Three years ago this Sunday, President Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. It was the first act he signed as president.

In reflecting on the moment, he told the story of his grandmother and his mother, both hardworking women who faced glass ceilings as they tried to provide for their families and build their careers.

"I signed this law because I want young women like my own daughters to have chances and opportunities my mom and grandmother never could have dreamed of.

"Thanks to the relentless efforts of people like Lilly Ledbetter, those opportunities are already in reach. And thanks to this law, we're one step closer to fair pay for all Americans, but there's still more work to do."

Watch and share President Obama's video.

At Monday's debate, and again last night, Mitt Romney claimed Bain Capital never worked with any company that worked with the government—like Medicare or Medicaid. Even when asked directly by Newt Gingrich, Romney responded, "We didn’t do any work with the government. I didn’t have an office on K Street. I wasn`t a lobbyist. I didn’t—had never worked—I’ve never worked in Washington."

Once again, Mitt Romney has demonstrated that he will say anything to get elected— regardless of whether or not it's true. Romney served on the board of, and personally pocketed more than $500,000 from, Damon Corporation—a company that was later found to have fraudulently swindled Medicare out of millions of dollars. DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released a memo today outlining Romney's involvement in Damon Corporation's medicare fraud:

"On behalf of my constituents in Florida’s 20th District, many of whom have already paid the price for Medicare fraud, I believe that Mitt Romney must provide answers to his involvement in the Damon Corporation case—what he knew about the fraud being carried out, why he falsely claimed to have stopped it, and why he failed to notify federal investigators and shareholders about the company’s illegal activities."

Let's look at the facts: while serving on the board at Damon Corporation, Romney and Bain Capital "made large profits … whose robust revenues were generated in part on a criminal scheme to fraudulenty bill the federal medicare system for unecessary blood tests." Years later, Damon corporation pled guilty to $25 million in Medicare fraud and paid a record $119 million fine. [Boston Globe, 10/10/02]

In addition to his lies at this week's debates, Romney previously claimed he tried to blow the whistle on Damon. His exact words? "We put in place a program to stop that immediately." Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that this claim is false as well:

"Romney’s comments are contradicted by federal court records and Damon’s SEC filings. Prosecutors in the case said the fraud at Damon was cleaned up by Corning, after it purchased the firm from Bain and other owners and revised the billing process. Other court records, including Damon’s blood testing records, show that the practice that was found to be criminal continued until August 1993, many months after Romney said he and the board put an end to it." [Boston Globe, 10/11/02] 

So why would Mitt Romney lie? He's running for office, for Pete's sake. 

During last night's Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney continued his practice of distorting the truth when he criticized President Obama's policies on Israel. 

After a Palestinian-American member of the audience asked the Republican presidential candidates how they would foster peace between Palestinians and Israelis, Romney claimed President Obama "threw Israel under the bus," "said nothing about thousands of rockets being rained on Israel from the Gaza Strip," and "disrespected Prime Minister Bibi Netanyuahu and has time and time again shown distance from Israel.”

On the contrary, President Obama has strengthened our country's bond with Israel. President Obama condemned the airstrikes on Israel during 2009 and 2011. He has repeatedly stated that Israel and Palestine must negotiate a border that is different from the one that existed on June 4, 1967. And President Obama's administration requested more than $3 billion in security assistance funding for Israel in 2012 and committed $30 billion in security assistance over 10 years.

Jewish leaders have praised President Obama for his commitment to Israel. Defense Minister Barak said he "can hardly remember a better period of support." Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said, "We have not had a better friend than President Obama." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Obama's actions a "badge of honor." President Shimon Peres said, "Thank you, President Barack Obama, for your leadership, for your deep and moving ongoing and unwavering commitment to the peace and security of our land.”

Here's a video highlighting U.S.–Israel relations during President Obama's time in office:

Memorandum

From: U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL20), Chair, Democratic National Committee

To: Interested Parties

Date: January 27, 2012

Re: Romney’s Involvement in Damon Corporation’s Medicare Fraud

Mitt Romney has staked his entire candidacy on the rationale that his private-sector experience makes him uniquely qualified to handle the economic challenges facing our nation. But the more voters learn about his time at Bain Capital, the more they learn that his private-sector experience was less about creating jobs and more about making profits at any cost.

We already know that at Bain Capital, Romney and his partners made hundreds of millions of dollars by closing more than a thousand plants, stores, and offices, laying off American workers and outsourcing their jobs to other countries, and taking companies they acquired into bankruptcy for their own profit. This reality of Romney’s private-sector experience is greatly at odds with his rhetoric of being a job creator and greatly at odds with what the American people are looking for in their elected leaders.

Now, as Romney campaigns across Florida, including courting voters in my congressional district, he must answer troubling questions about his time as a board member at Damon Corporation, a medical testing company that was fined more than $119 million in criminal and civil fines for a large-scale Medicare defrauding scheme, and his debunked story about his role in uncovering and reporting the fraud to federal investigators.

Unfortunately, Medicare fraud is an all-too familiar issue for Florida voters. In addition to being one of the states hardest hit by Medicare cost increases due to fraud, they’re now seeing the consequences of electing Rick Scott, a former hospital executive who has been described as the “Madoff of Medicare.” In 1997, Scott was forced to resign as the CEO of Columbia/HCA after the company was found to have carried out the worst Medicare fraud in U.S. history. As our governor, Scott has consistently put corporate profits before priorities like education and job creation and is paying for it with an approval rating of just 26 percent.

On behalf of my constituents in Florida’s 20th District, many of whom have already paid the price for Medicare fraud, I believe that Mitt Romney must provide answers to his involvement in the Damon Corporation case—what he knew about the fraud being carried out, why he falsely claimed to have stopped it, and why he failed to notify federal investigators and shareholders about the company’s illegal activities.

Damon Corporation: “Corporate Greed Run Amok”

After Bain Capital acquired Damon Corporation in 1990, Romney sat on the company’s board until 1993, when Bain Capital sold Damon to Corning Inc. Romney personally made $473,000 off the sale and Bain Capital tripled its initial investment, making a profit of $7.4 million over a four-year period for its investors.

Just three years after Romney and Bain Capital cashed in on this sale, Damon Corporation pled guilty to a federal conspiracy charge of defrauding Medicare of $25 million. The Boston Globe laid out Damon’s elaborate fraud scheme:

“Damon defrauded the government, according to court documents, with a system known as Labscan. Labscan performed a series, or ‘panel,’ of blood tests for a flat fee, which was charged to Medicare. But the forms that doctors were given to order tests from Damon also included tests that were not covered by the fee. By checking the box for a panel of tests, doctors unwittingly ordered tests that were unnecessary and cost the Medicare program millions of dollars. Damon induced the doctors to order the special tests, saying they would not have to pay for them, the government said.” For this fraud, Damon was forced to pay a record $119 million in civil and criminal fines. The $35.3 million criminal fine that Damon paid was not only the largest criminal fine ever levied in Massachusetts, but it was also the largest criminal fine levied in a Medicare fraud case.

"Then U.S. Attorney Daniel Stern characterized Damon’s fraud “a case, pure and simple, of corporate greed run amok.”

Romney’s Problem with the Truth at Damon Corporation

Just as troubling as Damon Corporation’s criminal misdeeds are Mitt Romney’s conflicting stories about what he knew about Damon’s fraudulent activities and whether he acted to stop them.

During his 2002 run for governor, Romney told reporters that, while sitting on the board of Damon Corporation, he “blew the whistle” and “put in place a program to stop [the fraud] immediately.” His story was backed up by his spokesman Eric Ferhnstrom, who said that Romney “acted to uncover the fraud at Damon.” [Boston Globe, 10/25/02; Associated Press, 10/10/02]

Despite making these claims repeatedly, Romney was unable to provide any proof that he took any action to put a stop to Damon’s fraud. In fact, court records show that Damon’s fraudulent activities persisted until Corning Inc. put a stop to them and even then-U.S. Attorney Donald Stern said that there was no proof that Romney did anything to alert investigators of the company’s illegal actions.

After Romney’s claims to have been a whistle-blower were proven false, he backtracked on his story, saying that his firm had hired a law firm to look into suspicious activities, but had never notified federal investigators of their findings. And in 2007, his campaign aides went a step further by insisting that reporters mischaracterized his claim to have blown the whistle on Damon’s fraud in the first place.

Medicare Fraud: Bad for Florida Seniors

Today, 48 million people rely on Medicare for the medical treatments and prescription drugs they need to stay healthy – including 3.4 million Floridians. But Medicare fraud costs the taxpayers billions of dollars every year. The most recent estimates suggest that Medicare made $48 billion in improper payments in FY2010, as criminals defrauded taxpayers and took advantage of vulnerable seniors.

Florida has been particularly hard hit by Medicare fraud; for example, in Miami-Dade County, costs for home health care increased 1,300% in just six years due largely to fraudulent billing. Because it drives up overall costs, criminal activity means higher premiums and copays for people with Medicare. Whether they were billing for services they never provided and patients they never saw, or providing illegal kickbacks to providers, those making fraudulent charges enrich themselves by increasing costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

What Damon Means for Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney’s experience with Damon Corporation—from profiting off of Medicare fraud to misleading the public about his role in uncovering the fraud- underscores troubling questions about Romney’s record of seeking profits at any cost and saying anything to get elected. Romney has repeatedly claimed that his success in the private sector has been—and would continue to be—an asset for the country, but it’s increasingly clear that Romney’s success came through questionable means at the expense of hardworking taxpayers. Laying off workers, defrauding Medicare, bankrupting companies, and storing millions of dollars in notorious off-shore tax havens may have brought Romney success as a corporate raider, but these aren’t the qualities that would serve America’s middle class families well.

Along with his persistent dishonesty with voters about everything from his voting record to the number of jobs he “created” at Bain Capital, his false claim that he acted to stop Medicare fraud occurring under his nose at Damon Corporation shows that he simply cannot be trusted to level with the American people.

Washington, DC – Today, President Obama announced details of his Blueprint for College Affordability, a plan that reforms student aid promoting affordability and value. 

Jason Rae, Chair of the DNC Youth Council and a DNC member from Wisconsin, issue the following statement after the announcement o “Blueprint for College Affordability.”

“In the information age, education has never been more important.  President Obama knows the value of a higher education as a pathway to success.  The Blueprint for College Affordability offers incentives to schools to out innovate our competitors while expanding the federal student loan pool.

“Creating a Race to the Top for college affordability competition, the first in the world, incentive states to keep costs under control.  The competition will reward states who are willing to drive systemic change in their higher education policies and practices, while doing more to contain their tuition and make it easier for students to earn a college degree. 

“Students and Young American all over the country are thankful for President Obama’s leadership.  He understands the need for comprehensive student aid reform.  That is why young people stand firmly behind our President. We are committed to ensuring his re-election in November so that we can continue to create change like the “Blueprint for College Affordability.”