Failure on Economy

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, said President Barack Obama focused on overhauling the U.S. health care system to the detriment of the economy.

Addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington yesterday, Romney denounced the Democratic president’s $862 billion stimulus program enacted one year ago.

Obama didn’t know that “the number one cause of failure in the private sector is lack of focus, and that the first rule of turning around any troubled enterprise is focus, focus, focus,” Romney told the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington yesterday. “His energy should have been focused on fixing the economy and creating jobs. He failed to focus, and so he failed.”

The administration has said the stimulus package saved or created about 2 million jobs.

Attendance at the American Conservative Union’s gathering is projected by organizers to reach a record 10,000 people, about 1,500 more than last year. The meeting, which ends tomorrow, takes place as support for Obama and his policies have declined, according to public opinion polls.

Another possible presidential contender, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, is to speak to today. Former Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced appearance yesterday.

Insurgents Showcased

The conference also is serving as a showcase for Republican insurgents such as former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, who is challenging the state’s governor, Charles Crist, for the party’s nomination for U.S. Senate.

“We are witnessing the single greatest political pushback in American history,” Rubio said. “A long list of early establishment endorsements will not spare you a primary.”

A Feb. 5-10 CBS News-New York Times poll gave Obama a 46 percent job-approval rating, down from 50 percent in December. Majorities disapproved of the way he is handling the economy and health care.

“Will the economy and unemployment recover? Thanks to a vibrant and innovative citizenry, they always do,” said Romney, who unsuccessfully sought his party’s nomination in 2008. “But this president will not deserve the credit he will undoubtedly claim. He has prolonged the recession, expanded the pain of unemployment and added to the burden of debt we will leave future generations.”

Obama Policies

Romney’s speech offered a litany of criticism of Obama policies, including his proposals to curb the emissions blamed for global warming, overhaul health care and allow tax cuts for the wealthy enacted under President George W. Bush to expire. Those tax cuts benefitted single filers earning more than $200,000 a year and couples earning more than $250,000.

Obama “said that the government can create the conditions, the environment, which leads the private sector to add employment,” Romney said. “But consider not what he said, but what he did last year and ask whether it helped or hurt the environment for investment, growth and new jobs.”

“Liberals are convinced that government knows better than the people how to run our businesses, how to choose winning technologies, how to manage healthcare, how to grow an economy and how to order our very lives,” Romney said. “They want to gain through government takeover what they could never achieve in the competitive economy -- power and control over the people of America.”

Terrorism Cases

Romney also criticized the Obama administration’s decision to try some terrorism suspects in U.S. courts, as was done under Bush as well.

He praised Obama’s predecessor, saying history would judge President George W. Bush “far more kindly.”

Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse, asked for a comment, said Bush and his administration “bankrupted this country financially, with their reckless economic policies, and ethically, with their allegiance to special interests over the American people.”

Romney, 62, was introduced by newly elected Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who received a loud welcome from the convention. Brown’s victory in a Jan. 19 special election deprived the Democrats of the 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome Republican filibusters.

“For the big government spenders, I’m sure my election does not make them feel good at all,” Brown said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net .