Mitt Romney Personally Responsible for Destroying Five Million Careers

When Mitt Romney was working for various private equity firms, he single-handedly eliminated five million jobs.  The elimination of these jobs has taken $14.7 billion out of the U.S. economy.

NOTE:  The above paragraph was not intended as a factual statement.  It was only an illustration of Mitt Romney’s newest variation on the Big Lie technique.  Instead of the usual endless repetition of “job-killing regulations” versus the “job creators,” Romney is using specific numbers to give his Big Lie some authority.

Romney told a New Hampshire audience:

“The rate of regulatory burden has increased four-fold since Obama has become president. Four times the amount of regulation coming out per year as in the past. And so businesses say, ‘gosh, I’m not sure I want to invest in America.’”

The facts — remember those quaint old things — are a bit different.  The Obama Administration has actually approved 4.7% fewer regulations than George W. Bush had approved at this same point in his administration.

Mitt Romney’s campaign staff even admits there’s no truth whatsoever to Romney’s statement.  But it’s an interesting variation on the Big Lie.  Usually the Big Lie consists of a few simple phrases that get repeated millions of times until they become the conventional wisdom.

Or you can put out a bunch of subtle implications and innuendos and let them seep into the public consciousness.  The biggest example of this was Bush-Cheney “implying” that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks.  They never came out and said it, but there were jillions of public statements that purposely blurred “al Qaeda Iraq Saddam bin Laden Hussein 9/11 Iraq 9/11...”  It worked like a charm, since millions of bone-stupid Fox viewers still believe Saddam Hussein helped mastermind the 9/11 attacks.  And at the same time, if someone called Bush-Cheney on their Big Lie, they could honestly say “What??? I never said that!!!”

Apparently the more variations there are on the Big Lie technique, the more effective each variation can be.  In fact it’s kind of fun.  Let’s take Newt Gingrich (please!).  You could put out a few subtle rumors and innuendos about Newt Gingrich, prostitutes and drugs.  Or you could Mitt Romnify it and say:  “Thirteen underage prostitutes were arrested during an orgy at Newt Gingrich’s mansion.  Police also seized $25,000 worth of cocaine.”

[ahem]  Again, the above paragraph is not making any accusations against Newt Gingrich.  It’s just another hypothetical example of the Big Lie Technique, as told by Mitt Romney.