Romney: Obama's private sector remark 'out of touch'

By Jackie Kucinich, USA TODAY

Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney seized on President Obama's comments today about the state of the private sector during a speech in Iowa calling the president's remarks "out of touch."

"He said the private sector is doing fine," Romney said during a campaign rally in Council Bluffs. "Is he really that out of touch? I think he's really defining what it means to be out of touch with reality."

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Romney has spent the week hammering the president on the economy as well as defending his own record of job creation in Massachusetts against the Obama campaign's attacks.

"For the president of the United States to stand up and say the private sector is doing fine is going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation," Romney said.

President Obama made the comments during a briefing with reporters as he called on Congress to again consider and pass his jobs bill.

"The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we've created 4.3 million jobs over the last ...27 months; over 800,000 just this year alone," Obama said. "The private sector is doing fine."

The Oval reports Obama said his plan would create jobs for state and local employees as well as construction works - areas where the economy has remained weak despite a growing economy.

"Those two areas we've directly addressed with our jobs plan," the president said. "The problem is that it requires Congress to take action."

Romney said the president's willingness to add more government workers showed not "get the message of Wisconsin" where Gov. Scott Walker survived a recall vote earlier this week.

 

USA TODAY