>>> the obama campaign is swinging back this morning saying, quote, mitt romney 's speech last night offered many personal attacks and gauzy platitudes, but no tangible ideas to move the country forward. one big headline from last night's speech was romney 's promise to boost the job market .
>> unlike the president, i have a plan to create 12 million new j jobs.
>> here to help us separate fact from fiction is "the washington post 's" fact checker gren kessler. hey, glen, we have so much to get to. i know your policy not to issue those infamous or famous pinocchios the day after a speech, but you've done some fact checking . what about the job promise?
>> 12 million jobs sounds like a lot, sounds like a definitive pledge. the actual policy pape they're the romney campaign put out doesn't really explain how he gets there. it just offers ideas like free trade and that sort of thing. and actually, many economists predict that 12 million jobs will be created over the next four years. so what they did was they took a number that is generally considered consensus number assuming you don't have another recession because of the fiscal cliff, so it was a pretty safe bet to make that promise because that's what economists expect will happen no matter who's president.
>> let's talk taxes and i'll play another clip from last night.
>> and let me make this very clear. unlike president obama , i will not raise taxes on the middle class of america.
>> let me ask you, did president obama raise taxes on the middle class ?
>> well not really. i think what governor romney is referring to is the mandates that are part of the health care reform bill, and there are people in the middle class that, if they didn't buy health insurance , could possibly be hit with a fine, which the fine as a tax, but obama has a record of cutting taxes for the middle class . he extended the bush tax cuts . there was a tax credit in the stimulus bill, the payroll tax has been reduced by two percentage points over the last two years. so for most middle class americans, they got a tax cut .
>> we heard another familiar line, we've heard it from a lot of republicans, but last night was from governor romney . let me play that.
>> his $716 billion cut to medicare to finance obama care will both hurt today's seniors and depress innovation and jobs in medicine.
>> is that exactly what it is? and is that what it will do?
>> well, yeah, this is taking advantage of some of the complexities of the federal budget . you know, we hear this a lot. i generally give two to three pinocchios for this kind of statement. governor romney put it in a more gentle fashion, but essentially those so-called cuts are reductions in anticipated spending that would be given to providers. it does not affect beneficiaries, seniors. in fact, under the health care law , seniors get all sorts of benefits in terms of preventive care as well as fixing the doughnut hole. so -- and i should note that his running mate paul ryan took the exact same so-called cuts and put them in his budget.
>> let me ask you about a bigger picture economic statement he made. let me play it.
>> this obama economy has crushed the middle class . family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher and gasoline prices , they've doubled.
>> is he right?
>> well, those are all correct statistics, particularly the income one, which is a damning statistic. the problem with the gas price one is that it's misleading because gas prices are actually now virtually the same as they were exactly four years ago, but when the president took office they had plunged because of the economic recession , so that was an anomaly that they're taking advantage of there.
>> " washington post 's" fact checker glenn kessler . come back next friday and we'll talk about president obama 's speech. thanks so much. always great to see you.
>> thank you very much.
>> unlike the president, i have a plan to create 12 million new j jobs.
>> here to help us separate fact from fiction is "the washington post 's" fact checker gren kessler. hey, glen, we have so much to get to. i know your policy not to issue those infamous or famous pinocchios the day after a speech, but you've done some fact checking . what about the job promise?
>> 12 million jobs sounds like a lot, sounds like a definitive pledge. the actual policy pape they're the romney campaign put out doesn't really explain how he gets there. it just offers ideas like free trade and that sort of thing. and actually, many economists predict that 12 million jobs will be created over the next four years. so what they did was they took a number that is generally considered consensus number assuming you don't have another recession because of the fiscal cliff, so it was a pretty safe bet to make that promise because that's what economists expect will happen no matter who's president.
>> let's talk taxes and i'll play another clip from last night.
>> and let me make this very clear. unlike president obama , i will not raise taxes on the middle class of america.
>> let me ask you, did president obama raise taxes on the middle class ?
>> well not really. i think what governor romney is referring to is the mandates that are part of the health care reform bill, and there are people in the middle class that, if they didn't buy health insurance , could possibly be hit with a fine, which the fine as a tax, but obama has a record of cutting taxes for the middle class . he extended the bush tax cuts . there was a tax credit in the stimulus bill, the payroll tax has been reduced by two percentage points over the last two years. so for most middle class americans, they got a tax cut .
>> we heard another familiar line, we've heard it from a lot of republicans, but last night was from governor romney . let me play that.
>> his $716 billion cut to medicare to finance obama care will both hurt today's seniors and depress innovation and jobs in medicine.
>> is that exactly what it is? and is that what it will do?
>> well, yeah, this is taking advantage of some of the complexities of the federal budget . you know, we hear this a lot. i generally give two to three pinocchios for this kind of statement. governor romney put it in a more gentle fashion, but essentially those so-called cuts are reductions in anticipated spending that would be given to providers. it does not affect beneficiaries, seniors. in fact, under the health care law , seniors get all sorts of benefits in terms of preventive care as well as fixing the doughnut hole. so -- and i should note that his running mate paul ryan took the exact same so-called cuts and put them in his budget.
>> let me ask you about a bigger picture economic statement he made. let me play it.
>> this obama economy has crushed the middle class . family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher and gasoline prices , they've doubled.
>> is he right?
>> well, those are all correct statistics, particularly the income one, which is a damning statistic. the problem with the gas price one is that it's misleading because gas prices are actually now virtually the same as they were exactly four years ago, but when the president took office they had plunged because of the economic recession , so that was an anomaly that they're taking advantage of there.
>> " washington post 's" fact checker glenn kessler . come back next friday and we'll talk about president obama 's speech. thanks so much. always great to see you.
>> thank you very much.