Romney: Stimulus dollars were ‘bridge to nowhere’

May 21, 2012 / MariaNews.com 

Romney: Stimulus dollars were ‘bridge to nowhere’

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Using the backdrop of a 1860s-era bridge in New Hampshire to illustrate what he called the wasteful government spending of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan passed in 2009, Romney called the plan an absolute “‘bridge to nowhere’ if there ever was one,” Romney told his crowd of supporters. “That’s your stimulus dollars at work – a bridge that goes nowhere.

“It is, without question, the largest one-time careless expenditure of government money in American history,” he said of the stimulus.

The bridge, rebuilt with more than $150,000 of stimulus funds, crosses a river but ends abruptly on one side with an 8-foot drop to a grassy field near a Ford dealership.

Romney says he would cut spending and put America on the path to a balanced budget if he defeats Obama in the November 6 election. He pointed to the stimulus as an example of the president’s failed leadership.

In his bid for presidency, Romney sought to refocus national attention on the economy, perceived as Obama’s main weakness.
The former Massachusetts governor warned that the U.S. economy faced a huge fiscal hole and high taxes like California’s if he is not elected.

Romney had some choice words for the Golden State. “There are only two ways to go: Like America in the past,” Romney said. “Or like California, where they raise taxes higher and higher and higher. They scare away employers … and they have huge deficits,” he said in a telephone town-hall meeting with voters from four swing states.

Romney typically holds up Europe’s economic troubles, in lieu of California’s $15.7 billion budget gap, as an example of a doom-laden scenario for the American economy.

Romney’s poll numbers are rising despite his coming under fire from the Obama campaign this week for cutting blue-collar jobs when he headed the Bain Capital private equity firm.

Romney also released his first paid general election television ad last week that laid out his agenda for the first day if he is elected.

The video said he would approve the proposed Keystone pipeline from Canada, which Obama put on hold earlier this year, propose “tax cuts and reform that reward job creators” and issue an order to scrap the healthcare law.

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