Republican Ohio Senator Rob Portman,
responding to a question from ABC's Jake Tapper about why Paul Ryan falsely claimed during last week's vice presidential debate that the unemployment rate had increased throughout America since President Obama took office:
I think that what he was saying is the truth, which is, unemployment's higher today than when the president took office. And you know, unfortunately, in the meantime, we’ve created net zero jobs, Jake.
That's just
wrong. The unemployment rate today is 7.8 percent. That's the same as it was in George W. Bush's last month in office and it's less than the 8.3 percent rate recorded during President Obama's first full month. Portman's other claim was also false:
more people are working today than when President Obama took office. That might be bad news for Portman's political aspirations, but it doesn't give him the right to deny it.