Maryland Democratic Party Chair Yvette Lewis issued the following statement after Mitt Romney said that America doesn’t need “more firemen, more policemen, more teachers.” This sentiment was echoed by former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu and Newt Gingrich, both Romney surrogates, on Monday.

Mitt Romney is out of touch. Even though 700,000 public sector workers have lost their jobs since 2009 – the worst three-year stretch on record – and localities have been forced to increase classroom sizes and close public safety departments, Mitt Romney is trying to score cheap political points by demonizing teachers, firefighters and police officers. Rather than focusing on strengthening our economic recovery, Mitt Romney prefers to pander to tea party Republicans and continue the GOP’s ideologically extreme battle against government.

Under President Obama the private sector has now created 4.3 million jobs over 27 straight months of job growth. In Maryland, under Governor O’Malley, as we have weathered the impacts of the Bush recession, our state employees have sacrificed more than their fair share and have shouldered the burden of over $1 billion in cuts. To continue to create jobs and grow our economy, President Obama and Governor O’Malley understand that we have to do more to keep teachers in the classroom and police officers on the beat.

Mitt Romney doesn’t get it. But this comes as no surprise given that Romney has said he liked firing people, claimed corporations are people and said he’s not concerned about the very poor. Romney is proposing the very same policies that got us into his mess: tax cuts for billionaires, drastic cuts in education and Medicare, and fewer rules for Wall Street. That’s a vision that’s going backward. In 2012, we’re going forward with President Obama