Tonight, “Say Anything” Mitt Romney tried to do the math on his jobs creation numbers by simply starting with one number, subtracting another and offering no actual proof for either. Now, in just over a month, his job creation number has changed from over a hundred thousand jobs, to thousands, and now 120,000 jobs, without a single number substantiated.  And the reason he can't back up these numbers?  Simply put, "Say Anything" Mitt Romney's goal wasn't job creation: it was creating profit for himself and his partners at any costs by bankrupting companies, outsourcing jobs and laying off workers.

ROMNEY’S SO-CALLED JOB CREATION RECORD AT BAIN CONTINUES TO EVOLVE…

AFTER THE LAST DEBATE, ROMNEY TOLD SEAN HANNITY HE CREATED 110,000 JOBS

Romney On His Bain Capital Jobs Record: “Of All The Companies That I Was Involved With That Actually Jobs Were Lost, … It Ends Up To Less Than 10,000. So Do The Math, 120,000 Less 10,000, And It's Over 100,000.” Romney: “Sports Authority, Staples, Bright Horizon Children Centers and Steel Dynamics, have had today about 120,000 jobs. And we were there at the beginning. We helped found them. Of all the companies that I was involved with that actually jobs were lost, they've been reported on by all sorts of people who've investigated this, and it ends up to less than 10,000. So do the math, 120,000 less 10,000, and it's over 100,000.” [Post-Debate Spin Room With Sean Hannity, Fox News, 1/16/12]

BUT DURING THE FOX/SOUTH CAROLINA DEBATE ROMNEY SAID “120,000 JOBS”

Romney On His Bain Capital Jobs Record: “Four Of The Companies That We Invested In, They Weren't Businesses I Ran But We Invested In, Ended Up Today Having Some 120,000 Jobs.”Romney: “And four of the companies that we invested in, they weren't businesses I ran, but we invested in, ended up today having some 120,000 jobs. … You look at places like Staples, Bright Horizons, that steel company I talked about, the Sports Authority. They alone added 120,000 jobs as of today.” [Fox News/Wall Street Journal Debate, 1/16/12]

IN A RECENT AD, ROMNEY CLAIMS TO HAVE CREATED “THOUSANDS OF JOBS”

Romney’s Ad Claims He’s Created “Thousands Of Jobs.” “Long Years Of Experience Creating Thousands Of Jobs.” [Romney, Bright Future, 1/13/12]

THEN ROMNEY CLAIMED HE HELPED CREATE “OVER A HUNDRED THOUSAND JOBS”

Romney Said That At Bain He Helped Create “Actually, Over A Hundred Thousands Of Jobs.”“Romney also questioned whether Gingrich understands how the economy works when asked about the former speaker’s suggestion earlier today that Romney give money back to businesses he’s profited from that have then gone bankrupt. ‘Doesn’t he understand how the economy works? In the real economy, some businesses succeed and some fail,” said Romney. “That’s how that works and you try and encourage the more successful and fortunately for many people, tens of thousands of jobs, actually over a hundred thousands of jobs were created by the investments that we were able to help make. ‘” [ABC News, 12/12/11; Romney Press Availability At Madison Lumber Mill, 12/12/11]

AFTER PREVIOUSLY CLAIMING HE CREATED “TENS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS NET-NET”

Romney Said That He Created “Tens Of Thousands Of Jobs, Net-Net.” “Romney has focused on his Bain victories, including providing funding to help launch or grow Staples, Domino’s Pizza, and other household names. ‘When I was at Bain Capital, we invested in about 100 different companies. Not all of them worked,’’ he said earlier this month in a debate. ‘But I’m very proud of the fact that I learned about how you can be successful with an enterprise, why we lose jobs, how we gain jobs and overall, in those 100 businesses we invested in, tens of thousands of jobs, net-net, were created.’’ [Boston Globe, 8/21/11]

2002: ROMNEY CLAIMED HE CREATED “TENS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS”

2002: Romney Claimed That At Bain He Created Tens Of Thousands Of Jobs. “’I don't put profits ahead of people, I put people first,’ Romney said. ‘Shannon puts politics ahead of people.’ He added that his investment firm ‘started 200 companies and created tens of thousands of jobs. There's no question that some are more successful than others. But I'm basically in the investor's hall of fame.’" [Lowell Sun, 10/25/02]

1994: ROMNEY CLAIMED HE “HELPED CREATE” OVER 10,000 JOBS

Romney Said He “Helped Create” Over 10,000 Jobs At Bain.“’That's why I'm always very careful to use the words 'help create,' ‘ Romney acknowledged. ‘Bain Capital, or Mitt Romney, 'helped create' over 10,000 jobs. I don't take credit for the jobs at Staples. I helped create the jobs at Staples.’" [Boston Globe, 8/8/94]

ROMNEY CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE HIS JOB CREATION CLAIMS

REALITY: IN 1994, ROMNEY ACKNOWLEDGED HE COULDN’T BACK UP HIS BAIN JOB CREATION CLAIMS

1994: Romney Acknowledged That There Was No Way To Determine Whether Jobs Had Been Lost Or Gained Economy-Wide Because Of His Ventures. “In a telephone interview late yesterday, Romney dismissed the characterization of Staples and his other investments as streamlining, saying that what he has done is ‘build and grow businesses,’ not shrink them. He asserted that there is no way to calculate whether jobs have been lost or gained economy-wide as a result of his ventures, and noted his 10,000-job figure simply measures what happened to employment at companies in which Bain invested. In a separate interview, Thomas Stemberg, Staples chairman and chief executive, acknowledged that there probably has been some job loss in the paper products business because of superstore companies, but said that the nation is still better off for their advent. Bain contributed 15 percent of the startup money for the Framingham-based company and, until the campaign, Romney sat on its board of directors.” [Boston Globe, 10/6/94]

Boston Globe: “It's Impossible To Say Precisely If More Jobs Were Created Than Cut By Bain Since The Firm Does Not Track Employment In Its Investments.” [Boston Globe, 1/27/08]

REALITY: ROMNEY HAS FAILED TO PRODUCE ANY EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT HIS NUMBERS

Washington Post Fact Checker: Romney Campaign Has Not Provided Any Proof That Bain Created “Thousands Of Jobs” During Romney’s Tenure. “Neither Bain nor the Romney campaign has provided proof that the company created thousands of jobs during Romney’s tenure. His campaign simply mentioned a few start-ups such as Staples and Sports Authority that now employ tens of thousands of people on the whole. But that doesn’t account for possible job losses with other companies. For instance, we know from past news reports that Bain businesses, including Ampad, Dade International and LIVE Entertainment, laid off a combined 2,351 workers under Romney’s leadership. Romney’s record at Bain proves that he can produce enormous returns for investors, but that doesn’t necessarily prove he can create jobs.” [Fact Checker, Washington Post, 12/12/11]

Factcheck.org: Neither The Romney Campaign Nor Restore Our Future Super PAC, A Pro-Romney Group, Have Backed Up Claims That Romney Created “Thousands Of Jobs” While At Bain. From a fact check of Restore Our Future Super PAC’s first TV ad and Romney claims: “A pro-Romney TV spot running heavily in Iowa touts an unproven claim that the candidate ‘helped create thousands of jobs’ as CEO of an investment firm. When we asked the super PAC sponsoring the ad for proof of its claim, a spokeswoman said: ‘We aren’t supplying that information.’ And so far, neither is the Romney campaign. … Since Romney himself has claimed ‘in those 100 businesses we invested in, tens of thousands of jobs, net-net, were created,’ we also reached out to the Romney campaign for backup. But we did not get a response.” [Factcheck.org, 12/9/11]

REALITY: ROMNEY’S JOB CLAIMS ARE “UNPROVEN” “MISLEADING” AND DISHONEST

Factcheck.Org: “Mitt Romney Has Taken To Saying That He Created More Than 100,000 Net Jobs Through His Work In The Private Sector, And More Jobs As Governor Than President Obama Has Created Since Taking Office. But The First Claim Is Unproven, And The Second Is Misleading.” [FactCheck.org, 1/5/12]

New York Times’ Paul Krugman: “The Point Is That Mr. Romney’s Claims About Being A Job Creator Would Be Nonsense Even If He Were Being Honest About The Numbers, Which He Isn’t.”[Krugman, New York Times, 1/5/12]