Debate Fact Check

Gingrich, the historian, was wrong about his own history; Romney was wrong about his own investments.

GINGRICH: “When I was speaker, we had four consecutive balanced budgets.”

THE FACTS: Actually, two.

ROMNEY: “I don’t think we can possibly retake the White House if the person who’s leading our party is the person who was working for the chief lobbyist of Freddie Mac. Freddie Mac was paying Speaker Gingrich $1.6 million at the same time Freddie Mac was costing the people of Florida millions upon millions of dollars.”

THE FACTS: While going after Gingrich forcefully on the issue, Romney did not mention his own earnings from the government-backed lender and its sister entity, Fannie Mae, which came to light in his most recent financial disclosure report.

GINGRICH: “I left the speakership after the 1998 election because I took responsibility for the fact that our results weren’t as good as they should be. I think that’s what a leader should do. I took responsibility. And I didn’t want to stay around, as Nancy Pelosi has. I wanted to get out and do other things.”

ROMNEY: “He had to resign in disgrace.”

THE FACTS: Gingrich didn’t exactly resign in disgrace after he became the first speaker reprimanded and fined for ethics violations, slapped with a $300,000 penalty, in January 1997. He limped to re-election as speaker after that. But his number was soon up.
Within months, he was fending off a revolt from fellow Republicans weary of his antics and mercurial ways.

ROMNEY: President Barack Obama’s $814 billion economic stimulus program “didn’t create private-sector jobs.”

THE FACTS: There is no support for that assertion. Between 1.2 million and 3.7 million full-time-equivalent jobs were created last year because of the stimulus, according to an August 2011 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Meanwhile, another government report found the stimulus program has paid $34.5 billion in tax incentives to businesses, including $260 million to hire youngeer, unemployed war veterans.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.