Romney, Ryan stress bipartisanship in Ohio
Mitt Romney and vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., campaign at the Celina Fieldhouse in Celina, Ohio, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. / AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
CELINA, Ohio As the battle rages for Ohio's few remaining undecided voters, GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan are emphasizing their promise to bring bipartisanship back to Washington.
Speaking to a crowd of 2,000 in a high school gym here - with another thousand awaiting him outside - Romney said he was "heartened" by the independents and Democrats he has seen join with Republicans to back his candidacy.
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"They know what's at stake," he said. "They know this is a big election about big things; they recognize that we face enormous challenges as a nation and we also have huge opportunities, and they want to us grab a hold of these opportunities and finally confront the challenges."
If elected, Romney said, "I've got to make sure and reach across the aisle... I know there are good Democrats who love America just like we do. I'm going to reach across the aisle to them and work together, put the interests of the people ahead of the politicians."
The Obama campaign quickly fired back, saying Romney's claims that he'll work across the aisle can't be believed.
"The American people can't trust a word Mitt Romney says, especially when he claims he'd work across the aisle as president. As governor, he refused to work with Democrats in the legislature. And throughout this campaign, he's refused to stand up to the most extreme voices in his own party," said Obama spokesman Danny Kanner.
The hope for Romney's campaign is that a promise to work across the aisle will help peel away Democrats and independents who handed Obama a win in 2008. A CNN/ORC poll of likely Ohio voters taken from October 23 to 25 showed Obama with a five-point lead among independents, and a four-point lead overall. But other polls show the race remaining extremely close: a poll conducted by Ohio news organizations and released Sunday has 49 percent of voters backing each candidate.
Romney said he had worked with Democrats during his gubernatorial term in Massachusetts, though on the campaign trail he points to success at reducing spending and closing the budget deficit, not the signature achievement of bipartisan cooperation during his tenure - a health care law that Obama later said was a model for the Affordable Care Act.
Romney also said his decision to choose Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, as his running mate was influenced by that fact that Ryan is respected across the aisle on the Hill. Reviving a line from the vice presidential announcement tour in mid-August, Romney reminded the crowd that Ryan worked with Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden to author Medicare reform legislation Wyden has called this "nonsense," saying he merely co-wrote a policy paper with Ryan and later voted against Medicare provisions in Ryan's budget.
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Employment
a. Unemployment dropped to 7.8 percent in September 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That marks the first time unemployment has dropped below 8 percent since January 2009. (National Conf. Of State Legislatures, 10/5/12.)
b. The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that a lot of jobs have been created under Obama's leadership -- 4.4 million by the bureau's latest count. However, the nation shed 4.3 million jobs during the early days of Obama's term, and that the net gain since he took the oath of office in January 2009 is just 125,000 jobs. (CNN Politics, 10/5/12.)
c. There were 2.6 million long-term unemployed workers when Obama became President. Now there are 5.3 million.
d. There are 23 million people who are either unemployed, have stopped looking for work or are underemployed (working for less money than before or able to find only a part-time job). (U.S. Chamber of Commercie, American Jobs & Growth Agenda; CNN Politics, 10/5/12; Toby Harnden, "'Are you better off?': No, gaffes Democrat senator as Obama heads to DNC with 23 million Americans unemployed, a shrinking middle class and a $16 trillion debt, Daily Mail, 9/4/2012; USDebtclock.org [22.7 million].)
e. The Department of Labor calculates the employment-population ratio, which measures the percent of the U.S. adult population that has a job. The rate currently stands at 58.7%. It has essentially been stuck there for three years -- close to the lowest level since the 1980s. "The employment-to-population ratio is the best measure of labor market conditions and it currently shows that there has been almost no improvement whatsoever over the past three years," Paul Ashworth, chief North American economist for Capital Economics said. (CNN Money, 10/18/12.)
Welfare Expenditures
a. Food stamp are now provided to 47,0650,721 recipients. (USDebtClock.org.) This is an increase of 47% from 32 million before Obama took office. (Washington Times, 10/18/12.)
b. Federal welfare spending has grown by 32 percent over the past four years. (Washington Times, 10/18/12.)
c. The government's health care and welfare expenditures for the most recent year is $1.4 trillion. (USGovernmentSpending.com)
d. Welfare programs, excluding social security and medicare, now exceed on $1 trillion a year. (Heritage Foundation, 10/22/12; Washington Times, 10/18/12.) That makes welfare the single biggest chunk of federal spending — topping Social Security and basic defense spending. (Washington Times, 10/18/12.)
e. The total federal spending on federal welfare programs vastly outpaced fiscal year 2011 spending on such federal expenditures as non-war defense ($540 billion), Social Security ($725 billion), Medicare ($480 billion), and departments such as Justice ($30.5 billion), Transportation ($77.3 billion) and Education ($65.486 billion). (The Daily Caller, 10/18/12.)
f. The federal government runs over 80 means-tested programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care and social services to around 100 million Americans. That's a third of the U.S. population. Combined federal and state expenditures on these programs come to roughly $9,000 per recipient per year. (Heritage Foundation, 10/22/12.)
g. According to Obama's budget plans it would continue to grow in the next decade, reaching $1.56 trillion by 2022. (Heritage Foundation, 10/22/12.)
You are the ones expecting Americans to be stupid.
Along with Romney.
Some will vote for Romney because he looks more suave, or because Romney is white, or because they believe Romney will add jobs (even after you tell them, with evidence, Romney helped offshore some in the first place!)