Romney: Economy is best issue for me

Mitt Romney

/ Michael Patrick,AP Photo/The Knoxville News Sentinel

(CBS News) ZANESVILLE, Ohio -- As he made his final pre-Super Tuesday pitch to voters, Mitt Romney on Monday stressed that in the face of improving U.S. economic numbers, he remains convinced that issue gives him the best chance in a potential general-election matchup with President Obama.

"I think as long as we're talking about the economy and jobs, and, by the way, shrinking the deficit, we're winning," Romney said on CNBC's Kudlow Report. "When we're talking about all other sorts of issues that come up, all of these extraneous ideas, that puts us behind. Focus on the economy -- that's where the president has failed the American people, and they know it."

Romney downplayed the reports of recent economic growth and recovery, saying that an 8 percent jobless rate "is not the new normal. I mean, this president has a long way to go to be able to deliver on the promises that the American people expect. Incomes have not risen. Gasoline prices are high. The idea that everything's fine out there in America comes from people who are detached from America."

Special Section: Campaign 2012

Romney also told host Larry Kudlow that he rejects the perception the intraparty squabbling among GOP presidential candidates has weakened party, saying that it has made him more able to challenge Obama.

"I anticipate that I'm going to be more able to debate, in the public square, Barack Obama, to point out why he's failed, to defend the policies that I have," he said. "I've also seen some of the, I'll say, less than accurate attacks and charges against me. I've been able to fend those off. I know where they're going to come from when the Obama machine turns it on with a billion dollars of spending. I'm more ready to go after the president than I was when I got started."

Romney put his focus on the economy into action at speeches and town halls across Ohio on Monday. Starting his morning at a factory in Canton, he explained that during his time in the private sector, he succeeded by focusing.

"When our president came into office there was one key job in front of him; and that was to get this economy going and put people back to work," he said. "But instead of focusing his energy on that topic, he instead went off on a whole series of other things he wanted to do."

Romney continued, "One of the reasons we're having such difficulty coming out of the downturn we're in is because the president has failed to focus on what was most important to America, which is getting good jobs again."

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's senior advisor, told reporters the former Massachusetts governor has not been "like other candidates who get distracted by non-economic issues. He stays focused on the economy, and I think that, more than anything else, explains why he's surging" in recent polls.

[larrylinn1]

I think that a good start would be to go back to having three years of depreciation on equipment, instead of five years. The cost/benefit for business expansion would improve. This reinstitution of the Investment Tax Credit for businesses would be a major benefit. When it was in effect, it required that the equipment purchased be manufactured, and remain in the United States.

[nearl451]

Well if the economy is the best issue for you...then stick with it and stop playing social conservative.

[calif7]

I'm still waiting for the trickle down to trickle down to me. Maybe its in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

[RobAla]

That is because the economy is the worst issue for President Obama. I am shocked that there are still people support President Obama. Let's look at the list of achievements during the first 3 years of President Obama and fellow progressives:

1) He lied 8 times in promises to televise the health care discussions openly on CSPAN.
2) He made deals giving one premium health care plan to union members (supporters) and another to the rest of the country.
3) He stood by and allowed the House and Senate to buy health care votes using taxpayer money.
4) He allowed the health care bills to be fashioned behind closed doors and be filled with political favors. This disaster of a health care law increases the cost of health care by imposing fees on medical devices (like pacemakers). He and they took over the nations health care by the federal government - most Americans did not want this extreme action - and still do not. This horrible law will cause the majority of Americans to have higher health care cost in rising premiums. We already can not afford the size federal government that we currently have, with a $16 trillion national debt. It imposes $billions of unfunded mandates on struggling states to provide greater Medicaid coverage. 27 states are suing the federal government over this nonsense, as they don't have the money to pay for this. Businesses are not hiring because of the additional cost PER EMPLOYEE that is caused by this law.
5) President Obama has continued at least a 8% unemployment rate for three years.
6) He irresponsibly overspent 100s of billions of dollars the US didn't have on bailouts (President Bush started it and President Obama accelerated it) and bogus stimulus packages. Progressives in Congress have refused to do their jobs to allow a national budget be established since 2009.
7) President Obama has behaved in the most partisan manner of any recent President, after promising bipartisanship. He has arrogantly trashed everyone who has not agreed with his socialist agenda - even the Supreme Court.
8) Instead of securing the border and enforcing federal immigration laws, the President has made war on Arizona Americans as they attempt to protect themselves from an invasion of illegal immigrants.
9) The President's man, AG Holder, dropped his case against the Black Panthers who blatantly intimidated voters at the polls. Now, Holder may finally be kicked out over "Fast and Furious" - the program that sold guns to Mexican cartels, guns used to kill a US border agent.
10) This President has focused on an extremist agenda of "fundamentally transforming" the US from a democratic republic into a socialist democracy, instead of the millions without jobs. We are all witnessing the collapse of European socialist democracies, yet this does nothing to stop this President from pushing us down that road to disaster.
11) President Obama imposed a moratorium on drilling in the gulf, throwing thousands more out of work. One foreign oil company screwed up, and the President decided to punish other oil companies that have drilled responsibly for decades.
12) President Obama wanted the President Bush tax cuts to expire, which would have resulted in redirecting money away from the economy and pushing it into Washington. The President held on to this until he was forced to change by the pounding the Democrats took in the 2010 election. Still, he promises to increase taxes next year.
13) The President and other progressives in Congress have imposed oppressive additional expenses and regulations on private sector businesses that are crippling the private sector jobs market, while expanding the federal government and public sector jobs. Anyone with any economic sense knows that you need tax revenues from a healthy private sector jobs market to fund public sector expansions, and the money is just not there.
14) With gas prices rising and projected to hit record levels by summer 2012, President Obama stops the Canadian pipeline deal that would reduce the US dependence on middle- eastern oil. His entire energy policy is idiotic, and leaves the US damaged. His impractical policies have included pumping public funds into "green energy" companies that have gone bankrupt, and even GM recently announced it will discontinue the manufacturing of the Volt electric car - they are unable to sell them.
15) In President Obama's 2012 budget, he never addressed serious issues threatening the future of the nation (like the fact that if Medicare and Social Security are not restructured, they both are projected to collapse by 2037). In fact, in the face of a staggering $16 trillion national debt - he proposed that we add another $trillion to it.

Just to name a few. The perfect word for President Obama is "irresponsible".

[ProgressNow]

OBAMA 2012!!!!!! Whoooo...whooooooo!!!!!!

[retiredgustav]

Nice click and paste. How about something coming from your own brain.

[dannysteele]

And let me guess what Romney's economic plan is:

1. Cut taxes for people and corporations that already have lots of money
2. Cut regulations that prevent everyday people from being hurt and taken advantage of.
3. Cut the social safety net the helps those less fortunate.
4. Wait for the above to trickle down. Unfortunately, what will trickle down is nothing that one wants to be trickled with.

[jimbom121]

Yet none of Romney's proposals addresses jobs.

[RobAla]

Jim: You either refuse to look into it, or you simply want to repeat something that you heard someone else say. Cutting taxes across the board for all Americans, is about creating jobs. The federal government consumes a large portion of the wealth in the United States. If you cut taxes and free up that wealth to flow into the private sector economy - private sector jobs are created through natural stimulation.

[retiredgustav]

RobAla.... Reagan, Bush I and Bush II all tried this . It didn't work. Insanity is described as doing the same thing over again and expecting diferent results.