Romney Cites Studies that Don’t Support Jobs Claim

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney repeatedly claimed that he would generate 12 million jobs if elected. His campaign usually cites studies to support his claims but according to Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, they don’t support the claims.

According to Romney in a TV ad, he would generate 12 million jobs when President Barack Obama can’t during his term. He said that his energy independence policy would create 3 million new jobs, most of which are in the manufacturing sector. His tax reform plan will lower rates for small business and middle class that will generate 7 million new jobs. The other new jobs will be from the expansion of trade and cracking down on China.

The 7 million jobs that would be created from Romney’s tax plan is said to be a ten year number based on a study made by Professor John W. Diamond of Rice University. It assessed the effect of several Romney policies.

The 3 million jobs claim for Romney’s energy policies came from a Citigroup Global Markets study that was not connected with any of Romney’s policies. The report estimated around 2.7 million to 3.6 million jobs to be made over the next eight years due to trends and policies already in place.

Kessler asked Romney’s camp for evidence that his economic plan can make 12 million jobs. He said that the Romney campaign gave him various studies that have different timelines. Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman said that the Romney campaign is not telling the truth about its jobs plan. He wrote the statement in response to a New York Times blog post.

The Romney campaign supposedly misused six studies to claim that its tax plan can cut the tax rates by 20 percent and not raise taxes on the middle class. It would also not increase the deficit during the same time. Bloomberg columnist Josh Barro said that the six studies were not up to the task and could not be used as evidence.