Presidential candidate Mitt Romney doesn't like what he sees in Greece -- because it reminds him of California.
For Romney -- who owns a home in San Diego County -- the debt crisis in Europe is reminiscent of the Golden State, the presumptive GOP nominee told a laughing audience in Iowa.
"Entrepreneurs and business people around the world and here at home think that at some point America is going to become like Greece or like Spain or Italy, or like California -- just kidding about that one, in some ways," he said this week, according to the Associated Press.
Elected officials back in California didn't take too kindly to Romney's words. The state does have the third-highest unemployment rate in the country, but it also has the most jobs created, according to Gil Duran, a spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown.
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Romney "knows just as little about the Golden State as he does about the rest of the world," Duran told reporters.
Countries like Spain and Greece run deficits, but California is constitutionally-mandated to run a balanced budget every year, according to the AP.
In Greece, government spending is 50 percent of the economy. In California, it is seven percent, according to Standard & Poor's.
Other proud Californians note that the team who landed the Mars rover Curiosity on the faraway planet is based on California, and that the state is generally on the upswing.
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