Romney Repeats Favorite Obama Conspiracy Theories

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24730945@N03/5891702773/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Macomb Paynes</a>/Flickr

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


I’m not even sure if I understand the attacks on the Obama administration’s energy and environmental policies from Mitt Romney at a speech in Chicago on Monday (via TPM). First, there was this line, which is an oft-repeated fallacy among Republicans:

And the government would have banned Thomas Edison’s light bulb. Oh yeah, Obama’s regulators actually did just that.

The Obama administration did no such thing. The Department of Energy is merely following through with the phase-out of inefficient bulbs under new standards set as part of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. It doesn’t “ban” Edison’s incandescent bulbs—it only requires that they be as energy-efficient as alternatives now on the market. Oh, and it was President George W. Bush who signed that bill into law. But Republicans have been flogging the bulb issue for three years, so I’m not surprised that Romney brought it up.

It’s this later line from Romney’s speech I find rather confusing:

President Obama hopes to erase his record with a speech. In a recent address, he said that, “We are inventors. We are builders. We are makers of things. We are Thomas Edison. We are the Wright Brothers. We are Bill Gates. We are Steve Jobs.”

The reality is that, under President Obama’s administration, these pioneers would have found it much more difficult, if not impossible, to innovate, invent, and create.

Under Dodd-Frank, they would have struggled to get loans from their community banks.

A regulator would have shut down the Wright Brothers for their “dust pollution.”

The last line repeats the false allegation that the Obama EPA is regulating dust. It’s not. Nor does it plan to any time soon. But what does that have to do with the Wright brothers? Is he referring to “crop dusters,” the small planes used on farms? If so, he really must have no idea what they are, because the “dust” that he refers to is usually pesticides or fertilizers, not actual dust. I’ll take this as an indication that Romney has never been to an actual farm.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate