--- title: Governor Mitt Romney Talks to TIME | TIME description: In an exclusive interview with TIME's Mark Halperin, Romney pushes back on President Obama's Bain attack and predicts he can drive unemployment down to six percent by the end of his first term canonical: https://time.com/video/po4Vt6Mf/ og:title: Governor Mitt Romney Talks to TIME og:description: In an exclusive interview with TIME's Mark Halperin, Romney pushes back on President Obama's Bain attack and predicts he can drive unemployment down to six percent by the end of his first term og:url: https://time.com/video/po4Vt6Mf/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/po4Vt6Mf/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Governor Mitt Romney Talks to TIME twitter:description: In an exclusive interview with TIME's Mark Halperin, Romney pushes back on President Obama's Bain attack and predicts he can drive unemployment down to six percent by the end of his first term twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/po4Vt6Mf/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Governor Mitt Romney Talks to TIME > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Governor Mitt Romney Talks to TIME [Watch (HLS stream): Governor Mitt Romney Talks to TIME](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/po4Vt6Mf.m3u8) (7:25)  _Published 2012-05-23. In an exclusive interview with TIME's Mark Halperin, Romney pushes back on President Obama's Bain attack and predicts he can drive unemployment down to six percent by the end of his first term_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:25 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Mitt Romney on Bain Capital](/video/I5kXlj1x/) ### Mitt Romney on Bain Capital [TIME Interviews Mitt Romney in New Hampshire](/video/Wb59iXPu/) ### TIME Interviews Mitt Romney in New Hampshire [The Page Romney Interview: MRIs of the Soul and Bain Capital](/video/cNVGGIlI/) ### The Page Romney Interview: MRIs of the Soul and Bain Capital --- ## Transcript Americans would like to know what you'd be like as president. And I know you want them to know. So let me start broadly saying, what would the United States look like at the end of 2013. In terms of jobs, unemployment, and economic growth, if you were president? Well you seen a, you'd see a very dramatic change in the perspective of small businesses, entrepreneurs. Middle- sized businesses, and perhaps even some large multi- nationals. They'd say, you know what, America looks like a good place to invest again. Would you like to be more specific about what the unemployment rate would be like, at the end of your first year? I, I can't possibly predict, precisely, what the unemployment rate will be at the end of one year. I can tell you, that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we, we put in place. We get the unemployment rate down to 6 %, or perhaps a little lower. It depends in part upon the rate of growth of, of the globe. As well as what we're seeing here in the United States. But we get the rate down quite substantially. And frankly the key is, we're gonna show such job growth. That there will be competition for employees again. And wages, we'll see that the end of this decline. We, we're having, the median income in America is down 10 % in just the last four years. That's gotta stop. We've got to start seeing rising wages and job growth. The President says that your experience at Bain Capital will be central in this election. He says it does not qualify you to be a job creator as President. I know you think that working in the private sector in and of itself gives you, gives you insight into how the economy works. But what specific skills or policies did you learn at Bain, that would help you create an environment where jobs would be created? Well that's a bit of a question like saying, what have you learned in life that would help you lead? my, my whole life has been learning to lead. From my parents, to my education. To the experience that I had in the private sector. To helping run the Olympics. And then of course helping guide estate. Those experiences in, in totality have given me an understanding of how America works and how the economy works. 25 years in business, including business with other nations. Competing with companies across the world, has given me an, an understanding of what it is that makes America a good place to grow. And add jobs, and why jobs leave America. Why businesses decide to locate here. Why they decide to locate somewhere else. What outsourcing causes. Or, or, or what it, what it's what it's caused by rather. So I, it, it's it, I mean, I understand, for instance, how to read a balance sheet. I happen to believe that, that having been in the private sector for 25 years. Gives me a perspective on how jobs are created, that someone who's never spent a day in the private sector, like President Obama, simply doesn't understand. You said you know how to read a balance sheet. There are a lot of people in America who know how to do that. What would make you qualified to be President? Again specific things you learned, things you know, policies that grow out of your experience at Bain Capital, that would lead towards job creation. Well, Mark, let's, let's be a little more specific as to the are, area you'd like to, like suggest. Trade policies, labor policies, energy policies? Let's take energy for instance. I understand that in some industries the input cost of energy is a major factor in whether an industry is gonna locate in the United States, or go elsewhere. So when at Bain Capital, we started a new Steel company called Steel Dynamics in Indiana, the cost of energy was a very important factor to the success of that enterprise. When the President is making it harder to mine coal, to use coal, to take advantage of our gas resources. To make it harder to get our, our oil resources. All those things combine to make our cost of energy higher than it needs to be. And it drives away enterprises from this country. Sends it away to places that have lower cost of energy. I understand the impact of those kinds of factors on job creation. I will have a very different policy. My policy on energy is to take advantage of coal, oil, natural gas. As well as our renewables and nuclear. Make America the largest energy producer in the world. I think we can get there in 10 or 15 years. That will bring back manufacturing. A certain high energy- intensive industries. It'll bring back jobs, it'll create a surprising economic revitalization of this country. So when the President says he wants to focus a lot of the election debate on your career at Bain Capital, do you welcome that? Well, of, of course. I'd like to, also focus on his record. What, what is it, what is it that he's done as the President of the United States over the last four years? Has he, established the revitalization he, he promised he would bring to us? Did he hold unemployment below 8 %? It's been what, 39 months now? That hasn't happened. He promised it would happen, by virtue of his stimulus. Gasoline prices, are people happy with those? Home prices? They happy with the home prices? The level of foreclosures? Do they think someone can do better? This, this is a president who, spends his time blaming other people for the fact that, he has been unsuccessful in turning around this economy. And I think the reason you're seeing across the country people saying they'd like to try someone new. Is because they believe this President, while he may be a nice guy, he's simply not up to the task of helping guide an economy. But you welcome scrutiny of your business record. Is that right? Well Mark, what I can tell you is this. The fact is that I spent 25 years in the private sector. And that, that obviously teaches you something that you don't learn if you haven't spent any time in the private sector. if, if you were to say to me, tell me what you learned from your, your schooling that would help you be a president. It's like, well, how do I begin going through a list like that? you, you learn through life's, life's experience. The President's experience has been exclusively in politics and as a community organizer. Both of those are fine areas of endeavor. But right now, we have an economy in trouble. And someone who spent their career in the economy. Is more suited to help fix the economy, than someone who spent his life in politics, and as a community organizer. One more question, generally about jobs. For people out there, for voters who want to know what you're about in terms of job creation, is there some new idea? Some original idea that hasn't been a part of the debate in American politics before, that you have? That you think would lead to a a lot of new jobs? Well the wonderful thing about the economy is that there's not just one element that somehow makes the whole economy turn around. Or everybody in the world would have figured that out and said there's just one little thing we have to do. And you know Greece is settled and France and Italy are all back and well again. No, it's a, it's a whole series of things. It's, it's a system of, of factors that come together to make an economy work. What is it that makes America's economy the strongest in the world? The most robust, over a century? It's a whole series of things. Everything from our financial services sector to the cost of our imports. Our natural resources, to the productivity of our workforce. To our labor and management rules and how they work together. To our, appreciation for fair trade and free trade, around the world. And negotiating trade arrangements that are favorable to us. It, it is a whole passel of elements that come together to create a strong economy. And for someone who spent their life in the economy, they understand how that works. And it's very clear, by virtue of the President's record, that he does not. And he is struggling. I mean, look at him right now. He just doesn't have a, a clue what to do to get this economy going. I do. I laid out a 59 step plan that en, en, en encompasses a whole series of efforts. 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