Mitt Romney gives foes a gift with ‘fire people’ remark

Reporting from Nashua, N.H. -- The difficult truth about political ads is that context often doesn’t matter -- and on Monday, Romney uttered a line that he will likely come to regret by November if he wins the Republican nomination for president.

At a time when Romney is facing an onslaught from independent groups attacking his experience at the private equity firm Bain Capital, the normally cautious candidate slipped up in Nashua on Monday morning when he was asked about healthcare providers and what should replace President Obama’s healthcare plan, which he has vowed to repeal if he is elected president.

Romney was explaining that he thinks it’s wrong that people get a break on health insurance only if they buy it from their employer and that under the current system, insurance companies don’t have many incentives to improve their coverage since employees often don’t have much control over their providers.

“I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy,” Romney said. “It also means that if you don’t like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know if someone doesn’t give me the good service I need, I want to say, you know, I’m going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.”

Romney’s record at Bain has been under increasing scrutiny as he has made his private sector experience a prominent selling point for his candidacy. A recent Los Angeles Times review of Romney’s time at Bain concluded that while the firm “expanded many of the companies it acquired,” it also “maximized returns by firing workers, seeking government subsidies, and flipping companies quickly for large profits.”

The Democratic National Committee leapt on the “fire people” remark, immediately circulating the video clip to reporters, as well as an article from the website politicalwire.com bearing the headline foreshadowing the battle ahead: “High Fives at DNC Headquarters.”

maeve.reston@latimes.com