Mitt Romney, in Nashville, warns of perils facing U.S.

Pick an issue, any issue: Whatever the United States is trying to do to address those problems, former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney said, the tactics are not working.

Romney used roughly 18 minutes of a 19-minute speech - deemed "harrowing, but stimulating" by the moderator of a health care conference event Thursday at the Music City Center - to warn of the perils facing the nation.

He avoided any specific political predictions and made no mention of the packed GOP presidential primary battle for 2016, which he formally bowed out of in January. He also didn't take any questions from the media.

Instead, Romney issued a general warning: Be it immigration, education, poverty, combating terrorism, climate change, the national debt or anything else, the U.S. isn't getting the job done.

"What concerns me is, the challenges we face today I'm afraid aren't being addressed," Romney told the roughly 1,000 people taking part in the conference seminar.

"Now that sounds like a bit of an overstatement, but let me ask you to think for a moment: What do you think the greatest challenges are that America faces? What are the things that you think gives you pause about our long-term future? And then ask: Have we made progress on solving that problem? And I think you'll conclude we haven't."

Although Romney was one of the featured speakers at the America's Health Insurance Plans conference this week, he spent most of his time talking about issues other than health care. The 2012 Republican presidential nominee ticked through a PowerPoint presentation to underline what he considers a lack of any real progress on myriad national issues:

• The cost of Medicaid, Medicare and other federal programs: "You might think in a circumstance like this that there would be great effort to try and reform those programs such that they don't overwhelm the federal budget. But of course there's been no progress whatsoever on improving or reforming those programs to make them sustainable."

• On global warming: "There has been no progress in putting together a global effort to limit the emission growth that you're seeing around the world."

• On poverty: "We know what it takes to eliminate poverty in this country, and yet no effective progress in eliminating generational poverty."

But to conclude his speech, Romney offered solutions: Keep hiring good people, continue to be successful and get involved in politics.

"Choose people and fight for people who you think will actually take on some of these challenges," Romney said.

"It's distressing to me to see us year after year have people in Washington not address these issues. Even if they can't overcome them, at least try."

Romney took pictures with some conference attendees after his speech and a short question-and-answer session with the seminar moderator.

Former President Bill Clinton is set as the conference's final speaker. His midday Friday speech is closed to the general public and the media.

Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.