Romney: "Big business is doing fine"

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walks into a fundraising event on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2012 in Minnetonka Beach, Minn.

/ AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Updated 7:22 a.m. ET, Aug. 24

(CBS News) MINNETONKA, Minn. - Mitt Romney told a group of donors on Thursday night that "big business is doing fine in many places," due to its ability to better deal with regulations and because large companies can utilize "low tax havens around the world."

Romney's remarks came as he argued for the need to cut regulations for small businesses, which he says are getting crushed by the many federal rules and requirements they face. But his comment threatened to invite comparisons to President Obama's comment in June that "the private sector is doing fine," which Republicans have used to portray Obama as ignorant on economic issues.

"We've got to make it easier for small businesses," Romney said to a group of 300 at the Lafayette Club in this Minneapolis suburb. "Big business is doing fine in many places - they get the loans they need, they can deal with all the regulation. They know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses."

Romney's comments also likely will draw attention to the fact that he has kept and invested much of his own money overseas. The Obama campaign already has released an ad hitting Romney for having held a Swiss bank account and has a website that lists the countries in which Romney and his wife have kept money or held investments.

After Romney's remark, his campaign issued a statement seeking to call attention to his past statements in support of reforming the tax code.

"Governor Romney has long said we need to simplify the tax code, close loopholes and create a more level playing field for American businesses," spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will be champions for small business, encouraging investment, entrepreneurship and innovation."

[venusvegasvada]

It would seem to me the only thing Big Business is using it's power for is to control guys like Romney and Ryan so they can get the tax payer to subsidize them.

Want to shut down a factory and move it overseas at the taxpayers expense? No problem.

Want to hide all your profits overseas and actually get money back from the US Govt so you can pay your CEO's 700 times more than their average worker makes and be guilt free? No Problem.

How can Big Businesses in the US be doing great without having to actually hire Americans anymore?

Big Businesses have dis-associated themselves from actually being American. They are American when it comes time for them to enjoy the best that our country has to offer, but are cowards when it comes to do any real sacrifice. They are the embodiment of Rich guys like Romney who think that the only thing that matters if if it's "legal" to do or not. Nothing has to meet any kind of morality with these people. It's all about them and their Benji mans.

It makes me sick to my stomach to see that some gutless, two-faced off-shoring greed monger like Romney is actually running for President of the United States. I wish he would just drop out and go and retire in Switzerland with his money and take a bath in it every night and leave the rest of us alone.

We are better off without them.

[sandy 1027]

A recent survey found that most small business owners said that the main reason that they aren't hiring is a lack of demand; and that can be traced directly to the weakness of the economy.If our Congress had been willing to do some of the hard things to stimulate the economy through public/private partnerships for jobs ,( something that the GOP has always been willing to do before, and that the president recommended in his jobs bill).I believe that the president would have even signed onto a reasonable GOP bill, if they had put forth a serious one, but they didn't.We really need a large , comprehensive jobs bill, as an investment in the country, to pull the economy out of the rut, but ideology and politics stand in the way of that happening.If the it would be doing better.


Romney's remarks are astounding.First of all, he said what he, and the GOP lambasted the president for saying just a few months ago, when he said "The private sector is doing fine"( and it has been).His admission that corporations and some individuals are keeping their monies offshore and/ or investing much of it abroad to avoid taxes here is also pretty astounding.He has also reportedly encouraged foreign investors and/or individuals to put their finances in accounts offshore for the same reason-presumably somewhere such as the Caymans or Bermuda.This offshoring of funds is very hurtful to the treasury of our government.

[Molly-Pchr]

Oh, good, then I'll vote for Obama. Like Romney's remark about tax havens around the world.

[Eco99]

It's crazy isn't it, he acknowledges twice that corporations do it. So why do they need more breaks?

[mccgeno]

"Big business is doing fine". Maybe part of this country's financial problems are being caused by large corporations "finding ways to get through the tax code, and "saving money" by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses". There it is, folks, right out of the Republican candidate's own mouth. Big business, and the super wealthy have been dodging taxes for decades, and that puts a much heavier burden on the working class. If you or I tried that, we'd be in jail. Like it or not, paying taxes is the price we all have to pay to live in a prosperous society. If big business, and the incredibly wealthy had to pay their fair share of taxes to do business, and live in this country, the tax burden on the rest of us would be much lighter, and we would all be better off. Why do you think big business, and the very wealthy donate so much money to Republican lawmakers? Because they're the lawmakers, and it pays off very handsomely for them. It has nothing to do with ending abortion, or stopping gay marriage. That's just a smokescreen to get the working class vote.

[Eco99]

What irritates me about talk of less regulation and smaller government is the fact that that is what partly led to the mess we are in now. With more regulation there may have not been a mortgage crisis, near failures of the banks, etc. Corporations left to their own devices will simply do what makes the most money, bottom line. Getting rid of regulations will only make things worse next time. IN fact it can be argued we need bigger government and more regulations to protect the citizens from the corporation bent on just making a profit. regulations and testing of imported goods so little kids are not playing with lead laced toys or brushing their teeth with toothpaste with harmful chemical sweetners. Consumer protections from outrageous interest rates, Environmental Protections to protect our water from pollution as well as being taken over by corporate interests. Less regulations give Corporations the power and all we are then is a consumer that will make them money, their interest is not to make you safe, feel better, protect you it is about profit. Government is there to protect you by using regulations. We don't need less regulations that is of course unless the goal is to make corporations richer. That is not the kind of government I want. Provide for the public welfare not the corporate ... oh how we have strayed.

[wfw3536]

Maybe we need a President that is smart enough to make money, build successful businesses, and run a state that had money in the bank after he left office. Instead we have a president who has no clue of how to run a business, what it takes to make a payroll, has no respect for small business owners, and how to run your businesses without borrowing almost as much money as you make.

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

You're talking about Bush!!!

[Eco99]

Yeb sounds like W ... what was it two companies he drove into the ground ... LOL

[TimeToEvolve]

This moron knucklehead Mitt Robbed Me is the master of the understatement, isn't he?

[TimeToEvolve]

So why does RobMe Ryan feel that they need to give big business even more welfare and entitlements for getting rid of American jobs?

[levelheadedtoo]

I am so happy to learn that Big Business is doing well and the economy is fine.

Wars are winding down
Big Business is doing fine
The market is recovering
Housing is growing again
Bankers are richer than ever
The american auto industry has recovered
Bin Laden is still dead

It appears that it isn't a good time to switch leaders when thing are looking so good at the top. You know, the trickle down is just around the corner.

Watch this video about how well big business is doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v4PWW301JM

[crazywater-2009]

This is a lot different than "the private sector is doing just fine". Romney is saying that business are doing fine in dealing with the extreme anti-business environment that this president has created. I am sure the media is just salivating over this but its not really the same thing.

[levelheadedtoo]

I am not following you on this. Would you please list some of the new anti-business regulations imposed by the President that are holding down corporate America.

It is my understanding that Banks are now borrowing money from the Feds at almost no interest.
Commercial Real Estate is loaning at 3.5% on new building.
The EPA has no new restrictions
Most of the Affordable Health Care act won't kick in until 2014 and then it only effects companies that are too cheap to offer insurance to their people.
Corporations are paying the lowest taxes they have ever paid.
Oil drilling leases are at an all time high.
Big business has learned that those people laid off during the Bush economic meltdown aren't needed any more because those jobs have been replaced by outsourcing or technology.
Bi Oil, Record profits being reported every quarter.
Health insurance industry reporting record profits

The only people not doing well are the middle and poor and Mr. Romney says he isn't worried about them because they have a "Safety Net".

[skyiscrying]

Accept he didn't say that to the audience...did he?