An top economic adviser to Mitt Romney criticized President Obama’s approach toward Europe’s economic woes, calling his solutions “misleading” in an op-ed in a German newspaper Saturday, reports the New York Times. The Obama campaign rebuked the article, written by Columbia Business School dean R. Glenn Hubbard.
In the piece, Hubbard pushes for an austerity agenda of cutting government spending, which Mitt Romney supports, as well as opposition to propping up struggling European nations and banks, which the Obama administration has advocated.
From the Times:
“Long-term confidence in solid government financing shores up growth and enables the same scope for short-term transitional assistance,” he said. “Mitt Romney, Obama’s Republican opponent, understands this very well and advises a gradual fiscal consolidation for the U.S.: structural reform to stimulate growth.”
…
“President Obama’s advice to the Germans and Europe has therefore the same flaws as his own economic policy — that it pays for itself over the long term if we focus on short-term business promotion.”
Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt called the article an attempt to “undermine America’s foreign policy abroad. “In a foreign news outlet, Governor Romney’s top economic adviser both discouraged essential steps that need to be taken to promote economic recovery and attempted to undermine America’s foreign policy abroad,” he said.
