President Obama will be debating today’s version of Mitt – but let’s keep in mind what he’s said before.

At tonight’s debate, President Obama will talk about what we’ve accomplished over the last four years to rebuild our economy and restore middle class security, and his specific plans for the next four years to continue moving our country forward. 

The Real Mitt Romney: Remember What He’s Said Before

 

·     President Obama knows we’ve come too far to turn back now.

o   Over the last four years, he’s brought our economy back from the brink of collapse, our auto industry back to life, our heroes back from war, and our enemies to justice.

§  We’ve added 5.2 million new private-sector jobs over the past 31 straight months of private-sector job growth, after losing 800,000 a month when the President took office.

§  The unemployment rate is at its lowest level since January 2009.

§  Consumer confidence is at a five-year high.

§  Foreclosures are at a five-year low.

 o   For the next four years, President Obama has a specific, concrete plan to continue building our economy from the middle out, not the top down:

§  creating a million new manufacturing jobs

§  doubling our exports

§  recruiting 100,000 science and math teachers

§  cutting our oil imports in half

§  reducing the deficit in a balanced way that protects the middle class

• The President will also demonstrate that facts matter. He’ll hold Mitt Romney accountable for dishonestly trying to mislead voters about his positions, which would take us back to the same failed policies that crashed our economy and punished the middle class.

While campaigning for president for the past six years, Governor Romney labeled himself “severely conservative” and has adopted half-baked Tea Party ideas as his own policies – including $5 trillion in tax cuts weighted to the wealthiest and paid for by the middle class, getting “rid of” funding for Planned Parenthood, promising to “kill” Obamacare and telling undocumented immigrants to self-deport.

• Since these policies made Governor Romney the most unpopular presidential nominee in history, he’s now playing hide-and-seek with voters: He’s softening his rhetoric in a cynical, last-minute attempt to hide his true positions and promise us he has secret plans to make it all work.

• And he’s bringing out the old Bain sales tactics – he’ll say ANYTHING to close the deal: 

• Suddenly, after months of campaigning on his $5 trillion tax cut geared toward the wealthy as the anchor of his economic plan, Mitt Romney claims he doesn’t know anything about that because he knows he can’t pay for it without raising taxes on the middle class.

o   He also pretends he’s going to cover people with pre-existing conditions after he repeals Obamacare – but he knows that under his plan people between jobs or health plans will be left to the mercy of insurance companies.

o   He was caught on tape in a private fundraiser admitting he believes that 47 percent the country is “dependent” on government and consider themselves “victims,” and that he doesn’t worry about them. Romney doubled down on those offensive comments, only to apologize belatedly for them weeks later.

o   He hopes women hear him when he tells a newspaper four weeks before the election that anti-choice legislation isn’t part of his agenda – but hopes they didn’t hear the many times he’s committed to nominating Supreme Court Justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.

o   At the same time, Romney rushes to assure social conservatives he meant every right-wing word he said during the primaries. It must be exhausting being Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney’s advisors admitted it would be politically “suicidal” to campaign on specifics, and Romney is taking their advice.

• He’s asking voters to believe he has secret solutions to some of the country’s biggest challenges, but refuses to tell us the specifics until after the election. For example, his mathematically challenged plan to pay for a $5 trillion tax cut favoring the wealthy that they don’t need and $2 trillion in new defense spending the Pentagon hasn’t asked for without raising taxes on the middle class or exploding the deficit.

o   Romney also promises there will be Wall Street oversight after repealing President Obama’s financial reform and affordable health care after repealing Obamacare – you just have to wait until after the election to find out what either would look like.

o   And he’s simultaneously committed to the President’s timetable for withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012 and refused to guarantee our troops will be home by the end of 2014.

• Voters won’t be fooled. After promising to be “severely conservative” and refusing to stand up to the most extreme elements of his party, Romney’s record and statements speak for themselves. And they clearly show exactly what kind of extreme agenda he would pursue in the White House: the same one that crashed our economy and devastated the middle class.