CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript

Interview

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Thank you very much for being with us, Governor.

GOV. DEVAL PATRICK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Anderson, thank you for having me.

COOPER: So there were more jobs in Massachusetts at the end of Mitt Romney's term than there were when got there, down to 4.7 percent.

Why isn't that a record to run on?

PATRICK: That is a record to run on, but it's not a record to win on.

We were 47th in job creation out of 50 states when Governor Romney was in office. We were at a time of strong economic growth in the country and we were trailing the country. At the same time, he left a structural deficit, although he told me and told the public that he was leaving a surplus.

And the size of the state work force grew. He cut education, the largest single per-pupil cut in education in America when he was here. And I think all of those are relevant when you compare them in particular to a governor who -- excuse me -- a president who has not followed the trend, as Romney did, but bucked the trend and turned around job loss and added some four million private sector jobs in the last two years.

COOPER: But as governor, Mitt Romney basically had the same jobs pattern as the president. The economy was -- as you said, was in bad shape when he began. The state was bleeding jobs early in the term. He made up ground as the economy recovered and nationally the economy was recovering as well.

He ended up in positive territory, state unemployment, as I said, about 4.7 percent. He also had a Democratic legislature to deal with and he had to balance the budget every year.

(CROSSTALK)

PATRICK: Well, that's right. And every one of us has to balance the budget every year. I have to balance the budget as well.

But we have been investing in education, in innovation, in infrastructure, the very strategy that the president has been pursuing nationally and that he has supported our doing here in Massachusetts and around the country.

And our unemployment rate is well below the national average and going down and we're growing jobs faster than most other states. At the time that Governor Romney was in office -- and he's always been a gentleman to me. I want to add -- I want to say that this is not about a personal attack.

It is though about a record of job creation and fixing things, which is actually just not borne out by our experience here in Massachusetts.

COOPER: You have also said that some of the attacks on Bain Capital have been distorted, some of -- the way that Bain Capital has been portrayed has been distorted. How so?

PATRICK: Well, I don't think Bain is a bad company. I don't think that private equity has an inappropriate role in the private economy. The question is what was Governor Romney's record when he was at Bain?

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: But the Obama campaign has had people coming forward saying this is vulture capitalism. Some of these commercials...

(CROSSTALK)

PATRICK: Anderson, you haven't heard that from me. I have spent most of my life in the private sector. I respect Bain and I respect Bain's role.

But I do think it's a perfectly appropriate question to ask, what has Mitt Romney's record been in job creation in the private and the public sector because that's something that he's touting as a part of his case. He's created a lot of wealth, and I respect him for that. But his job creation record is just not as strong as he is holding it out to be.

And you compare that to a president who has bent the curve, who has been against the trend and turned around national job growth and job loss into job growth. That is about governing for the long-term, not reaping benefits for the short-term. And that's exactly the kind of leadership that we need in this country, in my view.

COOPER: The Romney campaign says that he created more jobs in Massachusetts than President Obama has created.

PATRICK: Well, I just don't think that's factually true.

But it is factually true that at a time when the nation was growing jobs, we were in Massachusetts under Governor Romney trailing the rest of the nation. That is a fact. It is also a fact that in this president's time in office, he's taken historic losses in jobs and turned that around to a four million job gain.

And we need to keep that going. That's the point. Are we going to govern for the long-term, are we going to continue to dig our way out of this and stabilize and improve and expand opportunity for people, or are we going to go back to policies that got us into this mess in the first place?

COOPER: In this new Obama campaign, in this Web ad, we see Massachusetts residents complaining about new fees under Governor Romney, calling them an effective tax increase and unfair.

You have been governor for a few years now. Many of these fees are still in place.

PATRICK: That's right.

COOPER: Some of them have actually been raised by you. Have you been making a real push to get rid of them?

(CROSSTALK)

PATRICK: That's right.

No. In some cases, we have not. And the point is not that the fees are necessarily bad, but the point is we actually believe in investing in our future here in Massachusetts in this administration and being candid with the public about that, as opposed to what Governor Romney did when he was here and what he talks about on the campaign trail.

He says he didn't raise taxes. In fact, he did raise the sales -- excuse me -- the gas tax and he raised everything else that wasn't a tax and it was about the kind of financial engineering to make the books look good without being candid with people about what our challenges were and what kinds of services they wanted from government. It's an integrity question. It's not just a policy question.

COOPER: Governor Deval Patrick, appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.

PATRICK: Thank you. Thank you, Anderson.

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