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Ear to the Ground

A Peek at Some of Romney’s Plans

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Posted on Apr 16, 2012
davelawrence8 (CC-BY)

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney accidentally offered a glimpse of what he might do as president when a group of reporters standing outside a Florida fundraiser Sunday overheard the presidential hopeful tell a group of wealthy donors that he wants to get rid of some tax deductions for rich people and take an ax to some government departments.

Romney’s campaign moved into damage-control mode shortly afterward, claiming he was making only suggestions and not unveiling new policies.

President Obama’s campaign quickly jumped on Romney for disclosing plans to wealthy donors, rather than the public.

“Apparently, Governor Romney believes only high-dollar donors have a right to know what programs he will cut,” wrote Ben LaBolt, one of Obama’s campaign spokesmen, in an email to journalists. —ARK

The Caucus at The New York Times:

During the event, Mr. Romney also told the donors that he might eliminate the Department of Housing and Urban Development and reduce the size of the Education Department.

Mr. Romney told the donors that the housing agency “might not be around later” and said the Education Department would be “a heck of a lot smaller” even if it wasn’t eliminated altogether, The Journal reported.

… The overheard comments offer a first glimpse of the kind of specific policies that Mr. Romney might pursue as president. Publicly, Mr. Romney has hinted that he would limit deductions for wealthy homeowners,  but has not said how he might do that. And in his remarks Sunday, he also hinted that he might curtail deductions for state and property taxes for the wealthy.

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By Marian Griffith, April 17, 2012 at 12:26 pm Link to this comment
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@It’s only Scott

It may be a speech to contributors, but as such it is much more likely to describe his actual policy than the things he says to the voters.
After all, the contributors are the ones he will need again in 4 years and they will remember.
The voters on the other hand generally are too stupid to notice they have been lied to (or they do not care as long as it is a lie they want to hear). All politicians know that when push comes to shove the voters will come out in droves and vote for them regardless.

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By it's only Scott, April 16, 2012 at 12:14 pm Link to this comment

You’re right of course, mrfreeze, but this is “promises to contributors speak” and does not need to be realistic or true.  Problem is, if Mitt is elected, chances are a bunch of republicans will also be elected to congress, and they’d love this.  It would please Master Norquist.

Actual voters are not part of the equation.

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mrfreeze's avatar

By mrfreeze, April 16, 2012 at 11:38 am Link to this comment

Unless I’m mistaken, president’s don’t ax departments. I believe that’s the job of Congress and there’s a legislative process that must occur in order to do so.

So, Mr. Romney shows, yet again that he needs to go back to Jr. High and revisit his basic civics classes because, there are a lot of folks in Congress and in government who will not roll over and let their departments disappear just because Momo boy wants them to go away.

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