Jon Huntsman: Mitt Romney 'Is In The Hip Pocket Of Wall Street'

During a New Hampshire campaign event on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman had some harsh words for fellow contender Mitt Romney.

As CNN reports, Huntsman said of the former Massachusetts governor, "Anyone who is in the hip pocket of Wall Street because of all the donations they are picking up, like Mr. Romney, is in these days not going to be the change agent who is going to fix the too-big-to-fail banking system." Per MSNBC, Huntsman's comments were delivered to an audience of about 80 people.

Huntsman went even further in his attack on Romney. Presumably referring in part to endorsements that Romney has received from Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Congressman Charlie Bass (R-N.H.), Huntsman said, "You should be wary of any candidate who carries the endorsements of every member of Congress, because it means they're going to be a status quo president."

This is not first time Huntsman has gone after Romney. During a Republican presidential debate last week in Washington, D.C., the two candidates sparred over Afghanistan policy. HuffPost's Sam Stein reports:

In one of his sharper moments in Tuesday night's debate, Jon Huntsman pressed Mitt Romney specifically over his willingness to defer to military commanders when it comes to U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

"At the end of the day the President of the United States is Commander in Chief, Commander in Chief. Of course you are going to listen to the generals... but the president is Commander in Chief," Huntsman declared, underscoring the argument that Romney was outsourcing policy to the Pentagon.

To bolster his point, Huntsman pointed to the Vietnam War as an instance in which military command dictated U.S. policy too far. The invocation of Vietnam as a nadir in U.S. history may not win over the GOP crowd. But it certainly got Romney a bit piqued.

"Of course the Commander in Chief makes the final decision," he replied. "But the Commander in Chief makes that decision based upon that input of people closest to the ground."

In addition to criticizing his opponent's ties to Wall Street, the former Utah governor announced on Monday a plan to prevent future bank bailouts. Per Bloomberg Businessweek, "Huntsman's priorities include ending 'too big to fail' by setting a 'hard cap' on bank size based on assets as a percentage of gross domestic product." As the Associated Press reports, "Huntsman also wants to shut mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and repeal the law, known as Dodd-Frank, that overhauled the financial system."

The candidate's plan to "end too-big-to-fail" is outlined on his official campaign website. Huntsman is quoted on the site as saying, "Capitalism without failure isn't capitalism. We need banks that are small and simple enough to fail, not financial public utilities."

Huntsman, whom MSNBC reports is polling at 8% in New Hampshire, has been aggressively courting the state's primary voters. He even made an appearance on a recent episode of "Saturday Night Live," heaping praise on the Granite State during the show's "Weekend Update."

Comments

[deebeedonny]

01:13 PM on 12/11/2011

john huntsman, seems to be the most sensible, of the entire bunch. when he claims, romney is in the hip pocket of wall street, some may say, in the hip pocket of wall street, the greedy corporations, and mystery contributors, who may expect/demand special favors in return. is there any wonder, why romneys great job creations plan, is giving even more tax breaks to the greedy corporations, claiming the more profits a corporation makes, the more "likely" they will re-invest??? ridiculous...... corporations are sitting on a trillion dollars in profits, and will not re-invest in our country. they were hidking behind, and continue to lobby for, the bush/republican tax code provisions, which opens the door for corporations, to close down american factories/workplaces, build and relocate operations to foreign countries, outsource american jobs, flood the u.s. market, with their foreign made products, and "avoid" paying u.s. taxes on their foreign profits. romney should know, because he did the very same thing himself...when huntsman says romney is in the back pocket of wall street, he should also include guys like eric cant' or' , who recently accepted 6.5million from his ole' pals on wall street. no wonder to me, why the repubs are against reforms, regulations, guidelines on wall street...i heard someone say it best, the gop will sell out the american people, to the highest bidders.....

[HextallDrums]

08:10 PM on 11/29/2011

Get em' Jonny!

[Eye2amAmerican]

07:57 PM on 11/29/2011

hey....if Newt can go from 3% to 24%......why can Jonny boy go from 8% to frontrunner?......

[Robin Pearce]

06:13 PM on 11/29/2011

To bad Huntsman won't make it past the primaries, I would actually switch from democratic to Republican if he was running.

[deebeedonny]

01:19 PM on 12/11/2011

you don't have to swithch parties, you can vote in the general. but, if hunntsman ever got it, he would be under the thumb of the gop, and that's not a good thing.

[escobar]

06:11 PM on 11/29/2011

The pot is calling the kettle black..what a laugh

[bessielil]

04:36 PM on 11/29/2011

I wish the media would cover Huntsman more, instead of following the antics of Cain.

[Adam of CA]

04:25 PM on 11/29/2011

Jon is finally becoming the man who is hunting.

[honestascanbe]

03:31 PM on 11/29/2011

There's only one guy running who's not in the "hip pocket" of wall street or anyone else, and that's Ron Paul.

[Colin Daniel]

09:49 PM on 11/29/2011

True - to be more accurate one can say that some of these candidates have wall street in their hip pocket or more so on their shoulder shouting in their ear what to say.

[BelieveInYourself]

02:57 PM on 11/29/2011

Huntsman is just jealous of Mitt Romney. Ask Huntsman about the jobs his company sent over seas. He's just a glorified Obama candidate.

[rsticks18]

02:04 PM on 11/29/2011

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. sold his shares of stock and stepped down as chairman and chief executive of Huntsman Family Holdings Co., the controlling shareholder in a $9.5 billion string of chemical manufacturing companies, after taking office in 2005.

who is managing your money mr huntsman? the local bank ?

[escobar]

06:14 PM on 11/29/2011

Ever see the game they play on a card table on the streets of NYC?
They place an object under one of three cups move tehm and you guess where it ends up.
Usually, they have a shill pretend to play and win to draw suckers.
The house always wins.
Huntsman is the new shill.

[amaboss52]

01:01 PM on 11/29/2011

I like Huntsman, too bad he's just like the rest when it comes to tax policy and other repub policy issues. I wish he's stand on his principles, but thats a non starter, if he does the baggery will take him down fast.

[George Broadway]

12:58 PM on 11/29/2011

The only reasonable GOP presence on the national stage and the ONLY chance the GOP has of winning independent voters, yet they keep pushing these ultra conservatives Philistines without a chance of winning the popular vote. Of course, with our antiquated electoral system and with enough money and planning; getting more votes is irrelevant.

[alabama lawyer]

12:52 PM on 11/29/2011

Huntsman seems to be a reasonable person, he just hasn't been able to get on track since the guy on the dirt bike in the desert commercial.

[allencollinsa]

12:44 PM on 11/29/2011

this is the only thing huntsman ever said that was true.

[Gary Crum]

12:44 PM on 11/29/2011

It's not exactly "breaking news" that Mitt is "in the hip pocket of Wall Street". Mitt is a high-dollar guy, raised in a high-dollar world, made a couple hundred million in a high-dollar financial industry (bottom feeding on distressed companies, laying off thousands of workers or completely liquidating the assets of the company) and his cronies are other high-dollar corporate executives and billionaires. Mitt is not your "guy next door" unless you happen to live behind a guarded gate in a multimillion dollar mansion.

[milleret]

02:16 PM on 11/29/2011

Mitt is the Poster Child for Corporate Greed... He is head and sholders over the rest when it comes to outsourcing jobs.

[deebeedonny]

03:46 PM on 12/11/2011

let me become your second fan....romney has made his mega million dollar fortune, romney, and his buddies at bain capital, bought and sold, american companies, stripping them to the bone, firing american workers, outsourcing american jobs. romney and his coherts became fithy rich, the workers affected by the greed, lost their homes, and are destitude, while romney demolishes his mansion, to build a much larger, more lavish mansion. the guy who talks about the unemployment rate, is part of the problem. his great job creations plan, even more tax breaks for the greedy coproporations, who close down american factories/workplaces, build and relocate operations to foreign countries, outsource american jobs, and flood the u.s. market with their foreign made products, and "avoid" paying u.s. taxes on those foreign profits... as i see it, romney, or anyone of the gop lineup gets into office, wall street, greedy corporations, foreign and domestic special interest groups, and those "mystery" contributors, would run wild. while some get filthy rich, the rest will be in soup lines. and i'm sure it's not the 99% who will become filthy rich....