Mitt Romney says the United States has reached “a fork in the road” with one path leading to Europe-like “fiscal calamity” and the other to “opportunity and freedom.”
”It’s up to the American people to decide which path they want to take in this year’s presidential election,” the likely Republican nominee told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview aired Thursday evening.
“I think we are on the road to Greece or to Spain or Italy . . . We are on a road that says, look, we can have a setting where we spend more and more as a government, and [we] borrow more, and government becomes more and more intrusive in our lives,” Romney said.
“We change the character of America and we become more like Europe, and we know where that leads,” he added. “That leads to Europe with high unemployment, very low wage growth, potential fiscal calamity. Or, we are going to return to the principles of opportunity and freedom.”
“That’s the kind of choice we have,” he continued. “So whether it’s a tipping point or a fork in the road, I’m not sure which metaphor you want to use.”
Ann Romney, appearing alongside her husband in the interview, said she feels the urgency in the crowds on the campaign trail.
“I think everyone there feels the same thing. We are in that fork in the road moment and we want to keep America America,” she said. “These people are really patriotic, they love America, they feel like we are going in the wrong direction, and they sense that there is something wrong with Washington and that we’ve got to turn it around.”
In the interview, both the candidate and his wife spoke more about their lives together than the issues facing the nation.
Romney said it was difficult for him just being away from her. That’s one reason, he said, he prefers to have her on the campaign trail, where they often appear side by side at events – sometimes with their entire family.
“It makes all the difference in the world for me to have Ann with me, to be able to spend the day together, to both speak together at the events and shake hands together, and be on the bus and chat about the event, and then at night to just sort of relax and decompress together,” Romney said. “It allows me to keep going. If I’m away from Ann for very long, my kids say it’s like I need the Ann stabilizer to keep me on track.”
Asked to respond, Ann Romney said, “I’m a calling influence in his life, which is nice. And, obviously, I think together we bring a balance for each other. It’s a nice relationship we have, a good partnership that we enjoy.”
Ann Romney, who has had to battle breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, confessed that she was recently confronted with a health issue while campaigning during the Super Tuesday March primaries. She didn’t tell her husband.
“I know he would have told me . . . ‘You are off the trail, you are home, you are done.’ And I knew that was not an option,” she said.
“I’m not happy with her. I’m not happy,” Romney jumped in. “No secrets. No secrets. She’s right, I would have told we have to stop.”
“I love her and trust her,” he added. “But when it comes to her health, that’s got to come first.”
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