I wonder if this comment by Romney is going to be called a gaffe by the press the way that "the private sector is doing fine" (compared to the public sector) comment made by President Obama was back in June. Here's the full Romney quote:
“Big business is doing fine in many places,” Romney said during a campaign fundraiser Thursday. “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 assertions resembled Obama’s declaration earlier this summer that the “private sector is doing fine.” Romney and other Republicans pounced on the president’s comments and cast them as an indication that he was out of touch with the nation’s economic struggles.
Romney didn’t mention Thursday that he has kept some of his personal money in offshore tax havens, including accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
Mitt Romney, echoing Obama critique, says big businesses ‘doing fine’ thanks to offshore tax shelters
Nothing like campaigning to the American voters on the slogan "Believe in America" and then telling your high-dollar donors about off-shoring profits to avoid taxes. Talk about being out of touch. Maybe Romney thought it was safe to use the phrase "doing fine" since it slipped by without much notice the last time he used it on August 5. I
wrote a diary about it at the time, but nobody seemed to think much about the comment then.
"I know the very wealthy are going to do just fine whoever is elected," Romney said in an interview with CNN's Gloria Borger that was conducted Saturday. "The middle class is the people that is the group of people that I am most concerned about, they need our - and the poor - they need our help. They need our help with good jobs. That is only going to come if we encourage this economy by keeping the burdens on small business down."
He added that it would be "an enormous mistake" to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of the year, including on those who make more than $250,000 per year, which is what President Obama proposed.
Romney: Wealthy will do fine no matter who wins in Nov.
This time Romney's "doing just fine" comments are being picked up by a lot of news media. Along with the
Gawker.com document dump yesterday, Bain is back in the headlines, baby!
(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."
(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared on Thursday to parrot a line used by President Barack Obama that Romney has repeatedly targeted on the campaign trail.
(Huffington Post) - During a fundraising swing through Minnesota on Thursday, Mitt Romney offered an assessment of the business landscape that complicates the main attack line his campaign's been lobbing at the president.
Appearing at The Lafayette Club in Minnetonka Beach, the Republican presidential candidate offered the following remarks, per the pool report.
(National Journal) - 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.
(The Hill) - Corporate profits increased every quarter since the latest recession until the second quarter of this year, when they declined, according to a recent report in The New York Times. Still, corporations are sitting on cash they have declined to invest in new employees or businesses because of uncertainty about the economy. Many businesses also criticize uncertainty over the tax code, given tax hikes that could take effect in January.
But the high profits, and Romney's business background, have given President Obama's campaign an attack line on its Republican rival. The Obama campaign has hammered Romney, who founded the private equity firm Bain Capital, for getting around the tax code in many of the ways he described in his Thursday remarks.
Update: More Coverage
(Think Progress) - Romney’s comments aren’t incorrect — if anything, they are understated. America’s corporations are raking in record profits and their chief executives are making more money than ever (American workers, unfortunately, haven’t shared in the prosperity). But if Romney knows that big businesses are doing fine, it’s worth wondering why he feels the need to shower them with massive tax cuts and make it easier for them to utilize the offshore tax havens he mentioned.
Romney’s tax plan gives corporations more than a trillion dollars in tax cuts — more than $900 billion in cuts to the corporate tax rate and the rest through reforms that shift America to a territorial tax system that would make it easier for corporations to outsource jobs and store their money in offshore tax havens. That plan, just like Romney’s tax cut for the wealthy, would be paid for by American workers and could cost middle class families as much as $4,000 a year.
(AP) - Romney's campaign sought to mitigate any potential distractions from his comments on big business and tax havens. Spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Romney "has long said we need to simplify the tax code, close loopholes and create a more level playing field for American businesses."
In his remarks, Romney drew a distinction between big business and small businesses. He said that, if elected, he would seek to make it easier for small businesses to succeed.
Does he mean he wants to help small business invest their money overseas just like the big businesses do?