Mitt Romney brought his Bain Capital experience as a corporate raider, the ‘business experience’ he’s now touting as his primary qualification for the presidency, to the governorship of Massachusetts. Funny thing, it didn’t work out so well as, under Gov. Mitt Uns policies, the state dropped to 47th in the country in job creation. No wonder he doesn’t like to mention his single term as governor — for those seeking employment, it was a disaster! (Note: Video compiled by the Obama campaign.)
“…[A]s Massachusetts governor from January 2003 to January 2007, Romney presided over one of the puniest rates of employment growth among the 50 U.S. states, at a time the nation’s economy was booming.
“Labor Department figures showed Massachusetts ranked 47th among the states in the rate of jobs growth in those four years — ahead of only Ohio, Michigan and Louisiana.”
— Ros Krasny, “Romney’s jobs record to be scrutinized in race,” Reuters, April 12, 2011.
“Payroll jobs in Massachusetts hit their low point in December 2003 at the end of Romney’s first year in office. And the number of jobs declined in seven of the remaining 36 months of his term, as measured by total nonfarm employment, seasonally adjusted, which is the standard measure of payroll employment used by economists and journalists. The [Romney] claim that jobs increased ‘every single month’ is false.”
— FactCheck.org, January, 2008.
“’Governor Romney Inherited An Economy That Was Losing Jobs Each Month And Left Office With An Economy That Was Adding Jobs Each Month. After taking office at a time when the state was losing thousands of jobs every month, Governor Romney’s focus on fiscal responsibility helped create an environment where job growth returned to Massachusetts…’ Team Romney bold-faced that first sentence.
“But wait a second…The mind reels…The jaw drops…Hasn’t Romney spent the last year ridiculing President Obama for pointing out that he inherited an historic recession from George W. Bush? Hasn’t Romney blasted Obama whenever he fingers Bush for leaving him with a mess to clean up? Yes indeed.” […]
“In fact, you could take the first sentence of Romney’s press release and tweak it this way: ‘President Obama Inherited An Economy That Was Losing Jobs Each Month But Now Presides Over An Economy That Has Added Jobs Each Month.’ “
— Dick Polman at Newsworks, quoting a Mitt Romney press release, May, 2012.