Romney Campaign Press Release - Mitt Romney: The Biggest Impediment to Job Growth is President Obama

"This president is the biggest impediment to job growth in this country, and we have to replace Barack Obama to get America working again." - Mitt Romney CNN Republican Presidential Debate CNN January 19, 2012

To View Mitt Romney's Remarks On Free Enterprise Click Here: http://www.youtube.com

JOHN KING: "Well Governor Romney, let me give you a chance to explain."

MITT ROMNEY: "Well, I hope I get a chance to talk about the topic you began with. We'll come back to the direct attack from Speaker Gingrich in a moment, so let's go back and talk about first what you do to get the economy going. And of course we've spoken time and again about our tax code that's out of alignment with other nations. We've spoken about the fact that regulation is overwhelming us. That we need to take care of our energy resources and become energy secure. We have to open up markets and we have to crack down on China when they cheat. But I'd like to talk about something else that President Obama has been doing. He's been practicing crony capitalism. If you want to get America going again, you've got to stop the spread of crony capitalism. He gives General Motors to the UAW. He takes $500 million and sticks it into Solyndra. He stacks the labor stooges on the NLRB so they can say no to Boeing and take care of their friends in the labor movement. You go across the country with regards to energy because he has to bow to the most extreme members of the environmental movement. He turns down the Keystone Pipeline which would bring energy and jobs to America. This president is the biggest impediment to job growth in this country, and we have to replace Barack Obama to get America working again."

KING: "So let's go back. I'm glad you had that opportunity. I do want to go back, see if we can clear this up.  Now the questions about Bain, many have been about the number. You have said 120,000 jobs that you can tie back to decisions you made at Bain Capital. I want you to take your time, sir, and do the math, do the math on how you get to 100,000, or 120,000 jobs."

ROMNEY: "I'll do the math but let me tell you, I know we're going to get attacked from the left, from Barack Obama, on capitalism. I know people are going to say, oh, you should only practice it this way or that way and think they know better than the private market. My view is capitalism works. Free enterprise works. And I -- and I find it kind of strange on a stage like this with Republicans having to describe how private equity and venture capital work and how they're successful and how they create jobs. But let me tell you that answer. We started a number of businesses. Four in particular created 120,000 jobs. As of today. We started them years ago. They've grown well beyond the time I was there to 120,000 people that have been employed by those enterprises. There are other we've been with. Some we have been with, some of which have lost jobs. People have evaluated that - since - well, since I ran four years ago when I ran for governor. And those that have been documented to lost jobs lost about 10,000 jobs. So 120,000 less 10 means we created something over 100,000 jobs. There's some, by the way, that were businesses we acquired that grew and became more successful like Domino's Pizza and a company called Duane Reade and others. I'm very proud of the fact that throughout my career we tried to build enterprises hopefully to try to return money to investors. There's nothing wrong with profit, by the way. That profit -- that profit went to pension funds, to charities. It went to a wide array of institutions. A lot of people benefited from that and by the way as enterprises has become more profitable, they can hire more people. I'm someone who believes in free enterprise. I think Adam Smith was right. And I'm going to stand and defend capitalism across this country throughout this campaign. I know we're going to get it hard from President Obama but we'll stuff it down his throat and point out it is capitalism and freedom that makes America strong."