Who wrote this?
“Let’s look at what would happen if someone in the private sector did a similar thing. Suppose two grandparents created a trust fund, appointed a bank as trustee, and instructed the bank to invest the proceeds of the trust fund so as to provide for their grandchildren’s education. Suppose further that the bank used the proceeds for its own purposes, so that when the grandchildren turned eighteen, there was no money for them to go to college. What would happen to the bankers responsible for misusing the money? They would go to jail. But what has happened to the people responsible for the looming bankruptcy of Social Security? They keep returning to Congress every two years.”
Answer: Mitt Romney, the same candidate who is now demagoguing Rick Perry’s position on Social Security.
This is the problem with Mitt Romney in a nutshell: He’ll apparently say anything to get what he thinks is an advantage in the short term, no matter what he has said in the past or where that position will end up taking him or the primary. He’s now positioned himself to the left of everyone else and in a spot where he is defending the status quo on entitlements. That’s poisonous in a GOP primary and irresponsible if he actually wins. He is perpetuating the shallowness of the overall debate and painting himself into a corner from which President Romney would have no mandate to actually fix our largest fiscal problem. He has also bent the primary away from attacking Obama to scaremongering on Social Security, which a Democrat tactic as old as dirt.
Then again, he could just pretend he never said any of this stuff, like he is pretending he never said this a couple of weeks ago.
“I don’t know of any Republican whose running for office who said they want to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits to people who are retired or near retirement. Not one, I haven’t heard a word of it…so Republicans, like myself, are not gonna cut social security or Medicare for people who are retired or near retirement. And for the people who say we are, they are demagoguing an issue very much that harms America. Because we need to be truthful on this.”(8/24/11, Lebanon, New Hampshire)
I was coming around to the idea that Mitt Romney would be an acceptable GOP standard bearer. I supported him in 2008. His jobs plan is solid and serious. He did well in the debate, as he always does. He would very obviously be far more competent than Obama is. But what standard would Romney bear for more than five minutes before dropping it and picking up the opposite one to bludgeon his fellow Republicans? Conservatives have every reason to be wary of Romney’s principles and his strategic sense after seeing his tactics since the debate.
I disagree with one portion of this.
It’s not Perry’s trap… Romney made this trap all on his own, with his earlier statement, then walked right into it himself.
That makes him look a lot worse than if he’d stepped into a Perry trap.
Anybody capable of enacting Romneycare is not to be trusted.
And that’s that.
Exactly. AND he’s doubled down on it with his recent comments that it’s all good.
Romney has principles? Oh, the “say anything” principle.
I was actually warming up to Romney until that point where he started talking about saving social security from those (presumably Perry) who want to abolish it. It was so blatantly dishonest that I can never support him for president. If he is the nominee, I’ll be sorely tempted to stay home. My dislike for Obama might get me to vote against him anyway, but it will be close.
With a conservative enough Congress, Romney could be kept on the straight and narrow. If he is the nominee, I strongly recommend voting for him anyway, and picking the most conservative members of Congress you can find to vote for. Even Romney is better than Obama.
However, the more stories like this get around, the less chance there is that Romney will be the nominee, because people see the fundamental opportunism of the man.
NRO tried some Romney damage control spin today.
Their stale mush about SS got thrown back in their faces.
Consistency Counts
It looks like Romney finally read the book “Fed, Up” to prep for his debate. I bet that’s why his campaign doesn’t fear Perry. The statement, “I don’t know of any Republican whose running for office who said they want to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits to people who are retired or near retirement. Not one, I haven’t heard a word of it…”, is a true statement if Romney didn’t read the “Fed, Up” book until 2 weeks prior to the debate. I’ve read Romney’s book and need to grab Perry’s book which looks to be a whopper. Romney should be on his toes though, because either Perry and his team are imbecils or they are plotting a trap. I tend to think the former because after what Perry said during the debate, his chances of becoming President are next to zero unless the DOW plunges to zero as well. Perry hasn’t gone against a formidable campaigner like Obama and will wet himself when he sees what will happen.