Romney on job creation:
Mitt Romney said that his economic plan would create “12 million jobs in four years.” But economic forecasters believe that the economy will add that many jobs in four years regardless of who’s in the White House. Moreover, in a recent campaign ad, Romney promises that his energy independence plan would create over 3 million jobs; his tax reform plan would create 7 million jobs; and “expanding trade, cracking down on China and improving job training” would create the remaining 2 million jobs. That math doesn’t make sense, according to Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler. “The candidate’s personal accounting for this figure in this campaign ad is based on different figures and long-range timelines stretching as long as a decade — which in two cases are based on studies that did not even evaluate Romney’s economic plan,” Kessler reports.
Romney on contraception:
Romney said Obama was “completely and totally wrong” when he said Romney would allow employers to decide whether a woman gets contraception coverage. That statement is not entirely accurate.
Romney did support an amendment from Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., which would have allowed employers to opt out of providing any health care coverage that they say violates their conscience or religious beliefs. That amendment might have allowed a broad swath of companies beyond those associated with the Catholic Church to decline to provide coverage for contraceptives (or many other medical procedures) for their employees.
Romney on assault weapons ban:
Responding to a question about assault weapons, Romney said, “We, of course, don't want automatic weapons, which is already illegal in this country.”
The federal ban on assault weapons — first enacted in 1994 under former President Clinton — expired in September 2004, during the George W. Bush administration.
Romney might have misspoken in his characterization of “automatic weapons,” i.e., machine guns. Those weapons are legal but they are heavily regulated such that they almost never show up in gun control debates. They almost never show up in street crime, either. The types of weapons that the candidates were asked about in the debate, specifically AK-47s, are semi-automatic devices, also known as assault weapons.
It should also be noted that as Massachusetts governor, Romney signed into law an assault weapons ban ensuring that AK-47s, UZIs, and Mac-10 rifles were permanently prohibited in the state, regardless of federal laws.
Romney on number of people in poverty:
Romney said that since Obama took office, there are 3.5 million more people in poverty. Almost but not quite. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 43.6 million people in poverty in 2009, (the year Obama took office) up from 39.8 million in 2008. By 2011, there were 46.2 million people living in poverty, which makes for an increase of 2.6 million from 2009 to 2011. Census data for 2012 are not available yet.
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