Lauer to Romney: 'Aren't We Better Off' With Obama?

Matt Lauer pressed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney mostly from the left, on Tuesday's Today, as he made the case that the economy is doing better thanks to the President as he posited "Aren't we better off?" and even questioned the relevance of a possible Romney 2012 presidential campaign.

MATT LAUER: In your new book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, you say that, "The country needs a renewal and fresh ideas to cut through complicated problems." Do you see yourself as the best person to offer those fresh ideas? And I, I ask that, with all due respect, that people had a chance to look at your ideas in the last presidential election and they weighed in on them. [audio available here]

After Lauer got through the perfunctory questions about whether Romney was going to run in 2012 the Today co-anchor actually made the case the economy is doing better thanks to Obama and also suggested Obamacare wasn't that different from the health care plan devised under Romney in Massachusetts:

LAUER: But when you say the country's not better off than it was $1.8 trillion ago, when the President took office the Dow Jones was about 8,000 it's above 10,000 now. The GDP was declining at about six percent, it's rising at about six percent right now. We were talking about the possibility of a Great Depression. Most people aren't talking about that anymore. So, aren't we better off?

ROMNEY: When you have 10 percent of our people almost unemployed and a lot more that are still looking for work, when they've been promised we'd be able to hold the rate at eight percent, if we were simply going to borrow another $787 billion from the Chinese that kind of debt and that kind of unemployment does not make people in America have a brighter future. 

LAUER: Had the administration not taken some of the steps it did take, though, might not that unemployment figure, be at 12 or 13 percent?

ROMNEY: Could have taken much better steps. What, what this administration has done has added so much debt that it's frightened the financial markets, it's made it more difficult for small businesses to grow. On top of that, when they put in place talk about cap and tax, you're gonna scare businesses away from investing. When you say, we're gonna put a card check program in place, which takes away the right of workers to vote on whether or not they want a union or not and imposes that on many businesses, you create the, the incentive for many companies to pull back. The private sector is scared in America right now. It's the most anti-job, anti-growth, anti-investment agenda we've seen in Washington in decades.

LAUER: A couple of things quickly. On health care reform, you have spoken out against the President's plan. Critics say it's very close to the plan you put into law in Massachusetts. If the Democrats go the way of reconciliation, to get this bill passed in the Senate, what are gonna be the short and long-term impact, what will be the impact of that?

The following is a complete transcript of the interview as it was aired on the March 2 Today show:

MATT LAUER: President Obama travels to Savannah, Georgia today to talk with local business owners about the economy and ways to create more jobs, but it is the President's attempt to reform health care that drew recent criticism from former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. He's out with a new book called No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. Governor Romney, it's good to have you back. Good morning.

MITT ROMNEY: Thanks Matt. Good to be with you. 

LAUER: You're releasing this book, and you know what people are saying. The fact that you're releasing it now, it's the unofficial launch of your presidential campaign in 2012. Are you in?

ROMNEY: You know, that's, you've heard the expression about counting chickens before the, the eggs hatch. Well, this is counting chickens before the hen has met the rooster. I haven't made a decision like that yet. I'll think about that after the 2010 elections. But frankly, this is a book that, that flows from my many years of experience in the private sector, in business, going around the world. I think America's got some real challenges.

LAUER: You sound, though, like a guy who wants to be in the mix. You know, you've been having a good time taking some shots at President Obama over the last several months. Your zingers are out. "Obama's going downhill faster than Lindsey Vonn," "America's not better off than it was $1.8 trillion dollars ago." So let me start by asking this. Has President Obama done anything right, anything good in the last 12 months?

ROMNEY: Yeah, yeah. No question about it. He's done several things well. Most of those things are places where he had changed his view from where he had during the campaign. So for instance, he's left our troops in Iraq and they're being more successful there. He, he boosted our effort in Afghanistan, which is the right course to take. He did not close Guantanamo, thank heavens. And his education effort to try and encourage more charter schools, that's a positive development. But overall, you know, I'm not gonna give him a passing grade for the year.

LAUER: But when you say the country's not better off than it was $1.8 trillion ago, when the President took office the Dow Jones was about 8,000 it's above 10,000 now. The GDP was declining at about six percent, it's rising at about six percent right now. We were talking about the possibility of a Great Depression. Most people aren't talking about that anymore. So, aren't we better off? 

ROMNEY: When you have 10 percent of our people almost unemployed and a lot more that are still looking for work, when they've been promised we'd be able to hold the rate at eight percent, if we were simply going to borrow another $787 billion from the Chinese that kind of debt and that kind of unemployment does not make people in America have a brighter future.

LAUER: Had the administration not taken some of the steps it did take, though, might not that unemployment figure, be at 12 or 13 percent?

ROMNEY: Could have taken much better steps. What, what this administration has done has added so much debt that it's frightened the financial markets, it's made it more difficult for small businesses to grow. On top of that, when they put in place talk about cap and tax, you're gonna scare businesses away from investing. When you say, we're gonna put a card check program in place, which takes away the right of workers to vote on whether or not they want a union or not and imposes that on many businesses, you create the, the incentive for many companies to pull back. The private sector is scared in America right now. It's the most anti-job, anti-growth, anti-investment agenda we've seen in Washington in decades.

LAUER: A couple of things quickly. On health care reform, you have spoken out against the President's plan. Critics say it's very close to the plan you put into law in Massachusetts. If the Democrats go the way of reconciliation, to get this bill passed in the Senate, what are gonna be the short and long-term impact, what will be the impact of that?

ROMNEY: Well, immediate reaction will be outrage on the part of the American people. They have said in every way they know how they do not like his health care plan. And by the way, our health care plan in Massachusetts, one heck of a lot better. Number one, lets states resolve these issues, whether they have a federal government one size fits all plan. That's what we did. Number two, don't raise taxes. No need to do that. Number three, don't cut Medicare on senior citizens. His plan does all those things. That's why it's wrong.

LAUER: In your new book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, you say that, "The country needs a renewal and fresh ideas to cut through complicated problems." Do you see yourself as the best person to offer those fresh ideas? And I, I ask that, with all due respect, that people had a chance to look at your ideas in the last presidential election and they weighed in on them.

ROMNEY: Well, I have a lot of ideas. So do other people. That's the great thing about this extraordinary democracy of ours. But what I'm saying is we don't need to apologize for what America is. We have brought extraordinary economic wealth to people around the world, lifted people out of poverty. We've brought freedom to people around the world. But this country is under extraordinary stress right now. The challenges we face really could cause us to be passed by other nations, and Washington politicians have not dealt with the real challenges we face. We've got to fix our schools, we've got to fix energy, we've got to stop spending money we don't have, and we've got to get our entitlements on a sustainable basis. That's not happening. It's got to happen soon.

LAUER: The book is No Apology: The Case for American Greatness. When you do decide whether or not you're running, will you come and announce it here?

ROMNEY: It'll be right here, Matt.

LAUER: I appreciated it. Mitt Romney, Governor, it's always good to see you.

ROMNEY: Good to see you.

LAUER: Thanks very much.