Romney defends silence during debt limit debate

Presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Monday defended claims that he sat out the debt ceiling debate, pointing out that he signed a GOP-backed "Cut, Cap and Balance" pledge related to a debt bill that passed the House but was swiftly shot down in the Senate.

"I think it was June 30, I came out and signed the 'cut, cap and balance' proposal," Romney said in remarks at the New Hampshire Chamber of Commerce, according to the Hill. "I don't think you can be any clearer than that."

In June, Romney signed a "Cut, Cap and Balance" pledge being pushed by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., which indicated his opposition to raising the debt ceiling without the inclusion of spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment in a deal. (Romney was joined in signing the pledge by every other Republican presidential candidate.)

After the related "Cut, Cap and Balance" bill was shot down in the Democrat-controlled Senate, however, Romney stayed silent on several resulting proposals being debated in both the House and the Senate.

It was not until the day before the August 2 deadline to raise the debt limit that Romney again addressed the issue, announcing his opposition to the last-minute compromise that had been hammered out between the White House and Republican congressional leaders the weekend before. That bill ultimately passed through Congress, and President Obama signed it on August 2.

"While I appreciate the extraordinarily difficult situation President Obama's lack of leadership has placed Republican members of Congress in, I personally cannot support this deal," Romney said in an August 1 statement.

Former White House adviser David Axelrod, in a Monday interview with the Wall Street Journal, targeted Romney for having "ducked and dithered" in the debt ceiling debate, and criticized him for being "the first out of the gate" to blame credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's recent U.S. downgrade of the U.S. economy on Mr. Obama.

"Having ducked and dodged and dithered throughout the debt-ceiling debate, and then dropping in on the final day and opposing the compromise, it's pathetic that Mitt Romney was the first out of the gate with a press release blaming the president after S&P issued its report," said Axelrod, who is now serving as a top campaign adviser for Mr. Obama.

"I don't think the American people are going to reward that kind of politics," he continued. "People are looking for constructive ideas about how we build a better future. The president is offering those."

In a Sunday appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Axelrod added that Romney's silence on the debt debate was indicative of his poor leadership skills.

"Presidential races are tests and this was a test of their presidential mettle," Axelrod said, of the Republican candidates' responses to the debt limit debate. "In this case, [Romney] failed and most of those candidates failed."

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who was the only Republican presidential candidate to come out in favor of the debt limit bill, criticized his fellow 2012 contenders for waffling on the issue.

"My opponents in the race haven't even come up with what they support," Huntsman said in a Fox News appearance.

"You've got to stand up," Huntsman continued. "This is a time when leadership matters, and you've got to stand up and voice where you are. We are kind of at the 11th hour. This is crunch time, and this isn't academics. This isn't theory. This is the real world."