ThinkProgress is fact-checking the first night of the Republican convention. Looks like a full-on crapfest from the very start. Of course, you wouldn't expect the Republicans to get facts right when they seem to be living in an alternate reality.
A few highlights so far:
8:02: Valenzuela attacked the Obama administration for placing new burdens on small businesses. But Obama has signed 18 small business tax cuts into law. According to CNN Money, “the tax cuts were a lifeline for many small firms in a brutal economic downturn.”
8:00: Valenzuela claimed a Gallup poll found “nearly 50% of small businesses owners aren’t hiring because of what they call regulatory uncertainty.” Gallup actually concluded that concern about new government regulations was toward the bottom of the list of reasons business owners aren’t hiring – the top reason being a lack of need for employees.
7:55: Sher Valenzuela is a small business owner currently running for the lieutenant governor in Delaware. Her upholstery business received $17 million in federal loans and contracts and she offers detailed presentations about how businesses can secure more government work.
7:28: Priebus continues the Romney campaign’s foreignizaiton of Obama, claims that the president “has a problem with the American Dream.”
7:26: Preibus employed the GOP tactic of claiming that Obama inherited a bad economy, but is “making things worse.” That’s false by basically every measurement.
7:23: Priebus says Romney created jobs in Massachusetts. The state ranked ranked 47th in the country in job growth under Romney.
7:19: Boehner claimed that Mitt Romney’s economic plan will balance the budget. But even Romney’s own advisers have no clue if Romney’s plan will actually achieve that goal. Paul Ryan, meanwhile, has said, “I don’t know exactly what the balance is. I don’t want to get wonky on you, but we haven’t run the numbers on that specific plan.”
7:15: Speaker Boehner (R-OH) used his favorite refrain — “where are the jobs?” — to attack the Obama administration. The private sector has added 4.5 million jobs during the last 29 months.
6:55: Tuesday’s convention theme is “We Built This,” a riff off of President Obama’s claim that the government can help businesses succeed. Republicans have criticized the argument all summer and will poke fun at the president from a convention center built with tax-payer dollars. Two of tonight’s speakers run businesses that benefited from government contracts and grants and one even offered a detailed presentation about how businesses can secure more government work.
Great job, Republicans!
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