Jindal struggles on Swiss bank question

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Sunday struggled to say whether it’s fair game for voters to consider Mitt Romney’s investments outside of the United States, dodging questions about the Republican presidential candidate’s Swiss bank account before finally calling the issue “distractions” promoted by the Obama campaign.

“Is it fair for voters to consider, governor, what Mitt Romney does with his money outside the United States?” Jindal was asked on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I will get to that question, but look. Gov. O'Malley -- he's talked about President [George W.] Bush several times now. That election was eight years ago,” the Republican governor said. “Look, I'm happy he's a successful businessman. We've got a president today who's never run a business, never run anything including a lemonade stand before he was president of the United States.”

“Governor, what about the Swiss bank accounts?” host Terry Moran asked Jindal.

“We can't afford four more years of on-the-job training. Look, the bottom line is, I'm thrilled that Mitt Romney has been successful in the private sector,” Jindal responded. “I want somebody who's got that private-sector experience.”

“But what about his money out of the country?” Moran cut in. “Is it OK for voters to consider the amount of money that he's put out of the country in tax havens offshore, in secret Bermuda companies? Does that make sense for voters to consider?”

Jindal responded that voters will certainly consider all “distractions thrown out by the Obama campaign,” but that at the end of the day, the president and Romney offer two fundamentally different choices.

“It's about President Obama, who wants to continue to spend money we don't have. They incurred now $1 trillion-plus deficit every year he's been president, after he promised we'd cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term,” the governor said. “He hasn't done that. Promised unemployment would be below 8 percent, hadn't done that. Promised he'd reform the entitlement programs, hasn't done that.”

Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin said in an email, "Unfortunately, the people struggling are the nearly half a million Americans who have lost their jobs under President Obama. The President is sadly more focused on someone's success instead of the loss of American jobs and income. It's shameful and politics at its worst."

Democrats including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley took to the Sunday shows to go after reports of Romney's offshore holdings - a part of a larger effort to paint the former Massachusetts governor as an out-of-touch, wealthy businessman.