Romney Meets With Salem Business Leaders

When Mosaic Technology President Thomas Desmet collaborated with the Salem Chamber of Commerce, he envisioned welcoming former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for a roundtable discussion with local community business leaders.

When Romney arrived, on Monday, he said he preferred not to spend the session listening to himself speak, but rather hoped to entertain the thoughts and ideas of those in attendance.

But as it turned out, those people were more interested in exploring Romney's positions on the issues they brought to the table.

The Republican front-runner was more than happy to oblige.

As he casually moved around the table, acknowledging each chamber member with a smile and a first-name greeting, Romney answered a myriad of questions ranging from health care to banking regulations. The common theme, however, was the U.S. economy.

"I realize if I'm in government, my job is to make your job easier, to make it easier for you to grow and thrive, and that attitude seems to be missing in Washington," Romney said.

While criticizing the Obama administration, he focused much of the discussion on encouraging a positive bipartisan working relationship.

"When I was Governor (of Massachusetts), I worked with a Legislature that was 85 percent Democrat ... and we cut taxes 19 times ... and built a rainy day fund," he said. "I didn't attack the respected leaders of the House and Senate. We had to work together.

"The success of one is the success of all, and that needs to be realized," he continued. "Good Democrats love this country as much as good Republicans."

An open and straight-forward government, he added, is something the United States currently lacks.

"Businesses can handle bad news. You may not like it, but you can deal with it. As a business person, what you can't deal with is uncertainty," Romney said. "Almost everything the current administration has done has increased uncertainty, and one thing I can promise is while you may not like everything I do, I'll tell you what I'm doing and why I'm doing it."