Sen. Portman Protested at Townhall Meeting

I wrote earlier today that Congressional Republicans proposing cuts to Medicare and Medicaid is political suicide. Sen. Rob Portman experienced this first-hand at a townhall meeting. The protesters interrupted Portman's speech. I will give Portman credit for handling the protest with humor.

The townhall meeting was set-up by Fix The Debt. Fix the Debt was started by Fortune 500 CEOs pushing for entitlement cuts to pay for tax cuts. This wouldn't fix the debt. It would help the bottom line of Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO, and Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Blankfein and Dimon fail to mention that the bailouts of their banks didn't help the debt.

Mitt Romney Campaign Lies About Unemployment

Mitt Romney campaign surrogate Rob Portman double down on Paul Ryan's false claim that unemployment is higher today than when President Obama took office.

TAPPER: ‘That’s how it’s going all around America.’ This has been weak economic recovery, without question. but it is a recovery. and unemployment is going down, as a factual matter. Why would Congressman Ryan, in defiance of facts, suggest otherwise?

PORTMAN: I think that what he was saying was the truth: unemployment is higher today than when the president took office. Unfortunately, in the meantime, we’ve created net zero jobs, Jake.

This chart shows just how bad unemployment was when President Obama took office. The Bush administration suffered several months of unemployment. The stock market crash caused massive layoffs.

The unemployment rate today is 7.8 percent. Employment has slowly improved. Portman, Ryan and the Romney campaign will not be honest about it because they're strategy has been to be the anti-Obama. The Romney campaign isn't about selling hope. No one looks at Mitt Romney and becomes inspired.