Romney Campaign Press Release - Romney: President Obama Not Leading on Spending

"With on the one hand the possibility of massive cuts to our defense, which the Secretary of Defense has said would be a doomsday scenario and on the other hand failure to balance our budget which is leading us in a direction of Greece, you would expect the President of the United States to step in and lead, but instead he was MIA." – Mitt Romney "Closeup" WMUR November 27, 2011

Segment From "Closeup":

Josh McElveen: "The supercommittee all but admitted defeat when it was trying to find a trillion and half dollars in cuts. But you also came out and said now the mechanism that's in place to cut in defense spending shouldn't be done, I mean how do we move forward with this? Seems like we're back in the middle of the summer." Mitt Romney: "You can't expect a bunch of cats to herd themselves, you have to have a leader. And the President did not involve himself in this process, which I find to be extraordinary. With on the one hand the possibility of massive cuts to our defense, which the Secretary of Defense has said would be a doomsday scenario and on the other hand failure to balance our budget which is leading us in a direction of Greece, you would expect the President of the United States to step in and lead, but instead he was MIA. He's been out campaigning and blaming and going around the world. He apparently had no involvement whatsoever with the effort of this committee which I find to be absolutely extraordinary. Americans want to see a leader. We don't elect the president to not get involved, and I think at a time like this, this just points out that without leadership in Washington you can't expect a lot to get done." McElveen: "Was this just an ill-fated plan just from the beginning in your opinion?" Romney: "I think it was a very poor idea to put on the chopping block the security of the American people. Right here in New Hampshire, jobs would obviously be seriously impacted if the military cuts that the President and this supercommittee had on the table were put through, that would simply be a terrible course. I'm calling on the President to say no way for those cuts, restore the $600 billion into the military and take that amount and eliminate it from other programs. And I'd like to see the President put out a series of programs he would actually eliminate or cut. So far all we've seen from this president is a willingness to cut national defense and there have to be some recognitions across Washington that suggest no, no, there are other places that we can reduce federal spending."