drugstore. once a month, c-span's vehicle explore cities across america. this weekend from wichita, kansas, on c-span 2 and 3. obama campaign senior strategist david axelrod held a press conference to discuss mitt romney's economic record as governor of massachusetts. mitt romney supporters attempted to shout down the speakers during the event, which took place in front of the massachusetts state house. this is just over 30 minutes. >> good morning. thank you for being here. my name is pat hazarddad. i'm the speaker pro tem of the house of representatives. it's so interesting to see people here who don't agree with us. and to see the props that they are using. bubbles, bubbles that were just like the promises that mitt romney made to us. filled with nothing and immediately broken. i'm here as a former middle school teacher and the former chair of the committee on education. mitt romney either didn't care what it takes or he just didn't want to do it. because his record as governor proves, and i know firsthand, that his view of education was that it was a luxury and not an economic engine for improvement. under mitt romney, who wanted to change the total way that we provided education, he wanted to privatize two of our most important colleges. he wanted to tell people that it was a luxury to be able to go to mass maritime. he said that mass maritime kids did not contribute to our economy. how wrong was he? after only a year in office, we had the largest cut to education in the country. we put teachers, librarians, policeman out of jobs, and that was another broken promise. he didn't create jobs, he gave them away to the other parts of the world. he put a call center in india. so when you lay off teachers, when you lay off the people who care about the young people of our country, is that a job creator? he vetoed the bill that would make the department of early education and care because he doesn't care about what it takes to build a future for our children. we need to do better. we need to help students get ready to take part in this economy. well, if you want mitt, then take him and bring him to the other parts of america because mitt didn't do anything he was promised here in massachusetts. public university costs skyrocketed under mitt romney. he wanted everybody to have to pay for a private high er education. at the end of his term all public colleges and community colleges were among the most expensive in america because he thinks people should pay to have a public education. you cannot let romney economics work nationwide because it won't. you can't afford his broken promises. as a candidate for governor, he promised to reduce debt, streamline government, and what did he do? we had the highest debt of any people per capita in the country. so that's what he left for our children, the highest debt they will ever see in their lives. romney vetoed legislation that would have barred the outsourcing of massachusetts state jobs. but instead of hiring massachusetts people, he put a call center in india. india is where your jobs went. india is where you had to call if you were unemployed. while he was governor, jobs grew six times faster in the private sector and the commonwealth's debt grew by 16.4%. part of the reason why was that he started paying government employees on the credit card. america can't afford the debt put on a personal credit card. otherwise you're going to suffer the consequences that we had to suffer when we had a structural deficit bigger than anyone else. if you want romney economics, you're going to get the same guy who never wanted to engage the legislature. he never wanted to look for new jobs. he was always only looking for his next job. romney economics didn't work then, and it's not going to work now. it's my honor to introduce one of our longest-serving mayor in the commonwealth of massachusetts, john barrett. >> you know, this reminds me of the time that eric betterstrom tried to take me down. he didn't take me down then, and he's not going to take us down now. having served as mayor of the city of north adams for 26 years, i have seen governors come and go. having worked with seven of them during my time in office. some were republicans and some were democrats. one of those seven, however, mitt romney, didn't understand and never took the time to get to know us. as a blew-collar mayor from a blue-collar city, the problems we faced as a loss of manufacturing jobs were enormous. the people of my city suffered through some very difficult times. they struggled to make ends meet at the same time they were struggling to make sure their kids received a quality education. they understood if their children were to have the opportunities they had, it meant a good education. but mitt romney never understood how to solve the economic problems industrial cities like north adams. he simply ignored them. if he had spoken to the political leaders as well as the business leaders, he would have discovered that our workforce was not being trained for the new jobs that were being created throughout the rest of the country. instead of investing in more workforce development, governor romney cut funding for these programs. instead of investing in job training for the middle class, he was promoting an agenda which would benefit the wealthiest citizens in this commonwealth. governor romney came to the governor's office stating his business experience was to help the middle class by creating more jobs, when in fact the record showed that he failed miserably. during his campaign, he spoke of working with elected officials and creating new jobs. while that was good campaign rhetoric, that's all it was. mitt romney met once with the massachusetts of governors during his four years in office. he believed that a power point presentation would solve all our problems and get the economy moving forward. what mitt romney didn't understand that his policies were not going to improve and work in massachusetts, but slow it down. as mayors we understood that job creation does not happen without government involvement. there must be a partnership between the public and private sector. despite our repeated attempts over the next four years, mitt romney refused to meet with the mayors of massachusetts as this state continued its downward spiral. local officials under the needs of their communities, but we now had a governor o who just ignored us and didn't want our input. my city was receiving national recognition as a community that was rebuilding its economy through arts and technology. the smallest city in the commonwealth of massachusetts was being featured in the national press. it was a story about how state government and local government and the private sector formed a partnership which lead to an old factory complex being converted to the largest museum of contemporary art in the country. one democrat and two republican governors made it happen. what did mitt romney think? in his four years as governor, mitt romney never stepped one foot in the city of north adams. in fairness to governor romney, he did visit one other city. he visited pitsfield on two occasions. in his opening remark, he said, it was great to be in the city of springfield. three other times during that speech he peted, it was great to be in the city of springfield. with the loss of hundreds of jobs while he was talking about improving the state's economy, he didn't even know what city he was in. like he all promised a better economy, he also promised there would be no taxes. i guess like beauty it's in the eye of the beholder. look closely and you'll see as governor, romney increased taxes by $1200. he increased fees for hospitals and nursing homes and motor vehicles to buying a house. the people hit hardest were the middle class. children of middle class parents went to state colleges where they could receive a quality education at an affordable price. during mitt romney's time as governor, tuition and fees went up higher than any other governor in recent time. reduction in state aid resulted in property taxes increasing at the local level and placing an added burden on the middle class. for the first time ever, fees were being charged to students in our schools to participate in band and the arts and the theater. students were even being charged to ride the bus to school. mitt romney's response was, i raised no taxes. while the middle class was being hit hard with increased taxes and fees, governor romney cut taxes for 278 of the commonwealth's wealthiest individuals. when mitt romney claims his business experience will be good for america, he's hoping voters don't look at the evidence right here in massachusetts. while he was governor, the medium household income dropped even 1% as a national economy was steadily improving. mitt romney never understood what government is all about during his time in massachusetts. he proved that during his tenure that government is not about power point presentations. it's about helping people and not just some of the people. for 26 years, 26 years i served as mayor of the city of north adams. i'm a democrat who supported republican governors as well as democrats because i wanted the best for my city. as did the other mayors throughout the commonwealth. when mitt romney left office in january of 2007, i told my fellow mayors that it would take five years for us to rebuild for the damage that he created during his tenure here. the people of this country have to look closely at the romney record in massachusetts to better understand what he truly stands for. as the old saying goes, you never change the stripes on a zebra. mitt romney was bad for massachusetts, and he's going to be bad for america. it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you one of the great mayors of the commonwealth of massachusetts, joe curttone from the city of summerville. >> thank you, john. it's great to see everybody out here. this is democracy in action. thank you for the bubbles. it's a hell of a lot better than the smoke mitt romney blew at us ten years ago. good morning. i'm honored and grateful to be offered this opportunity to talk about mitt romney's record as governor of massachusetts from 2002 to 2006. as an elected official in the city of summerville during governor romney's one and, thank god, only term, i had hoped back then that governor romney would follow up on his campaign promises to use his experience as a private sector executive to attract, or at least enable, new jobs in my city. i want ed to believe like all that he would work to improve the efficiency of government and to help cities and towns by giving them the tools. the record shows people unfortunately what we got, what we got in massachusetts was a series of state budgets that pushed more and more costs on local budgets. a tactic that ravaged cities and to towns and forced them to raise property taxes even as the size and indebtedness of state government continued to grow. for a leader, for a leader who now says that he governed massachusetts as a, quote, severely conservative republican, unquote, it's curious to note under mitt romney government jobs grew at six times the rate of private sector jobs. and governor romney's last two years in office, the ranks of state employees in massachusetts swelled by over 5,000 workers and the commonwealth, we ranked seventh in the nation for the growth in the size of state government. during the same period, massachusetts ranked only 47th in private sector job growth. 47th. now as it happens, i'm not a posed to hiring more private sector workers if their efforts end up stipulating the economy, but i'm not claiming like governor romney does now to be a severely conservative republican. it didn't jump start our economy. so i ask the voters to contrast the performance of mitt romney's massachusetts with the state's record under our current governor and under the national leadership of obama. thanks to the governor and president obama, their pragmatic investment in the kinds of cost-effective programs that grow the economy, investments in education and infrastructure, and money for sustainable economic projects, massachusetts under obama and patrick has had the kind of economic performance that bush and romney tried to performance but never delivered. and today, today even after a national recession provoked by the same kind of irresponsible and radical fiscal policies, governor romney now says he supports massachusetts has been able to work its way out of the hole he left us in. our unemployment level in massachusetts stands at 5.9%. well below the national average. and my city of summerville, unemployment stands just at 3.9%. and why? why are those big reasons for us? we are fortunate to have received state and federal investment in transits, roads, and other basic infrastructure to support sustainable, smart growth development. precisely the type of development president obama has called for at the national level and the kind of development romney says he's opposed to. we learned there was a huge gap between governor romney's promi promises about economic growth and his ability to deliver. but what we're learning now is there's an even bigger gap in values and in performance between the governor who presided in massachusetts from 2002 to 2006 and that portrait that governor romney is trying to sell to the voters across the nation. so take note, america. please take note, america. as governor, mitt romney, it was an approach that didn't do much for our cities and towns or for the growth of our state economy. and the story he's tell iing no it just doesn't add up, people. it doesn't reconcile against the facts. thank you for your attention. it's now my privilege to introduce tim murray. >> thank you, mayor. and it was great to listen to mayor curttone and mayor barrett. one of the reasons i ran back in 2006 was in part because the former governor as one of my colleagues said treated mayors and local officials as if they worked for him. that's not surprising. we look at massachusetts and why we're growing jobs is because of many of the impact same strategies that president obama has pushed and it's why the country is coming out of this recession and adding jobs. it's investing in education. it's investing in infrastructure. it's partnership. when you look at who is here, it's about working together, listening and solving tough problems. and what great example, mayor barrett, let me tell you a story. governor patrick out at the mass college of liberal arts for a ground breaking. the mayor was there and others, and the president of the mass college of liberal arts said it was the first new building a science technology building, the first new building built on that campus in 40 years. what a contrast. what a contrast. now we have a president who believes investing in education, transportation, infrastructure, the new economy, who is willing to stand up for the middle class. and he understands that you don't solve tough problems by issuing press release. it's the hard work of governing. it's the blocking of governing. it's listening to people and engaging. it's understanding that there's different parts of the state as there are different parts of the country. so ladies and gentlemen, let the conversation begin. because we couldn't have a bigger contrast in governing, we couldn't have a bigger contrast in standing up for the middle class than president obama and governor romney. so let it begin. let it begin. because we can tell you true partnership, we can tell you who stands up for the middle class, and president obama is all about that. it's now my pleasure to introduce david axelrod, senior strategist for the president of the united states. >> thank you. thank you. thank you. it is great to be in massachusetts, obama country. i think some of my dish get tweets from some of these folks, so i feel close to them. you can shout down speakers, my friends, but it's hard to etch a sketch the truth away. we're here today because governor romney's singular claim to the presidency is that his career in the corporate buy out business gave him insights to e grow our economy, create jobs, reduce the size of government and reduce debt. if that sounds familiar to you, it's because the people of massachusetts have heard it all before. the same promises, the same representations, the very same language. interestingly, when governor romney rolled out his candidacy just a few miles away in new hampshire a few weeks ago after he clinched the general election, he spoke for 15 or 20 minutes and never found the time to mention that he once had been the governor of massachusetts. the one elected office he ever held. and there's good reason for that, and you've heard some of it today. after selling himself to massachusetts as an economic savior, the massachusetts record was alarmingly weak. as you've heard under governor romney, the state was 47th in job creation, fourth from the bottom. fourth from the bottom. manufacturing jobs vanished at twice the national rate. household incomes fell, even when they were rising nationally, here in massachusetts they were falling. government actually grew at a clip of 6.5% a year and public sector jobs grew, as was mentioned, at six times the rate as private sector jobs. governor romney raised various fees on marriage licenses and on cars and on home purchases and everything he could think of. and he raised fees more than any other governor in the nation. this no tax governor. and yet he still added a mountain of debt. he added $2.6 billion to the state's debt, an increase of more than 16% and left for his successor a structural deficit of more than $1 billion. when he was done, after one term, scholars at northeastern university released a study on the romney years. what was their conclusion? that under romney's tenure as governor, massachusetts' economic performance was one of the worst in the country on all key labor market measures. and it wasn't happenstance that massachusetts stumbled under governor romney. his career has not been about generating jobs, it's been about generating short-term profit. not long-term growth or building for the future, but about taking what he can, when he can. so he cut education and fees rose 63% at state colleges, maybe for some of these young people here. he cut workforce training and a key program to assist manufacturing businesses. he privatized state functions and sat by as a state call center was outsourced to india. he borrowed to pay operating expenses and left the tab for the next governor. all this may work in the realm of quick scores, but it's not how you build a future. one more statistic. a recent poll showed governor romney trailing badly here in his home state. these may be the only voters right here for mitt romney in massachusetts. it's a harsh judgment from the people who have come to know him best. it's been a century, a century since a person was elected president of the united states while his neighbors were rejecting him. the message massachusetts seems to be sending as they listen to romney repreez his familiar pitch is fool me once, shame on me. fool me twice, shame on you. romney economics didn't work then and it won't work now. and with that, if there are members of the news media who want to address questions to us. we're happy to entertain them. anyone up here. anybody? you can't handle the truth, my friends, that's the problem. if you could handle the truth, you'd quiet down. but he doesn't make that argument. he talks how well he works with the legislature. governor romney raised spending by 6.5%. his proposals were for 8%. this group of people reigned in him and exercised some responsibility. so we all know he vetoed 800 bi bills along the way. almost all of them overwritten. but most of them for the benefit of republican primary voters in other states, not for purposes of governance. that was the problem. he was a drive by governor here on his way to run for president of the united states. >> elizabeth warren. do you have any concern with the issues surrounding -- >> no. i had a chance to work with elizabeth warren in washington. i have no concerns about that at all. i'll tell you what. she's 100% advocate for the middle class and has been a huge contribution. she's going to be a great united states senator. >> what would you have done? >> the question is how you deal with them and do you deal w

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