Romney’s 12 million jobs plan - magic wands and all

>>> tomorrow is the last monthly jobs report before the lech and in case you hadn't heard, a vote for mitt romney is apparently a vote for 12 million jobs.

>> we're going to create 12 million new jobs. i have a plan that will create 12 million new jobs. we're going to create 12 million new jobs in just 4 years.

>> of course, those 12 million jobs come with 12 million magic wands attached. joining us now is robert reich , professor of economics at the university of california - berkeley and the former labor secretary and the author of "beyond outrage." welcome, sir. professor, romney is not creating 12 million new jobs, he's taking credit for 12 million jobs that one research firm believes will be automatically created over the next four years. is that not the truth?

>> martin, you know, i'm surprised that mitt romney didn't say 14 million or 18 million or --

>> true actually.

>> he picked the number completely out of a hat. the united states economy in a normal year will create, and this is not a normal year right now, about ybut in a normal year, will create about 2 million new jobs. given that we are in a recovery and the recovery is picking up some speed, it's possible that we may get up to 2.5 or even 3 million new jobs per year. so mitt romney 's claim of 12 million new jobs in 4 years may automatically happen regardless of who is president. this is a kind of claim that's baseless in terms of public policy . mitt romney is not coming up with any policies that are going to generate 12 million new jobs. in fact, if anything mitt romney 's policies of giving a huge tax break to the very, very wealthy, cutting most of the programs that everybody else depends on, turning medicare into a voucher system, all of these things actually may depress consumer confidence , reduce aggregate demand, and actually slow the economy down.

>> i wish you wouldn't rely on facts, sir. we learned today that jobless claims were down last week and that chrysler has achieved its best sales in five years. home sales and median home prices look to be rebounding. consumer confidence is slowly going up. perhaps mr. romney would like to take credit for all of those as well? is that right?

>> i'm sure he would. the problem for mitt romney is the economy is getting better. consumer confidence is up. most people understand that. and so mitt romney all along the way, particularly over the last four or five months, has had to recalibrate his campaign. remember his campaign originally was based on the notion that the economy was in terrible shape, most people understood that and he was a better custodian of the economy. but as the economy has started to show signs of getting better and better , mitt romney has had to throw anything at the wall and see what sticks. he's taken to saying that, oh, well, mitt romney 's responsible he says for the bailout of chrysler and gm. mitt romney says that the $716 billion that he wanted to take out of medicare is actually the $716 billion that barack obama is going to reduce medicare by. in other words, he is using up his air time and doing whatever he needs to do, saying whatever he needs to say in order to win some voters in one of the crassest displays of duplicity i frankly remember in a presidential campaign .

>> professor robert reich , as ever,