Romney: Election winner shouldn't have to immediately face fiscal cliff

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GettyImages

COSTA MESA, Calif. -- Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney supported extending the Bush tax cuts to give the winner of the 2012 election time to put their policies in place without facing the so-called fiscal cliff in January.

No matter who is elected in November, Romney told CNBC's Larry Kudlow in an interview airing Monday, the winner should have "at least six months or a year" to get policies in place without facing the looming spending cuts and tax hikes that would be set to kick in two months later if lawmakers do not act. "Let's extend where we are now, as opposed to looking at a cliff in January that would cause, well, real distress for the economy," Romney said.

"What I'm saying is, don't raise taxes," he said by way of elaboration, adding that he would ultimately propose reforming the tax code by bringing rates down across the board.

Romney also said he would limit deductions and exemptions "so that the highest-income people continue to pay the share that they're paying now ... I'm not looking for tax breaks for high-income folks, but I am looking for more money being kept in small business so we can hire more people and pay better wages," he said.

Romney also defended his continuing attacks over President Obama's statement to business owners that they didn't create their companies entirely on their own. He argued that the context -- in which Obama was saying that they were aided by government investment in infrastructure and other programs -- is worse than the quote.

"This is an ideology which says `Hey, we're all the same here, we ought to take from all and give to one another and that achievement, individual initiative and risk-taking and success are not to be rewarded as they have in the past,''' he said. " It's a very strange and in some respects foreign to the American experience type of philosophy.

"We have always been a nation that has celebrated success of various kinds. The kid that gets the honor roll, the individual worker that gets a promotion, the person that gets a better job. And in fact, the person that builds a business. And by the way, if you have a business and you started it, you did build it. And you deserve credit for that. It was not built for you by government."

Romney also waded into the issue of gun control, a subject of debate after last week's deadly shooting in Aurora, Colo. While Romney discouraged discussing the politics associated with the shooting, he did say that he didn't believe new laws would have made a difference.

"There are -- were, of course, very stringent laws which existed in Aurora, Colorado. Our challenge is not the laws, our challenge is people who, obviously, are distracted from reality and do unthinkable, unimaginable, inexplicable things," he said.

Ahead of a foreign trip planned for this week, Romney was highly critical of Obama's handling of the protracted conflict in Syria. "I think from the very beginning we misread the setting in Syria. The secretary of State said that [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad was a reformer. That's a phrase which will obviously go down in history as being poorly timed and entirely inaccurate," he said.

While he called for more assertive leadership -- "there's no question but that Assad has to go," he said -- he did not provide further details on exactly how he might have handled the conflict differently.

[TimeToEvolve]

RobMe was a progressive and a liberal before his corporate masters ordered him to be their plastic puppet for pResident.

RobMe was for Obama Cares and was against the Bush Tax Welfare for the Rich. Before he was against it.

[TimeToEvolve]

Yeah, we have been providing slimy, filthy rich creeps like you welfare for so long, we can't stop now.

Hey RobMe, why not immediately start an invasion of Iran? That should help your Wall Street war profiteers. And we could borrow all the money like the Republicons did to invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan for oil.

[euge005]

"he did not provide further details on exactly how he might have handled the conflict differently."

Of course not. He has no plans nor experience. Ask him who would he tax to pay for an intervention and would his sons volunteer to serve.

[sjc_1]

Ever since the mid 70s and "stagflation" the Republicans have been looting and off shoring their money. There is more than $20 trillion in off shore accounts, Apple alone has more than $75 billion outside the U.S.

This seems to be the idea with the GOP, if you can not fix the country, then loot it and put as much as you can in off shore accounts. Take care of number one and the heck with everyone else, all the while claiming that they are the true Americans.

[occupy_cbs]

Wealth doesn't trickle down -- it just floods offshore, research reveals, and mitt romney is the poster boy of offshoring!

[CaptainSmollett]

The evidence is very clear that Obama's objective is to redefine our capitalistic system of free enterprise and increase the influence of big government in an attempt to redistribute wealth within our society. Regardless of your ideology, however, one thing is clear: Pursuit of this idealistic objective will exact suffering on ALL of society, including those Obama is advocating to help. A healthy and robust system of free-enterprise is our nation's ONLY means of wealth creation, on which we ALL depend. Trying to redefine it will assure continued economic stagnation, high unemployment, and more poverty. Obama is killing the patient to cure the disease.

[nearl451]

He is merely reiterating Clinton's "Third Way" cooperative idea between public and private economies.

It is nothing more than that concept...whether you agree with it or not.

[tonyatq]

You watch too much fox news.

[sweetcakesmaria]

Romney must think that Obama inherited a robust economy from Bush with the nonsense he's talking. Some one should remind him that we were in a recession and on the verge of a depression when Obama took over. Regardless of whether Obama win or lose in November, he's done a very good job of standing up for the poor and middleclass against a Republican House that is obviously for the top 1%. They have consistently and religiously voted down any jobs bill that Obama has sent to the House. People should not forget that it was the Republicans that ran on a platform of creating jobs during the 2010 elections. Americans should be asking those Republicans where are the jobs you promised.

[nearl451]

Frankly, I am expecting another orldwide crisis to rear it's head before November from across the "big pond". So these little expectations for a send off gift for his Presidency seem a bit grand.

What does he think, a Presidency is like inheritence: a gift?!?

[CaptainSmollett]

Maria, you are very confused. Obama's policies have created anxiety and uncertainty in the business community that is directly hurting the poor and middle class. That is why unemployment has remained high, the economy is stagnant, and poverty is increasing. Your blame, and praise, is very misplaced.

[nearl451]

The News media seems to be stuck on the same several old emotional touchstones when it comes to taxing and budget issues.

The fiscal "cliff" although fast approaching afte the election is not the looming crisis: The EU second dip back into recession or more IS the looming crisis.

If the candidates could be asked: "What will/should the US do when the world wide economy contracts through the next phase ofhte European fiscal crisis?" ..... the answers would be quite telling.

Secondly, the Bush tax cuts do need to be retired and/or morphed into something else. They have not produced much, even cutting out effect due the last financial sector meltdown and recession. BTW, simply cutting the budget does not help any short ro medium term economic outlay, so tax increases must be considered as well.

[euge005]

Well put, but you omitted the crisis in China. The dictatorship there is riding the tiger. They have a housing bubble that dwarfs ours and potential rebellion in the streets. Only American $$ have propped them up this long. Business with the occupied part of Chuina needs to be cut back. Buy products whenever possible from anywhere but China or Iran.

[wadem7-2009]

Mitt "saved the SLC Olympics", remember? He can do that with our economy. Oh, wait, he actually saved the Olympics with taxpayer money. He begged for $1.3 billion from Congress through earmarks. That might make saving our economy a little difficult. Oh, well, he can always ask for a little help from his family or Wall Street.

[bajajohn1]

Republicans remind me of the three Monkeys: See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil...about Republicans. Republicans caused the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression...which was also caused by Republicans.

[realtimecoffee]

Those are reversable Monkeys. Turn them around and they are Democrats.