Would Romney Cut Firefighters? Campaign Won’t Say
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ABC/Ida Mae Astute(WASHINGTON) — Mitt Romney’s campaign is doing little to suggest that the candidate’s recent comment about cutting back on firefighters, police officers and teachers has been taken out of context.
At first it seemed as if Romney’s statement about President Obama last week — “He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message in Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.” — was an unfortunate phrasing or combination of thoughts.
But on Tuesday, the campaign didn’t provide any clarification on the record of what else Romney might have meant to say. Asked repeatedly for elaboration, Amanda Henneberg, a Romney spokeswoman, provided this statement in response to an Obama campaign ad that makes use of the comment:
“President Obama’s opinion that the private sector is ‘doing fine’ shows how out of touch he is with what’s happening in America. The president has had three and a half years to get the economy growing again, and it hasn’t worked. 23 million Americans are struggling for work and the economy remains stuck in neutral. But President Obama is doubling down on policies that are hostile to job creators and have impeded economic growth. Mitt Romney will do what President Obama hasn’t — get the American economy back on the right track.”
And John Sununu, a former New Hampshire governor who is one of Romney’s most visible supporters in the media, said Monday in a TV interview that laying off teachers makes sense if fewer kids are in classrooms and new technology assists in learning.
“I think this is a real issue, and people ought to stop jumping on it as a gaffe and understand there’s wisdom in the comment,” Sununu said.
Brad Woodhouse, the communications director of the Democratic National Committee, responded on a conference call shortly afterward: “I thought John Sununu’s comments were a bunch of hooey.”
“I think that Sununu was trying to find a way to justify Romney’s comments, but it doesn’t — it didn’t at all match what reality is,” he said.
Romney has argued to teachers, citing a study, that having fewer students in classrooms doesn’t make as much of a difference as many people think. Generally, academics have agreed that class size matters for kids at very young ages, but less so after that.
Four of Romney’s economic advisers didn’t respond to emails seeking an explanation of whether laying off firefighters, police officers and teachers is a good policy proposal.
The Romney campaign argues — on “background” with no names attached — that he was arguing that Obama’s solution to heal the economy is to spend more money to hire public workers.
The Obama campaign is fighting fire with fire, focusing on Romney’s statement as a counter to the GOP’s barrage of attacks that have been centered on the president’s recent comment that “the private sector is doing fine,” as the economy continues to struggle to add jobs.
A difference between the two episodes is that Obama clarified his regrettable phrasing almost immediately, speaking to a press pool after a diplomatic meeting at the White House. Romney, meanwhile, has been absent from the public eye and hasn’t given himself a chance to clear up any confusion.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio