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The Spectacle Blog
Mitt Romney’s speech to the Americans For Prosperity Foundation’s annual meeting, Defending the Dream, continued his theme of making government “simpler, smaller and smarter” that he kicked off with a speech in New Hampshire yesterday.
Key amongst his proposals is to get government spending down to 20% of GDP by the end of his first term; cut government spendign by $500 billion/year; support a balanced budget amendment; tie government employee compensation to the private sector; merging government departments; and cutting U.S. foreign aid to countries that don’t need it. Interestingly, he described his proposal as a “roadmap” - perhaps trying to draw a comparison to Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap” plan.
He hit on the theme of government agency consolidation in saying, “Too many chefs not only spoil the broth, but make it inedible and prohibitively expensive. We’ve got to combine federal departments.”
Romney’s outline is certainly less bold than most of his GOP contenders - but being the presumptive frontrunner, he might see little need to rally the base. His spending line at 20% of GDP would be only slightly below the 50-year pre-Obama average and, while it would take a lot of work to even get to that level, means that the budget would basically balance on its own. The CBO’s alternative fiscal scenario, which assumes the renewal of the Bush tax cuts for all but the top two brackets, projects tax revenues to rebound to 20% of GDP by the end of the decade.
For comparison’s sake, government spending as a percentage of GDP was below 20% for most of the Clinton years, but the entitlement storm means that it’s set to explode to nearly 40% over the next fifty years.
Touting his past success, Romney said, “in business, in the Olympics and in Massachusetts, I cut deficits… no one will have to teach me how to do that in the White House.”
View all comments (29) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Kevin Glass
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/11/04/the-new-romney-rhetoric-simple
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Bumr50| 11.4.11 @ 3:58PM
Afterwards, Cain got a standing O several times over, and so Romney really was irrelevant to the AFP crowd, who hate him but are too polite to boo him off stage.
Al Adab| 11.4.11 @ 4:09PM
Will Romney, unequivalently, commit to following the House proposal for budget cuts of 2.5 trillion over the next ten? If not, why not?
I will take my Goldwater/Miller sign to any Romney event should he be the nominee. I will NOT cast a vote for him and I have never failed to vote.
Teflon93| 11.4.11 @ 5:41PM
Megadittoes.
Chuck| 11.4.11 @ 5:21PM
Cut deficits in Mass.? Once again reality belies anything Romney says. Romneycare? Lest we forget.
Clint| 11.4.11 @ 5:30PM
We Are Being Set Up By RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooges For The Ruling Elites' Frontman Mittens Romney.
These Are The RINO-CINO Flunkie Stooges Who Gave Us The Serial Traitor To Conservatism, John McCain Of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy,McCain-Lieberman,Gang Of 14, Opposing Bush Tax Cuts Of 2001 & 2003,TARP.
Now They Are Trying To Give Us RomneyCare,TARP, Cynical Flip-Flops On Abortion, Gays, Refuses to Sign Pro-Life Pledge, Illegal Immigrants, "Little Chain Saw Al" At Bain, Crony Capitalism Campaign Money Trail.....
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Teflon93| 11.4.11 @ 5:40PM
"I will however need to be taught to say what I mean and mean what I say."
Quartermaster| 11.4.11 @ 6:12PM
Romney and the GOP elite think we are stupid. They are used to using us at elections and ignoring us the rest of the time.
No more for me. If it's mittens, I stay home.
Anthony M| 11.4.11 @ 10:13PM
In the end, though, Mitt or Obama? Sure Romney is no Coolidge, but he's worked in the private sector and been pretty successful. Let's not cut off our noses to spite our faces. The most important thing is to defeat Obama and the socialist left.
Quartermaster| 11.5.11 @ 6:31PM
Sorry, it's nothing. I stay home. There is little difference between the two. People made the mistake of not looking at Bush's record as Governor of Texas and we are paying the price for it. Look at Mittens record as MassGov and you will see the type of president he will be. I don't vote for people like that.
pete2| 11.4.11 @ 6:31PM
Romney is nothing more than Obama lite, Perry is a Bush clone, Bachman is history, Paul is a fruitcake, Newt is a professional chameleon, and that leaves Cain. Cain is a breath of fresh air among the stale smoke of rino's and establishment politicians.
Anthony M| 11.4.11 @ 10:14PM
Especially when that breath smells like alcohol and it's leaning in real close to one of his female subordinates.
aware| 11.4.11 @ 6:46PM
If he is proposing a "balanced budget amendment" and spending 20% of GDP on "government" taxes will have to rise by a trillion and a half. If he "cuts" 500 billion a year he doesn't balance till the end of his term. Proving he does not have a clue of how late it is and what is coming. A cap gun for a raging grizzly breaking through the door.
I'm still waiting for his promise of unicorns with rainbow skittles coming out of their ass. The poster boy for the Republican Party as it is today. Slick and polished and besides, its his turn, right?
Been running for the job for 5 or 6 years but now all of a sudden he has these "roadmaps". Statists want to play with maps when the bus is going over the cliff. When a statist says "combine Federal departments" he knows you "conservatives" will think "cuts", but that is not what he means at all.
I just ask, if Romney was running against the sainted Reagan in this primary, would you even look at him? Shows what a sorry slide down the hill it's been. Conservatism itself is in danger of either irrelevancy or outright complicity if this is what its come to.
C Bowen | 11.4.11 @ 7:32PM
aware;
That is what is so strange. Reagan was a clever politician who simply disagreed and argued against anything the Establishment did/supported--case in point the Panama Canal, when he argued against Buckley's support of the sale (to bail out Citi/Rockefeller.)
C Bowen | 11.4.11 @ 7:38PM
Hadn't finished my thought...
Romney, on the other hand, has no disagreement with the Establishment, if perhaps on secondary issues. He was pro-TARP, unleashed Heritage's plan for forced purchase of health insurance, and so on...
"Conservatives" should hope, if Romney is nominated, for a right-ish Third Party that might yet deliver real votes for a Republican Congress while Obama rides to a second term.
axbucxdu| 11.5.11 @ 11:08AM
"..."Conservatives" should hope, if Romney is nominated, for a right-ish Third Party that might yet deliver real votes for a Republican Congress while Obama rides to a second term."
The least bad solution at this point is to keep them all at each other's throats: Obama II vs. a firmly conservative Senate and House. Given the GOP's now obvious disdain for conservatives, "don't make things worse" is the only alternative that party is willing to offer.
Why, if they elected a real conservative, the people might just end up discarding all those hard-fought-for ruling class gains. Tut, tut, just too messy.
Rogue Elephant| 11.4.11 @ 6:53PM
PROFILES IN COURAGE: Sarah Palin, for standing up for Ohio Issue 2 (union reforms). http://t.co/ixZxCt6G
PROFILES IN COWARDICE: The GOP field, who have shied away from this very important fight, with implications for 2012. But, there's still time. The GOP candidates should be contacting Build a Better Ohio to take to the airwaves in support of Issue 2. It's now or never.
http://www.betterohio.org/
Lesser Weevil| 11.4.11 @ 8:51PM
Typical technocratic piffle. He promises to make Leviathan more rational and efficient. Bleah.
sjccoach| 11.4.11 @ 11:14PM
Typical meaningless RINO talk. 20% of GDP by the end of his first term. Maybe he will offer a jobs program and another stimulus package. Romney is Obama lite. Elect Romney and we have four more years of Obama. Elect Obama and at least we get a real socialist for another four years.
martin j smith| 11.5.11 @ 7:51AM
Romney is neither a front runner or presumptive of anything. He will change his rhetoric from the new to the NEW to the NU to the NuNew. and so on. I believe he believes in one thing. Mitt Romney as King.
Jeff Powell| 11.5.11 @ 8:48AM
Romney tried as hard as he could to be indistinguishable from liberal Democrats while governor of Massachusetts. My fear is that, as President, he will pull a "Disraeli": implement socialist schemes (i.e., Romneycare) forcing Republicans to support them, however reluctantly, to prevent destroying a Republican administration. Far fetched? Nixon did the very same between '68-'74 as did Schwarzenegger in California during his second term.
Electing Romney will simply place a bi-partisan sheen on the approaching disaster.
JP| 11.5.11 @ 11:08AM
"Simple, Smarter, Smaller". Sounds like he is running for caretaker. This one jingo says it all; Mittens has no intentions of repealing ObamaCare, significantly reducing federal spending (to zero defecits, that is), or reigning our out of control undemocratic regulataory agencies. Mittens is simply running on the promise to make the federal government more efficient. Like that is what we really want. Mittens knows who butters his toast, and in the end we shall have very, very efficient death panels.
Quartermaster| 11.5.11 @ 6:42PM
Yep! Let's run it like a business - the song and dance Reps have been singing and dancing for 40 years. all the while we have slid down the hill towards the brink above perdition.
No, if the nominee is Romney, You need to stay home and let him go down in flames. We can't afford to vote for the lesser of two evils because you are just voting for evil. Campaign for good Congresscritters and Senators. Keep Congress and the Obamanoid at each other's throats and gridlocked. If we can get congress to quit funding the nonsense, we can start eating it back. The consequences aren't going to fun either way, but defunding gives us the only chance we have, even if it is a slim chance.
bluecollarbytes| 11.5.11 @ 8:59PM
There's a scary thought- combining federal agencies...no 'elimination of duplication, etc', just concentrate wide-ranging powers into even more efficiently-powerful, larger entities.
if Romney wins the nomination I'll vote for him, because an anti-Obama vote is important, and canceling out 1 obama-voter is nice as well.
Till then i support Cain. If that implodes I'll have no problem whatsoever going with Newt.
this is politics
Clint| 11.6.11 @ 10:53AM
" Ron Paul Wins Independent Voters Poll
Chicago. At midnight last night, Whiteout Press, an independent news outlet, closed its online Republican Primary Presidential poll. The result was another overwhelming victory for Texas Congressman Ron Paul. While the online poll is non-scientific, it is a wide sampling of independent voters and independent leaning Republicans.
With Whiteout Press being a non-partisan, independent news outlet, these poll results should be a decent gauge of the typical independent voter in America. While admittedly a non-scientific poll, Whiteout Press readers have a much higher than average rate of voting compared to the average American. And while a larger than average number of them are self-described ‘independent voters’, many freely admit that they support individual candidates and not parties. Many even cross over and vote in Republican and Democratic primaries and caucuses if they feel strongly enough in their support for one of the two party’s candidates."
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Wayne| 11.7.11 @ 10:11AM
Sorry man, Paul is just too old. You can't continue to build your guy up, but tearing everyone else done. Its a juvenile strategy and an insult to Paul himself.
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Wayne| 11.7.11 @ 10:09AM
Unfortunately this rhetoric just tells me that he now wants to keep the Obama agenda, but just be better at managing it. Its what the GOP has been doing for decades. Once the laws are in force, they then take on the activity of maintaining them.
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