Romney Attacks Obama for Alleged ‘Crony Capitalism’
Mitt Romney on Tuesday compared President Obama’s administration to those in foreign lands where the well-connected receive government handouts while the middle-class suffers.
“That’s happening in this country today. I’m ashamed to say we’re seeing the president hand out money to the businesses of his campaign contributors,” Romney told hundreds of supporters in a sweltering oil and natural gas services company outside Pittsburgh, as he stood in front of a large sign that read “Obama’s Upside-Down Economy.”
It’s a critique Romney has leveled previously about a federal loan guarantee to the failed Solyndra solar corporation; on Tuesday, he mentioned Fisker, a manufacturer of electric cars. The Republican National Committee launched a similar attack Tuesday built around former California state Controller Steve Westly, a major Obama bundler whose portfolio includes Tesla Motors, which the RNC says has received hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
“Crony capitalism does not create jobs,” Romney said. “I believe in free markets and free people.”
Romney and his campaign have revived this line of attack while attempting to ward off calls for the presumptive GOP nominee to release more of his tax returns. So far he has released his 2010 return and an estimate for 2011. Democrats also have mounted a weeklong campaign aimed at Romney’s differing explanations of when he left Bain Capital, the venture firm he co-founded. and specifically why his name appears on government filings as leading the firm years after he claims he left it.