Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney spent nearly an hour talking to struggling home and business owners Monday morning in Florida, the next stop in the Republican primary contest and one of the states hardest-hit by the foreclosure crisis that wrecked the economy in 2007.
At a round table in a Tampa, Fla. hotel, Candice Tammey told Romney about how she’d lost her job in the staffing industry three years ago and eventually stopped paying her mortgage after her bank wouldn’t negotiate a loan modification.
“I’m going to be living in my home until I’m kicked out. I don’t have a choice at this point,” she said, adding that employers seemed “inundated” with other job applicants. She said she had her health and that she’s keeping a positive outlook. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “I don’t see it quite yet but I know that it’s there, so I’m encouraged — I know that there’s something better out there for me and for us as a country.”
“It will get better,” Romney said, according to CNN’s online video stream of the event. “It will not always be like this. This is a detour from America’s history. … I can’t predict when it will get better but if I’m fortunate enough to become president, I will care very deeply about getting it better in a big hurry.”