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Voters and reporters looking to Mitt Romney for new jobs proposals or additional details about his existing plans shouldn't expect many, the presumptive Republican nominee's aides said Thursday.
Most of Romney's fall campaign will involve "re-introducing a lot of the policy that came out a year ago," Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said on a conference call with reporters. The reason for that, he explained, was to remind them "of the governor's very detailed policy" now that voters are playing closer attention to the campaign.
The conference call was organized to outline the jobs policies about which Romney will speak today in Colorado. But the five priorities mentioned on the conference call -- energy, trade, education, cutting the deficit, and freeing up businesses from regulation -- have generally been staples of the former Massachusetts governor's campaign for much of the past year.
Kacper Pempel / REUTERS
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivers foreign policy remarks at the University of Warsaw Library in Warsaw July 31, 2012.
The question of specifics, though, has been one that has plagued the Romney campaign -- and it's not only Democrats who have voiced this criticism.
"The Romney campaign thinks it can play it safe and coast to the White House by saying the economy stinks and it's Mr. Obama's fault," the Wall Street Journal's right-leaning editorial board wrote in early July. "Thanks, guys, but Americans already know that. What they want to hear from the challenger is some understanding of why the President's policies aren't working and how Mr. Romney's policies will do better."
But the Romney campaign has generally brushed off these complaints as imprudent politics. Boston has clearly broadcast that they are satisfied with the plans they have offered. ("He doesn’t need to lay out new policies," Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, a surrogate of Romney's and potential running mate, told National Review Online earlier this week.)
The Romney campaign has been generally opaque in its approach to several issues that could conceivably expose their candidate to scrutiny, which could distract from their central narrative about Obama and the economy. For instance, the campaign's refusal to detail which tax deductions Romney would favor eliminating – to show how he’d prefer to balance the budget – mirrors his refusal to release more than two years of tax returns, to detail his exit from Bain Capital, or to lay out how his administration would be more transparent than Obama’s.
On each question, though, the Romney campaign has left open a void of detail, and the Obama campaign and Democrats have gladly stepped in to fill it.
The president himself trumpeted a report from the nonpartisan, independent Tax Policy Center about Romney's tax plan.
The study concluded that, based on the available details about Romney's plan, that it would threaten a higher tax burden on the middle class, because it disproportionately takes advantage of exemptions that would be eliminated to finance tax reform.
But the enduring story of the Romney campaign is its conclusion early in the campaign that little else will matter on election day aside from voters' conclusion about Obama's handling of the economy. They've bet that the broad contours of Romney's policy contours will be enough to sway voters, and that they can weather criticism about the specifics without any of that becoming fatal.
"That report you referenced is a joke," Fehrnstrom said of the center’s report on the call. "There are serious problems with the authorship of that study, and the methodology."
One of the authors was an economic adviser member of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. But the other was the senior staff economist on President George H.W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers.
"The governor's plan essentially lays out the parameters that he wants to achieve," Jonathan Burks, the Romney campaign's deputy policy director, said on the call. "And within that, he would write a tax bill that achieves those goals. And so it's not a question of today, you know, we've got a 2,000-page tax plan that could be scored and demonstrated ... The details of how that would be accomplished would have to be worked out with Congress."
Republicans are quick to note that President Obama has offered few detailed proposals for his second term, and argue that the "American Jobs Act" first introduced by the White House last fall is only a re-hash of old policies.
But the Romney campaign's bet that it doesn't need to offer more detail opens the door to the Obama campaign and Democrats' efforts to turn the election into a choice between the president and Romney, even if it involves mischaracterizing elements of Romney's background – or inserting policy details that don’t exist -- that the GOP candidate won't define for himself.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made an especially specious claim in that vein when he told the Huffington Post this week that a Bain investor -- who he did not name -- told him that Romney had paid no effective tax rate for a decade.
Fehrnstrom angrily condemned that suggestion during an appearance Thursday on Fox News, but there are no indications that the evidence Romney could offer to rebuff those charges will be publicly available anytime soon.
NBC's Jay Rankin and Garrett Haake contributed.
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Reveal thy taxes Mitt the twit!
You Tea Party people talk loudly but you are human, you have loved ones, and you want to protect your children from the insurance companies.
You will come to love Obamacare just like you've come to love Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Now their is a candidate that promises to take this away.
When you are in the voting booth you will realize what's at stake.
Saying this. I will make a prediction. I predict that 50% of you will defect and vote Democrat to protect your healthcare. I guarantee it.
-f u - c k'- Republicans.
“Release of the document, while it might serve a political purpose, would not prove very much, he argued. One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show, and what mattered in personal finance was how a man conducted himself over the long haul.” Said George Romney before releasing 12 years of tax returns.
Thank you for setting that precedent, George.
"Mittens" is too soft of a term for this guy! He's a danger to our society. What a joke...we already know the policies he wants to implement....tax breaks for the wealthy. Ugh.... He thinks we are all dumb pions. And we need to be told again that he'll be raping us, the middle class?
Romney refuses to provide specifics. He wants to focus his campaign on blaming Obama for a slow economic recovery, and ride an anti-Obama sentiment to the White House. He has been the least transparent candidate for president; refusing to release tax returns, avoiding reporters, refusing to address his offshore accounts or his amount of wealth.
Come November, the GOP party will blame Romney for losing the election due to his lack of transparency and policy details....
Mittens was directly accused of paying ZERO % taxes for 10 years and I believe that accusation is 100% correct.
Come on Willard, prove Harry Reid wrong by releasing your tax returns.
LOL, then he has the nerve to tell Reid to put up or shut up, when Mitts is the only one who can clear his name by releasing his tax returns. It has become obvious to me that he can't release his earlier returns because he did indeed avoid taxes...
What he would do is take all the ideas of the democrats and claim them as his own in an attempt to look brilliant. He really thinks we are boneheads. This guy is a used car saleman.
As for his tax plan??? tax breaks for the rich and send the bill to the poor. How do you plan on paying off a deficiet when you are decreasing revenue idiot??? And dont forget the new wars you are planning that wont be payed for...do we get the bill for that too while you take more tax breaks?? if I recall thats what drove us into this recession in the first place....how may I ask is this gonna make things better you draft dodging warmonger???
These guys are soooo full of themselves, They "don't have to, or need to, lay out any new policies". What??? And when i hear that pukey little brat, Ryan say the same thing, i just want to slap them in the lier! Er, their mouths. To rummey the Two-Faced Puppet Dummy, we are "YOU PEOPLE". You people? What the hell does that mean? What he really wants to say is, "you insignificant little people". Or, how about, "I own you people"?
Most Americans know exactly what Rummey means when he talks down to us. Unfortunately, those of the conservative bent, do not. Nor will they ever get it, until its too late. Once he gets elected, only those with huge amounts of money will count for anything. The rest of us will remain peons in his eyes. Not worth the imagined sweat off his brow. Too bad. The ignorant masses for Rummey, will not get it until it happens. We cannot let that happen!!!!
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 FOR OUR LIVES!!!
Please don't reintroduce that "plan" of yours, Romney. I read it the first time. It is 80% "Obama bad," 10% "corporations good" 5% tax breaks for the rich, 3% gutting Medicare, social security and regulatory agencies and overturning the great evil of healthcare for poor women, and 2% increasing military spending. Then he has the nerve to go to Israel and give a green light for another war while praising Bush's "Freedom" policies for the Middle East. Just how stupid does he think we are?
Keep on digin Romney,,keep on diggin.
Youraloser, Great Job America & Brianb 999431
Jeesh, You know some people just fail at life... you know who you are!
Get your head out of your anal aperatures.
OBAMA BIDEN 2012
Good observation, Eric-913730.
Romney hasn't introduced any specific economic plan because he doesn't have one...yet. And when he "re-introduces" his economic plan, it'll be the same old GOP economic plan of tax cuts and more tax deductions for the rich because they will create jobs. HA! They will keep their money and their tax cuts. Screw the middle class.
Obama has openly revealed his economic plan and has followed it. The economy has had a slow, steady recovery, in spite of the Congress's failure to do anything to improve our economy and pass jobs bills. You don't recover from 8 yrs of abysmally failed economic policy - favoring tax cuts for the rich and sticking it to the middle class and (my biggest pet peeve) secret funding the Iraq war Off-Budget!! Bush43 ran up a bill that would come due on Obama's watch. Obama opened the 'secret funding' Pandora's Box and now we know what the true state of our economy and budget deficit is. Now we can move forward with appropriate economic policy.
The stock market has recovered from 2008 levels (so have many investment/IRA/401's/403's values). We want and need slow steady recovery. We don't need another burst bubble from out-of-control false growth, recall the technology stock mkt bubble and housing bubble.
My investments are finally back at 2001 values, 2001-2008 losses and 2009-2012 gains. Hey, Mittens, we've 'suffered' under GOP policies! I should have have 8 yrs of investment growth with sound economic policy and gov't budget mgmt, not the losses suffered under Bush43. I can't afford another 4 yrs return to failed GOP leadership.
What, Re-introduce? I thought the Mittster and the rest of the Omegas are on double secret probation.
fala/trazmo
What do you mean re introduce?. Mitt has He has said nothing.
Please somebody propose that we adopt a national policy of Fair Free Trade, A Sustainable Jobs Initiative - We in the USA set many: quality, safety, health, environment and wage standards for various reasons. We can not set all these regulations and requirements and not expect that thousands of US American factories, millions of US American jobs, billions of US American dollars, and now the interest and obligation on trillions of US American debt would not be exported in the name of Free Trade. We do not need fewer regulations. We only need Fair Free Trade, a level playing field for the US American worker/producer to compete on for the USA market. Fair Free Trade! (Not Balanced Trade - Exporting a billion dollars of raw materials and importing a billion dollars of “Made In China” consumer goods does not return jobs to US Americans.) Fair Free Trade, where all imports to any given market must meet at least ALL minimum production/providing standards of: quality, safety, health, environment, and wages of the importing country, would bring factories, and sustainable jobs back to the USA. It would put money in the hands of our working domestic consumers, and directly into the hands of working foreign consumers that could then buy more “Made In The USA” products. Go to: www. manifestry. info > Trade
Obama Team all you need to do is study his 4 years as MA gov, his runs for senate and president and all his debates and positions and flip flops and failures. He does not bring up any of his past government politics work, he knows he is lying every day with flpping and flopping and doing whatever the racist crazy neocon far relgiious right wants him to do. You have so many targets to shoot at with Mitt's background because he even hates all his past and never brings it up because he knows he has ripped off America and Massachusets. You need to pick apart all of this info and test it on a wide variety of moderates and independents, build your case they would be crazy to vote for Mitt and he gave you all the ammunition to shoot him down with. Just treat him like he is one of those terrorists you need to know everything about to catch and hunt down.