Ronald Reagan is the ultimate icon for Republicans. But has Mitt Romney flip-flopped on his support for the Gipper? The flip-flop charge was raised by the Democratic National Committee in an video advertisement. Separately, one of Romney’s Republican primary opponents, Newt Gingrich, charged that Romney has demonstrated insufficient warmth for the late president. In this item, we’ll ask whether Romney has flip-flopped on his degree of support for Reagan. We’ll start by noting that the Flip-O-Meter rates politicians' consistency on particular topics from No Flip to Full Flop. ...

These days, it’s hard for candidates to claim they truly oppose taxes if they haven’t put it in writing. As a presidential candidate in 2012, Mitt Romney signed a pledge to forswear tax increases. In fact, in his official tax proposal, Romney has advocated across-the-board tax cuts. But has he been consistent over the years about putting his commitment not to raise taxes in the form of a pledge? The question about Romney and the tax pledge was raised in late 2007, when the Democratic National Committee released a ...

Mitt Romney’s business record is the central narrative of his presidential campaign -- and the main line of attack by his rivals. Is he a savvy businessman who understands the factors that make economies thrive? Or a corporate raider who makes rich profits for himself while often leaving working people as collateral damage? You can guess which storyline President Barack Obama’s campaign is weaving. A new ad from Team Obama tells the story of GST Steel, a company taken over by Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney led for years before his entrance into ...

During a campaign stop in St. Petersburg on May 16, 2012, Mitt Romney said he intended to make government work better and save money in the process. As an example, he cited the federal government’s efforts to provide job training. "Do you know how many federal job training programs there are? 49 different federal job training programs that report to eight agencies," he said. Romney said he would look to consolidate programs and send them to the states. "I want to take those dollars, put them together ...

Mitt Romney has faced years of accusations that he’s flip-flopped on various issues. One issue where Romney has clearly changed his position is abortion.     We should note that the Flip-O-Meter rates politicians' consistency on particular topics from No Flip to Full Flop. The meter is not intended to pass judgment on their decisions to change their minds. It’s simply gauging whether they did. First, we’ll look at some of the things Romney said earlier in his career about abortion, when he was waging a losing bid for a U.S. Senate seat in ...

Do humans contribute to global warming? There’s been a robust debate over whether Mitt Romney has flip-flopped on this question. In this item, we’ll try to determine whether he has. We’ll start by noting that the Flip-O-Meter rates politicians' consistency on particular topics from No Flip to Full Flop. The meter is not intended to pass judgment on their decisions to change their minds. It’s simply gauging whether they did. Romney’s campaign website is silent on climate change. But in Romney’s 2010 book No Apology: The Case for ...

With President Barack Obama's change of position on gay marriage -- which earned a Full Flop on our Flip-O-Meter -- we thought it was a good time to take a fresh look at Mitt Romney's position on the same issue. Shortly after Obama’s announcement, Romney was pressed about his own stance on same-sex marriage. In each case, he offered similar answers. At a campaign event in Oklahoma City, reporters asked Romney to clarify his position. "My view is that marriage itself is a relationship between a man and a woman. ...

Within a day of President Barack Obama announcing his support for same-sex marriage, his campaign released an ad chiding Republican rival Mitt Romney for opposing it. It’s true that Romney does not support gay marriage -- he reaffirmed that position the same day as Obama’s historic announcement. But the Obama campaign video claims that Romney would deny certain rights to gay partners, including the right to adopt children. The ad shows short clips of both candidates talking about gay marriage -- Obama saying he supports it, Romney saying he doesn’t -- then ...

ABC broke into its daytime lineup May 9, 2012, to announce a historic shift: the president of the United States declaring his personal support for gay marriage. "I've been going through an evolution on this issue," President Barack Obama told ABC News. Indeed. While the president has consistently supported civil rights for gay couples — peppering his comments with specifics such as hospital visitation, transfer of property and Social Security benefits — his discussion of marriage has differed. He’s called same-sex marriage unstrategic, against his religious beliefs, and something ...

U.S. Rep. Charles Bass sees a perfect financial storm looming. Meeting last month with The Telegraph editorial board, Bass, a New Hampshire Republican, ran through the list of upcoming votes that could divide Congress and American taxpayers over the coming months. "We now have a sequester of about $1 trillion hanging over our heads at the end of the year," Bass said in the April 3 meeting, referring to mandatory cuts that will take effect if Congress doesn't act. He added, "We have the payroll tax issue to address. We ...

In a May 8, 2012, speech on the economy in Albany, N.Y., President Barack Obama sought to put the nation’s economic challenges on his watch in historical context. He especially sought to explain how hard it’s been to increase the national employment level when governments have been hemorrhaging jobs. These job losses, he suggested, have weighed down the comparatively healthy private-sector job-creation statistics. "It's worth noting, by the way -- this is just a little aside -- after there was a recession under Ronald Reagan, government employment went way up," Obama said. "It went up after the ...

Democrat Joe Donnelly, who will face a tea party-backed candidate in Indiana’s U.S. Senate contest, is having to answer questions about his political loyalties -- specifically to Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader who is a lightning rod of conservative criticism. Indiana’s Republican Party Chairman, Eric Holcomb, linked Donnelly’s politics to Pelosi’s following an Indiana Democratic Party fundraiser headlined by Pelosi on May 5, 2012. "Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi – they all have one thing in common and that is records that are out of step with Indiana," Holcomb said, according ...

The National Right to Life Committee cried foul on Tuesday after it obtained an email from an Obama administration aide asking future White House visitors to provide information about their unborn babies. In a news release, the anti-abortion group said the policy was hypocritical because of the Obama administration's support for abortion rights. "Obama White House recognizes ‘baby that has not been born’ for White House security purposes, but tolerates legal abortion to moment of birth in District of Columbia," the May 8, 2012, news release said. The release ...

Equal pay is just one reason Julia, a character created by the Obama campaign, would be better off under the president than under Mitt Romney, a Web graphic claims. The cartoon "The Life of Julia," compares the candidates' impact on Julia at a dozen points in her life.  At age 23, she’s shown reading a newspaper with the headline, "Equal pay 4 equal work." She’s starting her career as a Web designer. "Because of steps like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Julia is one of millions of women across the country ...

President Barack Obama says Mitt Romney is the anti-Robin Hood. In a campaign speech in Columbus, Ohio, on May 5, 2012, Obama said the Romney's economic plan would raise taxes for millions of low-income Americans while cutting them for the wealthy. Obama told the crowd that Romney "doesn’t seem to understand" that helping the rich doesn’t automatically trickle down to benefit the poor. "Why else would he want to spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Why else would he propose cutting his own taxes while raising them on 18 ...

President Barack Obama has repeatedly argued that his Republican rival Mitt Romney is pursuing policies that favor the rich. Recently, Obama offered a specific claim about how wealthier Americans would benefit from Romney’s tax plan. In a May 5, 2012, campaign speech in Columbus, Ohio, Obama said, "My opponent won’t tell us how he’d pay for his new, $5 trillion tax cut -- a tax cut that gives an average of $250,000 to every millionaire in this country." We wondered whether Romney’s tax proposal really would be so generous to millionaires. ...

With the economy struggling to recover from the last recession, the monthly job reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics have become key opportunities for both parties to spin the results to their advantage. And right on cue, the release of the most recent statistics on May 4, 2012 -- showing a gain of 115,000 jobs over the previous month -- prompted politicians and their allies to pounce. Shortly after the numbers for April 2012 were released, Mitt Romney went on Fox News to offer commentary. He told Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen ...

The Obama campaign has created Julia, a character on its website, to show the contrasts between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. "The Life of Julia" is a Web cartoon that claims Julia would have a richer and more rewarding life under Obama than under Romney. The cartoon compares the candidates' impact on Julia at a dozen points in her life. For this item, we're checking the claim about Julia at age 25. "Under President Obama: After graduation, Julia's federal student loans are more manageable since President Obama capped income-based federal student loan payments and kept ...

Is our stimulus money paying for traffic lights on Chinese streets? A TV ad running in eight states blames President Barack Obama for sending stimulus money overseas while Americans are out of work. "Tell President Obama, American tax dollars should help American taxpayers," the narrator says. Instead, $2.3 billion in tax credits funded jobs in Mexico, Finland and China, the ad claims. Americans for Prosperity, a group dedicated to "educating citizens about economic policy" that works closely with tea party activists and has been funded ...

Is your tax money paying for jobs in Finland? A TV ad running in eight states blames President Barack Obama for sending stimulus money overseas while Americans are out of work. "Tell President Obama, American tax dollars should help American taxpayers," the narrator says. Instead, $2.3 billion in tax credits funded jobs in Mexico, Finland and China, the ad claims. Americans for Prosperity, a group dedicated to "educating citizens about economic policy" that works closely with tea party activists and has been funded by the ...