On Monday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announced he was forming an exploratory committee in order to make a 2012 run at the presidency.
And on Tuesday, Romney appeared on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” and was asked for an assessment of the federal government’s economic, monetary and energy policy. Host Larry Kudlow asked Romney “whose head would roll” if he were the CEO and assessing who was to blame for the current lackluster economic recovery. According to Romney – you start at the top.
“President Obama’s head would roll,” Romney said. “It starts at the top. He’s chosen people around him who he’s comfortable with. He’s got a new [chief of staff, Bill] Daley. And I’m sure Mr. Daley is providing some perspective from the private sector. But overwhelmingly his people come from academics and from politics. He doesn’t have the confidence in the private sector people that you need to give him the help on the economy that he needs. Look, when it comes to the economy, the president has been incompetent. He just hasn’t done what’s necessary to get Americans back to work. You’ve got roughly 20 million Americans who stopped looking for jobs or can’t find work and that’s inexcusable in a nation that is as productive and innovative as this nation.”
Romney wasn’t quite as willing to blame Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, despite rising commodity prices specifically as they pertain to energy, which some blame on the Fed’s easy money policy.
“Well you know, I think Ben Bernanke is a student of monetary policy,” Romney said. “He’s doing as good as a job he thinks he can do in the Federal Reserve, but I’m not going to spend my time going after Ben Bernanke. I’m not going to focus my effort on the Federal Reserve. I’m going to focus my effort on the administration.”
Romney explained Obama has let the country down when it comes maintaining its place globally by making America more lucrative for investment. He was also down on the weakness of the U.S. dollar, which has been a casualty of the weak economy.
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The former Massachusetts governor also addressed energy policy in his CNBC interview and said although he’s a fan of alternative energy – it was time to utilize the country’s natural gas reserves.
“The administration’s policy is to look for an answer to provide energy for America other than the answers we have before us,” he said. “Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, carbon is the source of energy that drives our automobiles and a lot of our energy needs. And we simply — even though I love solar and wind like most people do – I like the renewable resources, they alone are not going to get America energy independent. We spend almost half-a-trillion dollars a year buying energy from people. That’s money that should be invested in our own economy. So yeah, should we drill? Sure. Should we also be using our natural gas resources? We just had this extraordinary gift given to us by finding technology that frees up about a hundred years of natural gas. Let’s use the resources we have and use those resources at a time when we’re developing some sustainable sources of energy that can help us further down the road.”