Romney's Job Claims Questioned
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has put his history as a CEO and as governor of Massachusetts as proof of his plans to create job as the main selling point against President Obama.
But, his campaign's appearances on Sunday's talk shows called into question the very argument that is at the heart of his pitch. Romney blames President Obama for millions of jobs lost at the tail end of the Great Recession, during his first few months in office.
According to the Romney campaign, "Governor Romney inherited an economy that was losing jobs each month and left office with an economy that was adding jobs each month."
Over the weekend Romney campaign adviser Ed Gillespie said on Fox News Sunday via talkingpointsmemo.com, "You take the first year, which is a low base year when the governor came in and took office, because it was 50th in job creation out of all of the states, dead last … and they're averaging out over the four years. So, they are bringing down the gains of his fourth year in office, which shows the real impact of his policies and diluting it with the first year in office."
Romney's campaign said President Obama has overseen the loss of millions of jobs. However, applying the same metric that Gillespie used by pulling the first year out of the discussion, President Obama has created a net of 3.635 million jobs or a job-growth rate of 2.35 percent, according to the Daily Beast.
By Gillespie's numbers, Romney would have created a total of 64,500 jobs or a job growth of roughly 1.9 percent during his time as governor, according to the Daily Beast.
Still, both sides can claim accuracies in their reports. Romney created jobs, but also lost jobs over his four years. Obama has grown jobs over the last two years, but also lost millions of jobs for the first three months he was in the White House.
Romney's camp will continue to claim by counting the first three months in office, before economists say any president's policies can take effect, that Obama has a net loss in jobs overall. Obama's defense is ironically the same one Romney's camp will use to defend his job creation record.
