Romney: Obama Would Kill Millions of Jobs
Thursday, October 30, 2008 3:11 PM 

By: Ronald Kessler

  
  

In the final days of the campaign, John McCain needs to emphasize that Barack Obama would kill millions of jobs, Mitt Romney tells Newsmax.

“It’s too late in the process to be unveiling new initiatives,” Romney says. “Instead, you focus on the consequences of an Obama presidency and the benefits of a McCain presidency. And frankly, in my lifetime, I don’t recall a more anti-job program than Barack Obama’s.”

McCain’s program creates jobs, Romney says, while Obama’s shrinks them.

“My own view is that’s the message in the last days. Boil it down in a way that people understand,” Romney says. “You don’t have to go through all the differences and the details. The headline is: Barack Obama will kill millions of jobs in America; John McCain will create millions of jobs in America.”

While the economic crisis has hurt McCain’s chances, “What caused this downturn was profligate borrowing in the mortgage market,” Romney observes. “And who’s been pushing that? Democrats and a lot of Republicans. And then, when it came to regulate that borrowing, Republicans wanted to regulate it and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Democrats said no, just hand out the money. That’s what caused this downturn.”

In fact, “Republican Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire authored a bill to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; Democrats blocked it,” Romney says. “This is Barney Frank trying to do the old two-step. This is the guy that led the charge to hand out mortgage money to people who couldn’t afford to pay. And it’s caused the crisis that we’re seeing. It’s just easy to say blame George Bush, and that’s what the Democrats are doing.”

Obama’s program would kill jobs because it would raise taxes on companies and entrepreneurships that create jobs, Romney says.

In addition, “Putting a penalty on employers that don’t provide a government-approved healthcare program kills jobs,” he says. “The card check program to unionize small business kills a lot of jobs, permanently. And John McCain’s program creates jobs.

 

“He lowers taxes on employers to create incentives to add jobs. He puts in place a healthcare plan that lets individuals buy their own insurance and keeps the burden off employers. And he invests in truly becoming energy independent, which lowers our energy prices and makes it more attractive to do business in this country.”

Romney has been campaigning for McCain and he’s also been campaigning for 28 congressional candidates, five U.S. Senate candidates, and two gubernatorial candidates.

 

Formed in April, Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC has donated $202,000 to 75 GOP candidates. He’s made another $173,000 in donations through his affiliated state PACs, including to the National Organization of Marriage in California to pass Proposition 8 and to an effort to stop a ballot initiative in Massachusetts to decriminalize marijuana use.

 

In all, financial support through Romney-controlled state and federal PACs has totaled $375,000.

Asked whether he would run for the presidency again, Romney says, “As you know, politics is a lot about timing; and when the window opens, you either step through or you decide not to. Well, the window opened for me, I stepped through, I got on the stage, battled hard, but I lost fair and square. And looking down the road, it’s hard to imagine the window opening again. But you know, time will tell.”

In the meantime, Romney is going on a whirlwind tour in the final days of the campaign.

“I think this is an absolutely critical time for our country, so all the team is pulling on the oars as hard as we can,” Romney says. “I’ve seen John McCain come from behind before, and it was in the race where he was running against me and Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani. He surprises folks. There’s not a lot of time to go, but I don’t count this race over yet.”