation Ohio has shown that the industry has created over 17,300 Ohio jobs since the rescue. And according to the Kasich Administration’s own Department of Development, 34% of private investment in 2011 – including 11 of 29 investments over $50 million — were in the auto industry. These deals accounted for 18% of all private sector job announcements reported by the Department.
  • On October 30, the Romney campaign tripled down on its deceit with a radio ad which not only repeats the debunked claim about Chrysler shipping American jobs to China, but claims that GM is planning to do so too. The ad also falsely blames President Obama for GM “cutting 15,000 American jobs.” In truth, these losses occurred prior to the President’s rescue plan in the summer of 2009. Since then, more than 152,000 American auto jobs have been created.
In the final Presidential debate and since, Gov. Romney implied that he actually favored using federal money to save the auto industry. In fact, he opposed both the essential “bridge loans” provided by President G.W. Bush and the long-term funding provided by President Obama. He would only consider federal guarantees of private sector financing following a bankruptcy proceeding. But there would have been nothing to “guarantee” because the auto companies were out of cash, private sector financing was not available, and without the funding provided by President Obama, the companies would never have come out of bankruptcy. Instead, they would have ceased paying suppliers, laid off their employees, closed their doors and liquidated. Said Innovation Ohio President Janetta King: “President Obama took an enormous risk when he bet on Ohio and Ohio workers. But the President’s bet paid off — and now over 17,000 Ohioans are back at work in the auto industry and Ohio’s unemployment rate is lower than it’s been since 2008. But if Romney, Kasich and Mandel had their way, Ohio wouldn’t have an auto industry today.” Added IO communications director Dale Butland: “It was bad enough when Mitt Romney turned his back on Ohio workers by opposing the auto rescue and saying ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.’ But now he’s adding insult to injury by distorting what happened and running false and misleading television and radio ads. Equally shameful is that Gov. Kasich is assisting Mr. Romney in that deception. Trying to win an election is one thing. Trying to win it this way is something else again. If Gov. Romney will lie to Ohioans about auto jobs, maybe we should ask what else he’s been lying about.” Materials distributed at IO’s press conference can be found here.  -30-    

Romney Campaign’s Assault on the Truth of the Auto Bailout – IO Answers

An op-ed piece co-authored by IO’s Janetta King and Tom Perriello of the Center for American Progress is running in the The Plain Dealer today. It clearly answers the question: “Who is right on the auto rescue debate raging in Ohio?” Poised on either side of the debate are President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney (Romney, aided and abetted by Ohio Gov. John Kasich). The answer to the question is: The President. From the op-ed: [Read more…]

Debate analysis: how do Obama, Romney compare on women’s issues?

In the second presidential debate held this week, for the first time, we were offered a direct contrast between the two candidates’ position on two issues important to women. Pay Equity in the Workplace Responding to the question “In what new ways to you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?”, President Obama spoke of his very first legislative accomplishment:
“… the first bill I signed was something called the Lily Ledbetter bill. And it’s named after this amazing woman who had been doing the same job as a man for years, found out that she was getting paid less, and the Supreme Court said that she couldn’t bring suit because she should have found about it earlier, whereas she had no way of finding out about it. So we fixed that. And that’s an example of the kind of advocacy that we need, because women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. This is not just a women’s issue, this is a family issue, this is a middle-class issue, and that’s why we’ve got to fight for it.”
Governor Romney did not address the question of whether he would have supported the Lily Ledbetter Act, but his campaign has — after some misdirection yesterday — finally stated that he would not have signed it. [Read more…]

The Day After: There’s Still a $5 Trillion Hole in Romney-Ryan Plan

If you’re tuned in to the ongoing presidential election race, you might have still been scratching your head this morning given Gov. Mitt Romney’s performance in last night’s debate versus President Barack Obama. There’s no confusion over the perceived winner. In our style-first culture, Romney won last night hands down. His answers were sharper, shorter and more pointed than the president’s. He smiled a lot – although that smile was called smug by some, confident by others. Romney looked and sounded great. But, we’re not hiring a Ken doll, we’re deciding on the near term future of the entire country. [Read more…]

Paul Ryan Kicking Off Romney-Ryan Ohio Under the Bus Tour

We showed you how Romney Economics doesn’t add up for Ohioans a couple of weeks ago with this report. Well, the Romney-Ryan duo are running around Ohio for the next three days trying to sell us a bill of goods. Here’s a little graphic we put together to let you know where they’ll be. We also added some information for them. We’ve got the average income and effective tax rate for each community they will visit. Romney has shown recently he just doesn’t get it – we thought we’d help. The data contained on the map comes from a report we did in conjunction with the Center for American Progress. You can see the data and an explanation of effective tax rates here. Click on the map for a full-size version.

Mitt Romney: Comfortable with His Kind & Just Who Are These 47% Slacker People

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been cutting Mitt Romney some slack. Ever since the circus that was the first half of the Republican primary season, I’ve taken some measure of pity on the man. He just looks so uncomfortable up there at times. It’s not easy to watch someone who’s not comfortable trying their hardest to back slap in Iowa or find their inner Bill Clinton in New Hampshire. The only time he’s looked truly cool on the campaign trail was during the Republican debates when he could just sit back and let the flat earthers and creationists of the GOP have at it. Then I watched the Mother Jones Video. The Romney No Plan for nearly one half of America. I listened too. If you were to just read the transcript of what Romney told a room full of high rollers, it would be bad enough. The message is 47% of Americans are hitching a free ride. They are inferior to all of those gathered in the home of a private equity kingpin in that they believe they are entitled to everything and more from the government. They are leeches and they won’t get anything from Mitt Romney. “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives,” Romney said. But I also listened to the man. What I heard was confidence in his voice. I heard a man in his element and relaxed. I heard Mitt Romney how he must have sounded in board rooms past during his high flying days of consulting and pillaging with Bain Capital. I’d never heard Mitt Romney comfortable in his own skin. It was eerie because here he is, at ease, giving us a peek into his character – his true world view – and that view of the world is dismal. Romney’s view of the world is that one half of the people in the United States aren’t worth a damn – and he’ll “go tell that” with smug self-assurance in his voice. So, who are the 47%, these filchers and grubbers? The Tax Policy Center, a think tank devoted to unbiased analyses of tax policy and started by former officials of the Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton Administrations helps to shed some light on the issue. Take a look at the graphic on the left. You’ll see that of those who do not pay income tax, nearly two thirds pay payroll taxes. If you’d like to become better informed than a candidate for president of the United States, check out this post from the  Tax Policy Center. In part:

Much has been made of TPC’s estimate that fully 46 percent of Americans will pay no federal individual income tax this year. Commentators have often misinterpreted that percentage as indicating that nearly half of Americans pay no taxes. In fact, however, many of those who don’t pay income tax do pay other taxes—federal payroll and excise taxes as well as state and local income, sales, and property taxes.
Finally, here’s a bit more:
  • Half of people who don’t pay income tax aren’t non payers due to tax breaks, their incomes are low.
  • Half of people who pay no income tax or payroll taxes are elderly. (In many cases Social Security income is not taxed.)
  • One third of those who pay neither income nor payroll taxes are not elderly but earn less than $20,000 per year.
 

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