Public Employee Press

2012 ELECTION
Can you trust 'em?
Mendacious Mitt

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Born with a silver ladle, Republican presidential candidate Willard "Mitt" Romney built his fortune with money inherited from his auto-executive-turned-governor dad.

As founding partner in vulture capitalist firm Bain Capital, Romney pioneered outsourcing jobs overseas for lower wages, and he laid off thousands of workers in the United States.

Romney pocketed huge profits that he stows offshore in Swiss banks, Ireland and the Caymans. Bain invests in companies like Dunkin' Donuts, Staples, Burger King and Toys 'R' Us that typically employ nonunion workers for minimum wage. It is uncertain whether Mitt resigned from Bain in 1999 as he claims or remained until 2002, as federal filings reveal.

A one-term governor, Romney signed a significant health-care law in Massachusetts that served as a model for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, which Mitt, if elected, would repeal. He left Massachusetts 47th in the nation for job creation.

In 2008, Romney ran unsuccessfully for president. That year Republican nominee John McCain passed him over for vice president, choosing Sarah Palin instead.

This year the presumptive GOP presidential candidate got a nod, albeit weak, at the Republican convention from which former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and others were conspicuously absent. His wife, Ann, tried to humanize him, but her anecdotes and proclamations of love failed to win over even party diehards. And when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie introduced Romney as the party nominee, he spoke about himself for the first 18 minutes, and only mentioned Mitt in the last 6 minutes of the speech.

But Romney has bigger problems, especially with the truth.

Pundits call him Mendacious Mitt. One of his biggest lies is Obama would bankrupt Medicare and the Romney-Ryan plan would leave it solvent. The truth is the president strengthened Medicare and under Romney's plan, Medicare would reach insolvency by 2016.

"Facts don't matter"

At fundraisers and on campaign stops, Romney knocks President Obama's accomplishments on economic growth, the stimulus package, unemployment and job creation, and blames Obama for the annual deficit that peaked at $1.3 trillion in Bush's last year in office. Fact checkers count over 530 lies Romney has comfortably spread like manure on his road to the White House.

"Facts don't matter," Romney said.

Mitt's campaign fails to articulate a platform. Mitt's vision for America sees corporations as people and favors billionaires for annual tax cuts of $250 million each. Romney would fumble foreign policy and possibly march America into another war.

On the stump he barely mentions the war in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda or wounded warriors; last month GOP senators blocked the veterans' job-training bill.

Romney ranks first as the most disliked presidential candidate in decades.

A secret video that surfaced in September shows the real Mitt.

Last May at a private fundraiser in a Boca Raton, Fla., mansion, Romney addressed uber-rich 1 percenters, who each paid $50,000 to attend. There, in conversation with friends, Mitt Romney revealed his contempt for the 47 percent of Americans who "don't pay income taxes," and he says feel entitled to live off government largess.

Mitt's diss of working people, ex-military, seniors and the poor reveals a presidential candidate very much out of touch with America.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the Republican presidential nominee "spit in the face of everyday people who know what it means to work incredibly hard and still sometimes fail to get by."

DISCLAIMER: This portion of the website was paid for by AFSCME’s Political Action Committee, PEOPLE, with voluntary contributions from AFSCME members and their families, and is not authorized by any candidate of candidate’s committee.