Romney: Regulators should make "friends" with business

Mitt Romney

/ Stephan Savoia

UPDATED 2:45 p.m. ET

JACKSON, Miss. - Campaigning in the Deep South, where he faces tough opposition from more conservative rivals for the GOP nomination, Mitt Romney is promoting an anti-government regulation theme and a vision of a new environment in which regulators "see businesses and enterprises of all kinds as their friends."

At a townhall meeting here on Friday, Romney also slammed the Obama administration for imposing a moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP oil spill disaster last summer.

"We were in Pascagoula (Miss.) yesterday and we saw behind us a couple of large drilling rigs not being used right now," Romney said. "The use of drilling rigs is the Gulf is the lowest of any place in the world, lowest utilization. That's because of this president and the moratorium he put in place that's illegal."

The Obama campaign said the comments from Romney prove "that he will say anything in the pursuit of political gain."

"Contrary to Mitt Romney's rhetoric today, President Obama has aggressively pursued an all-of-the-above energy strategy by approving hundreds of drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico and making millions of acres available for oil and gas development. These actions will create jobs and generate economic activity in the Gulf region," said Lis Smith, a campaign spokeswoman.

"Mitt Romney, on the other hand, would continue tax subsidies for oil and gas companies making near-record profits and has opposed fuel economy standards that will save consumers thousands of dollars at the pump. These misguided policies would do nothing to reduce gas prices or create jobs," she said.

Current regulations on business, Romney said, "just choke us, overwhelm our ability to compete and to do the job that you are trained to do and the people across this country are trained to do. People are sitting around in Pascagoula wondering why they can't go to work, why we can't get oil out of the ground to help get the price of oil down, price of gasoline down."

Under a Romney administration, regulations would be "updated and modernized and streamlined," he said, and, "I want regulators to see businesses and enterprises of all kinds as their friends, and to encourage them and to move them along."

Usually highly critical of China and its trade practices, Romney said that the United States should follow the economic giant's lead when it comes to regulation. "It's pretty impressive over there," Romney said, referring to a visit to China after his 2008 presidential run. "How quickly they can build things. How productive they are as a society. You should see their airports compared to our airports, their highways, their train systems. They're moving quickly, in part because the regulators see their job as encouraging private people."

Romney faces a political headwind going into primaries in Mississippi and Alabama Tuesday from conservative rivals Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker.

[ge556]

When regulators "see businesses and enterprises of all kinds as their friends", 99% of the people, and the environment, lose.

[rayward73446]

Romney's statements are rediculous. regulators are charged with insuring that businesses are honest with consumers and meet the regulations that are the law. How can they be friends, and do their job right?
Everyday I read news stories about corruption, cheating, dishonesty by companies that are being charged with fraud and other crimes. The regulation of businesses are at an all time low. G W Bush abolished many of existing regulations, which led to the financial meltdown and the great recession that we are still trying to get out of. Corporations, banks, and wall street were all involved in a frenzy of profit taking on bad mortgages, leading to the housing crash and millions of forclosures.
We do not need a repeat of this kind of bad policy that has ruined so many Americans, some may never recover from their financal nightmares. I'm opposing the GOP in all elections because they still believe that businsees can do as they choose, being dishonest, or not, and the consumers and those that are swindled out of their money by unscrupulous companies can just fend for thenselves.

[lg144]

What Romney is really saying is he wants government out of the way so that him and his wealthy one percent can continue screwing the rest of us without fear of government intervention.

[skeyewater]

Wow, I was always on the fence with Romney. It seemed like he did a good job with the Olympics and was a successful businessman. The quotes of getting friendly with regulators and favorable comments about China's ability to get things done compared to in the US lack any sophistication and seem to demonstrate naivety. My personal belief is all societies must rise and fall, its a natural cycle of beginning with the promise of the values within us all and ending with a world run by psychopaths. The psychopaths are winning so don't expect it to get any better. In fact, it will only get worse for a good long spell. Buckle up! The problem with distributed power is once its corrupted, you can't overturn it. I expect Romney to win. We've become a God less nation, we've allowed ourselves to be taken over by God less people. You can substitute valueless if you're nonreligious like me. To me, the term God, values, the light within, are synonymous, each merely reflecting a similar understanding from different perspectives.

[HemiHead66]

Romney is nothing but a shill for the cronies that are funding his campaign. Go do the research on that pipeline, it'll increase our gas prices, not lower them. That oil isn't even for us, it'll be refined to gas for export overseas. And that's a big reason why gas prices are higher in the U.S., refiners have been selling gas overseas to the highest bidder, eating up our cushion here at home, raising prices. Romney also wants to deregulate those banker-bandits all over again so they can get back to biz as usual. What little regulations Obama passed were to keep those bankers from making risky losing bets with our money. NO WAY WE GO BACK TO BIZ AS USUAL. Romney's also mad because Obama won't let his friends spew mercury. Kill what's left of the safe water act. Treat toxic coal waste as household garbage to be dumped anywhere etc. etc. Maybe Romney should've mentioned China watering their crops from toxic rivers & streams. Go look on You Tube. The Chinese got the biggest water diversion project in the world going on right now because they destroyed everything else. Because of China's non-existent environmental policies. they poison to death between 300,000 to 500,000 people a year. You can find all of this info on the net. Romney and the GOP are as reckless as they come. You see Google's front page, injecting toxic fracking waste into the ground is the reason for the earthquakes. And all across the country people's homes are being turned to wasteland from those frackers. No one will buy a home after the water resources are poisoned forever. Those gas cronies have been throwing tanks in people's basement to fill with water after poisoning their aquifers. In some places they poisoned the water supply for whole towns. In Texas, they forged EPA reports of high levels of radiation in people's drinking water for 4+ years till they got caught. Just look it up. They let people drink it leaving some with cancer. Romney & side-kicks should be fired for endangering people's lives. Profits over people. These oil & gas cronies make hundreds of millions of dollars a year sucking up our country's resources and they can't even spend a few bucks doing it in a safe manner? I hate the GOP with a passion.

[cbunite]

2008 Sex Drugs and the Interior Department.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html?_r=2&bl&ex=1221278400&en=139555dd265b8c71&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

[kevin_hunt]

How about the DEA backs off on medical marijuana producers and farmers that want to grow industrial hemp? Instead, Romney wants to prohibit this type of economic activity which represents millions in potential revenue and thousands of new jobs. It turns out that Romney is a big government candidate after all.

[Exploitationist]

Wouldnt it be funny if everyone voted Ron Paul.

How can these "boys" expect to run a country when they cant even get along together?

[cgallaway]

I agree with most here that the problem isn't the regulators not being friendly enough to businesses.

I would like to point out, something that isn't getting much scrutiny...HOW IN THE HECK ARE THE MOST PROFITABLE COMPANIES IN THE WORLD "NOT COMPETING"?

[vaporviper]

Maybe Romney should spend a week or two breathing the clean air in Bejing. Might clear his mind.

http://www.futuretimeline.net/21stcentury/images/china-smog-problems.jpg