President Obama mocked Mitt Romney’s explanation for a Washington Post story on Romney’s investment in companies that were “pioneers” in outsourcing during a freewheeling speech in New Hampshire on Monday.
The president noted that Romney’s campaign had pushed back against the Post’s scoop by complaining it didn’t sufficiently distinguish between “outsourcing” and “offshoring,” only the latter of which expressly involves shipping jobs overseas.
“You cannot make this stuff up!” Obama said. “What Gov. Romney and his advisers don’t seem to understand is this: If you’re a worker whose job went overseas, you don’t need somebody trying to explain to you the difference between outsourcing and offshoring, you need someone who’s going to wake up every day and fight for American jobs and investment here in the United States.”
Obama warned voters that Romney’s work with outsourcing companies at Bain Capital was reflected in his economic plan today, and pledged to end tax breaks that benefit companies that ship job overseas.
The president derided Romney’s platform as the same “top-down economics” that Republicans advanced in the last decade ahead of the financial crisis, and dismissed Romney’s claim that his years in the private sector gave him any special insight into creating jobs. He said that deregulation and lower taxes on the wealthy, two broad policies favored by Romney, had already been tried — and failed to produce results.
“Is there anybody here who can afford to pay thousands of dollars to give folks like Mr. Romney and me another tax cut?” Obama said to shouts of “no!” from the audience. “Unfortunately that is their entire economic plan. That’s it. When Mr. Romney tells us he’s some sort of financial wizard who can fix our economy, that’s exactly how he intends to do it.”
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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