Hewlett Packard has announced that they will be laying off 27,000 people — eight percent of their staff– after losses of over a billion dollars in the last year.

Mitt Romney, though, thinks that HP’s CEO would make a great governor.

Just last week, Romney stated that if HP CEO Meg Whitman had won her bid for governor, the state of California would be in a much better financial situation:

I wish Californians had elected Meg Whitman. She would have been more successful and explained to Californians the need to cut back on spending and eliminate unnecessary programs. There are other states that have very different records. I think it’s interesting that the state with the highest or among the highest tax rates in the nation also has the worst or near the worst deficit.

California does have a devastatingly high unemployment rate — 10.9 percent — but if all of the HP workers who are getting laid off lived in the state, its unemployment rate would be pushed over the 11 percent line.

Meanwhile, the spending cuts Whitman and Romney advocate wouldn’t actually help the state economy. As Center for American Progress economist Adam Hersh noted in 2011, the states that have cut the most spending have shed the most jobs.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has told voters that his election “would be very positive news to the American economy,” and that by voting for him, voters could spark an economic turnaround.

Romney continued that narrative today, telling Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin that his policies would reduce unemployment to 6 percent by the end of his first term in 2016:

ROMNEY: Over a period of 4 years, by virtue of the policies that we put in place, we get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent, perhaps a little lower.

Watch it:

Though 6 percent unemployment is significantly lower than the current 8.1 percent rate, the feat isn’t all that remarkable. In fact, it is exactly where multiple government agencies project unemployment will be at the end of that time frame. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that unemployment will average 6.3 percent in 2016; the Office of Management and Budget, meanwhile, projects unemployment will hit 6.1 percent and ultimately fall below 6 percent the same year.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has based his campaign on President Obama’s handling of the economy, telling voters that Obama made the economy worse and that he is better suited to fostering a recovery.

Republican governors in states across the country, including some states that will play a pivotal role in deciding the November election, are taking a different view of the situation. Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), for instance, issued a press release this morning touting “encouraging indicators that Florida’s economy is steadily moving in the right direction,” telling his constituents that nearly a quarter-million jobs were available:

SCOTT: Today’s unemployment report adds to the series of encouraging indicators that Florida’s economy is steadily moving in the right direction. With 243,594 job openings listed by various help-wanted websites and our unemployment rate down 2.2 points to 8.7%, more Floridians are finding new jobs throughout the Sunshine State.

Scott isn’t alone. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s (R) web site featured a blog post touting the “thousands of Virginians working again” and the ways in which the state’s economy is recovering:

MCDONNELL: Virginia is growing strong again. Through a bipartisan effort in Richmond, and the hard-work, innovation and dedication of the people of Virginia, our economy is recovering. There is a lot to celebrate in our Commonwealth. With unemployment at over a 3-year low, agricultural exports at a record high, and thousands of Virginians working again, this is a great time to recognize all the great things happening in our tremendous Commonwealth.

And during an April event with Romney, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) told Otterbein University students that there are tens of thousands of open jobs and that “we’re doing much better in Ohio now“:

KASICH: We have a web site called Ohio Means Jobs. There’s probably about 80,000 jobs listed on there. … Look through that, and you’re going to find a lot of exciting opportunities. … There’s a lot of really exciting things in this state where you can go and work.

Across the country, in fact, unemployment rates are falling and jobs are returning to state economies, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest jobs report detailed last week. As Romney continues to ignore the fact that the economy is recovering, facts — and the Republican governors who have endorsed him — are telling a different story.

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) came into office on the promise to create 250,000 jobs in his first term. He then, of course, eschewed that goal in order to focus on busting Wisconsin’s public sector unions.

Wisconsin, in fact, saw the largest decrease in employment last year, making it one of only four states to lose jobs. But Walker on Saturday doubled down on his promise to create 250,000 jobs:

Gov. Scott Walker recommitted Saturday to his pledge to create 250,000 private-sector jobs by 2015, a promise all the more difficult to achieve since he first made it because of anemic job growth during his tenure. [...]

“It’s a commitment I made in 2010 and it’s a commitment I make today,” Walker said.

As Menzie Chinn noted as Econbrowser, Walker has a long way to go to make that happen. The green line represents the pace of job creation Walker needs to attain, while the blue line is what’s actually happening:

Of course, Walker could always use the trick pulled by Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) and simply pretend that his promise on jobs never happened (video evidence to the contrary).