Keeping Track of Willard's Lies

It's time for Willard's Lies of the week.

Once again, I will point out the site on the blog roll: Romney The Liar: because there are Liars, Damn Liars, and then there's Mitt Romney.

Steve Benen, now at The Maddow Blog:. Here's this week's entry of Chronicling Mitt's mendacity:

The Opening:

Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXVIII

By Steve Benen

Fri Aug 3, 2012 2:50 PM EDT.

After Mitt Romney returned from his truly horrid overseas trip this week, one of his campaign aides tried to put a positive spin on the candidate's inexplicable gaffes. The problem, the staffer said, is that Romney "has a tendency to speak his mind and to say what he believes."

The idea is, the Republican presidential hopeful is bound to get in trouble once in a while because he's just such an honest, candid guy. To borrow an '08 frame, Romney's a "straight talker."

The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus could hardly believe the argument, calling it "about as knee-slapping a spin effort as I've ever seen." She added, " Mitt Romney has many strengths and many flaws. Being an unvarnished truth-teller does not fall in either category."

To consider this problem in more detail, consider the 28th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.

1. Romney told reporters this afternoon, "The president has also raised taxes on the middle class, so said the Supreme Court."

He's referring to an individual mandate that would apply to 1% of the population. And if President Obama's health care policy "raised taxes on the middle class," then Mitt Romney raised taxes on the middle class.

2. In a statement responding to the July jobs report, Romney argued, "President Obama doesn't have a plan" to create jobs.

Romney doesn't have to like the American Jobs Act, but he shouldn't get away with brazenly lying about its existence.

3. At a campaign event in Golden, Colorado, yesterday, Romney said "we have fewer jobs that have been created" under Obama.

He didn't specific -- "fewer" than what? - but by Romney's own stated standard, nearly 4.5 million private-sector jobs have been created under Obama.

4. In the same speech, Romney said in reference to the president, "He said he'd hold unemployment below 8 percent."

As Romney surely knows by now, that's simply not true.

5. Romney went on to complain, "[W]e've seen record numbers of foreclosures."

Putting aside how dishonest it is for Romney to blame the housing crash on the president, let's also not forget that Romney intends to deliberately avoid any efforts to curtail foreclosures.

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6. Romney also argued, "We are at a 30 year low in the number of business start-ups that have occurred. A 30 year low."

He's still telling this whopper?