| President Obama Keeping Fact-Checkers Busy |
| Oct-23-2012 |
| Keywords: fact-check, obama, status of forces, auto bailout |
Whether it be the president's zingers on the size of our military or Romney's unwillingness to get aggressive with the president on Libya, the final presidential debate left many with much to talk about.
Unfortunately for the president, he earned himself, should a choose to accept it, a refresher on Mitt Romney's positions on leaving troops in Iraq, bankrupting Detroit's auto industry, and even the administration's role in the so-called sequestration spending cuts to the military budget.
President Barack Obama, last night, accused Romney of changing his position on the auto-bailout.
"If we had taken your advice, Gov. Romney, about our auto industry, we'd be buying cars from China instead of selling cars to China," Obama said.
"But what we also have been able to do is position ourselves so we can start rebuilding America, and that's what my plan does," Obama said later. "Making sure that we're bringing manufacturing back to our shores so that we're creating jobs here, as we've done with the auto industry, not rewarding companies that are shipping jobs overseas."
To which Romney stated, "I'm a son of Detroit. I was born in Detroit. My dad was head of a car company," Romney added. "I like American cars. And I would do nothing to hurt the U.S. auto industry. My plan to get the industry on its feet when it was in real trouble was not to start writing checks. It was President [George W.] Bush that wrote the first checks. I disagree with that. I said they need - these companies need to go through a managed bankruptcy. And in that process, they can get government help and government guarantees, but they need to go through bankruptcy to get rid of excess cost and the debt burden that they'd - they'd built up."
As Romney began his next sentence, Obama cut across him, saying, "Gov. Romney, that's not what you said."
"You can take a look at the op-ed," Romney replied.
The Romney op-ed both candidates were referring to ran in The New York Times on Nov. 18, 2008 under the headline "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.
In the op-ed Romney wrote, "A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk."
Point to Mr. Romney.
President Obama denied that he had sought an agreement with the Iraqi government to have U.S. troops remain in Iraq to train Iraqi forces.
MR. ROMNEY: ...with regards to Iraq, you and I agreed, I believe, that there should have been a status of forces agreement. Did you -
PRESIDENT OBAMA: That's not true.
MR. ROMNEY: Oh, you didn't - you didn't want a status of forces agreement?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: No...
Turns out that Mr. Romney's going to get another point from the fact-checkers.
In fact, the Obama administration did try to negotiate a new status of forces agreement "that would have kept a small American force in Iraq to train the Iraqi military and patrol the country's skies," but, according to the New York Times, Obama's "bid to keep about 5,000 American troops in place failed."
Mr. Obama relied on Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as well as American officials in Iraq to negotiate the agreement. The president spoke to Mr. Maliki only twice during the negotiations - at the start and at the end of the talks. The Obama administration says that it was willing to keep some troops in Iraq, but the Iraqis, reflecting their concerns over sovereignty, failed to agree to the necessary immunities.
After the talks broke down, the Obama administration withdrew the remaining American troops in December 2011, the deadline set for withdrawing all American forces from Iraq under the Status of Forces Agreement that was concluded by George W. Bush and Mr. Mailiki in 2008. |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 1:30 PM Email to a friend |
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