Romney Visits Las Vegas on the Stump for Republican Candidates

Mitt Romney on Wednesday evening toured the GOP-friendly Las Vegas Color Graphics printing plant and took a few questions from the press along with NV-3 candidate Joe Heck and Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki:

Left to right: Mitt Romney, Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, Joe Heck and Las Vegas Color Graphics CEO Tim Scheffler

Romney hit the Democrats on health care reform and talked about how health services for the poor are best managed by the states, not the federal government.

“States should be able to craft their own programs to care for their own poor,” said Romney. “What Barack Obama did was impose a ‘one size fits all’ plan on the entire nation and that’s simply wrong.”

Las Vegas Color Graphics CEO Tim Scheffler, always openly friendly to the Republican cause, told the press Obamacare would cost his company $100,000 next year.

Scheffler also said he believes Obama’s negative comments about blowing cash in Las Vegas scared tourists away and cost casinos–and by extension, his company, whose client list includes numerous casinos–significant business.

Following Romney’s comments about health care and the damage the Democrats have done during the recession, Joe Heck said when he talks to voters, they are concerned about jobs and are not buying campaign ad sound bytes:

[Video work by Mike Chamberlain]

Romney brushed aside questions about his future political plans, saying he is concentrating on helping get people like Heck, Krolicki, Sharron Angle, and gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval elected.

Romney said he will “think about” running for president after November 2, but he is certainly showing signs of a bid with his whirlwind tour of 25 states in the last two months of the campaign season. Romney was in Utah on Tuesday and had visited Idaho earlier Wednesday morning.

In a statement that gave a glimpse of a future campaign that would appeal to angry Tea Party types, Romney went out of his way to admit that Republicans are in part responsible for the huge federal deficits and runaway government spending, while distancing himself from those decisions.

“We spent too much. We allowed government to get too big when we were in charge. I didn’t happen to be part of that team, but I think that has been a real issue,” said Romney.