Romney breaks with GOP on the issue of deregulation

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Wednesday that his party needs to take a fresh approach to government regulations in the wake of the economic crisis that has rattled the U.S. and world economies.

In an interview with The Hill, Romney said, “We as Republicans misspeak when we say we don’t like regulation. We like modern, up-to-date dynamic regulation that is regularly reviewed, streamlined, modernized and effective.”

Romney’s comments come as he mulls another run at the White House and the Republican Party grapples with how to come up with producing solutions to the housing and financial crises that were triggered by a variety of factors, including a lack of government regulation and enforcement.

{mosads}“Someone shouldn’t be able to just call themselves a doctor without going to medical school,” Romney said.

“You have to have regulation, and we value regulation. What we don’t like is when you have regulation that was written in the 1920s or the early 1900s that hasn’t been updated for modern events.”

Romney added that regulations on some parts of the financial sector are “overly burdensome” while others are “nonexistent.”

Romney, who was a successful businessman before running the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and winning election as the Bay State governor, said Congress was right to pass the controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) last fall, but drew a distinction between preserving the nation’s financial system and bailing out companies.

“Had TARP not been passed, you would have seen a cascade of collapses of banks in America,” he said. “It’s not the jobs of bankers that TARP was designed to save; it’s the jobs of all of us.”

Similarly, Romney is among the many Republicans who support a stimulus plan, but not in the form Congress passed in February.

“The best stimulus with the highest multiplier effect is one which gives money back to people rather than having government spend more, and so I think they got it wrong. It’s too much weighted toward spending, too little weighted toward tax reductions,” Romney said.

The son of the former chief executive of American Motors, Romney’s comments jibed with those of some Republicans who have said bankruptcy is the only hope for the flagging U.S. auto industry.

“It is viable if we have a thorough and complete restructuring, not at the superficial level but at the fundamental level,” Romney said. “It doesn’t look like the UAW [United Auto Workers] or the bondholders have the stomach for taking the kind of haircut they need to make the companies viable. I think bankruptcy is looking more likely, given the failure of the parties to make the necessary sacrifice.”

Romney believes that one way to attract more minorities to the GOP is to pass immigration reform before the next election, saying the issue becomes demagogued by both parties on the campaign trail.

“We have a natural affinity with Hispanic-American voters, Asian-American voters,” he said.

Speaking in his Ritz-Carlton room with a pair of blue jeans on the dresser, Romney declined to criticize immigration hard-liners like former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who backed Romney after he dropped his own presidential bid. Romney argued that all 2008 GOP candidates — including Tancredo — strongly favor legal immigration.

With the economy remaining a top concern for the vast majority of Americans, Romney’s experience as a businessman could come in handy as Republicans search for a credible voice to rebut President Obama.

And if Romney is able to fill that niche, he could again emerge as one of the leading contenders for the GOP presidential nomination. He is arguably the top contender for the nomination, especially as the stars of both Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) have dimmed in recent weeks.

Romney refused to echo some Republicans who have attacked Obama’s every move as ill-advised, but he showed little willingness to go out of his way to praise the president, either.

“We have a responsibility to acknowledge the president when he’s doing the right things and to be critical of his mistakes; otherwise we lose credibility,” Romney said, citing Obama’s aggressive moves to shore up U.S. troops in Afghanistan and his use of predator drones to go after suspected terrorists along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

Still, Romney criticized Obama’s budget proposals as “completely out of line with what the world needs to see,” along with taking on other perceived policy shortcomings.

“There are plenty of opportunities to point out where he’s weak, and I think pointing out his mistakes that are real and substantive will strengthen our hand in the 2010 elections,” Romney said.

Romney sidestepped questions about what he learned from his failed bid in 2008, crediting Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for winning the nomination. He added that “there’s nothing I point to and say, ‘Gosh, if we had just done this, we would have won.’ If there were something like that, I’d be happy to tell you about it.”

Most political analysts contend that Romney’s 2008 campaign was damaged when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) triumphed in Iowa and then doomed following McCain’s win in New Hampshire.
Romney held back, but only somewhat, in criticizing former President George W. Bush’s record.

He praised Bush on his stewardship of the war in Afghanistan and the initial stages of the Iraq war. Yet he said that the secondary phase of the war in Iraq was “an enormous mistake of judgment on the part of Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the president, but ultimately a mistake corrected with a strategy of surge.”

On the domestic front, Romney said, “You can’t help but recognize that during his watch, an economic collapse occurred.”

He cautioned, however, that others need to share the blame, including House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan and government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Though he maintains he has not decided whether to run again, Romney has done as much as any potential 2012 candidate to keep his name in the mix.

Romney, who turned 62 last month, has kept up a constant presence before congressional Republicans, meeting with the House GOP conference in January to plot economic strategy and joining the party’s annual retreat in Virginia later that month.

The ex-governor has kept several staffers from his campaign on the payroll of his Free and Strong America PAC, including former manager Beth Myers and Eric Fehrnstrom, his traveling press aide.

Romney’s political action committee (PAC) has already started doling out money in advance of the 2010 elections, handing out $16,000 to GOP members of Congress. Recipients include just one incumbent — Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) — who backed Romney during the primaries.

The PAC has also given to a bevy of GOP centrists like Reps. Charlie Dent (Pa.), Dave Reichert (Wash.), Mark Kirk (Ill.) and Mike Castle (Del.), all of whom were targeted by Americans United for Change, a Democratic-leaning organization that ran ads targeting nearly a dozen members, hoping to swing their votes on the stimulus package.

Romney has been invited to several fundraising dinners benefiting state parties around the country, and his political advisers keep close track of favors he has done for various candidates and party organizations. On Wednesday, he hosted a major fundraising dinner for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington, which raised about $2 million.

And in a move that set tongues wagging, Romney put two of his four homes on the market, looking to shed what could turn into political liabilities. Romney placed his Deer Valley, Utah, and Boston homes on the market, keeping houses in New Hampshire and California.

But what gives Romney a leg up on Jindal, Palin and/or most other potential presidential candidates is the network of high-profile associates who aided his campaign, and who appear ready to go back to work for their old boss.

From experienced Washington hands like Ron Kaufman, Ben Ginsburg and ex-Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.) to lower-level staffers, former Romney backers remain loyal.

With Myers and Fehrnstrom, along with Peter Flaherty, a former deputy chief of staff in the governor’s office, and several other employees on the payroll, Romney would presumably be able to restart his campaign on short notice.