RSSRomney touts ‘different vision’
President's policies cost U.S. jobs, ex-guv says
Mitt Romney fires up a town hall crowd in a campaign stop at Central High School on Tuesday. Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, ripped President Barack Obama’s policies a number of times during his speech.
Let states control Medicaid spending, sign more trade agreements with Latin American countries and lower taxes for job creators.
Those were only some of the ideas former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney shared with hundreds of Grand Junction residents Tuesday at a town hall rally at Central High School.
Oh, and don’t re-elect President Barack Obama to the White House, the presumptive Republican Party candidate told nearly 1,200 people who turned out for the event.
“The president’s policies have not created jobs,” Romney said. “It’s making it harder for this economy to recover. They have this president pursuing liberal policies that didn’t work back in the past and certainly won’t work now in a modern America. I have a very different vision.”
The governor earned several rounds of applause from the crowd in the high school gymnasium, including a few standing ovations.
Those occurred when he talked about pushing more coal and natural gas production, lowering taxes and anytime he said anything negative about Obama, which was often.
Romney said his five-part plan would address much of what’s wrong with the nation:
■ Boost domestic energy production, including for coal, natural gas and renewables.
■ Increase trade agreements with foreign countries, particularly those with Latin American nations.
■ Reduce the size of the federal government.
■ Improve educational opportunities, including turning over federal training programs to the states, and reducing the impact teacher’s unions have on education spending.
■ Restore economic freedom to individuals.
“This country’s economy is propelled by free people pursuing their dreams, working hard, in some cases starting small businesses,” Romney said. “It’s America’s dreaming, building, creating, entrepreneurs, innovators that drive our economy. This economic freedom was envisioned by the founders.”
Democrats immediately criticized Romney’s speech, saying he mischaracterized the president’s policies without providing full details of his own.
Kim Parker, spokeswoman for Obama’s Colorado campaign, said Romney is disingenuous when he criticized the president on several points, particularly on outsourcing American jobs when he did just that when the governor ran Bain Capital in the 1980s and 1990s.
“President Obama has fought to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, fostered incentives for companies to bring jobs back to America and doubled the rate of trade cases we’ve brought against China to ensure an even playing field for American workers,” Parker said.
“Romney, who’s personally profited from investments in companies that were pioneers in shipping American jobs to India and China as a corporate buyout specialist, would slash funds to spur the clean energy sector in America, eliminating renewable energy jobs in states like Colorado and Iowa and ceding the industry to China.”
Romney began the event honoring Cedaredge eighth-grader J.D. TenNapel for risking his life last month to warn neighbors of an approaching wildlife. Later in the day, the governor traveled to Colorado Springs to help volunteers at a food bank serving victims of that city’s deadly fire.
Democrats also were quick to respond, saying that somehow it was all right for Romney to highlight the state’s recent fires during the campaign, but criticize Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as political opportunists for visiting the same sites.
CLICK HERE to watch Romney’s town hall meeting.
COMMENTS
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.Way to go Sentinel. We know you are a liberal rag, but this is over the top. The main article on Mitt Romney’s visit devotes more space to criticizing Romney than writing about his speech.
Amusing. The Sentinel is a liberal rag? Where is Krugman?