10.04.2012
Analysis & Fact Check Presidential Debate – Denver, CO
original article written by Net Advisor™
EXCERPT: Analysis & Fact Check Presidential Debate – Denver, CO. Reviewing video recording of the 1st Presidential debate. Future debates will be live on Twitter. Follow us, and we’ll follow you back!
[1] Obama: Opening speech mirrors replay of 2008 campaign (video). Class warfare, “tax cuts for millionaires” or anyone for that matter – which by the way NEVER happened in 2008-2012 (report). The IRS tax brackets has been the same for EVERYONE since about 2002 (report).
- Alternative energy. Hasn’t worked. Solyndra.
- Oil prices more than doubled under Obama.
- Education? (Gov lowering standards in order to get kids pass the tests. 53.6% (or $53.6 of $100 Billion) of the Obama (all borrowed) Stimulus Money (ARRA) went to keep union-based job temporarily. Many states cutting education anyway despite Obama’s “investment in education”). States were cutting education in 2008 too.
- Auto bailout? Is this the highest achievement? It cost taxpayers $1.228 Million to save each GMAC job (report). Chrysler was given to a foreign auto company, Fiat and neither repaid TARP (report). GM also did not repay TARP and is still being heavily subsidized by the Obama Administration (report – see section on “Green Energy”. If government has to support a business to keep it running, the business is not solvent.
- Created ~5 Million jobs? We still don’t have any proof for that, but what is not being said is that even if it was true, we have more than 5 million jobs LOST over the same period, thus has a zero net job increase (report).
- “Double down on the policies that got us in this mess?” We’ll, as bush as nearly 4 years has past since Bush was in office, Obama still incorrectly blames Bush (report); and incorrectly thinks Bush got us in this “mess” (what did – Housing Report, and further see how Government policies further created this mess in this Report: Please see point #[4] re: Deregulation; points #[6 & 7] who signed the law to help export American jobs; and point #[8] further on how we got into this economic mess).
The above was the first 2 minutes of the debate. What this says is we have sound bites to try an emotionally move people to vote, but if you want facts they are all linked here with reports in greater detail.
[2] Romney: Opening speech
- Energy Independence. Domestic energy drilling and along with alternative energy is a good plan. Keep in mind 99%+ cars, factories, etc are not run on solar or wind power. A 2008 National Academy of Sciences Report shows that 85% is U.S. energy comes from fossil fuels. Only 7% of our energy needs are coming from renewable resources (graphic). The key is we need to do it this time and not talk about doing it as every U.S. president has done for the last 41 years.
- Energy Jobs. Romney says domestic energy plans will create some 4 million jobs. In fairness, we could not find the math that led to these numbers. Using domestic energy will create jobs, how many we don’t know. It depends on how extensive we use our own natural domestic energy resources. However the less oil (etc) we can import from the Middle-East could save us trillions on top of trillions of dollars from not needing to protect Middle-East oil and supply routes at taxpayer’s expense {report: please see point [#3-7, and 12-15]}.
- Balanced Budget. Romney says we have to balance the budget. The U.S. has faced two credit downgrades in the first time in history and facing another one that happened under Obama’s watch and due to uncontrolled government spending (report 1, report 2, report 3). We have 20 articles (to date) just on the deficit. A balanced budget is something the current Administration has not had since taking office. The fact is the Obama deficit already exceeds Bush’s deficit in less than 4 years instead of 8 (report). In 2009, 54 cents of ever $1.00 the government took in came from borrowing money (report). How long can you keep that up?
- Romney: ‘Small business is the job creator in America.’ True. According to the Small Business Administration – a government agency – 99.7% of all businesses in America are “small businesses” (PDF / related report). Romney asks, why isn’t small business hiring? We would argue that government control over business is making it more difficult for business to operate (report – 8,000 new regulations a year). If the economy is “improving” why have we lost more jobs over the last 3 1/2 years than gained jobs? (report). Something isn’t working (report).
- Job Creation. Technically speaking Romney’s legacy at Bain Capital has created more jobs and personal income (report 1) compared to Mr. Obama’s job record (report 2).
- Economic Growth Vision. Romney summed up Mr. Obama’s notion for the last 3 1/2 years and the future with an economic plan that was based on “Trickle-Down Government.” The thinking is that bigger and more invasive government will solve all our problems? If this is true, has big government worked in the EU including, Greece, Spain, France, or Italy? (Additional related reports 1, 2.)
Message to Our Readers: This was about 9 minutes into the debate. As one can see, if we went through line-by-line fact checking every statement using unbiased sources this could be a small book. Since we are non-profit, we just don’t have the resources to do that at this time. We will keep it at the opening statements. Please check out the links to learn more about what is behind the candidate’s statements. Thank you for reading!
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