Romney talks Florida housing, foreclosures

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. (NewsCore) - Mitt Romney has used Florida's damaged housing market as a backdrop for his attacks against Gingrich. That was literally true Tuesday as Romney delivered his remarks in front a home in foreclosure.

Romney returned to attack mode Tuesday afternoon, calling Republican presidential rival Newt Gingrich an "influence peddler" for his work at Freddie Mac.

"These government-sponsored entities in the case of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are a large reason why our housing crisis has occurred," Romney said. "And I'm running against a guy, as you know, in this primary who was out working for one of these guys, for Freddie Mac."

Romney has used Florida's damaged housing market as a backdrop for his attacks against Gingrich. That was literally true Tuesday as Romney delivered his remarks in front a home in foreclosure.

The afternoon event was a pivot from earlier in the day when Romney aimed his attacks at President Barack Obama. He re-focused on his main GOP rival who earned some $1.6 million as a consultant for Freddie Mac; Romney has been tying the foreclosure mess to Gingrich's work with the mortgage giant, now in federal conservancy.

"He was standing up and defending Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and so conservatives in Congress and conservatives around the country, instead of arguing to get rid of these entities to scale them back and let the free market work, they said 'Well if Newt Gingrich thinks it's a good idea why we ought to go along with it,'" Romney said. "That's what's known as influence peddling."

Part of the reason housing remains in the doldrums is because banks are being too inflexible, Romney said -- but then he went on to defend them and bash the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law.

"The banks aren't bad people, they're just overwhelmed right now," Romney said. "They're overwhelmed with a lot of things, one is a lot of homes coming in that are in foreclosure or in trouble and the other is with a massive new pile of regulations."

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/01/24/romney-gingrich-is-an-influence-peddler/