Romney on Hannity Radio: “Obama Attacks Deflect From Issues Nation Faces” / Five-Step Jobs Plan

Sean Hannity welcomed Governor Mitt Romney to his radio program yesterday to talk about an article released yesterday by the Romney press team titled The Truth Hurts. For weeks Obama and surrogates have been telling lies about Romney’s record; this fact-filled article debunks Team Obama’s despicable distortions and fabrications.

Romney called in from Grand Junction, Colorado; you don’t want to miss this excellent interview:

A few highlights from Romney…

@ 2:19 – The challenge for this president is in a lot of respects he’s an old-style Democrat; the old liberals were always in favor of more government programs, more spending, more borrowing when things were difficult. And, we’ve found that has not worked. The right course for America is not to raise taxes on people, not to go out and borrow excessively, but instead to live within our means and to have tax policies that encourage job creators and small businesses to grow their business and add employees.

@7:30 – I have a five-step plan to see jobs recover in this country.
1. Take advantage of our energy resources – oil, coal, gas, renewables.
2. Open trade – particularly in Latin America and crack down on China when they cheat.
3. Put us on track to have a balanced budget.
4. Make sure we have schools and training programs that prepare us for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
5. Restore economic freedom in this country. The taxes, the regulations, the burdens applied by government are crushing economic freedom, are crushing entrepreneurs. That has to end. We have to restore the American dream or our economy will stay in the doldrums.

@9:45 – …I would make the Bush tax cuts permanent, but then go to work to reform our tax code altogether…

@11:28 – Isn’t it amazing that the President of the United States – who by the way, called me and congratulated me when I got a pretty good lock on the nomination – he called me and said, “The country is going to benefit by an honest and important debate on the future direction of the country.“ That’s what he said. And yet, what he has done has been one attack after the other on items that deflect interest from a real debate on the issues the nation faces. This most recent one suggesting that I would engage in something that is illegal, that is criminal, that I would hide assets and not pay fair taxes, not pay the taxes that are owed – I mean it’s unbelievable. He said, “Well, it’s a matter of transparency.” Well, how about the transparency of a president who through executive privilege is preventing the American people from finding out what happened in the Fast & Furious program? If there is transparency that needs to be condemned here it’s the lack of transparency in his administration to let the American people know what has happened in a scandalous activity known as Fast & Furious. So Sean, I can assure you of this – I have followed the law, I have paid my taxes as due, I have also disclosed through all the requirements of the government every asset which I own – fairly and honestly – recognizing, of course, not to do so would be not only wrong, but illegal and criminal. It is this president however, that must explain why he has resorted to executive privilege to hide from the American people the truth about Fast & Furious.

UPDATE – After delivering his speech today to the NAACP, Romney was interviewed by Neil Cavuto (FOX News). The Hill reports:

Romney also discussed the state of the campaign, downplaying concerns voiced by some Republicans that his campaign had not been aggressive enough in combating attacks from Democrats. But Romney said his campaign was better served by trying to focus on issues they saw as relevant to voters.

“I respond to the attacks that come, but they say in politics if you are responding, you are losing,” Romney said. “I think the better course for our campaign is to respond to the attacks as being completely off-base. People are tired of this petty attack that comes from politicians and they want to see someone who talks about the issues they care about.”

Romney also dismissed calls from the Obama campaign to release additional years of tax returns, calling the issue a distraction. The Obama campaign issued a new commercial Wednesday calling on Romney to disclose more information about his financial holdings.

“The Democrats are always going to be critics,” Romney said. “We have released all of the financial statements required by law and two years of tax returns. The most recent year we will be releasing as soon as that’s prepared. Tax information is there, other financial disclosure is there; the same level of information that [Sens.] John McCain [(R-Ariz.)] and John Kerry [(D-Mass.)] for that matter released when they were running for president.”

Let’s get the truth out there! Share far and wide The Truth Hurts and this interview.

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