Mitt Romney Accuses Obama of Playing Politics with Election Year Policy

Mitt Romney called two of the president's measures politically motivated in an interview that aired Sunday morning saying the timing of both the president's immigration measure Friday as well as the possibility of a second economic stimulus are being done now as last minutes moves before the November election.

"I know how it is, politicians in office want to do everything they can, just before an election to try and temporarily boost something," Romney told CBS News' Bob Schieffer, referring to the Federal Reserve possibly meeting about a second economic stimulus. "But the potential threat down the road of inflation is something which we have to be aware of and…the last monetary stimulus, did not put Americans back to work, did not raise our home values, did not bring jobs back to this country or encourage small businesses to open their doors."

This interview on CBS's Face the Nation is the presumptive GOP nominee's first non-Fox News Sunday show.

Romney also called the president's announcement-which could prevent as many as 800,000 immigrants from being deported -just four and a half months before the election politically motivated.

When pressed about whether he believed the president issued the executive order "for politics," Romney answered "that's certainly a big part of the equation."

"I think the timing is pretty clear," Romney said. "If he really wanted to make a solution that dealt with these kids or with illegal immigration in America, than this is something he would have taken up in his first 3 and a half years, not in his last few months.

The president's plan relaxes rules for younger illegal immigrants who haven't broken the law since coming into the country as children. The Homeland Security Department will no longer deport these immigrants, and work permits will be given to them. This move is similar to the DREAM act, legislation the president supported, but Congress rejected. Romney also does not support the legislation. As he did on Friday in an interview with ABC News' New Hampshire affiliate WMUR he accused President Barack Obama of doing "nothing on immigration."

Romney is currently on a five-day, six-state bus tour and Sunday he will make stops in Ohio. He called the campaign trail a "thrilling experience" in the interview and said, "government has to be the friend of the American people, not the foe."

"It's fun going across the country," Romney said. "I come away impressed with how patriotic people are, how much they love this country, how much they respect the principles that made us a unique nation. I come away impressed with the entrepreneurialism of the American people in tough times. A lot of people have found ways to make do and make better. People are, however, tired of being tired."

Towards the end of the interview along Romney's bus tour route in Pennsylvania, Schieffer asked the candidate what he can do to bring together a country and a Congress "deeply divided."

Without specifically answering the question, Romney said, "We're on the cusp of an extraordinary economic resurgence in this country but it's going to take a different President with a different vision."

Romney was then pressed about whether that meant he would pledge to just serve one term.
The former Massachusetts governor answered he would "do whatever I think is right to get America right. But for me this is not about politics."

"This is not about did I win this or did they win this, this is about what can we do to get America right?," Romney said. "And there are good Democrats and good Republicans who care about the country more than anything else and who know that we're getting very close to a dangerous cliff and we have got to pull back and we've got to work together. Heck, I was in a state where my legislature was 87 percent Democrat. And we faced some tough times, we worked together. I didn't get everything I wanted; they didn't get everything they wanted…But we worked together and that's got to happen in Washington. We've got to have people who are willing to put aside the partisanship, stop worrying about the next elections, and say, you know what? We've got to fix the country fast."




Carolyn Kaster